Events, Videos

Community Mass – 2nd Sunday Ordinary Time

| St. Charles Borromeo

Please join us to celebrate the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time on Sunday, January 17:

  • 9 AM EST – Morning Mass – In Person at the Church, not live streamed.
  • 11:15 AM EST Community Mass In Person at the Church and also streamed online and available for playback.

    Instructions to view the Mass are available here. You can also watch the video via YouTube Live in the window above.

Today’s readings and hymns are available to download here:

2021-01-17Download

Bulletin

Parish Project for Black History Month: Learning about and Praying for Black Americans on the Road to Sainthood

| St. Charles Borromeo

Fr. Smith and the Parish Pastoral Council would like to let you know about an upcoming parish project for Black History Month, which is next month, to learn about and pray for Black Americans on the road to sainthood.

The US Catholic Bishops highlights six Black Americans, who are under consideration to be recognized as saints. For each of the four weekends in February, we will include a brief write-up in the parish email about one of these six individuals and will pray for the person at that Sunday’s Mass by using his/her prayer and including a petition for his/her sainthood candidacy in the Prayers of the Faithful.

Continue reading “Parish Project for Black History Month: Learning about and Praying for Black Americans on the Road to Sainthood” →
Events

Thursday Book Club: Fratelli Tutti

| St. Charles Borromeo

The Thursday night book club is reading Pope’s recent encyclical Fratelli Tutti, the Pope’s recent social encyclical on important contemporary issues.

This Thursday at 7 PM, we will discuss Chapter 7, “Paths of Renewed Encounter” (paragraphs 225-270) and be joined by Larry Chapp, theologian and owner/manager of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm in Harveys Lake, PA. You can read one of Larry’s recent articles on Pope Francis here.

Scriptual Commentary

A Call that Will Ring People’s Ears

| Fr. William Smith

The Calling of Samuel, Joshua Reynolds, c. 1776

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the First Reading
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 3:3b-10
January 17, 2021

We know that a moment is important in Jewish History when the LORD calls someone to do his will. We have seen the call of prophets and patriarchs. They know that they will be involved with something big and usually wish to opt out. God however knows who he wants, and no excuses are acceptable.

The situation today is the turn from a clan-based leadership structure to a real monarchy. We examined this a few weeks ago. To briefly review, from roughly 1350 to 1050 BC, the Hebrews were a loose coalition of tribes with similar religious beliefs and a shared dietary code. They desired to be as independent as possible but often needed to unite to fight a common enemy. At this time, they would determine a leader – a war chief – who world organize an army and lead it until they won or lost. This leader was called a judge. This system was like the confederations around them.

Some of these however were developing a more centralized administration which allowed them to maintain a professional army placing the Hebrews at a strategic disadvantage. This would need to change but it would only be a change within their tradition if it were instituted by a holy man called by the LORD. That man was Samuel.

Continue reading “A Call that Will Ring People’s Ears” →