Our Sunday Bible study group recently finished the Book of Isaiah and will be doing something lighter and festive during the Advent season.
We will share our favorite Christmas art, music, and poetry. Please join us.
The group meets on the parish Zoom channel on Sundays at 5 PM. The Advent sessions will occur on December 5, 12, and 19 (there is no session this Sunday).
Advent begins on Sunday, November 28, 2021 – join us in person or online.
Our current Mass times are:
9 AM EST – Morning Mass – in person
11:15 AM EST – Community Mass – in person and livestreamed online
7 PM EST – Evening Mass – in person
Watch the video live or on replay via YouTube Live by clicking in the window above. Subscribe to our YouTube channel atyoutube.com/stcharlesbklyn .
The new liturgical year begins today – the readings will be from Cycle C.
Entrance: O Come, Divine Messiah! – 401 Readings and Responsorial Psalm – 993 Offertory: Creator of the Stars of Night – 420 Communion: Taste and See – 930 Closing: City of God – 766
The Gather 3rd Edition Hymnal/Missals are available for use in the church – pick one up as you enter and return it after Mass. Instructions on how to use the hymnal missal are available here: https://www.stcharlesbklyn.org/hymnal-missal/ .
Today’s readings are also available to read online at the USCCB website https://bible.usccb.org .
Please follow the instructions of the ushers, and observe all of the posted health precautions so that we can continue to worship together safely.
Fr. Smith’s Commentary of the Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 3:12–4:2 First Sunday of Advent November 27, 2021
Today we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the Church Year. The most obvious change is that the priest will be wearing purple vestments. A more subtle difference is how the readings for Mass will be chosen. In Ordinary Time, when the liturgical color is green, the Gospel for the year is read somewhat continuously and the first reading is chosen from the Old Testament to complement it. The second reading most often taken from St. Paul is read also semi-contiguously for a few weeks at a time. We have recently examined Romans, 1st Peter, and Hebrews among other writings. In Advent all the readings are chosen to develop the theme of the season. We might better say variations on a theme. Advent means “coming” and we are certainly aware that Christmas is coming. Yet there is another coming that is commemorated as well.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. It was created by Pope Pius XI, Achille Ratti, in 1925 and to understand the feast you will need to know the Man. Let me tell you a story about him that occurred earlier that year.
The dust had settled from the First World War and revealed a changed world, every institution including the church was uncertain how to proceed, indeed, how to connect with people. Since the 1890s the Popes had realized that the rise of industrialism and the form of capitalism that supported it as well as the socialism and communism that opposed it had created unprecedented problems for a church that depended upon monarchial government and agricultural production. Pope Leo 13th in 1891 recognized the need for a just wage and the right of working people to organize to provide for a dignified and productive life. He sought to bring the church to accept this new reality and to embrace clerks, merchants and most importantly factory workers.
His call was not heeded by most bishops in the world and indeed was at some times and places actively resisted. The split widened between working people and the Church. One exception to this not very benign neglect was a young Belgian Priest, Joeph Cardijn. He not only saw the need to minister to young workers but to minister with them. He formed groups which eventually became the Young Christian Workers not only for catechetical instruction and prayer but for education and social action. He believed that they should control their own funds and decide on their own projects and causes. The motto of the group, which was taken up by Pope St John 23rd in the Second Vatican Council and Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti was “See, Judge Act.”
Fr. Tumino, pastor at St. Augustine – St. Francis Xavier invites our parishioners to attend the annual World Aids Day commemoration on Dec. 1 at 7 PM at St Augustine’s (116 6th Ave. in Park Slope).
*** Below are the details about the event ***
Our annual World AIDS Day Prayer Service will be held on December 1 at 7 PM, at the St. Augustine worship site. Every year we remember friends and family who have died of AIDS by placing red ribbons with their names on the church fence in November. Then those names are read as part of the prayer service.
For those who may wish to remember a loved one, not included already, please contact the St. Augustine – St. Francis Xavier Parish Office at (718) 638-1880.
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