St. Joseph Parish

09/07/2026

AMEN ...
HAVE A SAFE, RELAXING & BLESSED DAY‼️

09/05/2026

FR. LEO'S LETTER TO OUR SJ PARISH FAMILY
Dear Friends,

Those of you who attended our Advent Celebration last November probably remember our presenter, Dr. Andy Root. Andy shared with us some reflections on why we feel so exhausted all the time and how we could slow down during the Advent season. I first became acquainted with Andy’s work in 2020, when a friend of mine introduced me to a series of books he was writing on ministry in a secular age. I read several of those books over the past few years and have regularly listened to Andy’s Podcast, which is now called Ministry in a Secular Age.

In an episode of his podcast that was released August 28, Andy made reference to his book The Relational Pastor: Sharing in Christ by Sharing Ourselves, hereafter TRP, which he published in 2012. I had not read the book, but I found it on one of my bookshelves. When I checked my Amazon account, it indicated that I had purchased it in March of 2021, which was at the time I was reading several of Andy’s other books. Somehow, I never got around to reading it, but was so inspired by what Andy said in the podcast that I started reading it that very day.

While I haven’t finished the book yet, I have found it to be insightful and inspiring. Andy argues “that ‘relationship’ is the very goal (not a tool) of ministry.” (TRP, 10) He makes the case that our consumeristic culture has formed us to consider others as individuals with wants, rather than as persons with needs. He writes:

These words (individual and person) may seem to be synonymous, but they are fundamentally different […]. [P]ersonhood, as opposed to individualism, sees relationship with others as the very ontological structure of humanity. Or to say it in a less jargon-y way, personhood claims that we are our relationships. Relationships are not what we decide to be loyal to, not devices that bring loyalty to ideologies, but what give us our very selves. We are relationships, they are the very core of our existence, the source of life. (TRP, 18)

Andy’s words helped me to recognize in the words we hear Jesus speak to us in the Gospel this Sunday a call to honor the personhood of all the members of the Church, even when we find ourselves in disagreement or conflict with each other. Jesus challenges us to see and treat others not as “opponents,” but as sisters and brothers with whom we have a relationship in Christ. That is why the Lord calls us to seek and to work for reconciliation with our sisters and brothers.

Later in the book, Andy writes:

“Brother, ” “friend,” “mother” are the designations given to persons. An individual is a boss, consumer, professor, voter and so forth. The very label denotes a function; you are given this by individually doing something toward some interest. […] But the denotations of “brother,” “friend,” or “mother” are not constructed to signify a function but a relationship. (TRP, 62)

In a chapter in which he reflects on what it means to be a person, Andy writes, “So to be in relationship is not to seek to influence someone’s interest, but to share the other’s place, by indwelling them through relationship.” (TRP, 73). Then he reflects on how Jesus indwells us as persons through the Holy Eucharist. He writes:

There is something very sacramental here. Taking Communion is to consume the body of Jesus, participating in indwelling organically, spiritually and socially (we don’t give ourselves Communion alone). Indwelling is so central that we are to take Jesus’ body and blood into our own; his person is fully indwelling us.” (TRP, 75)

As we come together this Sunday to celebrate and receive the Holy Eucharist, we are invited to rediscover and recommit ourselves to our relationship with the Lord Jesus and with our sisters and brothers in Christ. We encounter and receive the person of Christ in the Eucharist, who indwells us, which allows us to encounter and receive our sisters and brothers, even in times of conflict, as persons with whom we are in relationship and with whom we share in the life of Christ.

Peace,

Father Leo

08/29/2026

. SEE YOU TOMORROW AT
OUR FELLOWSHIP PICNIC‼️
PICNIC BEGINS AFTER THE 10:30 MASS
AT ST. MARIA GORETTI PARISH

08/29/2026

FR. LEO'S LETTER TO OUR SJ PARISH FAMILY
Dear Friends,

One of my favorite books that I have read in the past few years is a wonderful book by Andy Crouch entitled, The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World. I was so impressed and moved by what Crouch wrote that I incorporated one of his key ideas from the book into what I wrote for the “About Us” page of our new parish website (https://dyercatholic.org/index.php/about-us). Crouch, a non-Catholic Christian who has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time magazine, rights eloquently and insightfully about many of the challenges and possibilities we face today in our tech-driven and tech-obsessed culture.

At the end of a chapter dealing with the loss of personhood that results from our culture’s efforts to exert effortless power, which Crouch calls the “superpower zone,” he writes:

Jesus asked whether it was worth gaining the whole world at the cost of losing one’s soul. But in the era of superpowers, we have not only lost a great deal of our souls—we have lost much of the world as well. We are rarely overwhelmed by wind or rain or snow. We rarely see, let alone name, stars. We have lost the sense that we are both at home and on a pilgrimage in the vast, mysterious cosmos, anchored in a rich reality beyond ourselves. We have lost our souls without even gaining the world.

So it is no wonder that the defining condition of our time is a sense of loneliness and alienation.

For if human flourishing requires us to love with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, what happens when nothing in our lives develops those capacities? With what, exactly, will we love? (p. 59)

Crouch’s comments may come across as harsh or pessimistic, but I do not think he is far from the mark. Reading Crouch’s words after the recent storm we experienced, I was struck by his comment that “[w]e are rarely overwhelmed by wind or rain or snow. We were certainly overwhelmed by wind on August 11th. Perhaps that experience, as disruptive as it was, may have afforded us the opportunity to develop the capacity to love as we sought to help each other in the clean-up and repair process.

I couldn’t help but think of Crouch’s words as I reflected on the Gospel passage that we hear proclaimed at Mass this Sunday. In it, we hear Jesus speaking the precise words to which Crouch refers in the quote I cited earlier, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Matthew 16:26). I don’t mean to come across a melodramatic, but, if we are honest with ourselves for a moment, we can all probably recognize a nagging sense in our souls that, amid the incessant and exhausting search for the new thing, the next high, the picture-perfect life that technology promises us, we are forfeiting what is most human in us: our connections to each other.

That is why our being gathering by the Lord Jesus, in the power of his Holy Spirit, on Sundays is such an essential and healing balm to the disfunction and disconnection that is so endemic in our culture. While we rely on technology to enhance our celebration of Mass, the heart of the experience is the person-to-person connection that is established between God and us, as well as among us.

As we come together to worship God and to be nourished by the gift of God’s Word and Eucharist, we are invited to be awed and overwhelmed by the love that the God who made wind, rain, snow, and stars graciously bestows upon us. Through our participation in the Holy Eucharist, we are given the opportunity to regain “the sense that we are both at home and on a pilgrimage in the vast, mysterious cosmos, anchored in a rich reality beyond ourselves.”

We are called to live from Sunday, which means that, as we encounter and experience the life and love of God in the celebration of the Eucharist, God gradually redevelops in us the capacity to love with all our mind, soul, heart, and strength. And as God deepens and strengthens our communion with him and each other through our weekly celebration of the Holy Eucharist, God entrusts us with the responsibility of widening that communion by going from Mass back to our lives, relationships, and activities, ready and eager to love others with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength.

Peace,

Father Leo

08/22/2026

08/22/2026

SAVE THE DATE❣️‼️
BLOOD DRIVE ... SEPTEMBER 11th
GORETTI HALL ... NOON TO 5 PM

08/22/2026

MEN'S MINISTRY KICKOFF BBQ‼️
Our men of St. Joseph and St. Maria Goretti gathered for faith, fellowship, fun and food last Thursday evening...

Our evening began with Holy Hour, evening prayer, rosary and reconciliation at 6 pm...

Afterwards, we all went outside to enjoy delicious BBQ catered by Tiki's BBQ in Dyer.

It was a wonderful evening for the men of our Dyer Catholic parishes to come together and experience "One in Christ ... Uniting for Mission."

We heard very touching and personal testimonials from four men's ministry members on how the ministry has enriched their life!!

If you haven't yet attended one of our gatherings, we look forward to seeing you in September!

Join us at St. Joseph on Saturday, September 19th.

FOLLOW US HERE FOR THE FULL SEPTEMBER DETAILS!!

God Bless our men of St. Joseph and St. Maria Goretti...

08/22/2026

FR. LEO'S LETTER TO OUR SJ PARISH FAMILY
Dear Friends,

I am writing these words to you on Monday evening, just short of a week since the powerful storm that went through our area on the 11th. There are still many people without power in their homes and the clean-up and repair efforts are ongoing. I am so grateful to all of you who have generously helped our neighbors in need during this unprecedented event in Northwest Indiana.

Like so many of you, I was struck and humbled by the force of the storm. As I said in my homily last Sunday, it was like nothing that I have ever experienced before in my life. One of the things that impressed me the most over the past few days was the sight of so many large trees that were completely uprooted. Given the many storms we have had this year, I had become accustomed to seeing tree branches on the ground after those storms. In the past, I had also seen trees split in half by lightening. But I had never seen large trees taken down whole by the wind.

The sight of those trees helped me to ponder the words that we hear Jesus speak to Simon Peter in this Sunday’s gospel. After Peter confessed Jesus to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus told him that he would build his church on the rock of Peter, and that “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” In making that proclamation to Peter, Jesus was assuring him that the church would be able to withstand the many challenges it would face.

And the history of the church is a living testimony to the fulfillment of Jesus’ words. The church has certainly experienced significant challenges and difficulties over the centuries. Many of them have been cause by outside forces. But some have been the result of errors and problems caused by members of the church, including some of its leaders. As a result of these challenges, parts of the church have been broken off or splintered, much like tree branches that are broken by a storm.

But if we imagine the church as a tree, then we can say that the whole church has never been so assailed or buffeted by outside forces or internal divisions that the whole tree has been uprooted and toppled. The word of Christ and his presence in the church continue to enliven and strengthen the church throughout the world, even as it faces the challenges of today.

For some of us, this mystery of the church that suffers but is not overcome has become a lot more real during the past few months. The announcement earlier this year of Bishop McClory’s decision to merge St. Joseph and St. Maria Goretti into a new parish in the near future has been its own kind of “storm.” The changes that have taken place over the past few weeks, especially those to the Sunday Mass schedule, may have felt as a powerful blow. That is completely understandable, given the love we feel for our parishes.

But the words of Jesus to Peter in this Sunday’s gospel call and challenge us to remember that the promise the Lord made to Peter and to all disciples is that the whole church, not necessarily any one specific part of the church, will endure until his return in glory. We may not find much consolation in this truth at this time, but it can strengthen our faith enough to get us through this moment, as we await the next incredible thing that the Lord desires to do with, for, and through us.

As I have walked or driven through our area over the past few days, I have been impressed not only by the trees that were toppled, but also by the ones that withstood the storm and continue to stand tall. I have a greater appreciation for their quiet strength than I did a week ago. As I look at them now, I can also glimpse the strength that our new parish will have, not primarily because of our work, but because it will be yet another manifestation of the church that Jesus continues to build on the rock of Peter and of all those who confess the Lord Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Peace,

Father Leo

08/15/2026

FR. LEO'S LETTER TO OUR SJ PARISH FAMILY
Dear Friends,

As I sit down to write these words to you, it is Tuesday evening and about 8 hours have passed since a powerful storm went through our area, causing severe damage all around. I just got back from a walk with my dog, Sir, and was impressed by the number of trees along Northgate Drive that were damaged by the storm. I was also impressed by the number of people who were in their front yards, either cleaning up from the storm, visiting with neighbors, or, in the case of some kids I saw, just playing some games.

In the four years I have lived in Northgate, I don’t think I have ever seen so many of my neighbors out and about. Maybe it was because so many houses were without power and internet, but it was refreshing to see people working, talking, and playing, as if Netflix and Facebook didn’t exist.

As you know, I try to use this column to share with you some musings on the Sunday Mass readings for the weekend when the bulletin is published. It is my way of trying to help us ponder how those readings might shape and inform how we live “from Sunday” during the coming week. But the storm we all experienced on Tuesday caused me to return to last Sunday’s gospel and the account of the disciples being caught in a storm in the Sea of Galilee and Jesus coming to them on the water.

I don’t think I have ever experienced a storm as powerful as the one that went through our area on Tuesday. The skies were so dark, and the winds were so powerful. As I took shelter with some of the parish staff in the office, hearing the wind and rain batter the building, I couldn’t help but think of the disciples on the boat, “being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.” It’s no wonder that they were so terrified and fearful!

By the time you read this, much of the cleanup from the storm will be completed. Most, if not all, people in our area will have electricity and internet service restored, and we will be well on our way to forgetting all about the storm. Perhaps only the damaged or uprooted trees around us will remind us of what we experienced on Tuesday.

I don’t imagine that the disciples had a similar reaction in the days, weeks, months, and years after that storm on the See of Galilee. They must have gone over the events of that night again and again in their minds and in their conversations. They must have had the howling of the winds and the power of the waves seared into their memories. And they must also have pondered again and again the coming of Jesus to them in the middle of the storm. They must have recounted over and over the apparent madness of Peter getting out of the boat, the sight of Peter suddenly falling into the water, and the strong hand of Jesus taking hold of him at the crucial moment.

The disciples must have also been overwhelmed by the immense calm that surrounded them after Jesus got into the boat. I thought about that calm as I walked around my neighborhood this evening. The only noise I heard was people talking in their yards and generators running in a lot of houses.

The storm we had on Tuesday was dangerous and disruptive. I hope you weren’t too inconvenienced by the damage it caused. But I also hope that we don’t forget about that storm too easily. I hope that it allows us to appreciate a bit more what the disciples felt when they were caught in a similar kind of storm and how they came to know Jesus a bit more fully during the storm. Perhaps, the next time we read or hear the gospel account of the storm in the Sea of Galilee, we will think back to where we were and what we felt last Tuesday as we rode out the storm, and recognize that, as he did for his first disciples, the Lord Jesus also comes to us amid the storms of our life, and I don’t just mean the ones that involve wind and rain.

Peace,

Father Leo

08/15/2026

. *** OUR WEEKEND MASS SCHEDULE ***
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
Our weekend Mass schedule has NOT
changed for this weekend.

4 pm Saturday Vigil (SMG)
8:30 am Sunday Mass (SMG)
10:30 am Sunday Mass (SMG)

As of now, there is still no power at
St. Joseph, but the 6 pm Sunday
Mass will still be celebrated.

Follow this page for any updates.