Father Kevin Murphy
 St. Louis Church

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Over the next 6 weeks we will share in the weekend Gospel the heart of Jesus’ teaching, the Sermon on the Mount. In these few chapters, Matthew gathers the core of Jesus mission. Matthew is a Jewish writer who roots the words and mission of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures and in Jewish history. For Matthew, Jesus is the new Moses. Just as Moses was the liberator and savior of the Jewish people in their darkest hour of slavery in Egypt, so Jesus will be our liberator. Moses saw the face of God and brought the Law and the Covenant to the people. He led them into the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, signs of God’s blessings.

The Beatitudes that the Sermon on the Mount begins with are a different kind of law, not “they shall not” but seek a blessing, root your happiness here in these upside-down examples of life: not the rich, not the powerful, not the comfortable, not those free from troubles and grief. It is in the midst of life with its demands and uncertainties where we can find God’s blessings. Eg. So often we can look back at troubled times and recall the demands and challenges but see too the threads of blessings and strength.

We spend a lot of time and energy as grandparents and parents, as coaches and guides in teaching one another and our kids. Such things as: How to kick a soccer ball, how to perform dance routines, and to be computer savvy. All good and valuable, but what of the teachings of Jesus? How do we pass on the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount? It is harder to teach these qualities and habits of the heart.

Sadly we can think that this will just happen, by osmosis. However, to learn how to be meek or to hunger for justice requires real effort to form our children and ourselves in faith.

The challenge of these next several weeks is for us to think and reflect on how we might help one another to serve God and not get caught up and be satisfied in society’s goals; how to have perspective beyond the here and now, how to make ourselves salt and light in the goodness we live. How do we work for our family and ourselves and yet remember to work for justice for others and for what is right?

As we worked through the return of the Catholic School to parish responsibility, it became clear to me that we need to call people back to their faith. The practice and commitment to grow and work at worship and being a committed Christian has lost its significant place for too many. Too much in life, like skiing, travel teams in sports and even sleep, has pushed faith aside. We see it when we begin our First Communion and Confirmation programs: people can come out of the woodwork and turn on the spigot of religious practice for the short blast. The Sermon on the Mount challenges all of us to examine how well our faith is integrated into the whole of life:

  • Here at worship

  • At home with family

  • In everyday life at work and school situations.

Can we take to heart the message of Jesus who showed us not only by words but by his life how goodness can flow out of a person’s heart and transform evil to good. May the words that we share today and in the next several weeks deepen our faith and renew it so we are more the disciples the Lord calls us to be.

 

 

Deacon John Payne
 St. Louis Church

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

As Father Kevin mention last week, we are focusing on the parts of the Liturgy during this month -- that could have been lost with his other announcement. And to this end, there will be special inserts in the bulletin each week relating to the Liturgy (this week on pages 7 & 8), and we will be discussing the various parts of the Mass in our homilies. Today we will focus on the Introductory Rites. Essentially these include all the things that we do from when we first stand up for the Entrance Hymn, until we sit down for the First Reading.

When I think of going to mass, I think about growing up and celebrating holiday meals like Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter. As kids, we looked forward with great enthusiasm and excitement... to the gathering of family and friends. Being one of nine children, with a large extended family -- these celebrations were truly events, demanding great preparation... I'm not sure how mom and dad pulled it off. Today I must say that my enthusiasm for such gatherings hasn't waned all that much. The preparation for them seems just as monumental, as gathering even our immediate family from all over the country, demands a lot of planning and sacrifice. When someone can't make it, they're sorely missed. When others arrive unexpectedly, there is great joy and excitement. When some come at great monetary expense, you realize how important, dare I say sacred, the gathering is.

So it is with mass. Each week we respond to God’s call to do this in memory of me, as we gather as a Church family. We come as a diverse people... we gather from different households and from different cities... we each have our own responsibilities and jobs.. we each have our own emotions and concerns... we each come at certain expense... and yet we still gather into a worshipping body to celebrate the Eucharist... remembering Christ's passion, death and Resurrection... remembering God's love for us. What's important is that we come on time to center ourselves... to put ourselves into God's presence... to shake off the stress that it took to get here. I admit that when my kids were young, I often felt that I needed to go to confession once I arrived. Coming on time, even a bit early, allows us to reconnect with each other as we gather to worship and pray.

You see, the celebration of the mass is not a solitary, private event. We come together as the People of God to worship as with one heart and one voice. When members of our church community are absent from this gathering they are missed. So praying at home, or on the golf course or ski slopes, isn't the same. St. John Chrysostom said, "You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests."

And so after we have gathered and are hopefully centered, we stand and sing our Entrance Song... the Introductory Rite begins. It is a song of praise and thanksgiving to God and generally relates to the liturgical season that we are celebrating or to the theme of the readings. Today's is no exceptions. When you listen to the challenges of today's readings, especially the first reading from Isaiah, it could cause us great fear. Today's hymn tempers that fear, "Be not afraid, I go before you always." The choice of the hymn is no accident... it is the work of Stephanie and Bea... each week. The Church believes that the unity of our voices in song is a sign and means to achieve unity among us... it welds this diverse people into one.

At the conclusion of the hymn, we begin with the sign of the cross, words and actions that unite us as a people worshipping a triune God, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". We respond "AMEN"... a word meaning that we believe... that says "right on"... the marines say, "ooh-rah."
And then we begin the Penitential Rite, during which we all, including the priest and this sinful deacon, remember that we are a sinful people, calling out to our God who is loving and merciful... who is our Father... who easily forgives us. We pray, "Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy." Sometimes, especially during the Easter Season, this rite is replaced with a Sprinkling Rite which connects us to our baptism and reminds us of our calling to eternal life.

We then proclaim the Gloria, a prayer that expresses our joy and happiness and gratitude to God at the beginning of our celebration. It is a powerful expression of our feelings... a prayer that we all ought to peruse again and pray with added meaning and expression.

Our Introductory Rite concludes with the opening prayer. It is one of three priestly prayers said during Mass... it is a clear articulation of our beliefs as a Church, and helps to form us in our faith. The priest begins the prayer with the words, "Let us pray." There is then an intentional moment of silence... it's a time for us to add our own intentions... asking for help... turning over our concerns to God... thanking God for our blessings... our belief is that God will hear us. The priest then collects our prayers and joins them with the opening prayer, and we again respond, "Amen", affirming all of what has gone before that moment of time. We are seated... the Introductory Rite concludes and the Liturgy of the Word begins.

As we read in today's bulletin article on the mass, our Sunday celebration doesn't end when we leave this Church building. As we are reminded in today's readings we are called to action... You are the salt of the earth. Besides adding flavor to food, salt provides an inhospitable environment for most bacteria. Salt can brighten colors, it eliminates mold and mildew, it puts out grease fires, and it exfoliates dead, dry skin. To brighten, whiten and cleanse: Is this what is expected of us? Yes, but not completely, for we are told that we ...are the light of the world... we are to embody Christ in our daily living.

St. Teresa of Avila has much to say about embodying Christ into daily life. Her powerful words have found their way into our liturgical music. John Michael Talbot put Teresa’s message into song in his “St. Theresa’s Prayer”: The song goes as follows:

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands. Yours are the feet. Yours are the eyes. You are His body. …Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

St. Teresa is so right. Let us use our hands, our eyes, our feet to bless this world. We don’t need any special qualifications. We don’t need to do monumental things... a hand held, a grief shared, a joy celebrated, a prayer said — these are enough. We are all saints in the making, and this is how it should be.

Perhaps the best way to understand the readings at Mass and our response to
them is offered by Pope John Paul II in his Instruction Dies Domini. He encourages
those who take part in the Eucharist, priest, ministers and faithful ... to prepare the Sunday
liturgy, reflecting beforehand upon the Word of God which will be proclaimed and adds
that if we do not, it is difficult for the liturgical proclamation of the Word of God alone to
produce the fruit we might expect. (n. 40) In this way we till the soil, preparing our souls
to receive the seeds to be planted by the Word of God so that seed may bear fruit.

The Word of God, then calls for our listening and our response in silent reflection, as well
as in word and song. Most important of all, the Word of God, which is living and active, calls
each of us individually and all of us together for a response that moves beyond the liturgy
itself and affects our daily lives, leading us to engage fully in the task of making Christ known to
the world by all that we do and say.

RESOURCES
 2010, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Father Al
 St. Louis Church

SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

If ever we are to appreciate just who it is that we are and what it is that we do here in this sacred space, as God’s gathered people, God’s assembly, we need to regain a sense of mystery. The Church invites us, week in and week out, into the mystery of God’s love for us manifested in the life, death, and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. The word “mystery” is foreign to our vocabularies except when we’re using it to describe a work of fiction that has caught our attention. We live in a culture of instant information and instant communication from the time we get up in the morning until we go to bed. One writer has described it as a “culture that conspires against interiority.” So to hear St. Paul in that second rdg ask, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwells in you?” – that question can bring us up short in the frantic pace of our lives. We’ve made it very difficult for ourselves to enter into spiritual reflection on the topic of life, on personal identity, on our relationship with God and with one another.
The Sunday celebration of the Eucharist is crucial to our understanding of our Xian identity. It is the centerpiece of the Church’s Liturgy. It is described by the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy as the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the fount from which all the Church’s power flows. (#10)

You’ve heard the presentations on the Introductory Rites, the gathering of the people at the beginning; the Liturgy of the Word wherein it is truly God speaking to us from the Sacred Scriptures, and today we look at the Liturgy of the Eucharist which begins with the Preparation of the Gifts. The bread and wine are brought up in procession to the altar, the same elements that Christ took into his hands. Persons representing the whole assembly carry these gifts to the altar, and on the altar while this is happening, we should in spirit place ourselves and everything about ourselves, our joys and sorrows, our loved ones, our hopes for the future, and yes, our weaknesses and problems, whatever makes up THIS person – all placed on the altar, and all will become part of the gift to God in the mystery of this act of worship. And the gifts offered in the collection are an integral part of us too. They support the parish and other Church endeavors.
The priest, speaking in our name, offers the prayers over the bread and wine, “through your goodness we have this bread to offer;” “through your goodness we have this wine to offer.” These are our gifts of grateful praise and the prayers are that of the whole congregation in one voice. The priest then invites us to pray that our gifts of bread and wine (symbols of ourselves and our lives) may be acceptable to God. After the Prayer over the Gifts which is proper to the particular Liturgy of the day, we come to the heart of the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Eucharistic Prayer Rite begins w/ the priest, speaking again in our name as well as his own, invites us to lift up our hearts and to give thanks to God. We praise God’s holiness and acknowledge that heaven and earth are full of God’s glory. Through the voice of the priest we also acknowledge that all life and holiness come from God who has gathered this assembly so that a perfect offering might be made to God’s glory. The priest calls on the Holy Spirit whose power it is that consecrates, (“we bring you these gifts . . . make them holy”) - it’s the power of the Spirit that changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. What took place at the Last Supper is what takes place at this moment in the Eucharistic Prayer. Like Jesus the priest takes the bread and takes the wine and speaks the words of Jesus over them. The power of the Spirit changes those elements and Christ becomes bodily present to us. It is difficult to grasp this presence clearly, for we are in the realm of mystery. It’s our bodies that enable us to be present to others. What is essential, what is an article of our faith, is that the bread and wine are truly changed and that Jesus is present bodily.

Following the consecration of the bread and wine, the assembly, the community, God’s gathered people, voice the mystery of faith: When we eat this bread and drink this cup . . .
The Eucharistic Prayer, OUR prayer, then offers the sacrifice of Jesus to the Father. “We offer you in thanksgiving this holy and living sacrifice.” And God, who is never outdone in generosity, gives Jesus back to us in Holy Communion. Our prayer petitions God for peace: “advance the peace and salvation of all the world.” Our prayer petitions for the various intentions of the whole community: “hear the prayers of the family you have gathered here . .” Our prayer includes all our departed sisters and brothers. In the Eucharistic Prayer no one is left out!
Then, by way of concluding the Eucharistic Prayer, the consecrated bread and wine are held up in a gesture of offering, and the priest, again speaking in our name as well as his own, prays that all we have said, all that we have sung, all that we have done in this gathering of God’s people, all these things are offered to God through Jesus, with Jesus, and in Jesus, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. All glory and all honor belongs to God forever. With one voice, the community responds in agreement with a resounding “Yes!” The Great Amen.

St. Paul says: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God?” I f we are to be holy as God is holy, if we are to walk the extra mile of service; if we are to give to the one who asks; if we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, THIS is where it has to begin – in the gathering of God’s people, the Eucharist, the Liturgy “from which all the Church’s power flows.”

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