Events

Discussion Group for Universal Christ Starts Thursday

| Mike McGowan

Following on our rewarding Lenten discussion series with Grace Church, we will continue to offer a Thursday evening discussion group at 7 PM. The book we will read next is The Universal Christ, a recent and much acclaimed book by Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr. We will meet this Thursday and then on the following six Thursdays. The reading selections for each week are as follows: Continue reading “Discussion Group for Universal Christ Starts Thursday” →

Messages from the PPC

Easter Message from Francis and Kerin, Trustees

| St. Charles Borromeo

At this time last year, we were fresh from a visit by our bishop, celebrating Christ’s Resurrection with family and friends, and preparing to celebrate the 150th anniversary of our beautiful church building. We had just presented our Parish Pastoral Plan for the next five years. It contemplated a future of fewer priests and increasingly diverse and mobile parishioners, all seeking innovative means for faith and connection. Everything was so … normal.

But that future is now—and it is not at all as we envisioned.

This Easter, we are confined to our homes and deprived of the Eucharist physically, because we cannot share the Sacrament at Mass. We all are suffering from COVID-19, be it from illness and death, loss of employment or income, or separation from our friends and family. Nobody here has been untouched. Indeed, our extended “Lent” will continue long past today, but we have much to be grateful for. The Eucharist is abundant in our hearts.

The word “Eucharist” is derived from a Greek word that means “gratitude.”  Thomas Merton wrote: “To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything he has given us—and he has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of his love, every moment of existence is a grace.” We count among those grateful blessings the connections that we have made with each other, be it through the generations, or over the past year.

As Fr. Bill notes in his commentary on Ezekiel, we now by necessity engage in collaborative ministry. These connections cast aside the strictures of the past, yet is the same New Commandment that Jesus gave after the Last Supper: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” Each of us is called to play a role—probably not at all as we envisioned. Help us sustain each other: offer your talents to help.

On behalf of the entire St. Charles community, we wish you and your loved ones a healthy and peaceful Easter. May our gratitude strengthen us so that we will emerge on the other side of this safely together, ever closer to God’s love.

Francis Chin and Kerin Coughlin
Parish Trustees

Messages from the Pastor

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the First Reading – Conversion in Our Hearts and Our World

| St. Charles Borromeo

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” →