Bulletins by St. Clare Parish (Page 17)
May 1st – Third Sunday of Easter
Jesus’ three questions to Simon Peter, asking him, “Do you love me?”
must have been painful for Peter to hear. But, in fact, the Lord was
giving but another example of God’s tremendous willingness to
forgive, no matter how many times we stray. Three times, Peter had
denied knowing Jesus. And after Peter declares the third time, “Yes
Lord, you know that I love you,” Jesus called to him again, “Follow
me.”
For us, to know that “God’s mercy is without end” is one of the
foundations of our lives. It gives us hope and should endow us with a
willingness to forgive those who have offended or hurt us. Being part
of a reconciling community of faith demands no less of us. That
Christ is victorious over sin and death allows us, in Him, to do the
same. Then we can share the joy of the Resurrection.
Congratulations to the children who will receive Holy Communion
for the first time this weekend and next. We pray that you will remain
as close to the Lord in the years to come as you are with him on this
special day.
April 24th – Second Sunday of Easter
“Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives. Once I
was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever” (Revelation 1:17b-18).
For the Church, the great Easter Feast extends for 50 days, until
Pentecost, this year on June 5. But the “day” of Easter itself lasts
until this Sunday, which we call the Second Sunday of Easter. This is
the greatest of our holy days. Even Christmas Day is only one day,
but Easter Day is eight days. In fact, it takes that long for us at our
daily Masses to hear all of the Easter appearances of the Lord.
While we are not literally at the empty tomb, in the garden, the upper
room or on the road to Emmaus, the Risen Lord continues to make
Himself present to us – in His word, the Eucharist, and the Christian
Community, especially when gathered for the celebration of the
Eucharist. As He lives “forever and ever,” He sends us forth, as
disciples, to announce the good news (“gospel”) that the Lord is risen
and, even more, that we also will rise.
Our parish Easter celebrations were the cause of great joy last
weekend. It was the first time since the pandemic that we experienced
a full church. I pray that this continues, even when it is not Easter
Sunday. It was so good to see all of you!!
Happy Easter!
April 17th – Easter Sunday
Dear Parishioners,
This ancient Easter greeting resounds through time and space as a
reflection of our joy and our hope.
We are far from first century Jerusalem, yet these words continue to
proclaim the fundamental Christian mystery: the Lord Jesus has
conquered death and sin and the
darkness of our lives and our
world.
In Baptism, each of us is united to the Lord’s victory and we walk in
His light, as sharers of the life that has no end. In our Christian living,
we are witnesses to God’s abiding presence and to the hope that is the
foundation of our lives.
May our gathering during Holy Week and the Easter Triduum
renew our faith; may they also renew us and all people in appreciation
of God’s unending love. We thank you once more for the privilege of
serving you.
April 10th – Palm Sunday
As we enter this week that we consider the holiest of all, we try to
unite ourselves with the Passion of the Lord, so also to share His
Resurrection. We might ask ourselves where we can begin our
personal and communal journeys this week. Perhaps, we can take as
our starting point this Sunday’s second reading from Saint Paul to the
Philippians, where we find this:
“Your attitude must be that of Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God. . .
emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.”
May our participation in the mysteries of the Lord’s Cross and
Resurrection help us – one and all – to serve in love, even as He did.
April 3rd – Fifth Sunday of Lent
The “water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland” that God
promised through the prophet Isaiah was referring to forgiving the
forsaken, the lost, and the hopeless. This is borne out in Jesus’
treatment of the woman caught in adultery, whom the scribes and
Pharisees wanted to stone to death: “Has no one condemned you?. . .
Neither do I condemn you.”
In rejecting the penalty prescribed by the Law, Jesus chooses mercy. . .
for the woman and for each of us. If we had been in the crowd that
day, could any of us claim to be sinless, to be able to cast the first
stone? Only in recognizing our own sins and failings can we also
recognize God’s limitless forgiveness. . .and become that same forgiveness for one another.
This coming Saturday afternoon, we will celebrate our Lenten
Reconciliation Liturgy. During the pandemic – and for a good
number of years previous to it – many have neglected celebration
of the sacrament. As we heard on Ash Wednesday, “Now is the
acceptable time. . .Now is the day of salvation.” Join us next
Saturday at 3:00 pm, in the Church. We will have a number of
visiting priests to serve as confessors.
March 27th – Fourth Sunday of Lent
The fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke is filled with stories
of God’s relentless love. This is most particularly true of the gospel
story we hear this Sunday. “The Prodigal Son” tells of the richness
of God’s mercy, forgiveness and love. In fact, it may be more
correctly titled as “The Parable of the Loving Father.”
Some of us may mistakenly think that “prodigal” refers the repentant
son when he decides to return to his father; however, “prodigal”
actually describes the way the young man squandered his father’s
wealth.
The elder son could only focus on his brother’s misdeeds and had no
room for forgiveness in his heart. His bitterness seems never to have
gone away and he remains alienated from his brother and his father, in
spite of his father’s pleading, “My son, you are here with me always;
everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost
and has been found.”
On this Fourth Sunday of Lent, may each of us not only experience a
love that is like that of the father in this parable, but let us also extend
that forgiving love to one another.
March 20th – Third Sunday of Lent
The readings this Third Sunday of Lent cover much ground in the
history of salvation. In the story of Moses and the burning bush, we
hear of God’s love for the people of Israel: “I have witnessed the
affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint
against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.”
Psalm 103 declares that “The Lord is kind and merciful,” yet the
reading from the first letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians warns
against the kind of infidelity that Israel practiced in the desert with the
caution that “anyone who thinks to be standing secure should take
care not to fall.”
Jesus warns of the need to repent, otherwise, “You will all perish,”
telling the parable of the fig tree that had not borne fruit: “‘For three
years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have
found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He [the
gardner] said to him [the owner of the orchard] in reply, ‘Sir, leave it
for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and
fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”
Even for our kind and merciful God, revealed most fully in Jesus,
there comes the day of reckoning. So let us hear the call of Ash
Wednesday, and of all of Lent, to “repent and believe” and live in the
Lord.
March 13th – Second Sunday of Lent
“Master, it is good for us to be here.” Peter did not understand the
meaning of the Transfiguration; he wanted to prolong the moment of
Jesus’ glory: “Let us erect three tents.” But Jesus was on His way to
the Cross, and the purpose of the Transfiguration was to offer
hope of what was to come and consolation in the midst of challenges
– then and now. Later, when the apostles understood its significance,
they found encouragement along the path that led most of them, also,
to suffering and martyrdom.
For us, on this Second Sunday of Lent, we can reflect upon
“transfiguring” events in our lives: such powerful experiences that,
although fleeting, affect us at the deepest levels. Although we cannot
extend the time of such moments (such as the birth of a child, a
couple’s marriage, etc.), those events have within them the power to
transform the rest of our lives, even to give our lives added
dimensions of meaning.
God appears to us in the little things, the ordinary happenings of our
lives. As we reflect upon them, may we all draw nearer to the Lord.