The King's Corner

October 30, 2016 Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

No  one  needs  to  tell  anyone  that  the  national election is now approaching and so other than sighing in relief that the vitriol and  scandal  on  all  sides  will  soon  subside  (hopefully),  how  are  we  to  make  our choice in the voting booth? Some may try to tell us for partisan reasons that one candidate is better for Catholics than another, but a look at the last four  decades  will prove that even when that claim has been made before any election is has not really turned  out  to  be  true  because we  are  still  struggling with many of the same laws and policies that go against the Catholic moral grain.  In  this  pluralistic  society  and contemporary culture, it is extremely unlikely that  any  major  party  is  going  to  propose a candidate that promotes an agenda that is completely palatable to us as Catholics.

A very moving production of the Blue Mass done by Bill Nay of Mashpee, TV. Bill captured the Mass laced with interviews from a very special evening. I hope you'll take the time to watch what was a moving occasion. God bless our first responders!

James Martin, SJ, who wrote “Jesus: A Pilgrimage” recently said, “An absolutely gorgeously written book about real faith in the real world.”   He was speaking about the 2015 book “Grounded: Finding God in the World – A Spiritual Revolution” written by Diana Butler Bass.  I’m reading it now. Among many things she says: “…The conventional understandings of God have become increasingly irrelevant throughout Western culture, societies once shaped by the most magnificent visions of the transcendent God.  Those views are being challenged by an emerging embrace of God-with-us, a from-the-ground-up theology evident in attitudes towards nature and culture and in our hopes, dreams, and actions…This God is not above or beyond, but integral to the whole f creation, entwined with the sacred ecology of the universe.” This sounds a lot like the Holy Spirit that is not an “emerging embrace” but a long-held conviction made known to us through the Trinity. So far I like what she says especially

October 23, 2016 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

Ex 17.8-13; Ps 121.1-8; 2 Tm 3.14-4.2;  Lk 18.1-8 As many in our Parish of Christ the King know, both of my parents died this past month. Many, many, people said they have been praying for us. I think we needed those prayers. I know I needed those prayers.   The readings for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time are about prayer, especially the persistence of praying. Isn’t it interesting that we often don’t think our prayers are being answered. We ask for something specific and it doesn’t happen. After all, I prayed for the Red Sox to win the World Series, but that isn’t going to happen. Maybe I didn’t pray persistently or hard enough. Maybe as a student you prayed hard to do well on a test but it never happened. Maybe if you studied a little bit it that would have helped. After all we have to do our part too. Or maybe as a parent you prayed really hard for a child of yours so they would come back to church. I know parents who have prayed for over 50 years that their son or

A little girl, dressed in her Sunday best, was running as fast as she could, trying not to be late for Sunday School.  As she ran she prayed, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late! Dear Lord, please don't let me be late!  Please don’t let me late!” As she was running and praying, she tripped on a curb and fell getting her clothes dirty and tearing her dress.  She got up, brushed herself off, and started running again. As she ran, she once again began to pray, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late!...But don't shove me either." This little girl with her repeated prayer reminds us of our Gospel from Luke that begins with: “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary…”  Jesus told them and now us: “Pray always…don’t become weary…be persistent.”   We can assume Jesus might have said as well: “I’m with you.  Take my hand.  If you fall, I’ll pull you up.  I’ll never give up on you.”   This woul

A fun night was had by all!  Click photo's to view the album from the evening.

October 16, 2016 Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

I will never forget my first experience with a parishioner from my home parish after I had been accepted to the seminary.  She approached me after Mass to ask a question.  The question is lost to the slow fogging of time, however, her reaction to when she found out I was to study for the priesthood, is still vivid.  A horrified look came over her face and she replied, “You are so young.  Why would you want to waste your life being a priest?” This statement was not at all what I expected, but after many years of thought, I am sure the reason for her statement was out of concern for my welfare.  As she saw it, the priesthood was a burdensome vocation, lacking family, fulfillment and happiness.  Indeed, this person acted out of compassion, she hoped for me to live a happy life.   But it is discouraging for a young man to hear this and unfortunately, I was not the only one so discouraged.  The CARA report, a survey given to those about to be ordained priests this year, shows that 51% o

The local news recently presented a story of a woman who was very distraught, and understandably so, because her car had been broken into and what the thieves took was what they mistakenly believed to be drugs but were in reality a small box containing some of her late mother’s ashes.   When explaining why these should have been in the car she said it was her intention to mix some of them with her grandfather’s ashes and to have a necklace containing these made for her to wear! As Catholics, this where our sympathy with her plight has to stop, because no one should be using human remains in any form as jewelry, nor should such remains ever be divided up and parceled out as souvenirs nor ever scattered in gardens or in the sea.   This is why cremation was frowned upon for centuries by the Church because it feared the practice would compromise our doctrine of the last things and the not insignificant place that the body has to play in those ultimate realities.

FATIMA - OCTOBER 13th -   "Then, suddenly, one heard a clamor, a cry of anguish breaking from all the people. The sun, whirling wildly, seemed all at once to loosen itself from the firmament and, blood red, advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge and fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was truly terrible. All the phenomena, which I have described, were observed by me in a calm and serene state of mind without any emotional disturbance. It is for others to interpret and explain them. Finally, I must declare that never, before or after have I observed similar atmospheric or solar phenomena." This firsthand account by a man of science, Professor Garrett, describes what in fact thousands of ordinary people also witnessed at Fatima, Portugal ninety  years ago on October 13, 1917, which according to the three children who could see and hear her was the day  that the beautiful lady from heaven had  indicated would be her final appariti

October 9, 2016 Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

Honoring the Police, Fire, and First Responders of Mashpee, Cotuit, and Marstons Mills. Presented by Christ the King Parish St. Vincent de Paul Society on Friday, October 7, 2016 at 7:00 PM If you missed this special Mass and would like go watch it in  it’s entirety, click “The Blue Mass” .

Thank you.  Two simple words that we take for granted.  Words that we don’t say often.  Words that we don’t stop to think about.  However, the words “thank you” make all the difference in the world. This Friday, October 7, at 7pm at Christ the King is The Blue Mass.  Our parish’s St. Vincent dePaul Society is presenting this event for the police & fire of the parish territory – Mashpee, Cotuit, and Marstons Mills. When Deacon Greg Beckel and Deacon Frank Fantasia approached me with this idea in late May (just at the beginning of my summer break), asking me to be on the planning committee, I was beyond humbled.  Throughout the past few months, I have come to appreciate the service, time, and sacrifices that these men and women give on a daily basis to a much higher degree than before. Friday’s Blue Mass is going to be beautiful and extraordinary.  We have two honor guards coming (and I am told that they are the best around), the Boy Scouts, and a fire truck with an America

October 2, 2016 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass