On both last Wednesday and Thursday mornings, when I was praying my Rosary in the church at the North Campus, I noticed one large buck (male deer) slowly walking, traveling alone by the east side windows. I thought that maybe it was the rut season, the breeding season for deer. I looked up the mating season for deer on the internet and found it lasts through mid-November.

I frequently see does outside the church windows early in the morning, grazing on the grass or the corn south of the church building. It is interesting to me that the female deer travel in herds while the bucks do not.

As I thought about this, I began to think about our Catholic faith. The word “Catholic” comes from the Greek word “katholikos” meaning “universal”, “whole”, or “according to the whole”. Catholics strongly believe in community. Our Catholic teaching states that we are created in the image of God, and God is the communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So, we are also meant for relationships, not for isolation.

Jesus gathered disciples, lived with them, taught them, and sent them out in pairs. This shows that Christianity is a shared journey, not a private one.

As we can think about this, we are more like the female deer and not the bucks. We are called into and through community to help each other on our journey in faith. May God give each of us the grace to reach out and help each other while we journey together. 

By: Deacon Tom Gryzbek