Messages from Parishioners

Retreat Yourself! – Antonia Fusco

| St. Charles Borromeo

My name is Antonia and I’ve been a parishioner at St. Charles since my Confirmation in 2017. The last time I wrote here, I shared how the parish community helped raise me Catholic. Let me edit that last phrase: how the parish community is helping raise me Catholic. The formation process, I’ve discovered, is ongoing for all of us. For people who like to know what’s what (and you know who you are!!), it’s a bit of a challenge sometimes to accept the Mystery that is at the heart of our faith. Yet there’s a profound beauty and comfort in that, too, because it is through the Sacraments, Mass, Scripture, and Prayer that our Trinitarian God reveals Himself to us slowly, lovingly, surprisingly, if only partially. It’s an ever-evolving relationship. And when it comes right down to it, isn’t that true of all intimate relationships?

Anyone who’s in or has been in a long-term relationship, however, knows that you can fall into a rut or a period of stagnation. One solution is to go on vacation or do something together you haven’t done before; basically, becoming vulnerable and open. A silent, spiritual retreat with God, I’ve found, is similar. It’s an opportunity to step away from all that you’re attached to, including your attachment to yourself, so you can hear His knock and open the door to Him. Your spiritual director will help you invite Him in and encourage you to let Him restore the interior of your house. Like all renovations, though, it’s intense, messy, and filled with unanticipated challenges and delays—caused by your not fully retreating and allowing Him to renew you. It’s not easy surrendering—from holding on to be being held, from giving to receiving. At least that was my experience last month when I went to St. Edmund’s Retreat House on Enders Island. It’s a slow process, this letting-go, but every step of the way you begin to see everything as a gift, as a form of great love:

Continue reading “Retreat Yourself! – Antonia Fusco” →
Messages from the Pastor

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Accepting the Need to Be Transformed

| Fr. William Smith

Christ Walks on Water, Eero Järnefelt, 1891, Pori Art Museum (Wikipedia)

Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Romans 9:1-5
August 9, 2020

Last week we concluded our reading of Romans 8 with its ecstatic hymn to the power of God’s love to reach us: “(nothing) will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord .” (Rom. 8:39b). Paul had already assured us that by our Baptisms we were chosen by God. (Rom 8:29-30) and so the Romans, and we ourselves, should ask “What about the Jews?” Were they not chosen? Have they been abandoned by God?

This would have been particularly important to Paul’s original audience, the church at Rome. As we have seen repeatedly throughout this letter, that through their commercial interests many members of this community were closely connected to Jerusalem. Their Christianity would also have had a distinct Jewish flavor. Not all however had these same ties and some were not born Jews. Although all professed belief in Jesus there would have been tensions. These tensions were so great that the emperor Claudius around 45 AD expelled the Jews who followed “Chrestos” from the city of Rome. By the time Paul is writing to the Romans, “gentile Christians” were moving to Rome. Paul would need to explain himself and he did not have the best reputation on this issue. Continue reading “19th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Accepting the Need to Be Transformed” →

Homilies, Videos

18th Sunday Ordinary Time – Fr. Smith Homily

| St. Charles Borromeo

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730437.

Transcript:

Whenever St Matthew makes a reference to a previous event, he is telling us to take it very seriously. He begins today with “when Jesus heard of it”. The it was the section immediately preceding this one usually called the martyrdom of St John the Baptist. Yet Matthew will emphasize the dinner at which it occurred and as we prepare for the next stage in our lives as Christians in general and members of St Charles Borromeo church in particular so should we.  

Continue reading “18th Sunday Ordinary Time – Fr. Smith Homily” →
Messages from the PPC

Expanding our Table – Donna Whiteford

| St. Charles Borromeo

Happy August to all those in the St Charles Parish Family and to all of our Friends. I hope that everyone has been able to enjoy the summer and get in some relaxation, wherever you may be.

Matthew’s Gospel on Sunday recounts the miracle of the loaves and fishes. I can’t exactly explain why, but this Gospel passage has always been a favorite of mine. Perhaps it is the demonstrated faith of the apostles that after Christ blessed the meager food supplies which they had collected and then began to share, that He would expand the table and enable all of those present to be fed. Or I sometimes see in it a metaphor for the boundless love that Christ has for us, his brothers and sisters, and his willingness to share that love with us in whatever way we may need. Other times for me it symbolizes how Christ, and the church and our parish community, is the table at which we are able to nourish our spiritual hunger and renew and sustain our faith. And, as you will hear from Fr. Bill on Sunday, it can be seen to prefigure the Last Supper and our own Eucharist, which celebrates and renews our relationship with God. Continue reading “Expanding our Table – Donna Whiteford” →

Messages from the Pastor

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Living in the Spirit, Sharing in His Victory

| Fr. William Smith

Milagro de los panes y los peces, Juan de Espinal, c. 1750, Despacho del Alcalde de la Casa consistorial de Sevilla (Wikipedia)

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Rom. 8:35, 37-39
August 2, 2020

Today’s reading is one of the most beautiful standalone passages in St. Paul. Whenever possible, I use it for funerals because it expresses the bedrock of Christian hope. Yet having examined the rest of Romans, we can see why it is such a fitting conclusion to it. It is also a pertinent exhortation to us at St. Charles.

The selection that will be used at Mass needs to be read with the passage immediately before it. Together, they form a powerful and haunting victory hymn: Continue reading “18th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Living in the Spirit, Sharing in His Victory” →