He Speaks to Us Today
MOSAIC, Winter 2009

Very Rev. Msgr. Jeffrey M. Monforton

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received . . ."

How grateful we are at Sacred Heart to celebrate alumnus and former rector Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron becoming the new Metropolitan Archbishop of Detroit. Welcome home, Archbishop Vigneron!

St. Paul follows the above Scripture quote (1 Corinthians 15:3) with the truths of our faith, namely, that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, raised on the third day, and appeared to his apostles as well as hundreds of others before he ascended to the Father.

In an annual address last December, Pope Benedict XVI instructed that Paul is not simply a historical or literary figure: "Paul is not, for us, a figure of the past. Through his letters, he still speaks to us today. And one who enters in dialogue with him is moved by him toward Christ crucified and risen." Paul was not a static but a dynamic figure in the early Christian Church.

Evident in Paul's writings, he is a pilgrim in the Mediterranean world proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. Our Holy Father goes on to say in the address that this Pauline year "is a year of pilgrimage, not only in the external sense of a journey to the Pauline sites, but also, and above all, a pilgrimage of the heart, together with Paul, toward Jesus Christ."

Within the cultural milieu of his time, Paul confirms the true foundation of our faith: Jesus Christ. His firmness in mind and heart eventually would cost him more than his reputation, but his writings, inspired by the Holy Spirit, continue to instruct us regardless of the culture and society in which we live. Paul reminds us that with the name Christian comes the expectation for outward Christian conviction.

Earlier in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (9:24-27), he employs the analogy that preaching the truth is like running a race so as to win. May we embrace and live the words of St. Paul, fully aware that our goal is eternally significant. 

Please welcome two new Board of Trustees members to our Sacred Heart Community: The Honorable Michael J. Talbot and Mrs. Adriana Vlasic. At the same time, we mourn the passing of emeritus professor Fr. Paul Berg, who taught philosophy at the seminary for over fifty years. Eternal rest grant unto our beloved brother. I remain,

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Very Rev. Msgr. Jeffrey M. Monforton
Rector/President