WHO WE ARE
St. Timothy Catholic Church is a community parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. Founded in 1978 under the leadership of pastor Fr. Ron Simon. Since that time, we have grown into vibrant community focused on prayer, discipleship, and evangelization. For over 40 years, St. Timothy's has been a spiritual home for many individuals and families, a place where people can grow together as Catholic Christians.
We welcome parishioners and visitors to a Catholic community that exists to carry out the mission of Christ to make disciples of all nations. At St. Timothy, we recognize celebration of Holy Mass and regular reception of the Sacraments as mainstays of our Faith. We share the gifts of the Holy Spirit through many ministries and groups serving the parish and beyond. We support the nourishment of faith through a variety of formation opportunities for children, teens and adults. We strive to be a light of Christ to the larger community and world by modeling a Catholic lifestyle.
Our presence on the web is designed to bring you timely and relevant information. We make every effort to provide you with practical and encouraging Catholic teaching that is relevant to your life. Please feel free to contact us any time with suggestions. We encourage your active participation in the life of our parish!
What is expected of our Parishioners
St. Timothy is a stewardship parish; our motto is: Pray. Serve. Give. As an active member of our community, Fr. John asks that each member of the community contribute back to the parish in some way, whether that is financially and/or getting involved in a ministry.
So that we have up to date records, we request that you sign up for Pushpay (our online giving system) or drop an envelope in the collection basket, even if empty, with your contact information, so that we know you are attending Mass. As a member of the Body of Christ, we are called to serve one another. We look forward to praying with you.
WHAT WE'RE ABOUT
Our primary goal at St. Timothy Catholic Church is to help all people enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. This objective is at the heart of all that we do: seeking to provide opportunities for people to encounter the Lord in new and deeper ways, to learn how to follow Jesus faithfully and fruitfully, and to continue to grow in their ability to think and act according to the Gospel.
We believe that God, “infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life” (CCC 1). However, we recognize that through the misuse of our freedom, sin has broken and disfigured our world, and led to the rupture of our relationships with God, each other, and all creation. Things are not as they ought to be… but, “after the fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall” (CCC 410).
This plan of salvation and restoration culminates in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ – through whom “God has reconciled the world to himself” – and is continued in the life of the Church, which has been “entrusted with the message and ministry of reconciliation” (see 2 Cor 5:17-20). Our salvation, therefore, is not merely an escape from hell and a promise of heaven (although it certainly includes this), but a healing and restoration of all this sin has broken and disfigured; it is “salvation for all people and of the whole person” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 38).
As a parish community, we are committed to building a community of personal and communal prayer, providing opportunities to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ, and helping you grow in your ability to extend God’s love and goodness in our local community.
God has chosen to make us his co-workers in healing and restoring a broken world, in making all things new and reconciling the world to himself. This is our core purpose, this is why we exists… to be God’s instrument of restoration in the salvation of the world.
by Brenden Bell
Have you ever gotten to know a saint? I mean really gotten to know them as you get to know a friend. You know their personality and can recognize their voice when they speak to you. This might sound strange to many who think saints are people who are long dead. But as Catholics, we believe in the Communion of the Saints, that the saints in heaven are still alive and intercede on our behalf.
Many people have a deep devotion to different saints, maybe because of experiences in prayer or for graces received through the saint’s intercession. But sometimes that devotion can become a supernatural friendship, where you feel the saint’s presence in your life and can relate to events and struggles that they experienced when they were on this Earth.
This can sometimes happen with modern saints like St. Mother Teresa or St. John Paul II, where some of us can remember experiences with them or even meeting them, or through video and audio recordings. This can also come from reading the personal writings of saints, like St. Augustine’s Confessions or St. Therese’s, Story of a Soul. You come to meet this saint in their writing. You hear their thoughts and prayers and get a sense of who they are and maybe find something in their heart that touches your own.
I have been blessed to experience this a few times in my life. I consider saints like St. Catherine of Siena, St. Therese, and St. Joseph as close friends and patrons. So, when I was asked to write an article about “Who was Saint Timothy” I did not just want to give a basic biography, but I really wanted to introduce you to the saint who is the patron of our church.
But the problem is how do you get to know St. Timothy? Unlike Saint Augustine or Saint Therese, we don’t have anything written by Saint Timothy. We only have what was recorded about him in the Bible, from St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles and from St. Paul’s letters. But if we look at what was said about him, an amazing image of who St. Timothy was emerges.
It is remarkable how often Timothy is in the New Testament, he appears in the Acts of the Apostles, is mentioned in all but three of St. Paul’s letters, two letters being addressed to him, and is also mentioned in the Letter to the Hebrews.
We know from the Acts of the Apostles that Timothy was from the Greek city of Lystra in modern day Turkey. St. Paul met him there during his second missionary journey. Timothy was the son of a Jewish mother and a Greek father and it seems he had feet in both his Jewish and Gentile backgrounds.
He must have been a remarkable young man, because despite his youth he had impressed the Christian community of Lystra and Iconium and Paul wanted him to accompany them on his missionary journey (Acts 16:2-3). It seems that from that point on Timothy became St. Paul’s right-hand man. As stated above, Timothy is mentioned in ten out of thirteen of Paul’s letters (Rom 16:21, 1 Cor 4:17, 16:10, 2 Cor 1:1,19, Phil 1:1, 2:19, Col 1:1, 1 Thes 1:1, 3:2,6, 2Thes 1:1, Philemon 1, 1Tim, 2 Tim). Timothy is one of only three people included as “co-authors” in the opening salutation of Paul’s letters (along with Sosthenes and Silvanus) and he is “co-author” six times (1 Cor 1:1, 2 Cor 1:1, Phil 1:1, Col 1:1, 1 Thes 1:1, 2Thes 1:1, Philemon 1). Timothy was also sent as Paul’s representative to at least three different communities, the Corinthians, the Philippians, and the Thessalonians; if Paul could not go there himself, he preferred to send Timothy (1 Cor 16:10, Phil 2:19, 1 Thes 3:2).
Whatever his shortcomings Paul had remarkable faith in him. Paul says to the Philippians “I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon… For I have no one comparable to him for genuine interest in whatever concerns you. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know his worth, how as a child with a father he served along with me in the cause of the gospel” (Phil 2:19-22). From Paul’s words we get a real insight into Timothy’s character. We see his childlike obedience and his unselfishness and genuine concern for others. Paul says he has “no one comparable” to Timothy.
We get more insight into Timothy’s character from the affectionate way in which Paul speaks about him. Often Paul will refer to Timothy as “my co-worker” or “our brother” but occasionally he will refer to him as “beloved and faithful son” or “my dear child” especially when addressing Timothy directly. (Rom 16:21, 1 Cor 4:17, 2 Cor 1:1, 2 Tim 1:2). In First Timothy, Paul’s emotions seem to get the better of him as he exclaims, “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you” (1 Tim 6:20). Paul’s affection and gratitude for his spiritual son is expressed in Second Timothy when he says, “I am grateful to God… as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.” Paul writing from prison in the same letter says he “yearns” to see Timothy again and twice asks him to come to him soon (2 Tim 1:4, 4:9,22). Paul’s words don’t just express the love that Paul had for Timothy, but I think reflect the deep love and devotion Timothy had for Paul and for the church. The letter to Philemon shows that at some point Timothy spent time with Paul in his imprisonment and the letter to the Hebrews seems to indicate Timothy was released from imprisonment on his own (Philemon 1. Hebrews 13:23).
Timothy was ordained by Paul and according to tradition became the first bishop of Ephesus, where Timothy would receive his two letters from Paul (1 Tim 1:3, 4:14, 2 Tim 1:6). Whatever fears or timid inclinations he might have had, he faced his fears, for tradition holds he was martyred in Ephesus while speaking out against a pagan celebration of the goddess Artemis.
I said at the beginning of this article that I wanted to introduce you to St. Timothy, and I think an interesting image of this saint comes to us out of the scriptures. He was a young man with substantial natural abilities, not without his own weaknesses, but his true greatness came from his unselfish concern for others and commitment to the mission God entrusted to him. Let us try to be worthy of so great a patron and friend by imitating these virtues. St. Timothy has been sent to us as he was sent to those Christian communities so long ago, “to strengthen and encourage you in your faith”. (1 Thes 3:2).
At St. Timothy Catholic Parish, we have a Daycare & Pre-School, a K-8 School and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd all of which are within one mile of St. Timothys parish. Please click the name to forward to the desired page:
DayCare
Pre-School
K-8 School
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd