Dear Friends,
On the 29th Sunday A in the Gospel of Matthew (22:21), Jesus makes it abundantly clear that we must pay to God what belongs to God. What a timely challenge for us! In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah (45:5) conveys the passionate cry of our God: “I am the Lord, there is no other, there is no God besides me.” Everything we have is a blessing from God. Might each of us consider setting aside something for God and for his worship?
Last weekend, I had the privilege of presenting to you the State of the Parish for the year July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020. Your commitment to our parish is simply astounding and, as mentioned during the presentation, I am deeply touched by your continued generosity. And while we’ve made tremendous progress toward our debt reduction, I ask that you to please continue to both prayerfully and financially support that goal.
During the days of the Covid-19 lockdown, when we were prevented from living out the raison d'être of our existence – to offer the right worship, to celebrate the Eucharist – I fervently prayed for God’s guidance through these unprecedented times. As an unspeakable peace began to descend upon me, I became aware that I should cease worrying, that the people the Lord has appointed as his own would look after our parish. That profound assurance filled me with the confidence to continue working with cheerfulness of heart. Within days, my prayers began to be answered in the form of parishioner support through offertory gifts, some even sharing all or a portion of their PPP.
When we asked for food items to help those of our brothers and sisters in need, your generosity with food and supplies was astonishing. We were able to help over 400 families with two drive-by distributions, and we continue to offer assistance on a daily basis. In addition, your support of the clothing drive to help the homeless was overwhelming.
And last Sunday, I was able to present two checks in the amount of $10,000 each on your behalf to Deacon John Farrell in support of the St. Stephen’s Way Project, a program which helps meet the housing needs of economically challenged families, and to Cheryl Cominsky in support of the Children’s Hunger Project which provides weekend meals to school children throughout our county.
On behalf of Fr. John Patrick, the deacons, and our staff, I THANK YOU all for your generous display of love and commitment, especially during a time when it was most needed!
We continue to pray that the Lord will help rid our nation and our world of this debilitating virus.
“It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, there is no other” (Isaiah 45: 5- 6).
Be Blessed!
With love, Fr. John
Ecclesia De Eucharistia
For this week, we shall reflect on paragraphs 31-33 of the encyclical, “Ecclesia De Eucharistia” (The Church draws her life from the Eucharist) by St. John Paul II on the vital role the Eucharist plays in the life of the Church. These paragraphs bring us to the end of the 3rd chapter titled: “THE APOSTOLICITY OF THE EUCHARIST AND OF THE CHURCH.” Here you will read the Eucharist is the raison d’etre of the priesthood and how it is also central to the vocations to priesthood. It also high lights that no Christian community can be built up without the Eucharist.
- If the Eucharist is the center and summit of the Church's life, it is likewise the center and summit of priestly ministry. For this reason, with a heart filled with gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ, I repeat that the Eucharist “is the principal and central raison d'être of the sacrament of priesthood, which effectively came into being at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist” (Apostolic Letter Dominicae Cenae (24 February 1980), 2: AAS 72 (1980), 115).
Priests are engaged in a wide variety of pastoral activities. If we also consider the social and cultural conditions of the modern world it is easy to understand how priests face the very real risk of losing their focus amid such a great number of different tasks. The Second Vatican Council saw in pastoral charity the bond which gives unity to the priest's life and work. This, the Council adds, “flows mainly from the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is therefore the center and root of the whole priestly life” ( Decree on the Life and Ministry of Priests Presbyterorum Ordinis, 14). We can understand, then, how important it is for the spiritual life of the priest, as well as for the good of the Church and the world, that priests follow the Council's recommendation to celebrate the Eucharist daily: “for even if the faithful are unable to be present, it is an act of Christ and the Church” (Ibid., 13; cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon 904; Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, Canon 378). In this way priests will be able to counteract the daily tensions which lead to a lack of focus and they will find in the Eucharistic Sacrifice – the true center of their lives and ministry – the spiritual strength needed to deal with their different pastoral responsibilities. Their daily activity will thus become truly Eucharistic.
The centrality of the Eucharist in the life and ministry of priests is the basis of its centrality in the pastoral promotion of priestly vocations. It is in the Eucharist that prayer for vocations is most closely united to the prayer of Christ the Eternal High Priest. At the same time the diligence of priests in carrying out their Eucharistic ministry, together with the conscious, active and fruitful participation of the faithful in the Eucharist, provides young men with a powerful example and incentive for responding generously to God's call. Often it is the example of a priest's fervent pastoral charity which the Lord uses to sow and to bring to fruition in a young man's heart the seed of a priestly calling.
- All of this shows how distressing and irregular is the situation of a Christian community which, despite having sufficient numbers and variety of faithful to form a parish, does not have a priest to lead it. Parishes are communities of the baptized who express and affirm their identity above all through the celebration of the Eucharistic But this requires the presence of a presbyter, who alone is qualified to offer the Eucharist in persona Christi. When a community lacks a priest, attempts are rightly made somehow to remedy the situation so that it can continue its Sunday celebrations, and those religious and laity who lead their brothers and sisters in prayer exercise in a praiseworthy way the common priesthood of all the faithful based on the grace of Baptism. But such solutions must be considered merely temporary, while the community awaits a priest.
The sacramental incompleteness of these celebrations should above all inspire the whole community to pray with greater fervor that the Lord will send laborers into his harvest (cf. Mt 9:38). It should also be an incentive to mobilize all the resources needed for an adequate pastoral promotion of vocations, without yielding to the temptation to seek solutions which lower the moral and formative standards demanded of candidates for the priesthood.
- When, due to the scarcity of priests, non-ordained members of the faithful are entrusted with a share in the pastoral care of a parish, they should bear in mind that – as the Second Vatican Council teaches – “no Christian community can be built up unless it has its basis and center in the celebration of the most Holy Eucharist” ( Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests Presbytero- rum Ordinis, 6). They have a responsibility, therefore, to keep alive in the community a genuine “hunger” for the Eucharist, so that no opportunity for the celebration of Mass will ever be missed, also taking advantage of the occasional presence of a priest who is not impeded by Church law from celebrating