Please download the worship aid to participate in Friday’s evening prayer. It will begin immediately following the Novena for our Country, which will be said at 5 PM.
Instructions on how to join are available here.
Suggestions Welcome for Novena Prayers and Readings
More than 50 people joined for the first night of the Novena for Our Country that we are sponsoring together with St. Augustine and St. Francis Xavier. The novena is being said nightly via Zoom at 5 PM through next Tuesday. For more information, see the “Invitation to Novena for Our Country”. Don’t worry if you missed the first night, you are welcome to join in.
As I mentioned last night, I have received wonderful suggestions for prayers and readings for upcoming nights of the novena. I encourage you to keep emailing them to me, [email protected]. This has truly been a communal effort in a time that certainly needs one, and I see my role for this novena as primarily being editor.
Format
Please make your suggestions based on the following format:
A. Entrance Antiphon: Short scripture verse
B. Opening Prayer: Collects from the Roman Missal are appropriate; as well as the several suggestions from the Book of Common Prayer (1928 and 1976)
C. Reading: Most suggestions to date have been from Fratelli Tutti chapter 5. We will use these until Thursday. Other ideas welcome. We have had one from Bishop Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and one from St Pope John Paul 2nd. Please give enough text to supply some background.
C. Scripture response: Keep it short and simple.
D. Concluding Prayer: People have been very creative.
E. Final Blessing: This is the only part that will be said by a priest.
Please make your suggestions based on the following format:
A. Entrance Antiphon: Short scripture verse
B. Opening Prayer: Collects from the Roman Missal are appropriate; as well as the several suggestions from the Book of Common Prayer (1928 and 1976)
C. Reading: Most suggestions to date have been from Fratelli Tutti chapter 5. We will use these until Thursday. Other ideas welcome. We have had one from Bishop Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and one from St Pope John Paul 2nd. Please give enough text to supply some background.
C. Scripture response: Keep it short and simple.
D. Concluding Prayer: People have been very creative.
E. Final Blessing: This is the only part that will be said by a priest.
I have included the readings until Thursday below, but you can send prayers whether they fit these readings or not for future use. There will be a special emphasis on Mary for Saturday.
Let us support each other in this most difficult and dangerous time.
I remain
In Christ,
Fr. Bill Smith
Baptism of the Lord – Homily (Msgr. LoPinto)
Mark’s gospel, as so I know many of you are aware, is the shortest of the presentations. And it begins with a very simple line. That he is telling you from the beginning, the story of Jesus Christ, the son of God. He then goes into a very brief piece of presentation about John the Baptist being out in the desert. But the highlight of that first chapter is this scene.
When Jesus comes to the River Jordan. And is baptized or submits to the baptism of John, despite John’s objections.
Community Mass – Baptism of the Lord
Please join us to celebrate the Baptism of the Lord on Sunday, January 10:
- 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:
- Please follow the instructions of the ushers, and observe all of the posted health precautions so that we can continue to worship together safely.
- Hymnals, bulletins, and other handouts will not be available at the church. Please download on your phone or tablet, or bring your own missal.
- Support our Parish – Please contribute to our General Collection online here.
- Help us support Catholic Charities Food Pantries in Brooklyn and Queens online
Novena for Our Country Starts Monday at 5 PM
The invasion of our Capitol this week revealed not only the division in our nation in general but that this transition of power will be like none other in our history. All Americans must do what we can to enable a smooth and orderly process up to, during, and after the Inauguration of President-Elect Biden. We participate in many institutions from political parties to professional organizations and we must ask how we can help them provide stability and direction.
In his slim but frightening book of several years ago On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Yale historian Timothy Snyder told us that institutions do not defend themselves and urged every American to pick one and defend it. I recommend the book enthusiastically. It is surprisingly comprehensive and decidedly thoughtful, and I hope that everyone be enlightened by his examples and will follow, at least, a few of his suggestions.
He does not discuss prayer and we must ask ourselves what Catholic Christianity can offer us at this moment. I invite you to participate in a “Novena for our Country.” This situation is so unique that there are no available novenas that we can use as now written and so we will be building the airplane as we fly. To keep this distinctly Catholic we will emphasize the prayers and blessings of the Church and the teachings of the Popes. The novena prayers themselves will be no longer than 10 minutes long.
They will be at our customary COVID-19 prayer time of 5:00PM and you can connect via Zoom in the usual manner. They will be said before Rosary on Monday and Wednesday, Vespers on Friday, and Bible study on Sunday for those who must leave immediately afterwards. They will be stand-alone on the other days.
We will begin this Monday, January 11, and end on Tuesday night,
January 19.
I hope that we will find many ways of being effective at this time, but we must always remember that one of them must be prayer.
I remain
In Christ,
Fr. Bill
Thursday Book Club: Fratelli Tutti
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 6, “Dialogue and Friendship” (paragraphs 198-224) and be joined by Paul Elie (the author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own) will join us. You can read some of Paul’s recent articles in The New Yorker here: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/paul-elie.
Bible Study Resumes this Sunday at 5 PM
The online Bible study group resumes after the Christmas break. This Sunday at 5 PM, we will meet via Zoom to discuss the first section of St. Paul’s letters. To prepare, please read the first half of Lesson 3: “The Great Letters of Paul,” in the Panorama of the New Testament study guide (pp. 57-66) and consider questions 1-5 on p. 74.