Today, I’m honored to have some of my family here at this mass. I won’t point them out, so I won’t not embarrass them too much, but it’s always a great time, especially during 4th of July when there’s lots of gatherings and parties and things like that. You get to see a lot of different families, lots of different people.

Continue reading “Homily – 14th Sunday Ordinary Time” →

Thank you to Beth Liou, James Maleady, and Alsatia Ragusa, who are joining the Parish Pastoral Council to serve our parish. Below are brief bios to help you get to know the new members.

Beth Liou has been a parish member at St. Charles since moving to Brooklyn Heights with her husband Eric in 2002. She has served in various roles, including as a catechist, an usher during reopening, and currently as a lector. Her sons Frank and Paul attended the Family Faith program and received their sacraments at St. Charles while also serving as altar servers. With the boys now grown, Beth is able to devote more time to parish activities, and is eager to serve the community in helping to increase opportunities for fellowship, outreach and faith development. Outside of parish activities, Beth works as a senior markets editor at Bloomberg News and is an avid runner, reader and Yankees/NY Giants fan.

Continue reading “Welcome New Parish Pastoral Council Members” →

June 13 is the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua, patron saint of lost things, as well as sailors and fishermen. Please join us in praying a novena in honor of St. Anthony over the nine days leading to his feast day, starting Tuesday, June 4 and concluding Wednesday, June 12. All are welcome to join fellow parishioners in praying the novena as a group on the parish Zoom channel, each day at 5 PM. The novena prayers are available online if you would like to pray the novena on your own. Printed copies will be available at church.

The next book selection for the Brownstone Brooklyn & Beyond book group is The Scandal of Redemption: When God Liberates the Poor, Saves Sinners, and Heals Nations by St. Oscar Romero. St. Romero was Archbishop of San Salvador until he was gunned down celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980. The book includes selections from St. Romero’s homilies and radio broadcasts.

Brownstone Brooklyn & Beyond is an inter-parish book group that meets Thursdays at 7 PM on the St. Charles parish Zoom channel. The discussions will begin on June 13 when we will discuss the beginning of the book through Chapter 1.

We will offer an online Bible study session that will read The Kingdom of God, The Essential Message of Jesus by Frank Matera. As Fr. Bill Smith often noted in his homilies: “The Kingdom is the key insight into Jesus’ self-understanding and our mission. Through Jesus, the Kingdom is already present but not yet completed. Although it is Jesus who brings and will fulfill the Kingdom, Christians are called to participate in it and to judge the world by it now.” This should be an extremely timely and relevant area of study given the current environment.

You can purchase the book through Little Rock Scripture Study. The group will meet on Sundays at 5 PM via Zoom starting on June 23. As a prelude, we will have faith sharing where we discuss the Sundays reading in on June 2 and June 9, also at 5 PM via Zoom.

There will not be a Mass at St. Charles this Monday, May 27. We invite you to attend the 7 AM Mass for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage at the nearby St. James Co-Cathedral or the Eucharistic procession that starts from St. James at 8:30 AM.