Homilies

Sixth Sunday of Easter – Homily (Fr. Smith)

| St. Charles Borromeo

 

If you told me in January that the entire world would essentially shut down because of a pandemic I would have assumed that it was the return of the black plague which could kill over half the population of a city in weeks. If you clarified that although many would be afflicted by the virus it would kill a relatively small percentage of those infected, I would have assumed that it must target children. Yet at the very beginning it was thought that children would be relatively protected from it and that its main targets would be the old, the poor and people with preexisting conditions. This is extraordinary. Indeed, it is an act of almost unimaginable “pro-life” generosity. And as someone who woke up one day and found himself in the elderly category, I want to thank you for your consideration. But something is missing. The generosity may be worldwide, but the vision somewhat myopic.  Continue reading “Sixth Sunday of Easter – Homily (Fr. Smith)” →

Events

Online Community Mass – Sunday 5/17 11:15 AM EDT

| St. Charles Borromeo

Please view today’s mass here:

ATTENTION: Zoom is currently experiencing technical problems. We will provide a live stream here from Youtube, and at our Youtube channel https://youtube.com/stcharlesbklyn . Alternatively, Fr. John Gribowich from our parish will be saying the 11 AM EDT Mass at St. Joseph Co-Cathedral at https://netny.tv/watch-now/ or on cable at  Spectrum channel 97, Optimum channel 30, and Verizon FIOS channel 48. 

Instructions for connecting are here.

Messages from Parishioners

It Takes a Parish to Raise a Catholic…

| St. Charles Borromeo

While the old African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child is true, it is equally true that it takes a parish to raise a Catholic. You are probably picturing one of our many adorable little parishioners of St. Charles but I am speaking here of myself, Antonia Fusco, very well passed that adorable age. You may know me as a lector and Eucharistic minister at the nine o’clock Mass or as a catechist. And while I’m actively involved in the parish today, it wasn’t always so. In fact, I was only Confirmed in 2017, when I came to St. Charles in a highly vulnerable state. I was mourning the passing of my father, a practicing Catholic, who breathed his last in my arms.

I had been away from the church for many decades; the last Sacrament I had received was Holy Communion, so Catholicism felt very new to me in 2017. Over the course of these past three years, you, my fellow parishioners, alongside Fr. Bill, Fr. Anselmus, Monsignor LoPinto, and Fr. John, have helped raise this Catholic in ways you might not have known.  So in the spirit of gratitude, here’s what I have learned from you: Continue reading “It Takes a Parish to Raise a Catholic…” →

Messages from the Pastor

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading – “See How These Christians Love One Another”

| St. Charles Borromeo

Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 17, 2020
1 Peter 3:15–18

Lucian of Samosata was a Roman Satirist who flourished around 180 AD. He would be a combination of Jay Leno and P.G. Woodhouse. He is mostly remembered now because of his satirical portrait of Christians and writing the first known work of Science Fiction. He thought that because Christians believed that, through the resurrection they had a literally new life both now and in heaven, they were extremely reckless and incurably gullible. The Christian would accept death rather than offering a bit of incense up to the gods but also would care for just about anyone without the simplest background check. His “Passing of Peregrinus” is still, I must admit, funny. He, quite possibly, coined the expression “See how these Christians love one another.”

It was not a compliment. Continue reading “Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading – “See How These Christians Love One Another”” →