Events, Videos

Community Mass – Palm Sunday

| St. Charles Borromeo


On Sunday, April 2 2023, join us in person or online for Palm Sunday. Palms will be distributed in person.

Our current Sunday Mass times are:

  • 9 AM ET – Morning Mass – please assemble outside the church for the procession
  • 11:15 AM ET – Community Mass
  • 7:00 PM ET – Evening Mass

Watch the video live by clicking in the window above.
Automated closed captioning is available.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel stcharlesbklyn at this link to watch on your Internet enabled TV or viewing device.

Today’s readings will be from Cycle A.

Readings/Psalm – 1031

Entrance: All Glory, Laud, and Honor – 498

Psalm 22 – My God, My God

Offertory: O Sacred Head Surrounded – 512

Communion: Precious Lord, Take My Hand

Closing: Were You There – 511

The Gather 3rd Edition Hymnal/Missals are available for use in the church – they are at the ends of the pews. Please return the missals to the end of the pew after Mass. Instructions on how to use the hymnal missal are available here: https://www.stcharlesbklyn.org/hymnal-missal/ .

Today’s readings are also available to read online at the USCCB website https://bible.usccb.org .

  • Annual Easter Gift to the Parish – Easter is the greatest celebration in the Catholic church as we commemorate Christ’s resurrection from the dead. This collection is an extra holiday offering which our parish depends upon to cover our expenses over the year.
  • Easter Flowers for the Church – This Easter season, we will decorate the church to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection and memorialize loved ones with flowers.
Scriptual Commentary

Palm Sunday – Manifesting the Glory of God

| Fr. William Smith

Entry into Jerusalem, Wilhelm Morgner, 1912,
Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany.
(About this Image)

The crowds preceding him and those following
kept crying out and saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.”
(Matthew 21:9)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Palm Sunday
Philippians 2:6-11
April 2, 2023

None of the New Testament authors wrote a catechism. They addressed the concerns of specific communities and breathed the air of the marketplace more than the cloister. Their situations and concerns are often very specific. These specifics have given their writings a longer life than if they presented detached universal and eternal truths. They experienced the life of their communities and even if some of the language and concepts may be initially foreign the situations are all too familiar.

This is especially so in Paul’s “Letter to the Philippians”. We examined this letter before and basic information can be found here. Philippi, like most of Paul’s cities, was an important center. It was noted for its “light manufacturing” and had fewer Jews than most of the places Paul evangelized. It did have in common, however, with virtually all of them dissension and divisions not only because of different beliefs but personal rivalries. Near the very beginning of the letter, he writes:

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Events

Fish Fry Tonight!

| St. Charles Borromeo

Join us tonight (Friday, March 31) for our second annual parish fish fry. We will start with evening prayers (Vespers) in the rectory chapel at 5 PM followed by a social gathering and fish dinner starting around 5:30 PM.

We will be serving a delicious fish dinner with outstanding side dishes. We’ll be going until 8 PM or so; so please join us even if you can’t swing by until later. You can contribute online to help defray the costs and support our social gatherings.

We hope to see you there. The rectory address is 31 Sidney Place in Brooklyn Heights.

Events, Videos

Community Mass – 5th Sunday of Lent

| St. Charles Borromeo


On Sunday, March 26, 2023, join us in person or online for the Fifth Sunday of Lent.

Our current Sunday Mass times are:

  • 9 AM ET – Morning Mass
  • 11:15 AM ET – Community Mass
  • 7:00 PM ET – Evening Mass

Watch the video live by clicking in the window above.
Automated closed captioning is available.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel stcharlesbklyn at this link to watch on your Internet enabled TV or viewing device.

Today’s readings will be from Cycle A.

Readings/Psalm – 1028

Entrance: Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days – 479

Offertory: Hosea – 484

Communion: I Am the Bread of Life – 945

Closing: Sing with All the Saints in Glory – 539

The Gather 3rd Edition Hymnal/Missals are available for use in the church – they are at the ends of the pews. Please return the missals to the end of the pew after Mass. Instructions on how to use the hymnal missal are available here: https://www.stcharlesbklyn.org/hymnal-missal/ .

Today’s readings are also available to read online at the USCCB website https://bible.usccb.org .

Bulletin

Holy Week and Easter Schedule

| St. Charles Borromeo
https://youtube.com/watch?v=live_stream%3Fchannel%3DUCLe2Xe-1htO4-tI7_SetEgQ

Sunday, April 2 – Palm Sunday: 9 AM, 11:15 AM, and 7 PM Masses
Monday, April 3 – Reconciliation Monday: 8 AM Mass. Priests available for confession after the 8 AM Mass and from 4 to 8 PM
Tuesday, April 4 – 12:10 PM Mass
Wednesday, April 5 – 12:10 PM Mass
Thursday, April 6 – Holy Thursday: 7 PM Mass
Friday, April 7 – Good Friday: 3 PM Service; Stations of the Cross at 7 PM
Saturday, April 8 – Easter Vigil: 8 PM Mass
Sunday, April 9 – Easter Sunday: 9 AM, 11:15 AM Masses (no evening Mass)

Scriptual Commentary

5th Sunday of Lent – Walking in Charity

| Fr. William Smith

Resurrection of Lazarus, James Jacques Tissot,
1886-1894, Brooklyn Museum

Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.”
(John 11:25–27)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Romans 8: 8–11
March 26, 2023

We return to Paul’s letter to the Romans. We have read this letter twice before this Lent and examined it in some detail during the summer of 2020. Indeed, most of this reading we saw before on July 8, 2020. We will use some of the same material today but focus on our Lenten themes and practices.

Today’s reading answered a question from the previous chapter:

Miserable one that I am!
Who will deliver me from this mortal body?

(Ro 7:24)

To our modern ears this may seem as if Paul is dividing the human being into body and soul: body, physical and bad, soul, spiritual and good, this reflected the prevailing Greek ideas of Paul’s time. Paul did not believe this, nor did his readers in Rome who were born Jews and maintained a “Jewish anthropology”. As such they would have understood and appreciated the modern philosophical statement that “we do not have a body; we are our bodies.” We are not naturally immortal. Immortality means that the true and important part of us—spirit, soul—leaves the body at death. The body ultimately deteriorates into ashes, it was just a necessary shell. Jews and Christians believe that human beings are composed of “Body and Soul” and that we need both to be human. Thus, we experience the resurrection of the body. This is the new life promised in the scriptures and can only be given by God. Paul realized that this is now accomplished through Jesus. A body is in our future, but it is one totally dedicated to the work of God.
Continue reading “5th Sunday of Lent – Walking in Charity” →