The King's Corner

Where there is charity there is God:  The highest virtue – even greater than faith and hope, which are essential to the Christian life, is charity.   Why, because faith and hope are needed here and now to keep us believing in God and longing for a life in perfect union with Him, but when we get there, these virtues will no longer be necessary, that is why St. Paul tells us that it is charity that will remain, and so it is the greatest virtue of all.  Charity is not pity, it is love, not the romantic love which is the predominant notion of love in our contemporary culture, but the self-sacrificing love revealed in the Mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption, in that Christ forgoes his glory and humbles himself to be one with us, and goes even further in that he then lays down his life for our sake, accepting even death on a cross.  This is the highest form of love, the love that gives without expectation of return, the love that sacrifices all for the good of the other.  This love

April 23, 2017 Second Sunday of Easter Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

Who wants to resist happiness?    All of us, according to Matthew Kelly in his 2016 book, “Resisting Happiness.”  Father Healy provided this book during Holy Week, and all the copies were donated by a generous parishioner. According to Kelly, “What is resistance?  It’s that sluggish feeling of not wanting to do something that you know is good for you; it’s the inclination to do something that you unabashedly know is not good for you; and it’s everything in between.  It’s the desire and tendency to delay something you should be doing right now.” He goes on to say that resistance wears a thousand masks: “laziness, procrastination, fear, doubt, instant gratification, self-loathing, indecision, escapism, pride, self-deception, friction, tension, and self-sabotage.”  Quite the list!   “These are just some of the ways resistance manifests its ugly self in our lives and causes us to settle for so much less than God has imagined for us.”   Kelly calls resistance our enemy, and he insists

Earth Day is almost upon us, and a USA Today piece just caught my eye.  A few children’s books about the beauty of our Earth are described.  One is “The Lonely Giant.”   Now with three grandchildren, I’ve got to spend some time finding those “good reads” with meaning for the little ones.   Although I’ve long been aware of “The Lonely Giant,” it never was on my “must read” list. Being a giant living in a forest, he rips up trees.   The animals living in the woods start to disappear.    When the giant finds himself in a wasteland and finds one last yellow bird, he cages it.  But the bird grows sad and no longer sings.  He releases the bird and decides to replant the forest.  The animals return. It’s a simple story with an important message for young and old.  Our destructiveness is the result of lack of unawareness and thoughtlessness.   The giant is saved by a little bird that shows him love.  There is no scolding.

Jesus said, "I thirst." There was a vessel filled with common wine.  So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished." This part of our Gospel [Good Friday] contains two of the seven last words of Jesus – seven sayings attributed to him as he hung and then died on the cross.  In order, the seven are: (1) “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus was whipped.  His hands and feet were nailed to a cross. Jesus was being crucified.  Despite his suffering, he gave us our marching orders – our mission to forgive.

Ana and Nazanin were front-and-center at our Easter Vigil.   Nazanin was baptized.   She and Ana were confirmed and then received the Eucharist.   Two wonderful women who inspired me and the RCIA team to help them better understand and embrace our Catholic faith. In return, we came to appreciate how the Holy Spirit works to bestow gifts and fruits on all of us.  All we have to do is accept those gifts and then bear fruit - meaning we come to love God even more and to love our neighbors, even those who get on our nerves (family members as well). Ana and Nazanin rose with us during the Vigil as we all renewed our baptismal vows.   Take the time to introduce yourselves when you see them.   The light of Christ now shines on them, and we share that light. Deacon David Pierce     

"Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples.  And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.”  This is the beginning of today’s Gospel, and it’s quite appropriate for Patriots Day and the Boston Marathon.   Hordes of runners will race, or simply run 26 miles to the finish line. We’ve just run our short “marathon” called Holy Week, and all of us made it to the finish line on Easter.  We all ran a good race to announce the news that Jesus has risen.   Jesus met us along our way and greeted us at the checkpoints we call Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil.    Jesus also made it to the finish.  In fact, on Good Friday his last words were, “It is finished.”  Of course, he went beyond our marathon to rise and carry on with all of us serving as his modern day disciples. Carrying on requires enthusiasm, drive, and a refusal not to give up despite the obsta

Click to view Easter Vigil ~ Opening Procession, Exultet (English) Sung by Anthony Teixeira , RCIA Candidates, Nazinin and Anna at the Easter Vigil or Photos

The Week of Weeks: Seven weeks of seven days adds up to forty-nine  days and then on the 50th day there is the feast of Pentecost. This is how Easter is celebrated, not as a single day, but rather  as  a  season  that  only  begins  today. Why? Because the redemption that has been won for us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is news that deserves to be  repeated, further contemplated, more deeply believed each time we celebrate it. Ironically, we as Catholics tend to be better at observing the forty days of Lent with prayer  and  sacrifice  than  we  are  celebrating the fifty days of Easter. Would we consider making the effort to come to daily Mass for the season of Easter as we regularly do for the season of Lent? In the least, we must consciously keep the character  of  Easter  throughout  the  Fifty Days  –  lighting the Easter Candle each time we gather for the liturgy, and enthusiastically singing the joyful alleluias  and hymns  that  hail  wonder  of  the

CTK Youth Ministry 2017 Living Stations of the Cross click to view photos or video

Depriving ourselves of sweets, treats, food, wine, liquor,  and other indulgences  during Lent is only a form of  self discipline and not much different than dieting unless it has enabled us to set aside that which we would have spent on our own enjoyment of  these  treats for the good of the poor.  So the day of reckoning is soon upon us with the end of Lent coming as evening falls on Holy Thursday this week.   At the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on April 13th  we will  take up the collection which should represent what we gave up for the sake of others during Lent.  Thus so if you gave up Scotch - then you ought to be putting  at least the price of a half gallon of your usual brand in the basket - or the cost of several quarts of ice cream or a box or two of chocolates, etc..  If we have denied ourselves nothing or not kept our promise to give something up  then perhaps we should double the cost of what we kept enjoying and put that in the basket. Truly putting in "a bu

April 9, 2017 Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass Click Photos to view the photo album from the day.

For those who missed the Stations on Friday, you can watch them by clicking  The Stations of the Cross

April 2, 2017 Fifth Sunday of Lent Readings for today's Homily To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass