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Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, November 21, 2021

Dear friends,

Once again, I thank you for your patient endurance of the current inconveniences during this first phase of our construction project. As we wait together with joyful anticipation for the improvements to take shape, I ask for your continued understanding.

Until the construction is complete, anyone wishing to visit our Lord in the Adoration Chapel will need to enter through the church. Follow the wall on the right side toward the sacristy, go up the steps or ramp, and you will see directions leading to the Adoration Chapel. Please exit in the same manner, and thank you for your continued commitment to adoration in our chapel.

With the liturgical celebration of this day, our Church comes to the end of her liturgical year cycle B and looks forward to liturgical year C which begins with the First Sunday of Advent next week. Known as the 34th Sunday or Last Sunday in Ordinary Time, we celebrate it as the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This is the day we spend in glory of the King of the Universe, the just Judge who is “the Alpha and the Omega … the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty” (Revelation 1: 8).

Throughout the week, let us take time to thank God for all that He is to us, acknowledging that all that we have and all that we are comes from Him. Please know that I thank God for you each and every day during celebration of the Eucharist. THANK YOU ALL for being such a wonderful community of disciples! May we join together in thanksgiving either at the Vigil Mass on Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. or at the 10 a.m. Mass on Thursday morning, Thanksgiving Day.

Next weekend, we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent and enter that beautiful season of the Church. Because there are only four weekends in Advent, we are beginning the season with an Advent Mission presented by Fr. David Guffey, C.S.C., national director of Family Theater Productions based in Hollywood, CA. He will be preaching at all Masses next Sunday, and the mission will be held Monday, 29 November, through Wednesday, 1 December at 7:00 p.m. each evening in the church. Please spread the word and plan to bring your family and friends as we join together to prepare our hearts to celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation at Christmas.

Mark your calendars for each Tuesday in Advent! We will be offering special programming on those evenings in preparation for the coming of our Infant King.

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

With love, Fr. John


Let us also continue our reflection on the Eucharist found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

ARTICLE 3: THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST

  1. THE PASCHAL BANQUET The fruits of Holy Communion

1394 As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this living charity wipes away venial sins (Cf. Council of Trent (1551): DS 1638). By giving himself to us Christ revives our love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and root ourselves in him:

Since Christ died for us out of love, when we celebrate the memorial of his death at the moment of sacrifice we ask that love may be granted to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We humbly pray that in the strength of this love by which Christ willed to die for us, we, by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, may be able to consider the world as crucified for us, and to be ourselves as crucified to the world. Having received the gift of love, let us die to sin and live for God (St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, Contra Fab. 28,16-19: CCL 19A,813- 814).

1395 By the same charity that it enkindles in us, the Eucharist preserves us from future mortal sins. The more we share the life of Christ and progress in his friendship, the more difficult it is to break away from him by mortal sin. The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins - that is proper to the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church.

1396 The unity of the Mystical Body: the Eucharist makes the Church. Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body - the Church.

Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church, already achieved by Baptism. In Baptism we have been called to form but one body (Cf. 1 Cor 12:13). The Eucharist fulfills this call: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Cor 10:16-17).

If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. To that which you are you respond "Amen" ("yes, it is true!") and by responding to it you assent to it. For you hear the words, "the Body of Christ" and respond "Amen." Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true (St. Augustine, Sermo 272:PL 38,1247).

1397 The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren:

You have tasted the Blood of the Lord, yet you do not recognize your brother,.... You dishonor this table when you do not judge worthy of sharing your food someone judged worthy to take part in this meal. . . . God freed you from all your sins and invited you here, but you have not become more merciful (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in 1 Cor. 27,4:PG 61,229-230; cf. Mt 25:40).

Be Blessed! With love, Fr. John