Please download the worship aid to participate in Friday’s evening prayer at 5 PM:
Instructions on how to join are available here.
20th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730437.
The Jesus who we see in today’s gospel is disconcerting. His treatment of the Canaanite woman seems dismissive and condescending. Is this the good shepherd? Yes, it is, but here he is speaking and more to the point acting as a prophet. The Jews who first heard and observed him would have understood immediately as would the members of Matthew’s community who were born Jews. Those born gentile and indeed we ourselves may need some background to understand what Jesus is saying and doing and how it affects us.
As on only child I bring a particularly valuable perspective to this passage because it has to do with being chosen. Only children are chosen. We are the center of the universe for our parents who must be particularly careful that we do not think that we are the center of the universe for anyone else. Otherwise the singleton can easily become an insufferable prig. This was the case with the Jewish people. They were chosen by God and he both lavished his unconditioned love on them but also needed to show “tough love” lest they forget that they were missionaries to the Nations. They were called indeed created and formed to make the presence of God known beyond their tribes or nation.
Continue reading “20th Sunday Ordinary Time – Homily (Fr. Smith)”Community Mass – 20th Sunday Ordinary Time – 8/16 11:15 am EDT
Please join us for our Community Mass for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sunday, August 16 at 11:15 AM EDT. It will be a public Mass celebrated in the church and also streamed online.
Instructions to view the Mass are available here. You can also watch the video via YouTube Live in the window here.
- Today’s readings and hymns are available to download here: August 16
As per the instructions from our Reopening Committee, 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
St. Charles at Home #21 – Step Forward to God’s New Creation
Msgr. Al LoPinto and Pat Morin discuss last Sunday’s homily and the connection between the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes and Walking on Water.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730437.
20th Sunday of Ordinary Time – The Mystery of God’s Salvation
The Assumption of the Virgin, Titian, 1516–18, Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Romans 11:13–15, 29–32
August 16, 2020
Last week, we began to examine St Paul’s teaching about the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. We saw that for Paul the major issue was the faithfulness of God. He promised the Jews that he would never abandon them, and they would always remain chosen. Yet with the death and resurrection of Jesus, it seems that he has raised up a new people and displaced the Jews. For Paul this would make God a liar and is thus inconceivable.
As we saw Paul reminded the people, Jew and Greek, that God could transform them as a community just as he transformed him as an individual Jew. Although, certainly for us and most likely for his original audience this was a difficult concept, Paul found it important enough to review it and indeed expand on it. Our reading today reflects this, and I would like to remind you that not only does it contain some difficult concepts the passage skips around Romans 11. We will need to fill in a lot of material.
Continue reading “20th Sunday of Ordinary Time – The Mystery of God’s Salvation”Evening Prayer Today and Tomorrow at 5 PM
Please download the worship aid to participate in Friday’s evening prayer at 5 PM:
We will also have Evening Prayer and a reflection on Mary tomorrow (August 15) at 5 PM to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption:
Instructions on how to join are available here.
19th Sunday Ordinary Time – Msgr. LoPinto Homily
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE with license #A-730437.
Transcript:
I think to be able to come to grips with the Gospel selection of today, it is important to connect it with the Gospel of last week, when we saw Jesus feed the thousands with the five loaves and the two fish. If you remember that story, the disciples come to him and tell Jesus to let the people go home because they’re concerned that there isn’t food for them and there are no places in that vicinity where they will be able to buy food.
Jesus says to them, well tell me what you have. And they say all we have are five loaves of bread and two fish – what good will that do with all these people? Remember the number that’s given us is five thousand plus the women and children.
And Jesus simply says to them, bring me what you have. And he blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them to distribute. And all of the people are fed, and there are 12 baskets left over.
The story picks up here. Jesus says to the disciples that they should get in the boat and they should go to the other side and he’ll meet them there. And then he dismisses the crowd and he goes off to pray on the mountain alone.
Continue reading “19th Sunday Ordinary Time – Msgr. LoPinto Homily”