The King's Corner

 

April 24, 2022, Second Sunday of Easter  The Week of Weeks:  Easter is not just a day but a Season of  50 days; 7 weeks of 7 days which will conclude with Pentecost Sunday. The good news of Christ’s resurrection cannot be  fully comprehended or celebrated in one day alone;  we need to take our time to deepen our understanding of  the implications of his resurrection for our own lives  and express our joy as we renew our appreciation of the enduring  truth that because Christ is risen and promises the same to believers that  in the end all will be well! 

 

There will be no reflections from today until the 30th.  I will be away.  Peace be with you all! Deacon David Pierce

At daybreak on the first day of the week the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified and rise on the third day.” And they remembered his words. Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense, and they did not believe

Good Friday Reflection 3 PM Each account of the Passion of Lord is dramatic and draws on what the Jewish people knew best – the psalms.  For most of us, I suspect we know of just a few psalms some of which we can recite from memory such as the 23rd psalm we might pray when we are scared or threatened.  The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack…Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.    Jesus knew the psalms quite well.  After all, he was Jew, and the Jewish people’s deepest feelings were and still are given voice through the psalms that can be chanted or sung. We Catholics do the same, although most of us have shortchanged ourselves by giving the 150 psalms little attention except for our Music Director, Donny Nolan, who has arranged music for well over 100 psalms. The different Passion accounts provide many examples of how the psalms became the foundation on which the followers o

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21) We all carry “scrolls” of a sort.  They are our personal histories recording our ups and downs as well as our loves – those we have and those we have lost. 

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The teacher says, My appointed time draws near; in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”‘“ The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?” He said in reply, “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. T

I provide a recent reflection by Father Richard Rohr in which he reminds us that while we are invited to be in solidarity with the pain of others, God carries all pain: (begin) Many people rightly question how there can be a good God or a just God in the presence of so much evil and suffering in the world—about which God appears to do nothing. Exactly how is God loving and sustaining what God created? That is our dilemma. I believe—if I am to believe Jesus—that God is suffering love. If we are created in God’s image, and if there is so much suffering in the world, then God must also be suffering. How else can we understand the revelation of the cross and that the central Christian logo is a naked, bleeding, suffering man?

What's in a name?  Quite a bit actually.  If we are a mob, then bad things are likely to happen.  If we are a gathering, well, that's a different story.  Gatherings sound peaceful.  Mobs turn violent.  It's neigh time for Catholics to dazzle through our love and support of others.  When we are bloated, we never move away from prejudice and self-serving behavior.  Let's climb out of our dirty waters and the mud.  Therapy is not needed.   The Lord must always be with us evidenced by what we say and do.  Jesus may not be flashy and hip, but he is cool. Deacon David Pierce

 

Jesus proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem. As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples. He said, “Go into the village opposite you, and as you enter it you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. And if anyone should ask you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you will answer, ‘The Master has need of it.’”  So those who had been sent went off and found everything just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying this colt?” They answered, “The Master has need of it.” So they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks over the colt, and helped Jesus to mount. As he rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on the road; and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen. They proclaimed: “Blessed is

  April 10, 2022, Palm Sunday Support for the People of Ukraine and Eastern Europe: Through the generosity of the people of the parish $8,658. has been collected and will now be forwarded to Catholic Near East Welfare Association to assist Ukrainians and those in the surrounding countries who have taken in so many of them who are seeking refuge from the dangers of the war. EASTER MASSES: Masses at Easter are on a different schedule. There is only the Solemn Vigil of Easter at 7 PM on Saturday Evening, thus no 4 PM Mass, and as there is no 5:30 PM Mass on Easter Sunday, 3 Masses are offered on Easter Sunday Morning: 8 AM, 9:30 AM, and 11 AM. Please note these changes which are for Easter only.

Thus says the Lord GOD: I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have come and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land. I will make them one nation upon the land, in the mountains of Israel, and there shall be one prince for them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms. No longer shall they defile themselves with their idols, their abominations, and all their transgressions. I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God. My servant David shall be prince over them, and there shall be one shepherd for them all; they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees. They shall live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where their fathers lived; they shall live on it forever, they, and their children, and their children’s children, with my servant David their prince forever.  I

Palm Sunday  –  April 9th/ 10th: Blessing and Distribution of Palms at all Masses Holy Thursday – April 14th:: 7 PM -Mass of the Lord’s Supper followed by Adoration until Night Prayer in the Chapel at 10 PM Good Friday – April 15th, 9 AM – Morning Prayer; 3 PM- Service of the Passion; 7 PM- Stations of the Cross 

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I hear the whisperings of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!” All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. “Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail and take our vengeance on him.” But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion. O LORD of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart, let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause. Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked! (Jeremiah 20:10-13) Too many of our adversaries are on the watch for any misstep of ours. They seek to trap us and take vengeance on us.  It's tragic they wish to terrorize us through lies and misrepresentations often conveyed through social media.  

Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” So the Jews said to him, “Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area. (John 8:51-59)

King Nebuchadnezzar said: “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will not serve my god, or worship the golden statue that I set up? Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I had made, whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments; otherwise, you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace; and who is the God who can deliver you out of my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up.” King Nebuchadnezzar’s face became livid with utter rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual and had some of the st

From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road, to bypass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses, “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.” Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. (Numbers 21:4-9)

What follows is Father James Martin’s reflection for the Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent.  I provide it here because like Father Martin, when I read the Passion account of the Jews killing Jesus, I am extremely uncomfortable because I know that just wasn’t true.  Its implications have been historically tragic for Jewish people with Christians persecuting and killing Jews for killing God.  Martin begins with this quote from the Gospel of John (7:1): “Jesus moved about within Galilee; he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him” and continues with:  Over the last few years, I’ve been writing a book about the story of the raising of Lazarus, as recorded in John’s Gospel. Some of the chief characters in that beautiful story are “the Jews” (“oi Ioudaioi” in Greek). Though “the Jews” are described as friends of Lazarus’s sisters Martha and Mary and grieve over Lazarus’s death, in John’s Gospel they are often portrayed in the most negative of terms (as they

 

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no

  April 3, 2022, Fifth Sunday of Lent The Goal In Sight: Lent often takes on a life of its own, but we cannot forget its purpose which is to help us to be better prepared to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with minds and hearts renewed. One week from now we will be beginning our observance of that one week of the year that we designate as “holy” when in our liturgy we remember the pivotal events that took place in Jerusalem from the triumphal entry of Jesus into that city and his passion, death, and resurrection which followed. In Jerusalem, the Lord passed through death to life, and it is this mystery that we not only recall but in which we actually participate by having “died” with him through our Lenten observances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving so that we may rise with him to new life in the joy of Easter. We are best prepared to enter Holy Week and celebrate the Sacred Triduum if through Lenten repentance and conversion we have left some of the less than Christian aspects of our

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”  Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee

Much has been said about the 2018 mid-term and 2019 Presidential elections.  For example, according to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his 2020 book Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times:  “…(begin) there was dark manipulation by social media companies – Facebook in particular – of what should have been private and protected.  In the Cambridge Analytica scandal the personal records of 87 million people, 70 million of then in the United States, were accessed and used for political purposes without their knowledge or agreement.   We now know that there was also Russian involvement in both the American Presidential election and the Brexit referendum in 2016, seemingly with the intention of destabilizing the politics of the West.  During the American election, the Russian Internet Research Agency, an organization of more than 1,000 people in St. Petersburg [Russia] operating behind undercover identities, reached more than 126 million Facebook users and 20 million on Instagram with p

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