Happy Fathers’ Day to all the fathers in our parish community. May God bless all our fathers on this special day. Let us pray that all fathers will use the love of God as their example as they strive to be the best of fathers to their children. A father’s love is so important to children, more important than we sometimes realize. So often many people in our society believe that the father’s presence is not all that important in the development of a child. There are parts of our society that would have us believe that a child does not really need to have a father while growing up, and so we have those who think it is perfectly alright for a woman to have a child to raise him/her by herself. This kind of thinking defies God’s plan of creation. God created man and woman, so that from the love they have for each other in the context of marriage, new life can be brought into the world. God very definitely intended all of us to have a mother and a father.
As we celebrate this Fathers’ Day, we should reflect on God’s love for all of us, and how His love can be so beautifully revealed in the love of a father for his children. Fathers can often be very busy, and it is easy for them to begin to think that the best way to show their love for their families is by providing for them through their jobs. That is all well and good, but there is much more to being a good father. Fathers need to spend time with their children, and I think more fathers realize this today than in years gone by.
HOW TO DRESS FOR MASS. As always with the warmer weather now upon us some need to take special care of how they come dressed to Mass. There is a great temptation to be very casual and to desire to be comfortable. Shorts, short shorts for girls and women, t shirts, tank tops, halter tops, and flip flops are not really suitable attire to worship the Lord. Let us remember that our worship of God is not about us and our comfort. It is about praising and thanking the Lord as we remember the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Please be careful and parents please pay attention to your children and teens’ attire for Mass. Be careful not to settle for the minimum and think we should be happy just because they are there. We need to teach our children about the importance of Mass and how we present ourselves. God does care what we wear; He wants the very best of what we have and what we are. I am sorry that I have to even bring this up because most people in our parish are very good about this, but there are some who need reminding.
Our Corpus Christi Procession was a prayerful and beautiful event, a very public witness to the truth of Jesus’ presence in the Most Holy Eucharist. I am very grateful to Fr. Patrick and Deacon Rich for all their efforts to make this event possible. I am also very grateful to all of the altar servers who added so much to this procession in honor of our Lord. May God bless all who helped to make this such a prayerful and beautiful event.
You may have noticed that the kneelers that were in the front of the main and the east knaves are not there. The bishop has asked us to remove them since kneeling for Holy Communion is not normative in the Roman Rite. The individual’s choice to kneel on their own is still in effect. The presence of the kneeler can be confusing, possibly leading one to think that we must kneel for Holy Communion. This is what the bishop has asked us to do and we need to make every effort to listen to him. This need not become an issue in anyone’s life. It in no way takes away from our prayerful and reverent reception of Holy Communion. If you should choose to kneel for Holy Communion, I ask you to do so carefully so that there are no injuries or embarrassing moments for anyone. Having the kneelers available was an attempt to encourage reverence for the Eucharist. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.
The FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART is TODAY, and we will celebrate our patronal feast at all the Masses. After the 5 PM Mass on Sunday we will have our annual parish picnic. The picnic will be held in the pavilion next to the warehouse. WE WILL PROVIDE THE HAMBURGERS AND HOT DOGS, WHICH WILL BE GRILLED BY THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, THE ALTAR & ROSARY SOCIETY WILL PROVIDE CUPCAKES AND COOKIES, AND WE ASK THOSE ATTENDING TO BRING A SIDE DISH TO SHARE. SO PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND WITH YOUR FAMILIES! THERE WILL BE MUSIC AND BEER TOO! SEE YOU, JUNE 18, AT THE 5PM MASS AND FOLLOWING.
LITURGY LESSON: EUCHARISTIC PRAYER #6 – ANAMNESIS
A few week ago, we spoke about a component of the Eucharistic Prayer called the “Epiclesis”, calling down the Holy Spirit to “make holy” our gifts of bread and wine that they may become the body and blood, soul and divinity of the Lord. There is another Greek word that is essential for our understanding of what is happening upon our altars, “anamnesis,” [An-nam-NEE-sis] which is translated as “in memory” – as in “Do this in memory of me…”
It’s not uncommon for people to do certain things to remember loved ones who have died – to make a certain recipe, to sip a particular spirit, to go to a favorite vacation spot. All of those things are “rituals” of a sort that helps us remember someone who was important to us. This is NOT what Jesus meant when he used the word anamnesis at the last supper, nor is it what we believe the Eucharistic sacrifice to be. We’re not doing this to remember Him and what He Did. It’s much deeper.
The center point of the Old Testament is the Exodus, the great liberation of God’s people from slavery to freedom, and that liberation is accompanied with a meal that memorializes, ritualizes, the great deliverance – the Passover. God establishes this memorial meal Himself as a way for all Jews of all time to participate in this saving event. When the Passover is celebrated, the Jews of whatever century consider themselves spiritual contemporaries with those saving events. This is what anamnesis means – it’s a ritual participation in and mystical representation of a historical event that makes me a contemporary with that event.
The New Testament too has a focal point, a great liberation from a tyrant far worse than Pharaoh – Jesus, the new Moses, liberates us from Sin and Death and Hell, and with his sacrifice he institutes a memorial meal as well as, the Eucharist, that makes all Christians of every age contemporaries with Jesus’ sacrifice.
