The section from Mark’s Gospel last week brought us up to the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. This week we continue this story, but we switch to St. John’s gospel. St. Mark is the shortest gospel and in order to have readings until the end of the year we need to supplement them with St. John for this month. This is the easiest place to do this. The multiplication of the loaves and the fish is the one miracle which can be found in all 4 gospels. That itself is very important. None of the gospel writers could conceive of the church without the Eucharist. We need to ask ourselves this month: can we?
Continue reading “17th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)”Community Mass – 17th Sunday Ordinary Time
Please join us to celebrate the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time on Sunday, July 25th.
Our current Mass times are:
- 9 AM EDT – Morning Mass – in person, not streamed
- 11:15 AM EDT – Community Mass – in person and streamed online
- 7 PM EDT – Evening Mass – in person, not streamed
Watch the video live or on replay via YouTube Live by clicking in the window above.
The Gather 3rd Edition Hymnal/Missals are now 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/ .
Entrance: As We Gather at Your Table – 839
Readings and Responsorial Psalm – 1141
Offertory: How Great Thou Art – 578
Communion: Behold the Lamb – 939
Closing: Though the Mountains May Fall – 689
Today’s readings are also available to read online here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071821.cfm
- Please follow the instructions of the ushers, and observe all of the posted health precautions so that we can continue to worship together safely.
- Support our Parish – Please contribute to our General Collection online here.
- Help us support Catholic Charities Food Pantries in Brooklyn and Queens online
Ecclesia de Eucharistia
We encourage you to read the Ecclesia de Eucharistia encyclical issued by St. Pope John Paul II in 2003. The Eucharist builds the Church. As we emerge from the pandemic, we will center our renewal of the Parish on the Eucharist.
The encyclical begins:
The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways she joyfully experiences the constant fulfilment of the promise: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with confident hope.
The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life”.1 “For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men”.2 Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of his boundless love.
World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly
In January, Pope Francis established this Sunday as World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly saying “we forget this wealth of preserving roots and passing on” what grandparents and the elderly have received. He emphasized “young people, drawing strength from their grandparents, will go forward and prophesy.”
Prayer for Grandparents by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
Lord Jesus,
you were born of the Virgin Mary,
the daughter of Saints Joachim and Anne.
Look with love on grandparents the world over.
Protect them! They are a source of enrichment
for families, for the Church and for all of society.
Support them! As they grow older,
may they continue to be for their families
strong pillars of Gospel faith,
guardians of noble domestic ideals,
living treasuries of sound religious traditions.
Make them teachers of wisdom and courage,
that they may pass on to future generations the fruits
of their mature human and spiritual experience.
Lord Jesus,
help families and society
to value the presence and role of grandparents.
May they never be ignored or excluded,
but always encounter respect and love.
Help them to live serenely and to feel welcomed
in all the years of life which you give them.
Mary, Mother of all the living,
keep grandparents constantly in your care,
accompany them on their earthly pilgrimage,
and by your prayers, grant that all families
may one day be reunited in our heavenly homeland,
where you await all humanity
for the great embrace of life without end.
Amen!
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Belonging to Jesus
Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ephesians 4:1-6
July 24, 2021
We are examining the “Letter to the Ephesians” this summer. We have already seen that the author demonstrates with extraordinary sensitivity the cosmic nature of Jesus’s incarnation and the literally earth-shattering effects of his death and resurrection. We have also noted that there is much controversy about its authorship. This is not only a very scholarly discussion of word usage, grammatical structure and other technical issues but has become ideological. The author clearly teaches that the “Church” is not an afterthought or an application but was part of the divine plan from the beginning of time. This is a problem for many Protestants but not for Catholics. Also, for us there is no canon (list of writings accepted as revelations from God) within the canon. No writing is more revealed than others. It does not in that sense matter if this was written by the apostle Paul or not. It only matters that the church has accepted it as revealed by God. This letter, as we will see as the summer progresses, is of great and immediate importance for us in Brownstone Brooklyn.
Continue reading “17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Belonging to Jesus”Evening Prayer at 5 PM
Please download the worship aid to participate in Friday’s evening prayer, which will begin at 5 PM.
Instructions on how to join are available here.
16th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)
Many of us hear the scriptures only at Mass and thus in relatively short sections. The Sunday gospel readings are designed to be heard over a 3-year cycle it is often difficult to see how one weeks reading relates to the former or next passage or indeed the entire Gospel. This is particularly true with Mark, and we will need to locate where today’s reading falls in his gospel to see how to bring it to life in today’s world.
Last week Jesus sent his disciples on mission. Most of us would have found his timing inauspicious. For several chapters that we read for several weeks Jesus moved from one triumph to another. He cured the sick, cast out demons even raised the dead. He seemed unstoppable but then he went home to Nazareth, and he could do almost nothing. He was rejected by his own people. It was then that he sent out his followers. We will see today that he calls them apostles, Greek for one who is sent. They performed many miracles and preached the good news of repentance and forgiveness. They too seemed unstoppable.
Today Jesus stops them. He greets them on their return but before we look at that should remember that the lectionary, the book of the scriptures which we use in church, skips over the story of the death of John the Baptist.
Continue reading “16th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)”