14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Cassie

As Jesus travels toward Jerusalem, He sends His disciples ahead of Him to prepare people for His visiting their towns and villages.  These disciples were given much the same charge as the Twelve.  Like the Twelve, the seventy are related to the origins of Israel.  Whereas the twelve apostles relate to the twelve sons of Israel, the seventy relate to the seventy elders Moses gathered around Himself as the elders of Israel.

These seventy received some of the spirit God had given to Moses, and they would assist Moses in leading the people.  The seventy disciples represent Jesus when He is absent and they carry out what will be the work of the Church.  To hear or reject them is to hear or reject Jesus as well as Him who sent Jesus.

The disciples return to Jesus, reporting great success.  Yet the important thing is not what the disciples have done, but that their “names are written in heaven.”  God values us for who we are more than for what we can do for Him, even though he expects our service.  Jesus rejoices that God has made Himself known to the ordinary men and  women who Jesus called to be disciples.  He rejoices in the way that Gods’ Kingdom was being revealed to them, joining them to the Father.

Even if these disciples often failed to understand, even if they made mistakes, even if they wavered,  never the less Jesus had changed their lives where it counted most.  Jesus brought them and would continue to bring them into a relationship with His Father as their Father, fulfilling the hopes and longings of earlier ages.  Jesus did that for His early disciples, and he also does it for you and me – His disciples today.

God Bless

Msgr. Powell

solemnity of st. peter and paul

Posted on by Cassie

Today is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.  June 29th is the liturgical feast in honor of the martyrdom in Rome of these two great apostles.  They both died as martyrs for the faith in the early 60’s, just thirty years after the death of Jesus.

Peter was crucified upside down in the court yard to the left of St. Peter’s Basilica and Paul was beheaded outside the walls of the ancient city of Rome in a place called the Fontane (three fountains).

St. Peter was buried in the nearest cemetery which was on top of Vatican Hill.  St. Peter’s was later built over his grave. Paul was also buried in the nearest cemetery and the Basilica of St. Paul’s outside the walls was later built on top of his tomb.  In both cases the altar of each Basilica is directly above each tomb.

Peter was the first Pope and kept the Church united as it grew following Pentecost.  Paul is the great missionary to the Gentiles (the non-Jews).  He brought many non-Jewish people into the Church.

Peter and Paul had very important tasks in the early Church: Peter maintained the unity in the Church, and Paul taught that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament hopes and the Savior of all mankind.  Statues of St. Peter usually has him holding a set of keys symbolizing his duty as head of the Church and Paul holds a Bible symbolizing his preaching ministry.

Just as Peter and Paul had strengths and weaknesses, so to do you and I.  We are called as these great apostles were to bring our talents to the service of the Church.

Today’s Feast is a reminder to each of us that our talents and our weaknesses too can become a means of helping others, if we allow God’s grace to work with us.  We don’t have to be perfect for God to work through us; God can work through us faults and all, as he did with Peter and Paul.

God Bless,

Msgr. Powell

the most holy body and blood of christ

Posted on by Cassie

In the early Church, special devotion to the Eucharist outside of Mass was practically non-existent.  However, by the fourth century, as heresies denying Christ’s divinity grew in popularity, the Church began to more strongly emphasize the divine nature of Jesus.

This emphasis on the sacred was so powerful that people often felt “unworthy” to receive Communion and (if they did choose to receive) did so with fear and awe.  By the Middle Ages, people sometimes attended Mass without receiving Communion.  Since Mass was regarded as a dramatization of Jesus’ passion, people still wanted to see and adore the  consecrated host.  Visual Communion or “adoration of the host” became a substitute  for receiving Communion.

The Feast of Corpus Christi was first proposed by Juliana of Liege, an Augustinian nun whose visions told her a Feast honoring the Blessed Sacrament was needed.  Corpus Christi was first celebrated in 1247 in the Diocese of Liege, France.  In 1264, Pope Urban IV (the former Archbishop of Liege) extended the Feast for the whole Church.

After the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the Feast of the Body of Christ (Corpus Christi) was combined with the Feast of the Precious Blood of Christ (formerly observed on July 1) as a reminder that Jesus is present under both forms.  The Feast is now the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Corpus Christi was assigned to be celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday and is still observed on that day in many countries.  It is also a Holy Day of Obligation in some places.  After Vatican II the United States Bishops assigned the Feast to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday.

God Bless,

Msgr. Powell