S1 Ep. 29: Guided by Wisdom, Strengthened by the Spirit

Transcript

Carol Vassar:

From SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut, I'm Carol Vassar, and this is Living in Faith, Hope, and Love. Each week, our Pastor, Father Mark Suslenko, delves into Scripture, shares insights from the saints, prophets, and theologians, and discusses practical ways to cultivate faith, strengthen hope, and embody love in the world around us. Through his reflections and spiritual encouragement, this podcast aims to inspire you to live your Catholic faith with joy and purpose. Welcome. 

This episode comes at a particularly tender moment in the life of our parish family. As many of you know, Father Mark has recently shared the difficult news of his declining health and his upcoming retirement from active ministry. In his own words, he is “choosing to place himself fully in the hands of the Divine Physician, trusting God’s plan with courage, humility, and peace.”

In today’s homily, Father Mark invites us to reflect on what it means to live in harmony—body, mind, and soul—especially when illness, loss, or fear threaten to erode our balance and even shake our faith. He reminds us that in our darkest moments, we are never abandoned. God gives us wisdom and the Spirit as gifts to guide, comfort, and restore us.

What you’ll hear is not only Father Mark’s reflection as a priest, but also as a man walking through his own valley of shadows with steadfast trust in God’s love. And in that trust, there’s a lesson for us all: that even in frailty, we can stop, turn to God, and find the strength to live in faith, hope, and love.

“Guided by Wisdom, Strengthened by the Spirit,” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut

Father Mark Suslenko:

As human beings, we are really a composite of body, mind, and soul; body, mind, and soul. These limited human terms at least give us a reference point for discussing and trying to tap into the complexity of who we are. Body, mind, and soul. It's important as human beings, then, to keep those three realities in check, in balance, and in harmony. When one runs amuck, it affects the equilibrium of ourselves. As such, we can find ourselves very concerned with bodily things: the process of aging, the reality of illness, facing our mortality, terminal illness. Things that go awry in the order of things: difficult pregnancies, disappointing news, and just the general stuff of our fragile, human lives. All of these realities can become extremely challenging to us and even erode our faith and cause us to question God's love.

Our minds can become crippling. We find ourselves worried and anxious about so many things: the economy, our jobs, other preoccupations, fears, the future and the list can go on and on. Our minds can become our worst enemies as the tapes play over and over again, often keeping us up at night. Our minds can disturb our souls and set us off balance, and destroy the equilibrium.

Now it is true that God's plan is above and beyond us. As limited people, we walk through life looking dimly at the light of going through a darkened room, of only being able to see so much, but the plan is real, and the plan is true. God gives us two great gifts to bridge that gap, to connect the dots. First, the gift of wisdom, and second, the gift of the Holy Spirit. With these two gifts, we can get a glimmer of that plan, and an assurance of trust that our bodies and our minds can sometimes erode.

Wisdom and the Holy Spirit: tapping into those two gifts is really easier than we may think. While developing a firm habit of prayer is certainly the norm in what is desired, above and beyond that, all it takes is during the course of our days, as we fight our bodies, and as we struggle with our minds, to simply stop, even for a moment, and love God in the depths of our hearts. To stop and think of God. And in doing so, the corrective is placed and the power is restored to our souls, a power to keep us in balance and in check and on the road to salvation. To stop, to love God, even for a moment, to think of God in the moments of our day. It remains true more so than we may believe that for those who believe, everything is possible, for those who hope still more, and for those who love more still.

Carol Vassar:

Father Mark Suslenko is the pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. If you like what you've heard today, please subscribe to Living in Faith, Hope, and Love on your favorite podcast app, and take a moment to leave a review.

SS. Isidore and Maria is an active parish community, so whether you’re a long-time parishioner or are just getting to know us through this podcast, we welcome you to join us at Masses or any of our other community events and services. Visit our parish website - isidoreandmaria.org - for a full schedule of Masses, services and other happenings. That's isidoreandmaria.org. We're also active on Facebook and Instagram.

On behalf of Father Mark, I'm Carol Vassar, and we thank you for listening to this episode of Living in Faith, Hope, and Love.