Messages from the PPC

Message from Carol DeSantis, PPC

| St. Charles Borromeo

Hi, everyone, I’m Carol DeSantis. I have been a member of St. Charles Borromeo Parish for about 17 years. I know many you of from our various Ministries, the 9 AM Sunday Mass, and our Meet and Greets and look forward to knowing more of you. I am grateful for the many ways we are connecting as a Parish family and faith community during this time and hope you are able to participate in some way too. I find St. Charles Borromeo to be a welcoming community united in faith, hope, and love.

If anyone told me a year ago that “Zoom” would be one of the most used words in my vocabulary today and that I would be participating in meetings, tutoring, doing homework help, playing Family Feud, having an Easter egg hunt and… praying, and, last and certainly not least, attending Mass via Zoom, I doubt that I would really, truly have believed them. During this time, I am reminded that we humans may not be perfect but we sure are flexible and strong, and change and hardship bring out creativity and the best in most. Continue reading “Message from Carol DeSantis, PPC” →

Messages from the Pastor

3rd Sunday of Easter – Getting Our Hands Dirty in Love

| St. Charles Borromeo

Supper at Emmaus, Matthias Stom, 1633-1639

 

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
1st Letter of Peter 1:17–21
April 26, 2020

This week we continue our examination of the 1st Letter of St. Peter. We saw last week that either Peter or a close associate who felt comfortable using his name wrote from Rome to converts in what is now Turkey around 70 AD. He began this letter by offering hope and today he will be more specific on where this hope rests.

As gentiles, they would have been struck by the idea of creation that Christians took from Jews. That a loving God brought the world into being would have been foreign perhaps unbelievable to them. Indeed, even now when we look at the world, it seems difficult to believe that it was made by all-loving and all-powerful being. There is simply so much evil in it that the alternative views that “creation” came from accident, greed, or outright hatred may seem far more likely.

Yet they made this decision and creation has its consequences. Once we accept that we were made intentionally and out of love, there are other things we will need to accommodate into our lives.

Continue reading “3rd Sunday of Easter – Getting Our Hands Dirty in Love” →

Homilies, Videos

Divine Mercy Sunday – Msgr. LoPinto homily

| St. Charles Borromeo

John’s Gospel – which is the last of the Gospels written, at least that we have recognized – is unique in its presentation, in the sense that John is not so much detailing the events from Jesus’s life, as he is explaining the meaning of Jesus’s life and its impact on the world at large. And one of the places that I think you can go to find the best of what I would consider to be that presentation or that explanation is actually in the Last Supper.

As we know, John’s Gospel does not record the institution of the Eucharist as the other Synoptics do, but has two critical events: one, the washing of the feet of the disciples – that sense of service as the essential Ministry of Jesus. But then following that in Chapter 17 there is the explanation that Jesus gives, in what’s called the Last Discourse: the explanation of the events that will be taking place, as He in a sense tries to prepare the disciples for what will be occurring in the in the coming hours. And then He goes from the Last Discourse goes to priestly prayer – the great priestly prayer where he prays to the Father that all may be one.

I think that when you look at John’s Gospel, Chapter 17 is the best way to understand this particular selection of the gospel that’s presented to us on the second Sunday of Easter. Jesus in those last moments talks about mercy – the great mercy of God which will be manifested in the giving of the Spirit. And in the giving of the Spirit, all will be made one, in a sense.  [The] point being that through the gift of the Spirit, God will recreate the face of the earth. Continue reading “Divine Mercy Sunday – Msgr. LoPinto homily” →

Events

Second Sunday of Easter/Divine Mercy Sunday Online Mass

| St. Charles Borromeo

Join us online for Sunday Online Mass at 11:15 AM EDT.
Download the service texts for the readings and hymns here.

Participate on Zoom. [Zoom dial-in info removed from website for security reasons] Recordings will be available at our website.

Support our Parish – Please contribute to our General Collection online here.

Help us support Catholic Charities Food Pantries in Brooklyn and Queens online here.

 

Bulletin

Help Us Support Catholic Charities’ Food Pantries

| St. Charles Borromeo

Catholic Charities food pantries in Brooklyn and Queens are experiencing dramatic increases in demand due to the current economic conditions and pandemic. Since last week, the need has doubled and lines are stretching around the block at emergency food pantries. MSNBC profiled Catholic Charities’ efforts in a segment that was broadcast nationwide yesterday. It can be viewed online here.

We support Catholic Charities in this ministry. We thank everyone who has supported our recent collections to Catholic Charities. We encourage anyone who can help support Catholic Charities efforts to donate online, stcharlesbklyn.weshareonline.org/ws/opportunities/CatholicCharitiesFoodCollection. To date, we raised $1,650 to support Catholic Charities. Thank you again for your generosity.