The King's Corner

January 29, 2017 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

Happy Catholic Schools Week!  This week, January 29 - February 4, we mark the annual celebration of Catholic Schools Week.  This year's theme is Catholic Schools: Communities of Faith, Knowledge, and Service . Having benefited from Catholic Education for the past 11 years, I find my heart full of gratitude during this week.  I am the person I am today because of the education received at St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School, St. John Paul II High School, and now St. Joseph's College.  I have grown as a person, as a student, and as a disciple as a result of my time at these places.  With graduation only 3 months away, I find myself looking back at these past 11 years quite often as of late. In middle school, we marked Catholic Schools Week with visits from the Bishop, ice cream socials, dress down days, spirit days, and school-wide volleyball tournaments.  Everybody looked forward to Catholic Schools Week! However, I think the word "communities" stands out to

What’s bothering our conscience today?   Perhaps the way we treat God’s creation.   Helping us answer this question is Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., who wrote the 2009 article, “An Earthly Christology: ‘For God so loved the cosmos,” published in the celebratory issue of America – The National Catholic Weekly: 100 Years.  Here we are a bit more than 7 years later, and it worthwhile pondering the claim: “For God so loved the cosmos” especially because Pope Francis has given us his 2015 “Encyclical on Climate Change & Inequality: On Care for Our Common Home.” Johnson begins with the following: “When the noted U.S. naturalist John Muir came across a dead bear in Yosemite, he wrote in his journal a biting criticism of religious people who make no room in heaven for such noble creatures: ‘Not content with taking all of earth, they also claim the celestial country as the only ones who possess the kinds of souls for which that imponderable empire was planned.’ To the contrary, he belie

Lent is not really that far away.   March 1 is Ash Wednesday.   Let’s ease our consciences by spending some time preparing for that special time of the year with a focus on learning more about the death of Jesus.   I suggest we go to the website: www.bc.edu/schools/stm/crossroads/homepage.html and take a free mini-course offered by Boston College. Go to this site: (1) click on “mini-courses;” (2) scroll down to “The Death of Jesus: Four Gospel Accounts;” (3) look right and click on “Passion Narrative Commentaries;” and (4) you are off and running. Also, click on the photo of books labeled “Free Resources,” and see where that takes you.  There will be many options.  Try scrolling down to “America Media on Youtube.”  Pick the upload “Be Kind” – a short and special Lenten message offered by Father Jim Martin.   Also, Stephen Colbert professes his Catholic faith to Father Martin (hysterical!).

Here’s a fable from Aesop.   A fox, running before the hounds, came across a Woodcutter felling an oak and begged him to show him a safe hiding-place. The Woodcutter advised him to take shelter in a hollow log, so the Fox crept in and hid himself. The huntsman soon came up with his hounds and inquired of the Woodcutter if he had seen the Fox.  He declared that he had not seen him, and yet pointed, all the time he was speaking, to the log where the Fox lay hidden. The huntsman took no notice of the signs, but believing his word, hastened forward in the chase. As soon as they were well away, the Fox departed without taking any notice of the Woodcutter: whereon he called to him and reproached him, saying, “You ungrateful fellow, you owe your life to me, and yet you leave me without a word of thanks.”

Anyone who is scheduled to be hospitalized - especially for surgery, should request  to  receive the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick here in the parish before the day of admission/surgery. If you find  yourself or a loved one hospitalized unexpectedly, please notify the Catholic Chaplains’ Office in  the  hospital so  that they may receive the Sacrament of Anointing and visits from Eucharistic Ministers and pastoral care workers during your stay. Due to strict privacy laws, you cannot assume that the Chaplains’ Office is aware of your admission, so please take  the  initiative in informing them in order to help them serve you. Please remember that the Catholic Chaplaincies in our local hospital and throughout the Diocese are completely  dependent  upon  the  funds  raised by the Annual  Catholic  Charities  Appeal, so please remember to be generous to the Appeal which does so much good in this and so many other ways. Should you, a family member or neighbor be confined to home

I’ve always wondered about the word “conscience.”    What is its derivation?    At first, I thought it meant “con-science” or “with science.”  Perhaps it does, and if so, then what is the link to science?   Being a scientist, I find it curious that science would be linked to that which is so important to our Catholic faith and behavior – conscience.   According to Darlene Weaver in her C21 Resources article (Understanding Conscience): “Thus on the one hand, conscience refers to a moral law outside of us that we must obey, and on the other hand, it refers to the voice of God echoing in the deepest part of ourselves.”  Is the voice of God “science?” This is an intriguing question.  Anyone familiar with science – physical, biological, and chemical – cannot help but answer “yes.”   Scientists hear the voice of God as they apply their knowledge and understanding of such things as our immense universe with all its stars, galaxies, gases, black holes, and emptiness.  

Boston College is to be congratulated for its publication, “C21 Resources” published by BC’s The Church in the 21st Century Center: A Catalyst and Resource for the Renewal of the Catholic Church.  The fall 2016 issue is devoted to conscience and is entitled “Conscience at Work.”  The cover photo has Pope Francis kneeling outside a confessional with his back to the camera, and he is reconciling himself to God through the priest ministering the sacrament. The managing editor, Karen Kiefer, begins the issue with a piece profiling “conscience in the Catholic tradition: honing our moral ‘muscle” and “conscience and Pope Francis: responsible freedom.”  She states, “…Attending to the presence and call of God amid the world’s complex moral, political – and ordinary household – dilemmas requires vigilant discernment to make good choices.”   She ends by concluding, “May this issue of ‘Resources’ insights from the riches of Scripture and tradition, moral exemplars, and companions on the jou

All this week I discuss “conscience.”  We’ve all heard: “Let your conscience be your guide.”    It’s the part of us that needs to be “formed,” and through good practice and Church teaching based on following Jesus’ way, we hope to be properly “formed” and informed. I begin with a piece of script those reading this blog likely will remember since the majority of readers probably are in their 60’s and older.   The Blue Fairy: You must learn to choose between right and wrong. Pinocchio: Right and wrong? But how will I know? Jiminy Cricket: [watching] How'll he know! The Blue Fairy: [to Pinocchio] Your conscience will tell you. Pinocchio: What's a conscience? Jiminy Cricket: What's a conscience! I'll tell ya! A conscience is that still small voice that people won't listen to. That's just the trouble with the world today... Pinocchio: Are you my conscience? Jiminy Cricket: Who, me? [seeing Pinocchio for the first time] Good piece of wood, too.  No

January 22, 2017 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

It is an ancient custom that people may request a priest to offer Mass for a relative  or  friend  either living  or  dead  so that the merits of the celebration may provide a blessing to them in this life or on their  way  to  their  ultimate  destination in the next. An offering given to the priest for this  purpose binds  his  intention  meaning that he may not offer the Mass for anyone else. Our custom is to mention the name of the person for whom the priest is obliged to  offer  the  Mass,  and  thus  to  ask others present to pray for them as well. While we will continue to do that in our parish it is technically not necessary and may give the impression that the Mass “belongs” exclusively  to  the person  for  whom  the  priest is  bound  to  offer  it.  That  is  unfortunate, because other than the priest who has accepted the offering for a specific intention, all others who are present and participating  at  Mass  are free to offer the Mass for any and all whom they wish.

Yesterday (Thursday) in our bible study group at the Falmouth Hospital the subject of who and what is an apostle came up. Are there only twelve Apostles or can other people be apostles? Can the word disciple be used interchangeably with apostle? To state a conclusion before the discussion, suffice it to say that, all apostles are disciples, but not all disciples are apostles. Normally we think of the twelve disciples of Jesus when we say who were the Apostles. That happens to be today’s gospel from Mark, “He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles.” Then he says why he calls them apostles, that He might “send them forth to preach.” And that is the meaning of the term apostle, people who are sent for some purpose. In contrast, a disciple is one who learns from a teacher, who is a student. Before one becomes an apostle, you must be a disciple. If you noticed, I used capital “A” for the twelve disciples Jesus chose and a small “a” when talking about those outside of the twel

January 15, 2017 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

January 8, 2017 The Epiphany of the Lord Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

If  asked  to  tell  the  Christmas  Story, most of us are likely to give the account of  the  birth  of  Jesus  at  Bethlehem, we may complete that by including the arrival of the Magi from the east as we observe the Feast of the Epiphany today. Would any of us be likely to include the account of Jesus changing water into wine at the wedding in Cana? Yet to many Orthodox  Christians  of  the  East, the  Wedding at  Cana  is  the  final  act  in  the  “Christmas Story” which begins with the Nativity, includes  the  Magi,  the  Presentation in the Temple, the Flight into  Egypt, the  Return to  Nazareth,  the  Finding  of  Jesus  in  the  Temple,  and  the  Lord’s  Baptism  by  John in  the  Jordan.  Indeed,  Christmas  for  traditional Christians of the west and east is not  restricted  to  the  story  of  the  birth  of Jesus but rather only begins there and includes all of the “early manifestations” that this Jesus born at Bethlehem and raised at Nazareth  is  truly  the  Mess

January 1, 2017 The Octave Day of Christmas Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass