Join us online for Easter Sunday Online Mass at 11:15 AM EDT.
Download the service texts for the readings and hymns here.
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Recordings will be available at our website.
Author: St. Charles Borromeo
Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the First Reading – Conversion in Our Hearts and Our World
Resurrection, Benjamin West, c. 1808
Easter
Ezekiel 36:16–17a, 18–28
April 12, 2020
For most of the year, the first readings for the Mass are from the Old Testament. They are sufficiently diverse that over the three-year cycle we receive a very clear if not systematic understanding of its major themes. The exception to this rule is Easter time. For the weeks between Easter Sunday and Pentecost, our first reading will always be from the “Acts of the Apostles” and this year our second reading will be taken from the 1st letter of Peter. Our commentaries for this season will rotate between the two. However, the Easter Vigil Mass has seven selections from the Old Testament. Although some are quite unfamiliar to us, I have decided to look at a reading from the prophet Ezekiel who is by now familiar.
A more extensive biography of Ezekiel may be found in the commentary for the first reading for March 29, but the high points of his life are illuminating enough. He was a priest at the temple in Jerusalem who was exiled to Babylon in 597 BC. This was the first exile and meant as a warning, but by 587 BC the Babylonians had become so exasperated with the leadership of the Jews they finally decided to level the temple and destroy them as a nation. Indeed, Ezekiel had a vision of the glory of God leaving the temple (Ez. 10:18). Temple worship gave them their meaning and purpose, and this should have been the end of the Jewish people. Continue reading “Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the First Reading – Conversion in Our Hearts and Our World”
St. Charles at Home: Earth Shattering Palm Sunday
Fr. John Gribowich discusses Palm Sunday, an earth shattering moment then and now, with Antonia Fusco
Holy Week 2020 Service Texts
Please download the service texts to follow along with our Holy Week online celebration:
Palm Sunday 2020 – Fr. Gribowich Homily
Okay – good morning, everyone! I hope that you’re still all here with us. Like I promised, it was going to be a little messy, because the story that we had just heard is messy, right?
And this story, of course, is something that we know inside and out. I mean how many Holy Weeks have we gone through where we’ve heard the Passion. For those of us who participate in the service on Good Friday, we end up hearing two versions of the Passion throughout the week – today, and of course then on Friday, as well.
Yet, none of us have heard the Passion during the time that we’re facing right now, with this Coronavirus. In a certain sense, what we just heard, I think has a brand new relevance in our lives, and I think we can relate very much to Jesus screaming on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me?” Continue reading “Palm Sunday 2020 – Fr. Gribowich Homily”
New Episode of St. Charles at Home Posted
Fr. Bill speaks with Joseph and Diane Genova to reflect on parallels between the short story Revelation by Flannery O’Connor, last Sunday’s Gospel, and what we are experiencing during this time of the coronavirus pandemic. The video concludes with a meditation upon the cross with “Were You There” performed by our music ministry.