Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! Although the calendar year begins in January, the new Liturgical Year – the Year of Grace in 2021 – begins with the First Sunday of Advent. The prophet Isaiah is one of the Advent characters who will dominate the scene. On this First Sunday of Advent, the prophet challenges us to begin anew with these beautiful sentiments: “Yet, Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you our potter: we are all the work of your hand” (64:7). Isaiah enumerates man’s sinfulness and posits our loathsome unfaithfulness as reason enough for God to hide His face from us. Yet, he credits God as a loving Father and acknowledges His hand in molding each of us as a work of His creation. The Psalmist likewise reminds us of our dependence on God in Responsorial Psalm 80: “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.” This Advent, let us remain watchful and alert, as Mark exhorts in his Gospel, “What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”
I would like to extend a hearty welcome to Rev. Fr. Selva Raj, the Mission Director of the Diocese of Kumbakonam, South India. He comes to us as part of the Mission Co-op assigned by the Diocese of Orlando which offers us an opportunity to assist with missionary efforts outside our country. Please greet him with our warmest hospitality and be generous to his Diocese’s efforts to spread the Gospel message.
I take this occasion to congratulate Brendan and Rachel Prendergast and their lovely children, Blaise and Auguste Lily, for receiving the Family of the Month Award on Sunday, 1 November during the Knights of Columbus celebration of the beatification of their founder, Fr. Michael McGivney. Thank you, Prendergast family, for your commitment to and love for our parish community.
We celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation and a First Communion on Saturday, 14 November for several of our youth who were not able attend the Masses this summer due to health concerns generated by Covid-19. I’d like to share a note from one of our families as a reminder to ALL during this season of Thanksgiving how truly BLESSED we are at St. John’s:
“Thank you for such a joyous day. I cannot begin to put into words how wonderful the day was for Jameson and our family. For so many reasons, this was the perfect Confirmation. Thank you for providing a safe and healthy opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit. Jameson was truly filled with the peace and joy throughout the day...it has been some time since I have seen such happiness in our family, and I know that it was the work of the Holy Spirit, our time spent with the Eucharist, and our first opportunity to be together (even just a few of us due to health concerns). Thank you, thank you, thank you for your patience and understanding in working with our more compromised families. Many blessings to all of you. Wishing you a warm and blessed Thanksgiving and hope to see you soon.
Warmly, Sheri-Lynn.” Thank you, Diskin family, for your kindness towards our team!
With this good tiding, let us begin anew as a parish family with positive thoughts and kindness toward one another. May NOTHING separate us from the love of Jesus Christ and one another.
Be Blessed!
With love, Fr. John
Ecclesia de Eucharistia
For this week, we shall reflect on paragraphs 45 - 46 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. With these two paragraphs we come to the end of the 4th chapter. Here Pope John Paul II is discussing about special circumstances where the Holy Communion can be administered to those from Eastern Christian Churches in communion with the Pope.
- While it is never legitimate to concelebrate in the absence of full communion, the same is not true with respect to the administration of the Eucharist under special circumstances, to individual persons belonging to Churches or Ecclesial Communities not in full communion with the Catholic Church. In this case, in fact, the intention is to meet a grave spiritual need for the eternal salvation of an individual believer, not to bring about an intercommunion which remains impossible until the visible bonds of ecclesial communion are fully re-established.
This was the approach taken by the Second Vatican Council when it gave guidelines for responding to Eastern Christians separated in good faith from the Catholic Church, who spontaneously ask to receive the Eucharist from a Catholic minister and are properly disposed (No. 45: AAS 87 (1995), 948). This approach was then ratified by both Codes, which also consider – with necessary modifications – the case of other non-Eastern Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church (Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches Orientalium Ecclesiarum, 27).
- In my Encyclical Ut Unum Sint I expressed my own appreciation of these norms, which make it possible to provide for the salvation of souls with proper discernment: “It is a source of joy to note that Catholic ministers are able, in certain particular cases, to administer the sacraments of the Eucharist, Penance and Anointing of the Sick to Christians who are not in full communion with the Catholic Church but who greatly desire to receive these sacraments, freely request them and manifest the faith which the Catholic Church professes with regard to these sacraments. Conversely, in specific cases and in particular circumstances, Catholics too can request these same sacraments from ministers of Churches in which these sacraments are valid” (No. 46: AAS 87 (1995), 948).
These conditions, from which no dispensation can be given, must be carefully respected, even though they deal with specific individual cases, because the denial of one or more truths of the faith regarding these sacraments and, among these, the truth regarding the need of the ministerial priesthood for their validity, renders the person asking improperly disposed to legitimately receiving them. And the opposite is also true: Catholics may not receive communion in those communities which lack a valid sacrament of Orders (Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio, 22).
The faithful observance of the body of norms established in this area (Code of Canon Law, Canon 844; Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, Canon 671) is a manifestation and, at the same time, a guarantee of our love for Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, for our brothers and sisters of different Christian confessions – who have a right to our witness to the truth – and for the cause itself of the promotion of unity.