Christ The King Parish

Christ the King: Adventures In Faith Presents - Face2Face Lenten Mission

2012-01-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

We are extremely excited to announce that we will be holding a 2-day Lenten Mission on the weekend of March 3rd and 4th!

Through a strong focus on the Word of God, Catholic teaching, music and praise and worship, a parish mission encourages us to ask: "What is really important to me? What am I doing with my life? What values do I have? Where does God fit into my life? What does my faith, my Church, mean to me?"

This all-ages Mission will be led by the Face-to-Face Mission team, a lively and dynamic group of faith-filled speakers and musicians known across the country for their engaging & inspiring presentations that make the Catholic Church and Her teachings relevant to our lives today, as well as their entertaining skits and energetic songs of praise, and worship led by an extremely talented music ministry.

It is our great privilege to invite everyone between the ages of 1 and 101 to share this wonderful experience of faith!

Christ the King Parish Mission
Saturday March 3 from 1:00pm – 9:00pm (includes supper)
Sunday March 4 starting at 9:00am and ending with Mass at 11:00am

There is no charge for this event. You and your family will not want to miss this dynamic two day journey inviting us to fully embrace the purpose of our lives - to be saints!

Christ The King: Adventures In Faith Presents - A Quick Journey Through The Bible

2012-01-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

Your 8-Week Quick Journey Through The Bible Begins Februray 4, 2012

Running Saturdays from February 4 - March 31 from 9:00am - 10:30am, A Quick Journey Through The Bible makes reading the Bible not only easy, but exciting. You'll learn the major people, places, events and themes of the Bible. Your Bible reading, the Sunday mass readings, and your personal experience of faith are guaranteed to come alive like never before!

Registration is $30.00 and includes over 45 pages of materials as well as the invaluable Bible Timeline Chart and other memory devices to help place the central narrative story of the Bible in it's chronoloigical context.For more information or to register email Eric or call him at 586-9020.

Merry Christmas From Your Parish Family of Christ The King!

2011-12-24T23:30:00.000-08:00

The Annunciation by Denise Levertov;

We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lecturn, a book; always
the tall lily.

Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whome she acknowledges, a guest.

But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions
courage
The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent. God waited.

She was free
to accept or refuse, choice
integral to humanness.

Aren't there annunciations
of one sort or another in most lives?
Some unwillingly undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.

More often those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.

God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes..

She had been a child who played, ate, spelt
like any other child - but unlike others,
wept only for pity, laughed
in joy not triumpf.
Compassion and intelligence
fused in her, indivisible.

Called to a destiny more momentous
than any in all of Time,
she did not quail,
only asked

a simple, "How can this be?"
and gravely, courteously,
took to heart the angel's reply,
perceiving instantly
the astounding ministry she was offered:

to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; to carry
in hidden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power -
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.

Then bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love -

but who was God.

Merry Christmas!

From a homily In Praise of the Virgin Mother by Saint Bernard, Abbot

2011-12-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

He Qi - Annunciation

The whole world awaits Mary’s reply...

"You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.

The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.

Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.

Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.

Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word."

O God, eternal majesty, whose ineffable Word
the immaculate Virgin received
through the message of an Angel,
and so became the dwelling-place of divinity,
filled with the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant, we pray, that by her example,
we may in humility hold fast to your will.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

2011-12-12T07:26:00.000-08:00

The shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, near Mexico City, is one of the most celebrated places of pilgrimage in North America. On 9 December 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to an Indian convert, Juan Diego, at Tepeyac and left him with a picture of herself imprinted upon his cloak. Devotion to Mary under the title of “Our Lady of Guadalupe” has continually increased, and today she is the Patroness of Americas.

From a report by Don Antonio Valeriano, a Native American author of the sixteenth century
"The Voice of the Turtledove has been heard in our land"

At daybreak one Saturday morning in 1531, on the very first days of the month of December, an Indian named Juan Diego was going from the village where he lived to Tlatelolco in order to take part in divine worship and listen to God’s commandments. When he came near the hill called Tepeyac, dawn had already come, and Juan Diego heard someone calling him from the very top of the hill: “Juanito, Juan Dieguito.”

He went up the hill and caught sight of a lady of unearthly grandeur whose clothing was as radiant as the sun. She said to him in words both gentle and courteous: “Juanito, the humblest of my children, know and understand that I am the ever virgin Mary, Mother of the true God through whom all things live. It is my ardent desire that a church be erected here so that in it I can show and bestow my love, compassion, help, and protection to all who inhabit this land and to those others who love me, that they might call upon and confide in me. Go to the Bishop of Mexico to make known to him what I greatly desire. Go and put all your efforts into this.”

When Juan Diego arrived in the presence of the Bishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga, a Franciscan, the latter did not seem to believe Juan Diego and answered: “Come another time, and I will listen at leisure.”

Juan Diego returned to the hilltop where the Heavenly Lady was waiting, and he said to her: “My Lady, my maiden, I presented your message to the Bishop, but it seemed that he did not think it was the truth. For this reason I beg you to entrust your message to someone more illustrious who might convey it in order that they may believe it, for I am only an insignificant man.”

She answered him: “Humblest of my sons, I ask that tomorrow you again go to see the Bishop and tell him that I, the ever virgin holy Mary, Mother of God, am the one who personally sent you.”

But on the following day, Sunday, the Bishop again did not believe Juan Diego and told him that some sign was necessary so that he could believe that it was the Heavenly Lady herself who sent him. And then he dismissed Juan Diego.

On Monday Juan Diego did not return. His uncle, Juan Bernardino, became very ill, and at night asked Juan to go to Tlatelolco at daybreak to call a priest to hear his confession.

Juan Diego set out on Tuesday, but he went around the hill and passed on the other side, toward the east, so as to arrive quickly in Mexico City and to avoid being detained by the Heavenly Lady. But she came out to meet him on that side of the hill and said to him: “Listen and understand, my humblest son. There is nothing to frighten and distress you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and let nothing upset you. Is it not I, your Mother, who is here? Are you not under my protection? Are you not, fortunately, in my care? Do not let your uncle’s illness distress you. It is certain that he has already been cured. Go up to the hilltop, my son, where you will find flowers of various kinds. Cut them, and bring them into my presence.”

When Juan Diego reached the peak, he was astonished that so many Castilian roses had burst forth at a time when the frost was severe. He carried the roses in the folds of his tilma (mantle) to the Heavenly Lady. She said to him: “My son, this is the proof and the sign which you will bring to the Bishop so that he will see my will in it. You are my ambassador, very worthy of trust.”

Juan Diego set out on his way, now content and sure of succeeding. On arriving in the Bishop’s presence, he told him: “My lord, I did what you asked. The Heavenly Lady complied with your request and fulfilled it. She sent me to the hilltop to cut some Castilian roses and told me to bring them to you in person. And this I am doing, so that you can see in them the sign you seek in order to carry out her will. Here they are; receive them.”

He immediately opened up his white mantle, and as all the different Castilian roses scattered to the ground, there was drawn on the cloak and suddenly appeared the precious image of the ever virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the same manner as it is today and is kept in her shrine of Tepeyac.

The whole city was stirred and came to see and admire her venerable image and to offer prayers to her; and following the command which the same Heavenly Lady gave to Juan Bernardino when she restored him to health, they called her by the name that she herself had used: “the ever virgin holy Mary of Guadalupe.”

God of power and mercy,
you blessed the Americas at Tepeyac
with the presence of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe.
May her prayers help all men and women
to accept each other as brothers and sisters.
Through your justice present in our hearts
may your peace reign in the world.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Edge Night - St. Nick Ring 'n' Run - Dec 18

2011-12-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

The Edge Youth Group at Christ the King is happy to announce that our 2nd Annual St. Nick Ring 'n' Run is happening on December 18th. It's gonna be a blast!

Were you there last year? Then you know how much fun it was. First time? Intrigued? Want to know more? Want to come?

We are happy to invite all Grade 6 and up to this event. Bring a friend!

It all starts at 6:30 pm at 4629 Hames Cres (the gracious home of the Howells in Harbour Landing) and will end by 8:30.

Drop an email to pierrelaura@oreillyclan.com or call Laura or Pierre at 584-4140 and we can fill you in on all the details.

***Parents, don't worry, the Ring 'n Run is totally legal!

Immaculate Conception

2011-12-08T07:26:00.001-08:00

From a sermon by Saint Anselm, bishop
Virgin Mary, all nature is blessed in you.

Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night—everything that is subject to the power or use of man—rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendor by men who believe in God.

The universe rejoices with new and indefinable loveliness. Not only does it feel the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator, it sees him openly, working and making it holy. These great blessings spring from the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.

Through the fullness of the grace that was given you, dead things rejoice in their freedom, and those in heaven are glad to be made new. Through the Son who was the glorious fruit of your virgin womb, just souls who died before his life-giving death rejoice as they are freed from captivity, and the angels are glad at the restoration of their shattered domain.

Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation.

To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary.

God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Savior of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.

Truly the Lord is with you, to whom the Lord granted that all nature should owe as much to you as to himself.

Father,
you prepared the Virgin Mary
to be the worthy mother of your Son.
You let her share beforehand
in the salvation Christ would bring by his death,
and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception.
Help us by her prayers
to live in your presence without sin.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Feast of St. Nicholas

2011-12-06T08:22:00.001-08:00

Today is the Feast of St. Nicholas. Here are a few links of prayers and blessings and activities to enjoy;

Blessing of Candy Canes
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/blessing-candy-canes/#i_551

Activities
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/activities/

Children's Prayers
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/prayers-for-children/

Ecards
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/e-cards/

These are all found at the St. Nicholas Centre
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/home/

The Voice In The Wilderness

2011-12-05T09:31:00.001-08:00

From a commentary on Isaiah by Eusebius of Caesarea, bishop;

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. The prophecy makes clear that it is to be fulfilled, not in Jerusalem but in the wilderness: it is there that the glory of the Lord is to appear, and God’s salvation is to be made known to all mankind.

It was in the wilderness that God’s saving presence was proclaimed by John the Baptist, and there that God’s salvation was seen. The words of this prophecy were fulfilled when Christ and his glory were made manifest to all: after his baptism the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove rested on him, and the Father’s voice was heard, bearing witness to the Son: This is my beloved Son, listen to him.

The prophecy meant that God was to come to a deserted place, inaccessible from the beginning. None of the pagans had any knowledge of God, since his holy servants and prophets were kept from approaching them. The voice commands that a way be prepared for the Word of God: the rough and trackless ground is to be made level, so that our God may find a highway when he comes. Prepare the way of the Lord: the way is the preaching of the Gospel, the new message of consolation, ready to bring to all mankind the knowledge of God’s saving power.

Climb on a high mountain, bearer of good news to Zion. Lift up your voice in strength, bearer of good news to Jerusalem. These words harmonize very well with the meaning of what has gone before. They refer opportunely to the evangelists and proclaim the coming of God to men, after speaking of the voice crying in the wilderness. Mention of the evangelists suitably follows the prophecy on John the Baptist.

What does Zion mean if not the city previously called Jerusalem? This is the mountain referred to in that passage from Scripture: Here is mount Zion, where you dwelt. The Apostle says: You have come to mount Zion. Does not this refer to the company of the apostles, chosen from the former people of the circumcision?

This is the Zion, the Jerusalem, that received God’s salvation. It stands aloft on the mountain of God, that is, it is raised high on the only-begotten Word of God. It is commanded to climb the high mountain and announce the word of salvation. Who is the bearer of the good news but the company of the evangelists? What does it mean to bear the good news but to preach to all nations, but first of all to the cities of Judah, the coming of Christ on earth?

Almighty and merciful God,

may no earthly undertaking hinder those

who set out in haste to meet your Son,

but may our learning of heavenly wisdom

gain us admittance to his company,

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

– Amen.

Advent Conspiracy - Christmas Can Still Change The World

2011-11-29T11:14:00.001-08:00

I found this link in my twitter stream the other day and it intrigued me that there could be some kind of secret conspiracy behind Advent, that liturgical season I love so much. I've never been one to shy away from a good conspiracy (growing up my dad always had well-worn copies of the Enquirer, The News and other reputable papers with pictures of bat-boy and aliens shaking hands with the President on the front page). A click or two took me to the Advent Conspiracy homepage (this is BIG folks...an entire section of the www is dedicated to this stuff!) where I found the following video;

If that isn't intriguing enough with it's secret plot to undermine the Christmas Machine for all time, their manifesto outlines things even more clearly;

Nobody wants a Christmas worth forgetting. The concept behind Advent Conspiracy is simple...

Worship Fully - It starts with Jesus. It ends with Jesus. This is the holistic approach God had in mind for Christmas. It’s a season where we are called to put down our burdens and lift a song up to our God. It’s a season where love wins, peace reigns, and a king is celebrated with each breath. It’s the party of the year. Entering the story of advent means entering this season with an overwhelming passion to worship Jesus to the fullest.

Spend Less - Before you think we’re getting all Scrooge on you, let us explain what we mean. We like gifts. Our kids really like gifts. But consider this: America spends an average of $450 billion a year every Christmas. How often have you spent money on Christmas presents for no other reason than obligation? How many times have you received a gift out of that same obligation? Thanks, but no thanks, right? We’re asking people to consider buying ONE LESS GIFT this Christmas. Just one. Sounds insignificant, yet many who have taken this small sacrifice have experienced something nothing less than a miracle: They have been more available to celebrate Christ during the advent season.

Give More - God’s gift to us was a relationship built on love. So it’s no wonder why we’re drawn to the idea that Christmas should be a time to love our friends and family in the most memorable ways possible. Time is the real gift Christmas offers us, and no matter how hard we look, it can’t be found at the mall. Time to make a gift that turns into the next family heirloom. Time to write mom a letter. Time to take the kids sledding. Time to bake really good cookies and sing really bad Christmas carols. Time to make love visible through relational giving. Sounds a lot better than getting a sweater two sizes too big, right?

Love All - When Jesus loved, He loved in ways never imagined. Though rich, he became poor to love the poor, the forgotten, the overlooked and the sick. He played to the margins. By spending less at Christmas we have the opportunity to join Him in giving resources to those who need help the most. When Advent Conspiracy first began four churches challenged this simple concept to its congregations. The result raised more than a half million dollars to aid those in need. One less gift. One unbelievable present in the name of Christ.

My final investigations into this mysterious underground movement led me to the radically subversive site rethinkingchristmas.com, with it's seemingly endless lists of alternative giving ideas and diy gifts that cost little to nothing in cash but fairly scream out one's personal interest and investment in your loved ones lives.

All in all, as crazy as it may sound, it seems there is indeed a conspiracy afoot. What else can you call it when a mysterious, elite group of individuals begin a nearly viral movement to turn one of the most important seasons of our liturgical year on it's head?

Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself and you'll see it is indeed an honest to goodness Advent Conspiracy!

Peace and God Bless

The season of Advent: From a pastoral letter by Saint Charles Borromeo, bishop

2011-11-29T11:04:00.001-08:00

Beloved, now is the acceptable time spoken of by the Spirit, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation: the great season of Advent. This is the time eagerly awaited by the patriarchs and prophets, the time that holy Simeon rejoiced at last to see. This is the season that the Church has always celebrated with special solemnity. We too should always observe it with faith and love, offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the mercy and love he has shown us in this mystery. In his infinite love for us, though we were sinners, he sent his only Son to free us from the tyranny of Satan, to summon us to heaven, to welcome us into its innermost recesses, to show us truth itself, to train us in right conduct, to plant within us the seeds of virtue, to enrich us with the treasures of his grace, and to make us children of God and heirs of eternal life.

Each year, as the Church recalls this mystery, she urges us to renew the memory of the great love God has shown us. This holy season teaches us that Christ’s coming was not only for the benefit of his contemporaries; his power has still to be communicated to us all. We shall share his power, if, through holy faith and the sacraments, we willingly accept the grace Christ earned for us, and live by that grace and in obedience to Christ.

The Church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the flesh, is prepared to come again. When we remove all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace.

In her concern for our salvation, our loving mother the Church uses this holy season to teach us through hymns, canticles and other forms of expression, of voice or ritual, used by the Holy Spirit. She shows us how grateful we should be for so great a blessing, and how to gain its benefit: our hearts should be as much prepared for the coming of Christ as if he were still to come into this world. The same lesson is given us for our imitation by the words and example of the holy men of the Old Testament.

Sound the trumpets in Zion, summon the nations; call the people together and tell them the good news: Our God and our Savior is coming!

Edge Youth Group - Nov 25 - "King Sardines"

2011-11-21T20:59:00.001-08:00

The next Edge Youth Group night (grade 7+) at Christ the King is this Friday, November 25 from 7-8:30 pm.

Join us for a great night that will end with an awesome game of "King Sardines".

For more info contact Pierre or Laura at 584-410 or laura@oreillyclan.com

See you there!

Intercessory Prayers - November 20, 2011

2011-11-18T09:03:00.001-08:00

PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL

SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING

NOVEMBER 6, 2011

1. Let us pray for the Church,

instrument of unity and salvation,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

2. May we reach out to the poor, the stranger, the imprisoned and those

considered the least among us. May our donations to our Annual Appeal

help those in need,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

3. Let us pray for our parish of Christ the King,

striving to make the Kingdom of God a reality in our community,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

4. Let us pray for families, communities and nations seeking reconciliation,

and for all who work to make this reconciliation happen,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

5. Let us pray for those who have died,

especially CHRISTINE ENNIS,

that they may be received into the joy of your heavenly kingdom,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

6. Let us now pray in silence for our personal intentions,

(Pause 5 – 7 seconds)

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Edge Youth Group - Oct 28 - "Texting with God"

2011-10-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

The next Edge Youth Group night (grade 7-9) at Christ the King is this Friday, October 28 from 7-9 pm.

Topic is "Texting with God. What is prayer?" Bring a friend and bring the answer this week's trivia question (see ad for question) for a shot at winning a big basket of awesomeness at the end of the school year. Everyone who sends in the correct answer gets entered once. Show up on at the Edge Night with the right answer and get 2 entries!

For more infor contact Pierre or Laura at 584-410 or laura@oreillyclan.com

See you there!

Stewardship Appreciation Event Coming in November

2011-09-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

The stewardship committee is organizing a stewardship appreciation event for Saturday November 5 from 6:00pm - 9:00pm in the parish Hall. It is taking the form of a catered supper at the CTK hall and we want to invite all CTK parishioners and other folks that share their time and talent (volunteers) for the betterment of our parish community. Committee and sub-committee chairs have provided the names of volunteers they have worked with since last September 2010. Invitations have gone out out by email or through Canada Post. And you may also on-line; CTK Stewardship Appreciation 2011.

We don’t want to miss anyone from the invitation list so if you have volunteered this past year but have not yet received an invitation please let us know.

Contact Dave Lareau at adm.lareau@sasktel.net or call him at 586-1363.

“We receive God’s gifts gratefully, cultivate them responsibly and share them joyfully”

Coming To Church Alone Doesn't Make You Any More Catholic Than Standing In Your Garage Makes You A Car

2011-09-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

Always cool when the theme of Father Antony's Sunday Homily finds it's way to Our Holy Father!

EDGE Retreat For Grades 7-9

2011-09-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

Don't Forget To Invite Your Friends!

Liturgy and the Christian Language - Fr. Douglas Martis

2011-07-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

“An olive is never just an olive,” I said to myself, driving through the desert in Tunisia. I was fascinated by the number of olive trees with their gnarled trunks and twisted branches. An olive is not only the fruit of a tree. It is an epic. It contains within itself all that has gone before. The roots are sunk into the earth and also deep into history. These olive groves appear as the sole oasis in the desert where I had gone to retrace the steps of Tertullian and breathe the same air as Augustine of Hippo. Were they moved too, by the antiquity of these branches?

Sometimes we linger over the exotic in order to better appreciate what we see every day. Later, I find myself observing the vineyards extending over the rolling landscape in Burgundy. I repeat the same theme: a grape is not just a grape, wine not just a drink. It is a complex of meaning and history, of know-how and tradition. And again, later in the boulangerie, I discover that in France, bread is not just bread. It is baguette, flute, fiselle and pain.

There are certain things that can only be truly understood in the rich cultural context that gives birth to them. In order to appreciate these things most fully, it is essential to “dwell” in the culture. You hold a bottle or a loaf in your hand and you begin to understand that there is more than meets the eye. This is nourishment and refreshment.

I see Madame Talbot coming from the bakery with her daily bread. I watch how she holds it, still warm in the paper wrapper, offering its yeasty aroma. I am reminded of the way old man Simeon in Saint Luke’s Gospel held the Christ-child in his arms, blessing God, his heart full of joy.

And I ask myself, what would our experience of the sacred liturgy be like if we were able to embrace it as Simeon carried the Messiah? What if in every word, in every gesture we were able to touch the magnificent treasure that is presented to us? He is our Daily Bread!

Every culture has its own way of seeing things, of experiencing them, and of speaking about them.
The same is true for us Christians. Our Christian culture has its own symbols, its own language, its own lingo and vocabulary. The way Eskimos have many words to describe snow, the way the French have many names for bread, the way Italy feasts not just on pasta, but capellini and fusili and linguini, we have a language that captures in a word or a phrase the essence of what we believe: “The Body of Christ.” “Amen.” This Christian language with its word and symbols is our own heritage and it is present to us every time the Church prays.

For me, this is the fascinating thing about the liturgy. It is so rich. And at the same time, it should not be passed over as if it were already understood. Ritual offers its sweet fragrance every time.

When I think of Simeon in that precious moment, for which he faithfully waited his entire life, I cannot help but also think of the prophetess Anna, and her silent fidelity, witness to grace, praying in the shadows, persistent nonetheless. Their life-long pursuit, attention to the will of the God, filled with patience as well as hope and expectation, is the example for us all. This encounter is the crossroads of young and old, of innocent and learned, of a weary light dimming even as a new, more brilliant light emerges. And thinking of these two faithful souls, brings me to the prayer repeated night after night by the Church, the Nunc Dimittis, which makes these words, placed on the lips of the faithful, echo across the centuries: “Now, Master, you can dismiss you servant! My own eyes have seen your salvation.” All of these things are woven together in that one instant of the liturgy.

I want to know more of this Christian culture that spans the centuries and covers the globe. I am not talking about something that is antiquated, but this mystery of our faith that St. Paul characterizes as ever new. I want to be able to penetrate the poetry of this mystery.

Every grandparent knows the experience of Simeon and Anna: you hold in your hands the future. But this precious child is not the future only. A baby is also the past.

Embrace the liturgy as Simeon the Christ-child. Hold Christ. Hold him in your heart, savoring all the meaning. Do not take him into yourself without bringing to mind all that this communion means. For us Catholics, bread is more than flour and water, wine is more than crushed grape.

What should be running through the mind of every Catholic during the liturgy? What does the Church want us to understand when we do certain things? What should we be thinking when we bow? On what should we reflect when the liturgy calls for silence? What connections are to be made between what we see and hear and say and do? The Church has its own culture which expresses itself in the liturgy. To be able to enter more deeply into the liturgy we must live in that Christian culture.

www.mysticalbodymysticalvoice.com

Peace and God Bless

Summer Prayer

2011-07-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

Creator of all, thank You for summer! Thank You for the warmth of the sun and the increased daylight. Thank You for the beauty I see all around me and for the opportunity to be outside and enjoy Your creation. Thank You for the increased time I have to be with my friends and family, and for the more casual pace of the summer season.

Draw me closer to You this summer. Teach me how I can pray no matter where I am or what I am doing. Warm my soul with the awareness of Your presence, and light my path with Your Word and Counsel. As I enjoy Your creation, create in me a pure heart and a hunger and a thirst for You. Amen.

Peace and God Bless

A New Roman Missal For Canada

2011-07-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has received "recognitio" from Rome for all sections of the English translation of the revised Roman Missal. Preparations are underway for the implementation of the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) and the new translation of the Roman Missal on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011.

What is the Roman Missal?

Take notice of the red book the priest uses most often during the Mass. This book is called the Sacramentary, which together with the Lectionary for Mass (both the Sunday and Weekday Lectionaries) make up the Roman Missal. The missal is the collection of prayers, chants, and instructions (rubrics) used to celebrate Mass. This includes prayers such as the Sign of the Cross and opening greeting; Opening Prayers; Gloria; Creed; Eucharistic Prayers; Holy, Holy, Holy; Memorial Acclamations; and the final blessing. The majority of the prayers we recite or sing at Mass are contained in this book and it is these prayers that have been retranslated from the original Latin into English.

Where did the Roman Missal originally come from?

The earliest traditions of Christian liturgical prayer forms were not written down. In fact, in the first few centuries of the Church public prayer was often spontaneous, extemporized, and fluid. It was in the doctrinally sensitive climate of the 4th century Christological controversies, that is, the theological debates surrounding the divinity/humanity of Christ, that the fear of heresy began to place limitations around the practise of improvised public prayer. This transition from fluidity to standardization is

seen in the appearance first of the libelli (“little books”) which were little liturgical pamphlets containing formularies for various Masses, selections of various orations, and the needed texts for a specific ritual or action. In many cases, the first liturgical books were simply the compilation of several libelli, formerly independent of one another. These are the ancestors of the sacramentary, the books of chant, the missal, among others, and were often used to diffuse a new Mass formulary. Throughout the ages, these compilations were handed on with modifications and additions being made along the way.

Eventually, all the chants, prayers, instructions (ordos), and scriptures were organized into one book called the Missale Plenum (complete missal). After the Council of Trent (1545-1563) Pope Pius V promulgated an edition of the Missale Romanum in 1570 which was to be obligatory for the Latin Church. It was written in Latin and the texts contained in it remained relatively unchanged until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

How has the Roman Missal developed since the Second Vatican Council?

The Missale Romanum (Roman Missal), the ritual text for the celebration of the Mass, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as the definitive text of the reformed liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. That Latin text, the editio typica (typical edition), was translated into various languages for use around the world, including English. The Holy See issued a revised text, the editio typica altera, in 1975. Pope John Paul II promulgated the third edition (editio typica tertia) of the Missale Romanum during the Jubilee Year in 2000.

Among other things, the third edition contains prayers for the celebration of recently canonized saints, additional prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayers, additional Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Intentions, and some updated and revised rubrics (instructions) for the celebration of the Mass. To aid the process of translating the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia (Roman Missal, 3rd Edition), the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a document called Liturgiam Authenticam in 2001, an Instruction on the vernacular translation of the Roman Liturgy which outlines the principles and rules for translation. In 2007, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued the Ratio Translationis for the English Language, which outlined the specific rules for translation in English.

Why do we need a revised translation of the Roman Missal?

A revised translation of the Roman Missal is necessary for several reasons:

*After Vatican II the Church produced a revised standard Latin text of the Missal, that is, a new editio typica. The process of translating this new standard Latin text into English was an enormous venture, accomplished with haste to satisfy the desire for Mass in the vernacular language of the people. Therefore, this translation was not necessarily the best and was meant to be temporary. A revised translation was produced in 1975, the editio typica altera.

*These earlier translations used what is known as dynamic equivalence, a process which focussed on the wider meaning of what was being said; it was less formal and more conversational. The Roman Missal, 3rd Edition employs was is called formal equivalence which pays more attention to the specific words and sentence structure found in the original Latin text. Therefore, it is a more literal translation and will enable our prayer to be a better expression of our unity in prayer and faith with Catholics around the world.

*During the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II promulgated the third edition of the Roman Missal in Latin. This was necessitated by the fact that a number of new prayers for the Mass had been written, especially associated with the canonization of many new saints in recent years.

What difference does a more formal translation make?

A more exact translation of the Roman Missal from Latin into English is important for several reasons:

*The revised translation of the Roman Missal will emphasize the Scriptural references more clearly. This will enable the worshipper to perceive and understand the connections between the Scriptures and the Mass texts more readily.

*Many of the original phrases used in the Latin were altered or lost in the English translations. The revised English translation will bring us closer to the translations used by many other language groups and will connect us linguistically to other Catholics throughout the world.

*The English versions of many of our liturgical texts are used as the base language by a number of other countries to guide their own translations. Therefore, it is important that the English translation be as precise and as close to the original as possible.

*In the liturgy, we pray what we believe, and believe what we pray (lex orandi, lex credendi). Translations need to be authentic and accurate for this reality to find expression.

What is an example of the difference between dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence?

The current Opening Prayer for the First Sunday of Advent is:

All Powerful God,

increase our strength of will for doing good

that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming

and call us to his side in the kingdom of heaven,

where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

This is an example of dynamic equivalence. Notice the simplicity of the words which are essentially a paraphrasing of the Latin original.

The more literal translation from the new Roman Missal is:

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,

the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ

with righteous deeds at his coming,

so that, gathered at his right hand,

they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

This is an example of formal equivalence; the more exact wording renders a text which is more poetic, with fuller meaning.

Who produces the English translation of the Roman Missal?

The process of translation was the consultative work of several groups. The International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) is mandated to prepare English translations of liturgical texts on behalf of the conferences of bishops of English–speaking countries.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and the other member Conferences of Bishops received draft translations of each text from ICEL (called “Green Books”) and had the opportunity to offer comments and suggestions to ICEL. A second draft (called the “Grey Book”) was then prepared by ICEL, which each Conference of Bishops approved (a Conference reserves the right to amend or modify a particular text) and submitted to the Vatican for final approval. The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments examined the texts and offered authoritative approval (recognitio) for their use. The Congregation was aided by the recommendations of Vox Clara, a special committee of bishops and consultants from English–speaking countries convened to assist with the English translation of the Missale Romanum.

What is necessary for the implementation of the revised Roman Missal?

Before use of the revised Roman Missal becomes mandatory in Canada on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011, dioceses and their parishes will need to prepare for the implementation. Liturgical books, such as the Sacramentary, will need to be replaced, and participation aids used by the people such as missalettes and music resources will need to be replaced and/or revised. Priests will need to learn and practise the new texts. Those engaged in music ministry together with congregations will need to learn new musical settings for the parts of the Mass. Three new musical settings for the Mass have been produced and approved for use in Canada. Additionally, parishioners will have to learn the new prayers, responses, and gestures. Certainly all of this will take time so that we can all come to appreciate the revisions that have occurred and embrace their depth of meaning. The Liturgy Office of the Archdiocese of Regina will direct the process of implementation in our parishes, utilizing the resources and following the directions of the National Liturgy Office of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Those Long Summer Days

2011-07-03T14:21:00.001-07:00

I hope you have been enjoying this first official long weekend of summer. Even though some may have to return to work come Monday, there are plenty of long summer days ahead of us. May you and those you love find all of your days and nights overflowing with God's grace.

Prayer for a Summer Day

Long warm days...
The pace of life slows...
A time for picnics and rest in the shade...

Lord,
help me to rest a while in the cooling shade of your presence.
Slow down my restless heart and fill me with gentle compassion for all your people.
Amen.

Peace and God Bless

"The whole earth is quiet and still,it is glad and hath rejoiced!" (Isaiah 14:7)
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In Your Light We See Light

2011-07-01T14:23:00.001-07:00

Today is the Solemnity of The Sacred Heart Jesus. While paying the Office of Readings for this solemn feast, traditionally celebrated on the Friday after Corpus Christi, I was really moved by the reflection offered by St. Bonaventure. I love the idea of the Church having been formed and conferred with the Spirit's grace and love from the wound in Christ's side as he slept upon the cross. It's so profoundly reminiscent of the creation of Eve from the rib taken from the side of Adam as he slept. I really love the way those Old Testament themes come full-circle in Christ.

From a work by Saint Bonaventure, bishop

Take thought now, redeemed man, and consider how great and worthy is he who hangs on the cross for you. His death brings the dead to life, but at his passing heaven and earth are plunged into mourning and hard rocks are split asunder.

It was a divine decree that permitted one of the soldiers to open his sacred side with a lance. This was done so that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death on the cross, and so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: They shall look on him whom they pierced. The blood and water which poured out at that moment were the price of our salvation. Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting.

Arise, then, beloved of Christ! Imitate the dove that nests in a hole in the cliff, keeping watch at the entrance like the sparrow that finds a home. There like the turtledove hide your little ones, the fruit of your chaste love. Press your lips to the fountain, draw water from the wells of your Savior; for this is the spring flowing out of the middle of paradise, dividing into four rivers, inundating devout hearts, watering the whole earth and making it fertile.

Run with eager desire to this source of life and light, all you who are vowed to God’s service. Come, whoever you may be, and cry out to him with all the strength of your heart. “O indescribable beauty of the most high God and purest radiance of eternal light! Life that gives all life, light that is the source of every other light, preserving in everlasting splendor the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your divinity from the dawn of time! Eternal and inaccessible fountain, clear and sweet stream flowing from a hidden spring, unseen by mortal eye! None can fathom your depths nor survey your boundaries, none can measure your breadth, nothing can sully your purity. From you flows the river which gladdens the city of God and makes us cry out with joy and thanksgiving in hymns of praise to you, for we know by our own experience that with you is the source of life, and in your light we see light.

Peace and God Bless

"The whole earth is quiet and still,it is glad and hath rejoiced!" (Isaiah 14:7)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Blessing Prayer For People About To Leave On A Journey

2011-06-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

Father Antony has boarded the plane and lifted off to visit family and friends back in India. Perhaps you too are planning a trip far away, or to your back yard. As spring moves into the lazy, hazy days of summer, and we begin to plan what we might do with our vacation times whether short or long, its a good idea to stop in the midst of the planning and the packing to lift heart and mind to God and pray for His blessing on our journeys;

Blessed are You, Lord our God,
For You have created a wide and wonderful world
in which we can travel.
We ask your Blessing upon us
as we are about to leave on our journey.
Be our ever-near companion, O Holy Guide of Travelers,
and spread the road before us
with beauty and adventure.
May all the roads ahead of us
be free of harm and eveil.
May we be accompanied by Your holy sipirts
Your Angelic Messengers,
as were our holy ancestors of days past.

On this trip may we take with us,
as part of our travelling equipment,
a heart wrapped in wonder with which to rejoice
in all that we shall meet.

Along with the clothing of wonder,
may we have room in our luggage
for a spiritual map
by which we can find the invisible meanings
of the events f this journey -
of possible breakdowns and rainy day torubles.
Always awake to your Sacred Presence,
to Your Divine Compassionate Love,
May we see in all that happens to us,
in the beautiful and the bad,
the Mystery of Your Holy Plan.

May the Blessing of our God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be upon us throughout our journey's and vacations,
and bring us home again in safety and peace. Amen.

Edward Hays - "Prayers for the Domestic Church"

Peace and God Bless

A Thin Place

2011-06-27T07:17:00.001-07:00

A few years back Father Bill Burke visited the diocese and delivered a series of talks on the Eucharist. As we celebrate the Solemnity of The Body And Blood of Christ, I thought it very appropriate to share a couple of the wonderful stories he told;

There was once a man who hated pilgrimages but was convinced to travel to the Isle of Iona off of Scotland. It's a place that has been home to countless monks and contemplatives throughout the centuries. He figured he would just have a nice picnic. Instead he had an experience of 'connection' and presence that struck him so deeply, he struggled to put it into words. Each time he would try, the words and ideas would get tangled in his mind and on his lips. No idea, no phrase could quite capture the intense spiritual experience he had had that day.

The old ferryman upon taking him back asked him how the day was and again, he struggled to put what he had encountered into words. The ferryman smiled and in his heavy Scottish drawl nodded his head and said, "Ye donna have ta explain Lard. I sees it all the time. Iona, she's a thin place."

And the man knew then just how to describe it. Thin. A place in the world where the stories of those who preceded us, 'wears through' the ages to touch us with it's presence. A thin place were the living story of the People of God, continues to make it's presence known and engages us in it today.

The Eucharist is a 'Thin' place where the stories of our faith, the Kingdom, the Reign, the Presence wear through the fabric of our world and draw us into an unique experience of Christ.

Father Burke also shared a passage on the Eucharist that has quickly become one of my favorites. From "The Shape of the Liturgy" (London 1945) Dom Gregory Dix,, p74.

“Do this in remembrance of me...”

Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacles of earthly greatness to the refuges of fugitives in caves and the dens of the earth.

Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or for the soul of a dead lover; in thankfulness because my father did not die of pneumonia; for a village headman much tempted to return to fetish because the yams have failed; because the Turk was at the gates of Vienna; for the repentance of Margaret; for the settlement of a strike; for a son for a barren woman; for Captain so-and-so, wounded and prisoner of war; while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheater; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of scythes in the think June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously, for the canonization of S. Joan of Arc – one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundred part of them.

And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta Dei – the holy common people of God.

This summer, may the Eucharist you share, wherever your travels have you sharing it, make your world and your life a thin place.

And may it take your breath, and your words away.

Peace and God Bless

A Festival of Rain

2011-06-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

As our yards get a 24-hour reprieve from the rain, and dark clouds still hover ominously overhead, it can be easy to let the record-breaking wet spring get us down. One of my favorite essays by Thomas Merton contains his reflections on the rain. I thought I would share it with you this week. Using the "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy, the next time you begin to hear the patter of rain on your roof and begin to feel despondent, give Father Merton a chance to invite you to celebrate the great festival that surround us...

Rain and the Rhinoceros by Thomas Merton

Let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. By "they" I mean the people who cannot understand that rain is a festival, who do not appreciate its gratuity, who think that what has no price has no value, that what cannot be sold is not real, so that the only way to make something actual is to place it on the market. The time will come when they will sell you even your rain. At the moment it is still free, and I am in it. I celebrate its gratuity and its meaninglessness.

The rain I am in is not like the rain of cities. It fills the woods with an immense and confused sound. It covers the flat roof of the cabin and its porch with inconsistent and controlled rhythms. And I listen, because it reminds me again and again that the whole world runs by rhythms I have not yet learned to recognize, rhythms that are not those of the engineer.

I came up here from the monastery last night, sloshing through the cornfield, said Vespers, and put some oatmeal on the Coleman stove for supper. It boiled over while I was listening to the rain and toasting a piece of bread at the log fire. The night became very dark. The rain surrounded the whole cabin with its enormous virginal myth, a whole world of meaning, of secrecy, of silence, of rumor. Think of it: all that speech pouring down, selling nothing, judging nobody, drenching the thick mulch of dead leaves, soaking the trees, filling the gullies and crannies of the wood with water, washing out the places where men have stripped the hillside! What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!

Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. As long as it talks I am going to listen.

But I am also going to sleep, because here in this wilderness I have learned how to sleep again. Here I am not alien. The trees I know, the night I know, the rain I know. I close my eyes and instantly sink into the whole rainy world of which I am a part, and the world goes on with me in it, for I am not alien to it. I am alien to the noises of cities, of people, to the greed of machinery that does not sleep, the hum of power that eats up the night. Where rain, sunlight and darkness are contemned, I cannot sleep. I do not trust anything that has been fabricated to replace the climate of woods or prairies. I can have no confidence in places where the air is first fouled and then cleansed, where the water is first made deadly and then made safe with other poisons. There is nothing in the world of buildings that is not fabricated, and if a tree gets in among the apartment houses by mistake it is taught to grow chemically. It is given a precise reason for existing. They put a sign on it saying it is for health, beauty, perspective; that it is for peace, for prosperity; that it was planted by the mayor's daughter. All of this is mystification. The city itself lives on its own myth. Instead of waking up and silently existing, the city people prefer a stubborn and fabricated dream; they do not care to be a part of the night, or to be merely of the world. They have constructed a world outside the world, against the world, a world of mechanical fictions which contemn nature and seek only to use it up, thus preventing it from renewing itself and man.

Of course the festival of rain cannot be stopped, even in the city. The woman from the delicatessen scampers along the sidewalk with a newspaper over her head. The streets, suddenly washed, became transparent and alive, and the noise of traffic becomes a plashing of fountains. One would think that urban man in a rainstorm would have to take account of nature in its wetness and freshness, its baptism and its renewal. But the rain brings no renewal to the city, on to tomorrow's weather, and the glint of windows in tall buildings will then have nothing to do with the new sky. All "reality" will remain somewhere inside those walls, counting itself and selling itself with fantastically complex determination. Meanwhile the obsessed citizens plunge through the rain bearing the load of their obsessions, slightly more vulnerable than before, but still only barely aware of external realities. They do not see that the streets shine beautifully, that they themselves are walking on stars and water, that they are running in skies to catch a bus or a taxi, to shelter somewhere in the press of irritated humans, the faces of advertisements and the dim, cretinous sound of unidentified music. But they must know that there is wetness abroad. Perhaps they even feel it. I cannot say. Their complaints are mechanical and without spirit.

Naturally no one can believe the things they say about the rain. It all implies one basic lie: only the city is real. That weather, not being planned, not being fabricated, is an impertinence, a wen on the visage of progress. (Just a simple little operation, and the whole mess may become relatively tolerable. Let business make the rain. This will give it meaning.)

Thoreau sat in his cabin and criticized the railways. I sit in mine and wonder about a world that has, well, progressed. I must read Walden again, and see if Thoreau already guessed that he was part of what he thought he could escape. But it is not a matter of "escaping." It is not even a matter of protesting very audibly. Technology is here, even in the cabin. True, the utility line is not here yet, and so G.E. is not here yet either. When the utilities and G.E. enter my cabin arm in arm it will be nobody's fault but my own. I admit it. I am not kidding anybody, even myself. I will suffer their bluff and patronizing complacencies in silence. I will let them think they know what I am doing here.

They are convinced that I am having fun.

This has already been brought home to me with a wallop by my Coleman lantern. Beautiful lamp: It burns white gas and sings viciously but gives out a splendid green light in which I read Philoxenos, a sixth-century Syrian hermit. Philoxenos fits in with the rain and the festival of night. Of this, more later. Meanwhile: what does my Coleman lantern tell me? (Coleman's philosophy is printed on the cardboard box which I have (guiltily) not shellacked as I was supposed to, and which I have tossed in the woodshed behind the hickory chunks.) Coleman says that the light is good, and has a reason: it "Stretches days to give more hours of fun."

Can't I just be in the woods without any special reason? Just being in the woods, at night, in the cabin, is something too excellent to be justified or explained! It just is. There are always a few people who are in the woods at night, in the rain (because if there were not the world would have ended), and I am one of them. We are not having fun, we are not "having" anything, we are not "stretching our days," and if we had fun it would not be measured by hours. Though as a matter of fact that is what fun seems to be: a state of diffuse excitation that can be measured by the clock and "stretched" by an appliance.

There is no clock that can measure the speech of this rain that falls all night on the drowned and lonely forest.

Of course at three-thirty A.M. the SAC plane goes over, red light winking low under the clouds, skimming the wooded summits on the south side of the valley, loaded with strong medicine. Very strong. Strong enough to burn up all these woods and stretch our hours of fun into eternities.

And that brings me to Philoxenos, a Syrian who had fun in the sixth century, without benefit of appliances, still less of nuclear deterrents.

Philoxenos in his ninth memra (on poverty) to dwellers in solitude, says that there is no explanation and no justification for the solitary life, since it is without a law. To be contemplative is therefore to be an outlaw. As was Christ. As was Paul.

One who is not "alone," says Philoxenos, has not discovered his identity. He seems to be alone, perhaps, for he experiences himself as "individual." But because he is willingly enclosed and limited by the laws and illusions of collective existence, he has no more identity than an unborn child in the womb. He is not yet conscious. He is alien to his own truth. He has senses, but he cannot use them. He has life, but not identity. To have an identity, he has to be awake, and aware. But to be awake, he has to accept vulnerability and death. Not for their own sake: not out of stoicism or despair-only for the sake of the invulnerable inner reality which we cannot recognize (which we can only be ) but to which we awaken only when we see the unreality of our vulnerable shell. The discovery of this inner self is an act and affirmation of solitude.

Now if we take our vulnerable shell to be our true identity, if we think our mask is our true face, we will protect it with fabrications even at the cost of violating our own truth. This seems to be the collective endeavor of society: the more busily men dedicate themselves to it, the more certainly it becomes a collective illusion, until in the end we have the enormous, obsessive, uncontrollable dynamic of fabrications designed to protect mere fictitious identities-- "selves," that is to say, regarded as objects. Selves that can stand back and see themselves having fun (an illusion which reassures them that they are real).

Such is the ignorance which is taken to be the axiomatic foundation of all knowledge in the human collectivity: in order to experience yourself as real, you have to suppress the awareness of your contingency, your unreality, your state of radical need. This you do by creating an awareness of yourself as one who has no needs that he cannot immediately fulfill. Basically, this is an illusion of omnipotence: an illusion which the collectivity arrogates to itself, and consents to share with its individual members in proportion as they submit to its more central and more rigid fabrications.

You have needs; but if you behave and conform you can participate in the collective power. You can then satisfy all your needs. Meanwhile, in order to increase its power over you, the collectivity increases your needs. It also tightens its demand for conformity. Thus you can become all the more committed to the collective illusion in proportion to becoming more hopelessly mortgaged to collective power.

How does this work? The collectivity informs and shapes your will to happiness ("have fun") by presenting you with irresistible images of yourself as you would like to be: having fun that is so perfectly credible that it allows no interference of conscious doubt. In theory such a good time can be so convincing that you are no longer aware of even a remote possibility that it might change into something less satisfying. In practice, expensive fun always admits of a doubt, which blossoms out into another full-blown need, which then calls for a still more credible and more costly refinement of satisfaction, which again fails you. The end of the cycle is despair.

Because we live in a womb of collective illusion, our freedom remains abortive. Our capacities for joy, peace, and truth are never liberated. They can never be used. We are prisoners of a process, a dialectic of false promises and real deceptions ending in futility.

"The unborn child," says Philoxenos, "is already perfect and fully constituted in his nature, with all his senses, and limbs, but he cannot make use of them in their natural functions, because, in the womb, he cannot strengthen or develop them for such use."

Now, since all things have their season, there is a time to be unborn. We must begin, indeed, in the social womb. There is a time for warmth in the collective myth. But there is also a time to be born. He who is spiritually "born" as a mature identity is liberated from the enclosing womb of myth and prejudice. He learns to think for himself, guided no longer by the dictates of need and by the systems and processes designed to create artificial needs and then "satisfy" them.

This emancipation can take two forms: first that of the active life, which liberates itself from enslavement to necessity by considering and serving the needs of others, without thought of personal interest or return. And second, the contemplative life, which must not be construed as an escape from time and matter, from social responsibility and from the life of sense, but rather, as an advance into solitude and the desert, a confrontation with poverty and the void, a renunciation of the empirical self, in the presence of death, and nothingness, in order to overcome the ignorance and error that spring from the fear of "being nothing." The man who dares to be alone can come to see that the "empitness" and "uselessness" which the collective mind fears and condemns are necessary conditions for the encounter with truth.

It is in the desert of loneliness and emptiness that the fear of death and the need for self-affirmation are seen to be illusory. When this is faced, then anguish is not necessarily overcome, but it can be accepted and understood. Thus, in the heart of anguish are found the gifts of peace and understanding: not simply in personal illumination and liberation, but by commitment and empathy, for the contemplative must assume the universal anguish and the inescapable condition of mortal man. The solitary, far from enclosing himself in himself, becomes every man. He dwells in the solitude, the poverty, the indigence of every man.

It is in this sense that the hermit, according to Philoxenos, imitates Christ. For in Christ, God takes to Himself the solitude and dereliction of man: every man. From the moment Christ went out into the desert to be tempted, the loneliness, the temptation and the hunger of every man became the loneliness, temptation and hunger of Christ. But in return, the gift of truth with which Christ dispelled the three kinds of illusion offered him in his temptation (security, reputation and power) can become also our own truth, if we can only accept it. It is offered to us also in temptation. "You too go out into the desert," said Philoxenos, "having with you nothing of the world, and the Holy Spirit will go with you. See the freedom with which Jesus has gone forth, and go forth like Him-see where he has left the rule of men; leave the rule of the world where he has left the law, and go out with him to fight the power of error."

And where is the power of error? We find it was after all not in the city, but in ourselves .

Today the insights of a Philoxenos are to be sought less in the tracts of theologians than in the meditations of the existentialists and in the Theater of the Absurd. The problem of Berenger, in Ionesco's Rhinoceros, is the problem of the human person stranded and alone in what threatens to become a society of monsters. In the sixth century Berenger might perhaps have walked off into the desert of Scete, without too much concern over the fact that all his fellow citizens, all his friends, and even his girl Daisy, had turned into rhinoceroses.

The problem today is that there are no deserts, only dude ranches.

The desert islands are places where the wicked little characters in the Lord of the Flies come face to face with the Lord of the Flies, form a small, tight, ferocious collectivity of painted face, and arm themselves with spears to hunt down the last member of their group who still remembers with nostalgia the possibilities of rational discourse.

Where Berenger finds himself suddenly the last human in a rhinoceros herd he looks into the mirror and says, humbly enough, "After all, man is not as bad as all that, is he?" But his world now shakes mightily with the stampede of his metamorphosed fellow citizens, and he soon becomes aware that the very stampede itself is the most telling and tragic of all arguments. For when he considers going out into the street "to try to convince them," he realizes that he "would have to learn their language." He looks in the mirror and sees that he no longer resembles anyone . He searches madly for a photograph of people as they were before the big change. But now humanity itself has become incredible, as well as hideous. To be the last man in the rhinoceros herd is, in fact, to be a monster.

Such is the problem which Ionesco sets us in his tragic irony: solitude and dissent become more and more impossible, more and more absurd. That Berenger finally accepts his absurdity and rushes out to challenge the whole herd only points up the futility of a commitment to rebellion. At the same time in The New Tenant (Le Nouveau Locataire ) Ionesco portrays the absurdity of a logically consistent individualism which, in fact, is a self-isolation by the pseudo-logic of proliferating needs and possessions.

Ionesco protested that the New York production of Rhinoceros as a farce was a complete misunderstanding of his intention. It is a play not merely against conformism but about totalitarianism. The rhinoceros is not an amiable beast, and with him around the fun ceases and things begin to get serious. Everything has to make sense and be totally useful to the totally obsessive operation. At the same time Ionesco was criticized for not giving the audience "something positive" to take away with them, instead of just "refusing the human adventure." (Presumably "rhinoceritis" is the latest in human adventure!) He replied: "They [the spectators] leave in a void-and that was my intention. It is the business of a free man to pull himself out of this void by his own power and not by the power of other people!" In this Ionesco comes very close to Zen and to Christian eremitism.

"In all the cities of the world, it is the same," says Ionesco. "The universal and modern man is the man in a rush (i.e. a rhinoceros), a man who has no time, who is a prisoner of necessity, who cannot understand that a thing might perhaps be without usefulness ; nor does he understand that, at bottom, it is the useful that may be a useless and back-breaking burden. If one does not understand the usefulness of the useless and the uselessness of the useful, one cannot understand art. And a country where art is not understood is a country of slaves and robots." (Notes et Contre Notes, p129) Rhinoceritis, he adds, is the sickness that lies in wait "for those who have lost the sense and the taste for solitude."

The love of solitude is sometimes condemned as "hatred of our fellow men." But is this true? If we push our analysis of collective thinking a little further we will find that the dialectic of power and need, of submission and satisfaction, ends by being a dialectic of hate. Collectivity needs not only to absorb everyone it can, but also implicitly to hate and destroy whoever cannot be absorbed. Paradoxically, one of the needs of collectivity is to reject certain classes, or races, or groups, in order to strengthen its own self-awareness by hating them instead of absorbing them.

Thus the solitary cannot survive unless he is capable of loving everyone, without concern for the fact that he is likely to be regarded by all of them as a traitor. Only the man who has fully attained his own spiritual identity can live without the need to kill, and without the need of a doctrine that permits him to do so with a good conscience. There will always be a place, says Ionesco, " for those isolated consciences who have stood up for the universal conscience " as against the mass mind. But their place is solitude. They have no other. Hence it is the solitary person (whether in the city or in the desert) who does mankind the inestimable favor of reminding it of its true capacity for maturity, liberty and peace.

It sounds very much like Philoxenos to me.

And it sounds like what the rain says. We still carry this burden of illusion because we do not dare to lay it down. We suffer all the need that society demands we suffer, because if we do not have these needs we lose our "usefulness" in society-the usefulness of suckers. We fear to be alone, and to be ourselves, and so to remind others of the truth that is in them.

"I will not make you such rich men as have need of many things," said Philoxenos (putting the words on the lips of Christ), "but I will make you true rich men who have need of nothing. Since it is not he who has many possessions that is rich, but he who has no needs." Obviously, we shall always have some needs. But only he who has the simplest and most natural needs can be considered to be without needs, since the only needs he has are real ones, and the real ones are not hard to fulfill if one is a free man!

The rain has stopped. The afternoon sun slants through the pine trees: and how those useless needles smell in the clear air!

A dandelion, long out of season, has pushed itself into bloom between the smashed leaves of last summer's day lilies. The valley resounds with the totally uninformative talk of creeks and wild water.

Then the quails begin their sweet whistling in the wet bushes. Their noise is absolutely useless, and so is the delight I take in it. There is nothing I would rather hear, not because it is a better noise than other noises, but because it is the voice of the present moment, the present festival.

Yet even here the earth shakes. Over at Fort Knox the Rhinoceros is having fun.

Fathers’ Day Blessing

2011-06-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Our Parish Family extends to all Fathers our warmest blessings and deepest appreciation for all that you do. In your loving and willing sacrifice, you model for our children and our community, the same self-giving love of God. in the midst of the barbecues, the beers, the stories and the games, why not stop a moment to offer your own blessings to the father your Heavenly Father has placed in your life;

Opening Prayer
A son or daughter may lead the family in the following:

Lord, we have relied on our father for so many things throughout the years, and we often forget that he is not invincible, but rather a person who has strengths and weaknesses just like us. Help us Lord, to always give our father the chance to be simply who he is, a blessing to us. Lord, this Father’s Day may we learn to love and appreciate our father.

Intercessions

Leader    Lord, may our dad experience your love for him in new and deeper ways this Father’s Day. May he always be aware of how deeply his children love him.

Response     Hear us God, our Father.

Leader    May we always have memories of shared love with our dad.

Response     Hear us God, our Father.

Leader       May we always have the courage to tell our father how much we love him.

Response     Hear us God, our Father.

Leader    Free our father from any injury or hurt we may have caused, so that we may be as united in love as we are intended to be.

Response     Hear us God, our Father.

Leader    May we always walk proudly with our father in times of prosperity and in times of need, and humbly support him as he has supported us.

Response     Hear us God, our Father.

Leader    May we have the courage to forgive our father from any hurts we have experienced and accept him in his brokenness.

Response     Hear us God, our Father.

Affirmation
Take a moment to tell your father about one of his qualities which you admire.

On behalf of all the children, one son or daughter may say:
I believe in you Dad. You are someone who is very important to me, not because of the things you do, but rather for the person you are. I honor you and love you. I love you for who you are, and not for who I pretend or hope you to be. If you have hurt me in any way, I forgive you. I know in my heart that you are God’s gift to me.

Blessing
Leader    Lord God, bless our father this day with all good things: health, joy, love, and laughter. Keep him in your care and protect him from all which is harmful. And grant him peace and justice all his days.
All    Amen.

Offer your father your blessing by signing him with the sign of the cross on his forehead. You may also ask your father to bless you in the same way.

Peace and God Bless

Discovering Our Father's Story

2011-06-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

We are extremely excited to take this time to tell you about a number of exciting programs that will be taking place here at Christ the King parish in the coming year. Before I get into the details though, I want to wax a little on the philosphical side of things.

Have you ever given though to what it is about your favorite novel, or television series or movie that can be so captivating? Is it the plot? The characters? The special effects?

What about the story?

Ah! think about THAT for a minute. Think about all of the movies, shows, and books you've read and especially the ones that really stand out for you. I'll bet that you could tell me the core of their story without ever having to re-read the book or watch that show again.

I did this a few days ago with a group of grade 8 students at one of our Catholic schools. I asked if any of them could relate to me, in less than 30 seconds, the story of the Three Little Pigs. About a dozen hands went up and at least three of them began to rattle off this very popular childhood tale in less than 10 or 15 seconds! Next I asked when the last time was that they actually heard that story or had it told to them. Some said when they were 4, some said 5, or 8 or 9. Now, these were 12 year-olds so we're talking a range of 3-8 years since the last time they even heard that story. But it stuck and stuck deep. I would wager that pretty much anybody raised in a Western European culture could tell that story without giving it too much thought. Some might tell it better than others but the roots, the 'meat and potatoes' of The Three Little Pigs would be there just the same. Were you raised in a different culture with different stories? You can probably do the same with those too.

Here's my point, we are captivated by stories precisely because we are 'hardwired' for stories. Our brains are primed for them. We look for them and we soak them up without much effort at all. The real question we need to ask ourselves is 'Why?' and the answer is pretty simple...We need to be this way because we are living, daily, within the biggest, greatest, most important story ever told - the story of God's great love for us, the story of our own salvation. It is the story of God's creation and on-going interaction with the world and not a single person has lived, is living or will live, outside of this amazing tale.

The wonderful thing is, God made us with the express intention of being able to not only be aware of, and fall in love with stories...but to have this undeniable attraction to them. God gets that we love stories and its no accident that when God wants to communicate the great mystery of His love and devotion to us, He did so through stories. He knows, like no other entity in the Universe knows, that if He tells it well enough, we will never forget it.

I often tell people that this is the very reason God did not first hand Adam and Eve a Catechism saying "If you just study this, you will know me." Instead, he began telling them stories of where everything came from, why it was all made and more important - why they were made. God even goes a step further and invites His children to be storytellers too! Trhoughout the ages people have been telling, and sharing and eventually even writing down some of the most important stories that have ever been told. We call this collection of stories "The Bible" and we believe that it contains the Word of God in the form of the stories our Father needs us to know, and tell.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration, I don't think, to say that even Catholics who understand the most basic teachings of the Faith, might feel a little confused by the Bible. Sure we may have heard a story here and a story there - stories about people like Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus - but we don't really get how they all fit together - the Big Picture. We don't know who follows whom, what follows what and how any of those men and women at the beginning have anything to do with Jesus Christ.

This is why our parish of Christ the King is expanding the initiative begun last year in inviting and sharing with as many of our brothers and sisters as we possibly can, the Big Picture of Salvation History - our Father's Story - through a number of different Bible Study opportunities;

The Bible Timeline gives you the over-all 'Big Picture' of the Bible by focusing on the 14 books (out of the 73 that make up the Bible) that tell the Story of God from beginning to end. The Bible Timeline program is the perfect place for anyone and everyone to start. You will not only learn the important people, places and teachings of the Bible but you will see how all that the Church teaches is deeply connected to our Father's story. You will never expereince your faith, or the Mass and sacraments the same again! The Bible Timeline will run on Thursday evenings starting September 15, 2011 and runs for 24 weeks, ending just prior to Easter.

Matthew: The King and His Kingdom picks up where The Bible Timeline leaves off. You will witness for yourself how Jesus fulfills the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament. You will experience how Christ demonstrates His authority and Divinity through his miraculous ministry, and recognize the power and importance of The Church, the Mass, and the Sacraments as established by Christ. Matthew: The King and His Kingdom will run on Monday Afternoons from 1:30pm - 3:00pm and Monday Evenings from 7:00pm - 9:00pm. Week to week you can choose which time works best for you making this program extremely convenient to fit into your Schedule. This program begins on Monday September 12, 2011 and also runs for 24 weeks, ending just prior to Easter.

Not sure you can fit a 24-week commitment into your life right now? Why not join us for The Bible and Breakfast as we take a flight over the entire story in just 8 weeks. A Quick Journey Through The Bible makes reading the Bible not only easy, but exciting. Perhaps for the first time in your life, you will understand the overview of the Bible story. Your Bible reading, the Sunday mass readings, and your personal experience of faith are guaranteed to come alive like never before. A Quick Journey Through The Bible will be offered here at Christ the King Saturday Mornings starting on January 21, 2012 and ending just prior to Easter. As an added bonus, this Saturday morning gathering also includes an incredible cereal bar along with coffee, tea and juice.

Three choices to fit every schedule. The only question now is, will you make the choice to spend some time getting to know the your Father's Story?

Final Youth Group meeting

2011-06-13T21:39:00.001-07:00

Christ the King Youth Group presents:

~LASER TAG~

The final meeting before summer holidays!
All youth in Grade 7-8 welcome. Bring a friend!

Laser Quest (10 Hesse Bay)
Friday, June 24 ~ 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
$20 per person (Snacks & Drinks included)

*Space is limited so you must reserve your spot with Laura or Pierre (584-4140 or laura@oreillyclan.com)

We have the whole facility to ourselves but we need at least 20 people to make this a go and only 30 spots are available!

So.....make sure to reserve your spot and don't forget to invite your friends!

Prayer For Pentecost

2011-06-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

Holy Spirit Coming - He Qi

This prayer could be used either on your own or in a group/family setting. My you know the peace of Christ's Spirit and experience your own giftedness both now, as we celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost, and throughout the year!

Leader
Lord, send out your spirit and renew our family and our world.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to give new sight to the blind, to free the oppressed and to announce the Lord’s year of mercy. (Luke 4:18-19)

All
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of each one of us with the fire of your love.

Prayer for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
(Leader or family members offer prayers.)

Holy Spirit, grant us your gift of wisdom so that we may know that all life comes from you and, therefore, is sacred.
Holy Spirit, grant us your gift of understanding so that we may see and accept ourselves as we are.
Holy Spirit, grant us your gift of counsel so that we may seek out help from others especially when we are in need.
Holy Spirit, grant us your gift of fortitude so that we may have the courage to do what is right and just.
Holy Spirit, grant us your gift of knowledge so that we may have a burning desire to seek the truth about ourselves.
Holy Spirit, grant us your gift of piety so that our relationship with you will be awakened.
Holy Spirit, grant us your gift of fear of the Lord so that someday we will stand before you in judgment for what we have done in response to the poor and hurting.

Leader
Let us pray silently for ourselves, for those close to us, and for any person who is in special need of the Spirit’s protection and guidance.

(Petitions may be private, or may be shared aloud.)

God, we are children led by the Spirit and so we cry out “Abba.” Thank you for sending forth your Spirit to be with us at all times, for calling us your sons and daughters. Thank you for leading us out of the slavery of our own fears, and for loving and healing us. May we always give witness to the power of your Spirit in our lives and may we never separate ourselves from you.

All
Amen.

Peace and God Bless

Vacation Bible School - August 8-12

2011-06-07T20:05:00.001-07:00

Join the K4J Win the World for Jesus Vacation Bible School at Christ the King!

When – Monday, August 8 – Friday, August 12^th (9:30-12:00 each day)

Where – Christ the King Parish

Who – All kids ages 3-9 (ages 10 & up can be K4J Captains)

Cost - $35/child or $75/family (cheques payable to Christ the King Parish)
($10 per captain)

This year, Christ the King parish will be hosting the Win the World for Jesus K4J VBS! In this completely Catholic VBS, the kids will meet a new missionary saint each day. From the assemblies to the games, crafts and songs, your kids will have a ton of fun!

As part of the VBS, they will become missionaries too. The kids will join the Helping Hands Medical Mission and collect money for real life medical doctors who go to poor areas and serve as missionaries.

You will have a chance to see all we have learned on Friday's Exploration Expo and Show! Don't miss it!

To register your child, print off the attached child registration form and mail it to Lori Vatamanuk (or bring it to our June 3 K4J meeting). You will also find attached a registration form for captains (ages 10 and up) and a volunteer sign-up sheet (for moms, dads, grandparents, friends, etc). We need all the help we can get!

Please pass this information on to anyone else that you think would be interested in the K4J Vacation Bible School. We welcome everyone!

Be sure to register early to ensure a spot!

To register, or more information, please contact Lori @ 584-5286 or email lvatamanuk@sasktel.net

Christ the King Outdoor Mass & Picnic

2011-06-02T12:15:00.001-07:00

Christ the King Outdoor Mass & Parish Picnic

Mass 10:00 a.m. –Followed by Picnic

Sunday, June 12, 2011(Pentecost)

(Outdoors – weather permitting)

Bring your own chair, umbrella, portable gazebo and other picnic essentials(bug spray sunscreen etc).

Games for everyone!

Dino Bouncer, Entertainment, Music, Watermelon Eating Contest and more!!

BBQ after Mass

Menu: Hotdogs, hamburgers, salad and ice cream

HELP IS NEEDED to make this a special celebration for everyone!

~Donations of Potato Salad and Pasta Salad are greatly appreciated~

If you can help with any of the following: Setup, Food/kitchen, games and cleanup. Please call Joanne at -585-3829 or the office at 586-9020.

Cost: Free Will Offering

Doubting Easter; Thomas' Gift

2011-05-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

We all struggle with doubt and wonder. Especially in the darkest times we can find ourselves asking does God really hear us? Can God really be trusted?

If you find yourself walking down a road like this, now, tomorrow, ten years from now. Rest assured, you're in pretty good company;

Peace and God Bless

Come Awake! Come Awake! Come And Rise Up From the Grave!

2011-04-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Christ is Risen! Alleluiah! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluiah!

2011-04-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

"Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: "My Lord be with you all." Christ answered him: "And with your spirit." He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to rise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in a paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, and the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity."

-Easter Homily of St. Epiphanius of Cyprus

He is Risen and Shares His Resurrection with us all!

Happy Easter from your Christ the King Parish Family!

Speech of St. Gregory Nazianzen for Good Friday

2011-04-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

Let us sacrifice not young calves, nor lambs that put forth horns and hooves, in which many parts are destitute of life and feeling; but let us sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise upon the heavenly Altar, with heavenly dances. Let us sacrifice ourselves to God; or rather let us go on sacrificing throughout every day and at every moment with the temptations, struggles and joys of our life.

If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up the Cross and follow. If you are crucified with Him as a robber, acknowledge God as a penitent robber. If even he was numbered among the transgressors for you and your sin, do you become law-abiding for His sake. Worship him who was hanged for you, even if you yourself are hanging; make some gain even from your wickedness; purchase salvation by your death; enter with Jesus into Paradise, so that you may learn from what you have fallen. Contemplate the glories that are there; let the murdered die outside with his blasphemies; and if you be a Joseph of Arimathaea, beg the Body from him that crucified Him, make your own that which cleanses the world.

If you be a Nicodemus, the worshiper of God by night, bury Him with spices. If you be a Mary, or another May, or a Salome, or a Joanna, weep early in the morning. Be first to see the stone taken away, and perhaps you will see the angels and Jesus Himself. Say something; hear His voice. If He says to you “Touch me not,” stand far off; reverence the Word, but grieve not; for He knows those to whom He appears first.

Keep the feast of the Resurrection; some to the aid of Eve who was first to fall, of her who first embraced Christ and made Him known to the disciples. Be a Peter or a John; hasten to the Sepulchre, running together, running against one another, vying in the noble race. And even if you are beaten in speed, win the victory of zeal; not looking into the tomb, but going in. And if, like Thomas, you were left out when the disciples were assembled to who Christ shows himself, when you do see Him be not faithless; and if you do not believe, then believe those who tell you; and if you cannot believe them either, then have confidence in the print of the nails.

Learn to know the mysteries of Christ, to save all mankind absolutely by His manifestation of Resurrection.

The Liturgies of Holy Week

2011-04-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

For the whole of the Church, The liturgies of Holy Week draw us into the central drama of our faith. They are celebrations of and immersions into the singular action of our Lord's passion, death and resurrection. As our Jewish brothers and sisters, when they celebrate their yearly Passover, no longer say, "my ancestors were freed from slavery" but, rather "Now I have been freed from slavery", so too with us. In our full, conscious and active participation in the liturgies of Holy week we can no longer say, "those people who knew Jesus were freed by his death and resurrection" but "Now I have been freed...because I have been there. I have walked the way of the Cross with my Lord, I have felt his pain, played a role in his betrayal, and been graced with His forgiveness and love."

This year we invite you to walk with us, from Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem to the table of the Last Supper. From his desperate plea in the Garden, to his mockery of a trial. From the despair and loss of His crucifixion and death, to the victory and glory that he shares with us all. Let us together make this Holy week, a week we will never forget;

PASSION SUNDAY [PALM SUNDAY]: (Emphasized quotes taken from Catholic Online unless otherwise indicated)

"On Palm Sunday, we celebrate the first joy of the season, as we celebrate Our Lord's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem where he was welcomed by crowds worshiping him and laying down palm leaves before him. It also marks the beginning of Holy Week, with the greatest tragedy and sorrow of the year."

The celebrations of Holy Week begin with Passion Sunday. On this day the church celebrates Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem to accomplish his paschal Mystery, the suffering, the death and resurrection of Christ.
A) The procession and Solemn Entrance.
B) The passion Readings: for the passion readings today and Good Friday no candles will be used. The greeting and the signs of the cross are omitted.
C) The celebration of the Eucharist.

EASTER TRIDUUM:

The celebration of the EASTER TRIDUUM opens with the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, and reaches its climax in the EASTER VIGIL on Saturday night.

A) HOLY THURSDAY:

"The Holy Thursday liturgy, celebrated in the evening because Passover began at sundown, also shows both the worth God ascribes to the humility of service, and the need for cleansing with water (a symbol of baptism) in the Mandatum, or washing in Jesus' washing the feet of His disciples, and in the priest's stripping and washing of the altar. Cleansing, in fact, gave this day of Holy Week the name Maundy Thursday."

This day’s celebration consists of three principal Mysteries:
1. Washing of the feet: Christ’s Love and Service
2. The Institution of the Priesthood; and
3. The Institution of the Eucharist.
[Your presence for adoring the Blessed Sacrament will be appreciated even after the celebration of the Eucharist].

B) GOOD FRIDAY:

"On Good Friday, the entire Church fixes her gaze on the Cross at Calvary. Each member of the Church tries to understand at what cost Christ has won our redemption. In the solemn ceremonies of Good Friday, in the Adoration of the Cross...in the reading of the Passion...we unite ourselves to our Savior, and we contemplate our own death to sin in the Death of our Lord."

This day is considered a very important day of observing Christ’s Paschal Mysteries for the World. The faithful are very specially invited to participate in this day’s Paschal Masteries. Also the Church strongly recommends the day of “Paschal Fasting” to honour the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare to share more deeply in the joy of his Resurrection. Good Friday is a universal day of Fasting and Abstinence from meat.
The Liturgy today consists of Two Services:
1) Liturgy of the Word of God which includes Scriptural readings, passion narrative and Prayers of Intercessions.
2) Veneration of the Cross.
Please Note: the special focus of this day is found both in our liturgy and our fasting. The service begins in a silence; no entrance hymn is sung, and there is no welcoming and greeting at the beginning, during or end of the Service. No sign of the cross is made or candles are used for readings. The Faithful leave the church in a silent manner without greeting; continue meditating on the suffering and death of the Lord, keeping vigil for the joy of Resurrection.

C) EASTER VIGIL:

"This is the night
when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.

This is the night
when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.

What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?
Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

O happy fault,
O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer! " - From the Exsultet sung on Easter Vigil

On Holy Saturday, the people of God remain in recollection at the tomb of the Lord, meditating on his suffering and death, refraining from celebrations until the night. During the Solemn Vigil Service, a night of prayer which looks forward to the celebration of the Lord’s RESURRECTION, mourning gives way to the joys of Eastertide, which we will celebrate for the next fifty days.

The Easter vigil celebration consists of four parts:
1) Service of light and lighting of Easter candles.
2) The Liturgy of the Word, the Faithful meditates on all the wonderful things God has done for his people from the beginning.
3) The Liturgy of Blessing water, Baptism (when there is), and Renewal of Baptism; and
4) The Liturgy of the Eucharist.
The Universal Church invites you to participate in this Salvation Mystery and share the Joy of Resurrection with others. The church and the community join you to celebrate the joy from Easter Sunday to the next Fifty days when we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost.

In the name of Jesus Christ and His church, I invite and welcome each and every one to observe, celebrate and participate in the Paschal Mysteries the Lord has for us. Try to observe the traditions of the church that will help us to be holy to reborn with the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Prayer and mediation will help us to strengthen the spirit of God in us.
PS: Look for the Bulletin to get Holy Week Schedules, and changes if there are any. No announcements will be made or permitted during the liturgies on these days, unless it has some urgent information.

Wishing You A Very Spirit filled Holy Week 2011

Fr. S. Antony, Pastor. Christ the King Parish, Regina
April 09, 2011

For The Forth Sunday of Lent - Continued Treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop

2011-04-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

Christ Healing the Blind Man, El Greco 1560

John 9:1-41 - Christ is the way to the light, the truth, and the life

The Lord tells us: I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. In these few words he gives a command and makes a promise. Let us do what he commands so that we may not blush to covet what he promises and to hear him say on the day of judgment: “I laid down certain conditions for obtaining my promises. Have you fulfilled them?” If you say: “What did you command, Lord our God?” he will tell you: “I commanded you to follow me.

You asked for advice on how to enter into life. What life, if not the life about which it is written: With you is the fountain of life?”

Let us do now what he commands. Let us follow in the footsteps of the Lord. Let us throw off the chains that prevent us from following him. Who can throw off these shackles without the aid of the one addressed in these words: You have broken my chains? Another psalm says of him: The Lord frees those in chains, the Lord raises up the downcast.

Those who have been freed and raised up follow the light. The light they follow speaks to them: I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness. The Lord gives light to the blind. Brethren, that light shines on us now, for we have had our eyes anointed with the eye-salve of faith. His saliva was mixed with earth to anoint the man born blind. We are of Adam’s stock, blind from our birth; we need him to give us light. He mixed saliva with earth, and so it was prophesied: Truth has sprung up from the earth. He himself has said: I am the way, the truth, and the life.

We shall be in possession of the truth when we see face to face. This is his promise to us. Who would dare to hope for something that God in his goodness did not choose to promise or bestow?
We shall see face to face. The Apostle says: Now I know in part, now obscurely through a mirror, but then face to face. John the apostle says in one of his letters: Dearly beloved, we are now children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know that when he is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. This is a great promise.

If you love me, follow me. “I do love you,” you protest, “but how do I follow you?” If the Lord your God said to you: “I am the truth and the life,” in your desire for truth, in your love for life, you would certainly ask him to show you the way to reach them. You would say to yourself: “Truth is a great reality, life is a great reality; if only it were possible for my soul to find them!”

Father of peace,
we are joyful in your Word,
your Son Jesus Christ, who reconciles us to you.
Let us hasten to our Easter with the eagerness of faith and love.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV ; Part 10

2011-03-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

During the course of the series, Father Gallagher will look at the 14 Ignatian rules for discernment of spirits. Through his real-life examples, the rules come alive for the panel on each show and for you at home. Join in this wonderful retreat experience and learn how to become more attuned to the spiritual life.

This week Fr. Tim continues to examine the Discernment of Spirits Ignatian Rule 6; where the individual, aware of their former closeness with God, all the while battling temptation to turn away, to give up, to cease the journey, is encouraged to persevere in the spiritual life of prayer, charity, denial of self and perhaps even intensify his or her efforts as a result.

For the Third Sunday of Lent - From a treatise on John by Saint Augustine

2011-03-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

A Samaritan woman came to draw water

A woman came. She is a symbol of the Church not yet made righteous. Righteousness follows from the conversation. She came in ignorance, she found Christ, and he enters into conversation with her. Let us see what it is about, let us see why a Samaritan woman came to draw water. The Samaritans did not form part of the Jewish people: they were foreigners. The fact that she came from a foreign people is part of the symbolic meaning, for she is a symbol of the Church. The Church was to come from the Gentiles, of a different race from the Jews.

We must then recognise ourselves in her words and in her person, and with her give our own thanks to God. She was a symbol, not the reality; she foreshadowed the reality, and the reality came to be. She found faith in Christ, who was using her as a symbol to teach us what was to come. She came then to draw water. She had simply come to draw water; in the normal way of man or woman.

Jesus says to her: Give me water to drink. For his disciples had gone to the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore says to him: How is it that you, though a Jew, ask me for water to drink, though I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.

The Samaritans were foreigners; Jews never used their utensils. The woman was carrying a pail for drawing water. She was astonished that a Jew should ask her for a drink of water, a thing that Jews would not do. But the one who was asking for a drink of water was thirsting for her faith.

Listen now and learn who it is that asks for a drink. Jesus answered her and said: If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” perhaps you might have asked him and he would have given you living water.

He asks for a drink, and he promises a drink. He is in need, as one hoping to receive, yet he is rich, as one about to satisfy the thirst of others. He says: If you knew the gift of God. The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. But he is still using veiled language as he speaks to the woman and gradually enters into her heart. Or is he already teaching her? What could be more gentle and kind than the encouragement he gives? If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” perhaps you might ask and he would give you living water.

What is this water that he will give if not the water spoken of in Scripture: With you is the fountain of life? How can those feel thirst who will drink deeply from the abundance in your house?

He was promising the Holy Spirit in satisfying abundance. She did not yet understand. In her failure to grasp his meaning, what was her reply? The woman says to him: Master, give me this drink, so that I may feel no thirst or come here to draw water. Her need forced her to this labour, her weakness shrank from it. If only she could hear those words: Come to me, all who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Jesus was saying this to her, so that her labours might be at an end; but she was not yet able to understand.

Prayer Shawl Ministry - Learn How to Knit or Crochet

2011-03-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY

Are you interested in participating in this ministry but you don't know how to crochet or knit, or you haven't done so in many years? We will be offering two sessions to teach anyone who is interested in prayer shawl knitting or crochet.

All that is needed is a strong desire to learn.

We are offering two sessions, you can attend one or both. This is a very rewarding ministry that is easily done in your own free time!

Saturday May 14^th: 10am – Noon

Tuesday May 24^th: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

There is no fee for the classes but – we do need you to pre-register - Call the office at 586-9020 to register. Pre-registration is essential to make sure you have the supplies needed to begin knitting/croceting.

Carrying the Cross - A Litany Prayer For Lent

2011-03-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

One of our ministry coordinators brought his prayer to a meeting recently. It was quite moving for each of us and I have found, each day since that a different line resonates deeply at different times. May it bring you some Lenten peace in your days;

On those days when life seems too demanding with all of its cares, burdens and concerns...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we experience great loneliness deep inside and the pain of separation fills our spirits...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we feel the pain of our world and unite in compassion with the Earth's suffering people...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we struggle with decision-making and the time comes to make good choices about our lives...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we are with others in their physical pain or when we vigil with one in the grips of terminal illness...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we are asked to go the extra mile, to be generous with our time and our presence...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we feel weary and worn out, when it seems like all of our energy has been drained away...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we are challenged to risk our security and accept new growth in our relationship with you...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we experience the effects of aging or extended illness on our bodies or our minds...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we feel discouraged, desolate, and depressed and want to withdraw from others...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When worries and concerns choke our peacefulness and leave us with anxiety and fear...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

When we harbor old wounds and are called to offer or to receive forgiveness...Jesus, grant us strength to carry our cross.

Crucified Jesus, help us to take up our cross day by day. Through these crosses we can grow closer to you. Help us to lean on you and to learn from you. May we not give in to self-pity or self-doubt. Rather, let us trust in your presence which strengthens us. Encourage us on our tomb-like days. Remind us of your resurrection. Help us to keep our vision focused on life and growth. Amen.

For the Second Sunday of Lent - From a Sermon by Pope Saint Leo the Great

2011-03-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ

The Lord reveals his glory in the presence of chosen witnesses. His body is like that of the rest of mankind, but he makes it shine with such splendor that his face becomes like the sun in glory, and his garments as white as snow.

The great reason for this transfiguration was to remove the scandal of the cross from the hearts of his disciples, and to prevent the humiliation of his voluntary suffering from disturbing the faith of those who had witnessed the surpassing glory that lay concealed.

With no less forethought he was also providing a firm foundation for the hope of holy Church. The whole body of Christ was to understand the kind of transformation that it would receive as his gift. The members of that body were to look forward to a share in that glory which first blazed out in Christ their head.

The Lord had himself spoken of this when he foretold the splendor of his coming: Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Saint Paul the apostle bore witness to this same truth when he said: I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not to be compared with the future glory that is to be revealed in us. In another place he says: You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

This marvel of the transfiguration contains another lesson for the apostles, to strengthen them and lead them into the fullness of knowledge. Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, appeared with the Lord in conversation with him. This was in order to fulfill exactly, through the presence of these five men, the text which says: Before two or three witnesses every word is ratified. What word could be more firmly established, more securely based, than the word which is proclaimed by the trumpets of both old and new testaments, sounding in harmony, and by the utterances of ancient prophecy and the teaching of the Gospel, in full agreement with each other?

The writings of the two testaments support each other. The radiance of the transfiguration reveals clearly and unmistakably the one who had been promised by signs foretelling him under the veils of mystery. As Saint John says: The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. In him the promise made through the shadows of prophecy stands revealed, along with the full meaning of the precepts of the law. He is the one who teaches the truth of prophecy through his presence, and makes obedience to the commandments possible through grace.

In the preaching of the holy Gospel all should receive a strengthening of their faith. No one should be ashamed of the cross of Christ, through which the world has been redeemed.

No one should fear to suffer for the sake of justice; no one should lose confidence in the reward that has been promised. The way to rest is through toil, the way to life is through death. Christ has taken on himself the whole weakness of our lowly human nature. If then we are steadfast in our faith in him and in our love for him, we win the victory that he has won, we receive what he has promised.

When it comes to obeying the commandments or enduring adversity, the words uttered by the Father should always echo in our ears: This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him.

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV ; Part 9

2011-03-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

The Breastplate - St. Patrick

2011-03-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

I bind myself today to a strong virtue, an invocation of the Trinity.
I believe in a Threeness, with confession of an Oneness in the Creator of the Universe.

I bind myself today to the virtue of Christ's birth with His baptism,
to the virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,
to the virtue of His resurrection with His ascension,
to the virtue of His coming to the Judgment of Doom.

I bind myself today to the virtue of ranks of Cherubim,
in obedience of Angels,
in service of Archangels,
in hope of resurrection for reward,
in prayers of Patriarchs,
in preaching of Apostles,
in faiths of Confessors,
in innocence of Holy Virgins,
in deeds of righteous men.

I bind myself today to the virtue of Heaven,
In light of Sun,
In brightness of Snow
In splendour of Fire,
In speed of Lightning,
In swiftness of Wind,
In depth of Sea,
In stability of Earth,
In compactness of Rock.

I bind myself today to God's Virtue to pilot me,
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's Word to speak to me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to secure me,
Against snares of demons,
Against seductions of vices,
Against lusts of nature,
Against every one who wishes ill to me,
Afar and a near,
Alone and in a multitude.

So have I invoked all these virtues between me, and these
against every cruel, merciless power which may come against my body an my soul
against incantations of false prophets,
against black laws of heathenry,
against false laws of heretics,
against craft of idolatry,
against spells of women and smiths and druids,
against every knowledge that defiles men's souls.

Christ to protect me today,
Against poison,
against burning,
against drowning,
against death-wound,
Until a multitude of rewards come to me!

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me!
Christ below me,
Christ above me.
Christ at my right,
Christ at my left!
Christ in breadth,
Christ in length,
Christ in height!

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me!

I bind myself today to a strong virtue, an invocation of the Trinity.
I believe in a Threeness with confession of a Oneness, in the Creator of the Universe.
Salvation is the Lord's, salvation is the Lord's, salvation is Christ's
May Thy salvation, O Lord, be always with us. Amen.

Happy St. Patrick's Day From Christ the King Parish!

Saint Patrick FAQ

For the First Sunday of Lent - From A commentary On The Psalms by Saint Augustine

2011-03-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

In Christ we suffered temptation, and in him we overcame the devil

Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer. Who is speaking? An individual, it seems. See if it is an individual: I cried to you from the ends of the earth while my heart was in anguish. Now it is no longer one person; rather, it is one in the sense that Christ is one, and we are all his members. What single individual can cry from the ends of the earth? The one who cries from the ends of the earth is none other than the Son’s inheritance. It was said to him: Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. This possession of Christ, this inheritance of Christ, this body of Christ, this one Church of Christ, this unity that we are, cries from the ends of the earth. What does it cry? What I said before: Hear, O God, my petition, listen to my prayer; I cried out to you from the ends of the earth. That is, I made this cry to you from the ends of the earth; that is, on all sides.

Why did I make this cry? While my heart was in anguish. The speaker shows that he is present among all the nations of the earth in a condition, not of exalted glory but of severe trial.

Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations.

The one who cries from the ends of the earth is in anguish, but is not left on his own. Christ chose to foreshadow us, who are his body, by means of his body, in which he has died, risen and ascended into heaven, so that the members of his body may hope to follow where their head has gone before. He made us one with him when he chose to be tempted by Satan.

We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Certainly Christ was tempted by the devil. In Christ you were tempted, for Christ received his flesh from your nature, but by his own power gained life for you; he suffered insults in your nature, but by his own power gained glory for you; therefore, he suffered temptation in your nature, but by his own power gained victory for you.

If in Christ we have been tempted, in him we overcame the devil. Do you think only of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in him, and see yourself as victorious in him. He could have kept the devil from himself; but if he were not tempted he could not teach you how to triumph over temptation.

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV ; Part 8

2011-03-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Praying the Gospels of Lent

2011-03-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

These readings can be used in daily prayer through the weeks of Lent or at any other appropriate time in the course of an individual's spiritual life. Through the course of these readings one will become immersed in the story and the experience of the Passion and Death of Christ.

Some Tips for Daily Prayer:

*Select a time and a place that is well suited to quiet prayer. Establish a schedule for prayer and stick to it as much as possible.

*As you begin, realize that God is really present and desires to draw closer to you.

*Ask the Holy Spirit to be your guide in this time of prayer and seek her inspiration.

*You may want to begin your time of prayer with these (or similar) words;

Preparatory Prayer

Lord, may all my intentions, actions and operations be directed purely to the service and praise of your Divine Majesty.

The Grace I seek... (What special grace do you seek this Lent? Take time before your reflection and meditation to bring your particular spiritual needs before God.)

John 11:1-44 - Raising of Lazarus

Matthew 26:6-16 - Supper at Bethany

Matthew 21:1-11 - Palm Sunday

Matthew 26:17-30 - Last Supper

John 13:1-17 - Washing of the Feet

Matthew 26:31-46 - Agony in the Garden

Matthew 26:47-56 - Arrest

John 18:12-27 + Matthew 26:57-75 - Jesus before the Council at night.

Luke 22:66-71 - Jesus before the Council in the Morning

Luke 23:1-25 + John 18:28 - 19:16 - Jesus before Pilate and Herod

Luke 23:26 - 32 -The Way of the Cross

Luke 23:33-49 -The Crucifixion

Two Ways Of Praying with Scripture:

Ignatian Contemplation (Imaginative Prayer):

This method of prayer lends itself well to passages in both the Old and New Testaments that portray persons, places and actions, especially events in the life of Christ. It takes into account the fact that everything we have is a gift from our God and can become a tool for growing closer to our Lord, including our imaginations.

*Begin by reading the passage over slowly to yourself. Begin to use your imagination to create the scene in your mind.

*Try to see, contemplating each person in the scene. Where are they standing? What do they look like? What are they wearing? What expressions are on their faces? Give a prolonged look, above all, to the person of Jesus himself (if he is featured in the passage in question). Do not try to explain or understand, just take some time to look around.

*Try to listen, paying attention to spoken or even implied words. What might they mean? Who might they be speaking to? Does their meaning change when these words are directed at your?

*Observe what the people in the scene do. What are their names (even if the passage does not give them one)? What might their history be, their sufferings, personal quests, challenges and joys? How do they react? Note their gestures, feelings and attitudes especially of Jesus if he is present.

*Place yourself actively in the scene. Allow yourself to be involved in what is happening. Besides seeing and listening, try to touch and feel the flavor of what you are experiencing in prayer. Think 'affectively' about your time in this place; How do you feel? What joys or challenges do you feel you should pay attention to as a result of spending time in this place?

End your time of prayer with an intimate thank-you and farewell to God. You might use the words of the Lord's Prayer or words of your own choosing. Take time to jot down any thoughts or feelings this experience had left you with in a journal (if you have one).

Lectio Divina;

Lectio (reading):

Begin by reading the passage slowly. Take time to let the words sink into your spirit, your soul. Allow your self time to slowly awaken to prayer. Gradually allow a word or phrase to choose you. Let it touch you, resonate with you. Savor it, repeat it, breath the word or words in and out and let them saturate you.

As you do this, you will begin to wonder why they have touched you in this way, why they have attracted your attention. This is a natural progression to the next step...

Meditatio (meditating)

Now you begin to ask questions about these words; What is God saying to me? Why these words? Why today, in this moment? What connection do they have to what is going on in my life right now?

What are you trying to say to me God?

Like squeezing the juice from a grape to make wine, you are searching for the particular meaning these words have for you, their connection to your life, your own situation. Why do you need to hear this right now?

At some point you may realize just what it is you need from these words, a personal epiphany or 'a ha!' Allow this new insight or understanding to sink in and to move you. Spend an appropriate amount of time simply allowing this insight to sink in with all of it's joys, challenges and implications.

Realize that God has spoken to your heart. The natural flow of things is to respond...

Oratio (praying)

Touched deeply by the Word God has spoken, allow yourself to speak spontaneously to God. Speak, sing, celebrate, laugh or cry...are you moved to praise God, or give thanks? Are you moved to tears, of sorrow? Of Joy? Are you energized to act, to do something? Speak to God about how you feel...lift your heart and mind to God.

Contemplatio (contemplation)

Contemplation is a simple, loving gaze one upon another. Spend quite time now alone with God. You have heard God's word, you have experienced God's desire for you, you have spoken together...now simply sit in the silent presence of God. Just 'be' together. This is the goal of Lectio Divina, this silent unity with God.

The first three steps move us from greater action, to lesser action, and finally to inaction...simple being.

End your time of prayer with an intimate thank-you and farewell to God. You might use the words of the Lord's Prayer or words of your own choosing. Take time to jot down any thoughts or feelings this experience had left you with in a journal (if you have one).

An Ash Wednesday Reflection - From a letter to the Corinthians by Saint Clement, pope; Repent

2011-03-09T10:23:00.001-08:00

"Let us fix our attention on the blood of Christ and recognize how precious it is to God his Father, since it was shed for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to all the world.

If we review the various ages of history, we will see that in every generation the Lord has offered the opportunity of repentance to any who were willing to turn to him. When Noah preached God’s message of repentance, all who listened to him were saved. Jonah told the Ninevites they were going to be destroyed, but when they repented, their prayers gained God’s forgiveness for their sins, and they were saved, even though they were not of God’s people.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the ministers of God’s grace have spoken of repentance; indeed, the Master of the whole universe himself spoke of repentance with an oath: As I live, says the Lord, I do not wish the death of the sinner but his repentance. He added this evidence of his goodness: House of Israel, repent of your wickedness. Tell the sons of my people: If their sins should reach from earth to heaven, if they are brighter than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, you need only turn to me with your whole heart and say, “Father,” and I will listen to you as a holy people.

In other words, God wanted all his beloved ones to have the opportunity to repent and he confirmed this desire by his own almighty will. That is why we should obey his sovereign and glorious will and prayerfully entreat his mercy and kindness. We should be suppliant before him and turn to his compassion, rejecting empty works and quarrelling and jealousy which only lead to death.

Brothers, we should be humble in mind, putting aside all arrogance, pride and foolish anger. Rather, we should act in accordance with the Scriptures, as the Holy Spirit says: The wise man must not glory in his wisdom nor the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches. Rather, let him who glories glory in the Lord by seeking him and doing what is right and just. Recall especially what the Lord Jesus said when he taught gentleness and forbearance. Be merciful, he said, so that you may have mercy shown to you. Forgive, so that you may be forgiven. As you treat others, so you will be treated. As you give, so you will receive. As you judge, so you will be judged. As you are kind to others, so you will be treated kindly. The measure of your giving will be the measure of your receiving. Let these commandments and precepts strengthen us to live in humble obedience to his sacred words. As Scripture asks: Whom shall I look upon with favor except the humble, peaceful man who trembles at my words?

Sharing then in the heritage of so many vast and glorious achievements, let us hasten toward the goal of peace, set before us from the beginning. Let us keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Father and Creator of the whole universe, and hold fast to his splendid and transcendent gifts of peace and all his blessings."

May this Ash Wednesday be the start of a new beginning for you, your family and our parish community. May we rise from our weaknesses and struggles to greet with joy the new life gifted to us on our baptism. May we so enter this Lenten journey together that, after these forty days of turning from darkness to light - of true, heart-felt repentance make us ready to sing out with renewed Easter Joy!

Peace and God Bless

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV ; Part 7

2011-03-08T13:57:00.000-08:00

Prayers of the Faithful - March 6, 2011

2011-03-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL

NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

MARCH 6, 2011

Let us pray for the leaders of the Church,

shepherds of God's people,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for all who hunger and thirst for justice and peace,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for those who delight in their marriage,

and those whose faithful love bears witness to God's love for all creation,

We pray to you, Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for a strong witness to gospel values in this faith community,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for all who have died, especially our parishioner

BRENDA DESNOYERS, GILDA TUBELLO, sister of

ROMANO TUBELLO and TOM COLE, brother of MURIEL HUOT,

that they be received into your heavenly kingdom,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

6. Let us now pray in silence for our personal intentions,

(Pause 5-7 seconds)

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV ; Part 6

2011-03-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

This week in our on-going series on St. Ignatius' Rules for Discernment, Father Tim Gallagher finishes discussing Ignatian Rule 3 and begins Rule 4.

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV ; Part 5

2011-02-22T06:39:00.000-08:00

This week in our on-going video series with Father Tim, we move from the Second rule of discernment to the Third. We have looked at those things which draw us away from life in Christ and how the Spirit will move to bring us back through those nagging, twinges of conscience that are attempts to get our attention.

This week, we examine the experience of growing positively in faith and prayer and how temptation can seep in, and we can find ourselves doubting experiences of God and growth in the Christian life using examples from St. Therese of Lisieux and Russian philosopher Raissa Maritain.

Intercessory Prayers - February 19/20, 2011

2011-02-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL

SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

FEBRUARY 20, 2011

Let us pray for the Church and its leaders,

called to stand in solidarity with victims of oppression and abuse,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for all families,

that this Family Day weekend may provide opportunities to enrich their

relationships through shared activity and prayer,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for those who are travelling this holiday weekend.

That God will protect them, so that they may return happy and safe,

renewed in both body and spirit.

We pray to you, Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for the women, men and teens of our parish,

who are beginning the Quick Journey Bible Study this weekend,

that they may discover God's great love for them,

and be moved to share that love in our parish and in the world.

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray those who have died,

and for those mourning their loss,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

6. Let us now pray in silence for our personal intentions,

(Pause 5-7 seconds)

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV ; Part 4

2011-02-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

During the course of this series, Father Gallagher will look at the 14 Ignatian rules for discernment of spirits. Through his real-life examples, the rules come alive for the panel on each show and for you at home. Join in this wonderful retreat experience and learn how to become more attuned to the spiritual life.

This week, Father Tim looks at those times when we find ourselves turned so quickly from a zealous and passionate experience of faith, perhaps in prayer, at Mass or on retreat, to distraction or dryness in faith to the point where we begin to doubt such zeal or passion in faith ever really existed at all;

MOVIE NIGHT at the next Youth Group meeting

2011-02-15T20:51:00.001-08:00

Next Youth Group meeting is a movie night! Popcorn and pop provided.

***Friday, February 25, from 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm, 293 Lockwood Road (the OReilly house). Everyone in Grade 7 plus is welcome and it's FREE.

For more information contact Pierre or Laura O'Reilly at 584-4140 or pierrelaura@oreillyclan.com.

Shrove Tuesday

2011-02-11T06:50:00.000-08:00

Christ the King Parish

Shrove Tuesday

Tuesday March 8, 2011

5:00 p.m.
Pancake Supper

6:45 p.m.
Palm Burning Ceremony

7:00 p.m.
Mass

Come join us as we celebrate Shrove Tuesday!
Cost: Free Will Offering

Bread of Life; On The Sacred Scriptures and Preaching at Mass – Father Antony's Homily Notes From January 23, 2011 - The Third Sunday In Ordinary Time

2011-02-01T12:59:00.000-08:00

The following are excerpts from Father Antony's Homily on the great value and importance of the Word of God we share each Mass and the pastor's homily which helps us to truly experience that Word, apply it to our daily lives, and enjoy the good fruits and spiritual nourishment it promises;

There is often a misunderstanding regarding listening to the Sacred Scriptures and the priest's Homily at Mass.

These two vital aspects of the Word of God are not primarily a communication, it includes communication as a means to pass on a particular message, but it's primary focus is to help us to be filled and renewed by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes people say we ought to be able to communicate the message in two minutes, but catechesis (teaching) is something deeper than mere communication and takes a greater effort. Think of families today in the world; a couple may date for more than 5 years, perhaps be engaged for two years and still find after marriage that their life together is not successful, even with all of this time to communicate. Something is missing, a true relationship. This is the hidden treasure of God’s word!

This Word we share at the Mass is a prayer; remember at Pentecost while listening to the preaching they all received Holy Spirit. Acts:2:1- 12. It is a Word that ought to bring peace.

This Word of God is not time bound, its theme based. Think of a restaurant when it is busy. I see people stay there waiting in line for as long as it takes until their name is called. We wait too at a car wash when the days get warm and we know we have to clean the car. Yet at Church we have created a false system that Mass should be finished with in 45 minutes or an hour and that is all I am willing to give.

Preaching heals you. When people listened to the preaching of apostles and disciples of Jesus they were HEALED; the Word of God takes away our guilt, softens the hard heart and readies it to receive healing and Love, strengthening us to forgive and Reconcile.

Preaching brings joy to life and home. Nehemiah: 8:2-4,5-6, 8-10. (read verse 10); after the people had spent the better part of a day listening to the Word of God and the Law they rejoiced and feasted!

The Word and the preaching make us eligible to receive holy Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ.

I encourage you to read the gospel of John 6: 22-69. Jesus, only the day before, had fed the crowds with just a few loaves and some fish. The next day they searched for him again wanting what? Jesus tells them, you did not come for my Word, but just for more bread to eat. He continues to preach to them, teaching them about the real bread that he offers in his Word. In verse 63 he tells them: “the words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life”, more even than the bread they came for. By the end everyone has left except his close disciples. “So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’”

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) states: 29. When the Sacred Scriptures are read in the Church, God himself speaks to his people, and Christ, present in his own word, proclaims the Gospel. Therefore, all must listen with reverence to the readings from God’s word, for they make up an element of greatest importance in the Liturgy. Although in the readings from Sacred Scripture God’s word is addressed to all people of every era and is understandable to them, nevertheless, a fuller understanding and a greater effectiveness of the word is fostered by a living commentary on the word, that is, the Homily, as part of the liturgical action. After the Homily a brief period of silence is appropriately observed.

46. SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS, POPE BENEDICT XVI. Given the importance of the word of God, the homily is "part of the liturgical action" (139), and is meant to foster a deeper understanding of the word of God, so that it can bear fruit in the lives of the faithful. Hence ordained ministers must "prepare the homily carefully, based on an adequate knowledge of Sacred Scripture" (140). In particular, I ask these ministers to preach in such a way that the homily closely relates the proclamation of the word of God to the sacramental celebration (141) and the life of the community, so that the word of God truly becomes the Church's vital nourishment and support (142). The catechetical and paraenetic (exhortation) aim of the homily should not be forgotten. During the course of the liturgical year, it is appropriate to offer the faithful, prudently and on the basis of the three-year lectionary, "thematic" homilies treating the great themes of the Christian faith, on the basis of what has been authoritatively proposed by the Magisterium.

Peace and God Bless

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV ; Part 3

2011-01-31T07:37:00.000-08:00

Our video retreat with Father Tim Gallagher continues as he invites us into a deeper understanding of Ignatius' first rule of discernment; namely, how is it that we become caught up in the distractions and trappings that get in the way of a deepening relationship with God, and how does God act to draw us back into His presence?

Using examples from our modern lived experience as well as stories of St. Augustine's own spiritual journey, Father Tim helps us to understand and apply this first rule in our own lives.

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV ; Part 2

2011-01-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

Our video series on St. Ignatius' Discernment of Spirits led by Father Tim Gallagher. This next in the series invites us to simply become aware of the process, aware of those times when we feel close to God, and when God feels far off, second, to understand what is happening within us, and finally, take action based on this new understanding.

"Kinect" with the Church at the next Youth Group meeting

2011-01-16T22:50:00.001-08:00

Want to know what Xbox has to do with Church? Come and play the newest, coolest video games on the Xbox 360 Kinect system...on the big screen....and find out.

The next Christ the King youth group meeting will be on Friday, January 21, from 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm, Christ the King Hall. Everyone in Grade 7 plus is welcome and it's FREE (munchies included)!

For more information contact Pierre or Laura O'Reilly at 584-4140 or pierrelaura@oreillyclan.com

Video Series - Discernment of Spirits with Father Tim Gallagher OMV

2011-01-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

Just prior to Christmas I stumbled across the most amazing video series being offered through CatholicTV.com, a 26 - episode series simply titled "Discernment of Spirits". What is this 'Discernment of Spirits' you ask. The answer is both simple, and sublime.

St. Ignatuius, through the course of his own journey of conversion and spiritual growth realized that he was caught in the grip of a series of upward and downward movements in his relationship with God. Perhaps you've experienced something similar? In fact, Ignatius guarantees you have...he realized quickly that this was a spiritual cycle every human being went through, whether they were aware of it own not!

Here's a situation; Moved by the celebrations of Christmas, I make a personal resolution to attend Mass more regularly in the New Year. It feels so good when i make that decision! I feel energized, filled with joy I find myself feeling excited about going next Sunday. Maybe I even find myself keeping track of the days. I'm in a really good space, and at times it feels like I'm walking on air...you know what I mean, this is such a natural human experience that you've certainly felt it too.

As the week goes on, that 'glow' begins to fade. I start to question whether I'll really be able to stay consistent with my resolution. I'm always doing that you know. I get excited about things, I think 'This is it...I'm going to make a change!' and then I get distracted. Oh...it's going to be cold this weekend, maybe snow. I'll have to blow out the driveway. Boy, it's been a crazy week at work! I'm so tired, and Sundays are really the only day I get to sleep in. I start to feel discouraged, maybe I even begin to doubt how good I felt at those Christmas celebrations. I was probably just exaggerating things (I do that too!).

You've just witnessed the movement of two spirits, Ignatius calls them 'good' spirits and 'bad' spirits. They are those dispositions, ideas, imaginations and emotions that move us towards a deeper relationship with God, or further away. They are ALWAYS active and ALWAYS in flux and the first step for us is to simply become aware that it is going on.

Over the next 26 weeks we invite you to journey with Fr. Tim as he opens up this spiritual dialogue that we are embroiled in, turning our eyes inward and outward as a means of discerning how and where God is moving and living and breathing in our lives.

This first episode identifies the dialogue, talks about how Ignatius himself was made suddenly aware of these movements in his own life and identify what this process of discernment is, and what it is not. Enjoy!

Peace and God Bless

FREE! Frantic Family Workshops At CTK!

2011-01-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

Pierre and Laura O'Reilly are excited to offer two free workshops for all families who feel overwhelmed trying to juggle multiple schedules and activities in the home.

These Workshops are free and open to anyone and everyone seeking help in deciding what is truly important for them and their family life.

For more information contact Pierre or Laura @ 584-4140 or email laura@oreillyclan.com.

The Baptism of the Lord

2011-01-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’

Another of a series of five major manifestations of Christ's divine nature that we find in the Gospels (The Nativity, The Epiphany, The Wedding Feast at Cana, The Transfiguration, being the others) this feast at one point was a part of a single celebration that included the Nativity and Epiphany as well.

As our Christmas season draws to a close, we find Christ approaching a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, a baptism of which he has no need. yet he tells John in the midst of his protests that it must be so. As we've seen so often before in the scriptures, waters are opened, God is made manifest, and the Word proclaims a message of hope and wonder "This is my Son, the beloved..."

Trhough the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, this beloved Son joins himself with our human state that we might be joined with his. We are reminded of this at every single Mass as we are called to witness at the start of our Eucharistic Liturgy, the priest adding water to wine and humbly praying, "By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity"

More on the Baptism of the Lord (From catholicism.about.com);

The Baptism of the Lord has historically been associated with the celebration of Epiphany. Even today, the Eastern Christian feast of Theophany, celebrated on January 6 as a counterpart to the Western feast of Epiphany, focuses primarily on the Baptism of the Lord as the revelation of God to man.

After the Nativity of Christ (Christmas) was separated out from Epiphany, the Church in the West continued the process and dedicated a celebration to each of the major epiphanies (revelations) or theophanies (the revelation of God to man): the Birth of Christ at Christmas, which revealed Christ to Israel; the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles, in the visit of the Wise Men at Epiphany; the Baptism of the Lord, which revealed the Trinity; and the miracle at the wedding at Cana, which revealed Christ's transformation of the world. (For more on the four theophanies, see the article on Christmas.)

Thus, the Baptism of the Lord began to be celebrated on the octave (eighth day) of Epiphany, with the miracle at Cana celebrated on the Sunday after that. In the current liturgical calendar, the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated on the Sunday after January 6, and, a week later, on the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, we hear the Gospel of the Wedding at Cana.

Prayer From the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) for the Baptism of the Lord;
Almighty, eternal God,
when the Spirit descended upon Jesus
at his baptism in the Jordan,
you revealed him as your own beloved Son.
Keep us, your children born of water and the Spirit,
faithful to our calling.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Peace and God Bless

Back By Popular Demand - A Quick Journey Through the Bible DVD Study

2011-01-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

THE BIBLE...NOT JUST ANY STORY – IT'S YOUR STORY! DISCOVER HOW TO READ IT!

Discover God’s plan for your life as you discover his amazing story in A Quick Journey Through The Bible. In this study, you will discover the “big picture” of the biblical story as it is presented in specific books of the Bible. Join us and learn the major people, places, events and themes of the Bible. Perhaps for the first time in your life, you will understand the overview of the Bible story. Your Bible reading and even the Sunday mass readings are guaranteed to come alive like never before.

A Quick Journey Through The Bible will be offered here at Christ the King in the Parish Hall on Saturday mornings starting in February, 2011. This year you don't even have to worry about breakfast because we've got a superb continental buffet waiting for you! To learn more check out the video below or visit our Bible Study Page. To register or have more of your questions answered, call Eric in the parish office at 586-9020 or send him an email.

The Feast of Epiphany

2011-01-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."

So begins our gospel reading for this feast which unites the Churches of both East and West. A question posed by Matthew's mysterious 'wise men' from the east. Who are these strangers? What did they know of Jesus or God for that matter? What or who were they seeking?

They were from 'The East' one of the Holy Scriptures' 'pay attention' phrases that is repeated in several of our favorite stories beginning with the Garden itself where Adam and Eve are exiled and sent to live 'East of Eden'. Jacob flees to live 'with the people of the east' after cheating his older brother out of both blessing and birthright. The people that gathered at Babel to build their tower to the heavens 'migrated from the east' and Lot leaves his uncle Abram when their tribes grow too large to travel together and "journeyed eastwards...and settled among the cities of the Plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom"

Throughout the scriptures 'The East' always signifies a place away from God and outside of God's goodness and light. Matthew's 'wise men' or 'sages' (magi means 'sage') come out of this place following the light of a star and a message of hope...the King of Kings has come! This is the wisdom they hold, that they have seen the light of the Christ, they have heard his sacred Word, and have changed the course of their travels to follow.

It is a story that captures our imaginations and underlines the great gift that Jesus is to the whole world. Our Nativity scene grows from a tiny lonely and frightened family huddled in the dark to first include shepherds, those poor and forgotten folk who lived outside of the Law, and their community and now these gentile visitors from a foreign place.

The King of Kings has indeed come. The creator of heaven and earth, the Word spoken at the dawn of time itself, has become flesh and appears now; not to the rich, or the pius, not to the leaders of Churches or nations, but to the poor and calls to his side those who have lived on the fringes and in darkness.

This is our Lord, this is our King and this is the Good News he has called us all to share!

More About The Feast of Epiphany (From Churchyear.net):

Officially called "The Epiphany of the Lord," this feast celebrates the epiphany (manifestation) of Christ to the Gentiles, symbolized by Christ's manifestation to the Magi (Wise Men). The feast originally was more closely connected to Jesus' baptism, the primary theme of the feast in Eastern Churches to this day. In addition, other manifestations of Christ were often commemorated during Epiphany, including the miracle at Cana. In fact, it has been asserted that the Baptism of the Lord, the adoration of the infant Jesus by the Magi, and the miracle at Cana all historically occurred on January 6 (see Abbot Gueranger's works). Whether this is true is contested, but either way, the Epiphany solemnity is celebrated on January 6, which falls within Christmastide. In some Catholic regions, the feast is translated to a Sunday. The Eastern Churches often call the holiday Theophany, which means "manifestation of God." Eastern Christians also refer to the Epiphany as "Holy Lights" because they baptize on this day, and baptism brings about illumination. Traditionally, Epiphany marked the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

The story of the Magi traveling from the East to see the Christ child appears only in the Gospel According to St. Matthew. The word Magi, in Greek magoi, comes from the Latin word meaning "sage." These particular sages were possibly Zoroastrian astrologers from Persia. Upon seeing a star rising in the East (the Star of Bethlehem), they realized it was a sign that the king of the Jews had been born. According to St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. AD 107), the star shone with an inexpressible brilliance, and the sun, moon, and other stars all formed a chorus around the special star (Letter to the Ephesians, 19). The wise men followed the star to Bethlehem of Judea, and to Jesus' dwelling there. Having arrived, they worshipped the infant Jesus, and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

There have been numerous traditions that have grown up about the Wise Men. Typically we think of there being three wise men because of the number of gifts, but Matthew doesn't tell us the exact number. Since the 3rd century, Christian writers have referred to them as kings, even though Matthew doesn't specifically tell us that they were royalty. Their names in the West, Gaspar (or Caspar), Melchior, and Balthasar date to the 6th century. The names mean: Master-of-Treasure, King, and Protect-the-King, respectively. The Syrian Church has given them the following Persian names: Larvandad, Hormisdas, and Gushnasaph.

St. Bede the Venerable fills in a few gaps, providing colorful details about the Magi:

The first was called Melchior. He was an old man, with white hair and a long beard; he offered gold to the Lord as to his King. The second, Gaspar by name, young, beardless, of ruddy hue, offered to Jesus his gift of incense, the homage due to Divinity. The third, of black complexion, with heavy beard, was middle-aged and called Balthasar. The myrrh he held in his hand prefigured the death of the son of Man (see The Catholic Source Book).

St. Bede hints that the magi represent different races, an idea that was further developed around the 14th century, in which the wise men were said to represent the three known races of the time, European, Asian, and African. According to another legend, St. Thomas the Apostle visited the Magi, and after catechizing them, he initiated them into the Christian faith. Eventually the Wise Men were ordained priests and then bishops. Near the end of their lives, the Christmas Star revisited them, this time bringing them together for a final reunion. The information provided by Bede, and this legend, are interesting but historically unreliable.

Let us pray,
Father of light, unchanging God,
today you reveal to men of faith
the resplendent fact of the Word made flesh.
Your light is strong,
Your love is near;
draw us beyond the limits
which this world imposes,
to the life where Your Spirit
makes all life complete.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
New Saint Joseph Sunday Missal

Epiphany Blessing for Our Homes

2011-01-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

One German tradition for the Christmas season is that of the childrens' festival between January 1-6 (Three Kings Day). After a Mass the children go from house to house to gather offerings for the poor. They are dressed as the three kings and carry sticks with stars on the top. At the homes they sing songs and recite messages of Christmas. At each house they paint a series of letters and numbers of blessing over the door frame that remain until the next year.

The blessing is as follows;

All gather outside at the main entrance to the home (inside if it's too cold!)

Leader: Peace be to this house.

All: And to all who live here.

Leader: Bless, O Lord,
this household and family,
and allow all of us who live in this home
to find in it a shelter of peace and health.
Inspire each of us to develop
our individual talents
and to contribute wisdom and good works
for the benefit of the whole family.
Make our house a haven for us all,
and a place of warmth and caring
for all our friends who come to visit us.
Enlighten us with the brilliance
of your Epiphany star,
so that, as we go into the world,
we might clearly see our way to You
and discover You in our work and play.
This we ask to your glory
and in the power of your kingship.

All: For yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory now and forever, Amen.

Bless the house with the sign of the cross.

After the blessing, the initials of the following Latin blessing are written over the main doorway in chalk (any color you like); Christus Mansionem Benedicat 'Christ bless this house' (The Initials also correspond to the traditional names: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar) The Finished blessing inscription would look like this: 20 + C + M + B + 11 (where the + is a cross and the "11" stands for 2011; change the year accordingly).

Feast of Mary, Mother of God (Theotokos - God Bearer)

2010-12-31T12:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite extra-Sunday feasts is that of Mary, the Mother of God, celebrated around the globe on January 1st every year (No that Mass you see listed each year on the 1st is NOT a New Year's Mass!). I love especially the imagery that is called up by the Eastern Title of Theotokos or 'God Bearer' for Mary. The Old testament presents us a number of interesting images for how God's promised salvation is to the world, the Ark in which the one righteous family of Noah provides hope for the future, the little basket of reeds that carried Moses down the Nile safely so that he could bring salvation to his people in God's name, the great golden Arc of the Covenant that served as a constant reminder for the People of God that God was indeed present and active among them...

All of these point to the single most significant act of God in fulfilling His divine promise to bring all persons back to Him...that of God taking human flesh and dwelling, teaching and ultimately dying and rising again so that His Spirit may fill the world and enact it's salvation for all time. And how is this action of God carried into the world? Through the 'Yes' of the most innocent, beautiful arc in salvation history, Mary herself who carried the fruit of God's promise within her own body as a gift for the world!

Amazing!

A little more about this very special feast that is the First of only two Holy Days of Obligation (Days that are just as important for worship as Sundays!) in our Church taken from Churchyear.net;

In the 4th and 5th centuries debates about the nature of Christ raged in the Church. The debate was about the relationship of Christ's divine and human natures. At the center of this debate was a title of Mary. Since at least the 3rd century, Christians had referred to Mary as theotokos, meaning "God-bearer." The first documented usage of the term is in the writings of Origen of Alexandria in AD 230. Related to theotokos, Mary was called the mother of God. Referring to Mary this way was popular in Christian piety, but the patriarch of Constantinople from 428-431, Nestorius, objected. He suggested that Mary was only the mother of Jesus' human nature, but not his divine nature. Nestorius' ideas (or at least how others perceived his arguments) were condemned at the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, and again at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. The Church decided that Christ was fully God and fully human, and these natures were united in one person, Jesus Christ. Thus Mary could be called "mother of God" since she gave birth to Jesus who was fully divine as well as human. Since this time, Mary has been frequently honored as the "mother of God" by Catholics, Orthodox, and many Protestants.

The Solemnity of Mary Mother of God falls exactly one week after Christmas, the end of the octave of Christmas. It is fitting to honor Mary as Mother of Jesus, following the birth of Christ. When Catholics celebrate the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God we are not only honoring Mary, who was chosen among all women throughout history to bear God incarnate, but we are also honoring our Lord, who is fully God and fully human. Calling Mary "mother of God" is the highest honor we can give Mary. Just as Christmas honors Jesus as the "Prince of Peace," the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God honors Mary as the "Queen of Peace" This solemnity, falling on New Year's Day, is also designated the World Day of Peace.

From Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours;
Father,
Source of light in every age,
the virgin conceived and bore your Son
who is called Wonderful God, Prince of Peace.
May her prayer, the gift of a mother's love,
be your people's joy through all ages.
May her response, born of a humble heart,
draw your Spirit to rest on your people.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
Amen

Peace and God Bless

Fr. Barron on Christmas

2010-12-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

Our struggle as Christians is to fit this subversive image of the infant, swaddled and impoverished king into the very domesticated form of our world's modern version Christmas...

The Nativity of Our Lord and the Feast of the Holy Family

2010-12-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

So many of the great figures of our Advent preparations, John the Baptist, Mary, and Joseph, have served as examples of self-sacrifice, faith and obedience to God's Word. These are people who heard the Word of God, whispered, dreamed and shouted into their lives and were moved to respond. They underline for us just how important it is that we do not simply sit back, and enjoy the celebrations, good-will and peace that the Nativity of our Lord and King has heralded in, but that we actively and concretely respond to the Word whose birth we have just witnessed.

Today, on this Feast of the Holy Family, a feast which highlights how the family of Jesus can serve as a model for all struggling Christian families, we are invited to gaze upon our Lord, held in faith and hope by Mary and Joseph our two great models of faith in action and pray for the courage to respond in kind.

A great part of our Christian tradition is celebrated in the days and the feasts of the Christmas season. The liturgies and feasts of Christmas are integral to complete acquaintance with the entire rich deposit of faith. The liturgies of the Christmas season celebrate and emphasize each of the primary, essential truths of Christianity and Catholicism.

Now that you have spent time spiritually preparing for the coming of Christ in your heart at
Christmas, where in life do you most need Christ to come down? What in your life is in most
need of God’s salvation? If Christmas also celebrates those who have witnessed to Christ
through martyrdom, can you name some small ways that you have been a similar witness? In
what way have you taken up the cross for the sake of the Gospel in your lifetime? How
would you say you have exemplified John the Baptist’s insistence that he must decrease so
Christ could increase. In what way have you become less in order for God to become all in
all? In what way is your heart prepared for the coming of Christ this Christmas?

DECISION FOR CHANGE: What one bothersome behavior or attitude might God be calling
you to change in preparation for Christmas? What one spiritual activity are you willing to
engage in as Christmas draws near? Have you remembered the poor in your Christmas giving?

Prayers For Our Families

A Prayer for the Family

Jesus, our most loving redeemer,
You came to enlighten the world
with your teaching and example.
You willed to spend the greater part of Your life
in humble obedience to Mary and Joseph
in the poor home of Nazareth.
In this way, You sanctified that family,
which was to be an example for all Christian families.

Graciously accept our family,
which we dedicate and consecrate to You this day.
Be pleased to protect, guard, and keep it
in holy fear, in peace,
and in the harmony of Christian charity.
By conforming ourselves to the Divine model
of Your family,
may we attain to eternal happiness.
New St. Joseph People's Prayer Book

A Prayer for a Child's Return to the Faith

Dear Lord,
You became Man, suffered, and died
to win salvation for all souls.
Look graciously on the soul of my child
who has drifted away from You and the Faith.
Grant him/her your grace
to see the error of his/her ways
and return to the fold of Your care.

Teach me to stay close to him/her
during this trying time
and strive to convert him/her by action and prayers
more than by words that may antagonize.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust You
to do everything to bring my child back to You
New St. Joseph People's Prayer Book

Peace and God Bless

A Christmas Message from Fr. Barron

2010-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Matthew's genealogy of the Christ presents a variety of very surprising and unexpected men and women who underline just what kind of people are invited to be joined to the family of the savior...

Prayers for Christmas Day

2010-12-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

Though we've spent the past four weeks preparing for the Lord's coming, we cannot forget the deep spiritual significance of all we do throughout the feast of Christmas. As you and your family and friends share gifts of love with one another and gather for the great feasting and celebrating that this season deserves, here are a few prayers to help you center yourselves on the great love God has for us in sending His only Son to be our Lord, our King, our Christ;

From The Liturgy of the Hours (The Divine Office) for Christmas Day:
Almighty God and Father of light,
a child is born for us and a son is given to us.
Your eternal Word leaped down from heaven
in the silent watches of the night,
and now your Church is filled with wonder
at the nearness of her God.
Open our hearts to receive his life
and increase our vision with the rising of dawn,
that our lives may be filled with his glory and his peace,
who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer for Opening Gifts
Loving God:
We gather surrounded by a wealth of signs, symbols and reminders. Our tree, ever green and fragrant, reminds us of the everlasting life you’ve promised.

Our Home is decorated with signs of our joy at the presence of Jesus among us. Spread at our feet are gifts, symbols of the love we share.

We pray in gratitude for the gifts,
And even more, for the givers. In each gift we see a sign of love, Love that begins with you and finds its fullest expression in your greatest gift to us: Your Son, Jesus. Through Jesus we pray in joy and thanksgiving on this Christmas Day.
Amen.

Christmas Day Table Prayer
Lord God of life,
together with the beautiful traditions of decorating the Christmas tree, or singing carols and giving gifts, this Christmas dinner is an important part of our celebration of the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Come, Lord Jesus
And surround our feast day table as we delight in this joyous season of Christmas. Gift us in this meal with the taste of happiness as we savor this coming together of family and friends. As sparkling stars and singing angels rejoiced at the birth of the Christ Child in Bethlehem, so may we take great joy in this our Christmas dinner celebration.

May you, our God
Bless our feast, our family and our friends in Your holy name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen+

From your parish family, we wish you and all your loved ones the happiest and merriest of Christmas Feasts. May this season of blessings and joy be for you the start of a New Year filled with all of the graces you seek.

Merry Christmas!

Peace and God Bless

Fourth Week of Advent - The Miracle of Jesus

2010-12-18T17:00:00.001-08:00

Even as the world around us has filled with the hustle and bustle of the season of giving, we have worked together to still our souls, de-clutter our lives, and lift our hearts and minds to God so as to prepare a fitting space for the light of Christ to be born within us. In the midst of dark and cold, an angel's voice rings out with hope to a world in desparate need, and a new mother's cry pierces the night inflaming our hearts with her love.

Let us pray;

“Lord, fill our hearts with your love,and as you revealed to us by an angel the coming of your Son, so lead us through his suffering and death to the glory of his resurrection, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen”

Read Matthew 1:18-24
“...an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’”

Reflect
Today we rest in awe, in wonder, at how our God entered our world and came to be with us. We pause to receive the gift offered us: that the Spirit of God will open up our lives and that Jesus will really come into our hearts. May we have watchful hope today, believing what the Lord promises us. We pray that we might be God's servants, that we might be instruments of God's love for our families and all we serve this week.

Pray
Father, all-powerful God, your Word took flesh on our earth when the Virgin Mary placed her life at the service of your plan. Lift our minds in watchful hope to hear the voice which announces his glory and open our minds to receive the Spirit who prepares us for his coming. Amen

THE DIGITAL STORY OF NATIVITY - ( or Christmas 2.0 )

2010-12-16T12:24:00.000-08:00

One of our teachers emailed this to the office just today, and like all of the Good News...it just screams to be shared! Enjoy;

THE DIGITAL STORY OF NATIVITY - ( or Christmas 2.0 )

Peace and God Bless

Third Week of Advent - The Word Among Us

2010-12-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

The Third Sunday of Advent has been traditionally known as "Gaudete" or "Rejoicing" Sunday. Why rejoicing? Kids get this far easier than adults. For them, the anticipation is building so much that by this point they're about to burst! Christmas is almost here! The Messiah is close, the Word soon will be made flesh. Are we ready? Is His space prepared?

Let us pray;

“Lord God, may we, your people, who look forward to the birthday of Christ experience the joy of salvation and celebrate that feast with love and thanksgiving. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen ”

Read Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10
“Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.’
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.”

Reflect
Our candle today is pink, a color of joy and celebration. The Prophet's words give us a reason to celebrate...our God, for whom we are waiting, is near! What would you do differently if you were to treat everyone you met as if he or she were Jesus?

Pray
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the earth rejoices in hope of the Savior's coming and looks forward with longing to his return at the end of time. Prepare our hearts and remove the sadness that hinders us from feeling the joy and hope of his presence, for he is Lord for ever and ever. Amen

Prayers of Intercession - Sunday December 12, 2010

2010-12-10T12:35:00.001-08:00

PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

DECEMBER 12, 2010

OUR RESPONSE TODAY: Come Lord Jesus, Come.

Let us pray for the Church,

called to make Jesus real to our brothers and sisters everywhere,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Come, Lord Jesus Come.

Let us pray that as our youth plan their life's work,

that they give prayerful consideration to the priesthood and religious life,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Come, Lord Jesus Come.

Let us pray that our hearts be strengthened,

for the coming of the Lord,

We pray to you, Lord,

RESPONSE: Come, Lord Jesus Come.

Let us pray for the joy filled children of our parish,

as they journey through Advent,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Come, Lord Jesus Come.

Let us pray for those who have died

and for those who mourn their loss,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Come, Lord Jesus Come.

6. Let us now pray in silence for our personal intentions,

(Pause 5-7 seconds)

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Come, Lord Jesus Come.

The Feast of The Immaculate Conception

2010-12-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

December the 8th (Today) is the Feast of The Immaculate Conception.

You can learn all about this feast honoring Mary at Churchyear.net - All About The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

The following prayer comes to us from the official prayer of the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours;

Father,
you prepared the Virgin Mary
to be the worthy mother of your Son.
You let her share beforehand
in the salvation Christ
would bring by his death,
and kept her sinless
from the first moment of her conception.
Help us by her prayers
to live in your presence without sin.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen

Want to join your church in praying the psalms morning and night? Check out http://divineoffice.org/ providing the Liturgy of the Hours at your fingertips every day.

Peace and God Bless

Prayers of the Faithful - December 5, 2010

2010-12-07T13:23:00.001-08:00

PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

DECEMBER 5, 2010

Let us pray for all Christians,

called to work together to prepare the way of the Lord,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray that the atmosphere in our homes may be such as to develop a

love for all things spiritual,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for the peace of which Isaiah dreamt and which the Spirit promises,

We pray to you, Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for all those working to make the season more festive,

for those in need,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Let us pray for those who are suffering with illness

that they be strengthened and comforted in the knowledge

that God is walking with them through their time of need,

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

6. Let us now pray in silence for our personal intentions,

(Pause 5-7 seconds)

We pray to you Lord,

RESPONSE: Lord, hear our prayer.

Feast of St. Nicholas - Candy Cane Blessing

2010-12-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

December 6th is the day in the Church's tradition where we commemorate the death of St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, a city in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor. Little is known about his save for a small collection of stories underling his great generosity as well as the fact that he attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325AD where our Creed was first adopted.

At some point along the way, it bacame tradition in our Church to bless the sweets given to children during the Christmas season on the feast of this very popular saint. Today in our homes we will often gather in the evening to bless our festive candy canes on this feast before placing them on our trees;

St. Nicholas Day Blessing of Candy Canes
by Edward Hays

Good St. Nicholas, we honor you
on this your holy feast day.
We rejoice that you are the patron saint
and the holy symbol of joy
for many peoples of many lands.

Come, great-hearted saint,
and be our patron and companion
as we, once again, prepare our homes and hearts
for the great feast of Christmas,
the birth of the Eternal Blessing, Jesus Christ.

May these sweets, these candy canes,
be a sign of Advent joy for us.
May these candy canes,
shaped just like your Bishop's staff,
be for us a sign of your benevolent care.

We rejoice that you are the holy bringer of gifts
and that so many have been delighted
through your great generosity.
Help us to be as generous of heart.

Wherever these candy canes are hung,
on tree or wall or door,
may they carry with them
the bright blessing of God.
May all who shall taste them
experience the joy of God
upon their tongues and in their hearts.

We ask God, now, to bless
these your brightly striped sweets
in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

To learn more about St. Nicholas, head on over to the St. Nicholas site at St.Nicholas.org. Tons of fun facts and great prayer reflections and home activities for individuals and families!

Peace and God Bless

Second Week of Advent - Hope for Change

2010-12-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

As our Second week of Advent begins, our prayer of hope and deasire for peace continues. As you continue to share prayer with us, may you be truly blessed and may you receive the graces you need most from your Father who loves you.

Let us pray;

“God of power and mercy, open our hearts in welcome. Remove the things that hinder us from receiving Christ with joy, so that we may share his wisdom and become one with him when he comes in glory, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen”

Read Isaiah 11:1-10
“On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him...Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.”

Reflect
Today we hear this wonderful proclamation of the end of violence and a promise of justice and peace. Let us experience today what it will be like to be freed from the power of injustice, conflict and division. Our longing, our desire: that we might be set free.

Pray
Dear Lord, through the darkness, I look for your wisdom. I want my heart to be open to you. Let me be a peacemaker in my own life, and in the world. Let me pray especially for this difficult world and those who are so in need of an end to violence. My heart begs for this in your name. Amen.

Christmas Mass Times

2010-12-03T08:21:00.000-08:00

To help with your Christmas and Holiday planning here are the times when our parish Community will be gathering to offer worship to God and share the Eucharist which is, of course, the focus and font of all our other celebrations and traditions;

December 24- Anticipated Christmas Mass; 7:00 p.m.

December 25: Midnight & 10:00 a.m. - Christmas Day; A Holy Day of Obligation

December 26: 10:00 a.m. - Sunday Mass; Feast of The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

December 31: 5:00 p.m.; A Special Mass of Thanksgiving for the blessings of this past year...NOT an anticipated January 1st Mass

January 1: 10:00 a.m.; Feast of Mary, Mother of God; A Holy Day of Obligation

Januarcy 2: 10:00 a.m.; Regular Sunday Mass

As both Christmas and The Feast of Mary, Mother of God fall on Saturday's this year, and both are Holy Days of Obligation, these very important feast supersede any anticipated Masses a parish may do prior to their regular Sunday celebrations. Practically this means that for Saturday December 25th and Saturday January 1st we are unable to have our usual Saturday Evening celebrations of the Anticipated Sunday Mass. These extremely important feasts must always be celebrated in place of any regular anticipated masses in a parish.

Questions about the scheduling of Mass times for Holy Days of Obligation (like Christmas and January 1st) or Sunday Masses verses anticipated Masses in general? Our Bishops have had a lot to say on the matter and, thanks to the wonders of the internet, now you can read all about it in the comfort of your home or wherever you happen to be; CCCB on The Celebration of Christmas Masses.

Wondering what the heck a 'Holy Day of Obligation' is? Catholic Online has all your answers!

May your prayerful and spirit-led preparations this Advent help to create a holy space in your home and in your heart for the birthing of our Lord of Light and Love...Jesus Christ.

Peace and God Bless

First Week of Advent - The Advent Wreath and Keeping Awake

2010-12-01T07:12:00.001-08:00

As we reach the mid-point of our first week of hope-filled waiting and preparation the following two videos should be of great help. The first from Franciscan communications is a brief description of the Advent wreath and an explanation of where the tradition originated and how and why we use this rich symbol as a part of our Advent waiting.

The Second is a brief reflection on some of the themes of this first week of Advent, brought to you by the folks at Catholic Digest. I hope you enjoy both of these and that your Advent preparations help you to create a space in heart and home for the birthing of our Lord;

Peace and God Bless

First Week of Advent - On The Watch

2010-11-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

As the season of Advent begins we are called together as the People of God to prepare a space in our lives for the Messiah to be born into and take root. Over the next four weeks we will share with you a series of prayers and reflections for each week of this very special beginning to the Liturgical cycle of our Church. Portions of these prayers and reflections will be used at our Sunday celebrations throughout Advent and they have been made available in our parish entrances for people to use at home. In sharing these prayers you are joining together with our entire parish community in centering our hearts and souls on the Good News that this season heralds, the Messiah indeed is coming and "...the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Let us Pray;

“All-powerful God, increase our strength of will for doing good that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming and call us to his side in the kingdom of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

Read Isaiah 2:1-5
“...For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ”

Reflect
Let's begin this week with a deeply felt prayer. Even if we don't know exactly what we need or long for, today, let's try to express our desire for God's help and assistance.
The readings invite us to be prepared and to be hopeful. This week I could ask for the grace to grow in anticipation of what the Lord is offering me and to ready my heart
to receive it gratefully. What renewal, what end of "hostilities" is our Lord offering me?

Pray
Lord God, help me to be a peacemaker and to give special love to those who disagree with me. Give me the strength and courage to forgive those who have hurt me. Help me to free my heart from anger and hurt.