Bulletin: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 9/10/23
SAINT CHRISTOPHER CATHOLIC CHURCH
39 West 200 South Kanab UT 84741
Office: (435) 644-3414 [Please leave a message and we will respond as quickly as possible]
stccc@kanab.net
WEBSITE: kanabcatholicchurch.org
Sacramental Minister: Rev. Richard T. Sherman, Kanab, UT
SATURDAY VIGIL MASS: 5:30 PM (Suspended Indefinitely)
SUNDAY MASS: 9:00 AM
MASS DURING THE WEEK: MONDAY – SATURDAY 8:00 AM
CONFESSIONS BY APPOINTMENT
NOTE: If you have a sacramental emergency after parish office hours, please call 435-673-2604 for assistance.
Social Hour after Sunday Mass – Coffee, juice and bagels or muffins are served up along with some fabulous conversation.
Our next OPEN-DOOR SATURDAY is September 16, 2023 from 10:00 AM-Noon. If you have friends or relatives that are interested in the Catholic faith, or are thinking of returning to the Church, please tell them about us and have them stop by. We would love to meet with them! OPEN DOOR is scheduled every first and third Saturday of the month.
Bishop Robert Barron’s book, This is My Body: A Call to Eucharistic Revival. We will continue a parish discussion on Wednesday, Sept. 20th at 6:30 PM. If you would like a sneak peek at the discussion questions, ask Fr. Rick. All invited.
FINANCIAL REPORT September 3: Offertory: $ 1251; Donations Mail:$ 555; Hawaii Hurricane Relief: $300 (Total $951); R&I: $180. THANK YOU!!
You can also donate on-line at kanabcatholicchurch.org
Diocesan Development Drive –. Our parish goal this year is $8,800 and we have now paid in $5383 with an additional $971 pledged: 72%. 14 out of a total 57 households have participated. We only have $2446 to go. If half of all remaining households contributed, each would only need to pay $112. About $5 per week for the rest of the year. Pay it all at once, now, and you won’t have to even think about it. Thank you!
PRAY FOR HEALING: Pam Grant, Doug Ingram, Alex Klina, Mary Stogsdill, Caroline Harvey, Jeff Giese, Victims of Natural Disasters. Our Wounded Veterans. If you have specific prayer requests, please leave us a phone message or send us an email. We will get your intentions on the list. We also remember all the sick and infirm at our daily Masses.
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament: Thursday from 4 to 5:00 PM.
Community Rosary: After the Monday morning Mass
Diocese of Salt Lake City Priests Retirement Fund THIS WEEK. Please don’t let these tired old padrecitos run out of tequila or hot wings. Also, there is no ‘Retired Priests Home’ in our diocese. Each priest has to plan and fund his own retirement like most of you. (There are perks, however). Please be your usual generous selves. And THANK YOU!
Thank you to all who helped with our 9/11 Day of Remembrance and Service. Check out that REALLY clean stretch of road from the Arizona border north for about 3 miles.
Yes! We do have apricots!! Please pick up a bag of fresh-picked, rinsed and trail-ready yellow beauties in the social hall after Mass. Or even a whole gallon bag! Fresh from the rectory orchards.
Please Give Us ALL Your Money! We have been soliciting bids to resurface and expand our parking areas around the church and rectory. Cost is in the $70,000 range. If you are looking for a big tax deduction, please let us know. AND don’t forget to make your annual gift to the Diocesan Development Drive. AND REALLY DON’T FORGET today’s annual collection for the Salt Lake Diocese Retired Priest Fund. Lots of opportunities to jump in and join the fun!!
October is Pro-Life Month and leading up to then we will be exploring many of the social factors that have led us to this point where aborting children is ‘normalized’. The Office of Marriage, Family Life and the Respect Life Commission have many ways to help us change our deadly culture. See their website: https://www.dioslc.org/offices/marriage-and-family/marriage-and-family-resources
Homily Reflection ——————————-
The readings today definitely point us to the enormous responsibility placed on the Church by God. We, the clergy and the laity, are called to be God’s very presence on the earth. We have been given the same mission as Jesus, to go forth and teach the nations. And we were given all the power and authority of Heaven to do so. Consider some of the more prominent lines from today’s readings:
Ez. 33:7-9 You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel;… ; …I will hold you responsible for his death (of the wicked) …
Romans 13:8: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
2 Cor. 5:19 Gospel Acclamation: God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation
Gospel Mt. 18:18-19 “…whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, amen, I say to you, “If two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.”
Wow, I can feel my hair starting to get gray just thinking about that! But, that is why Jesus Christ established our Church: to SAVE US. Humans are born into a state of concupiscence (a tendency to sin) and spend the majority of our lives in different states of confusion. We are definitely all NOT evil, but we are definitely confused. We are afraid of each other and ultimately afraid of a real personal encounter with God. Knowing God and loving God will require us to love our neighbor as ourselves which won’t happen unless we really KNOW ourselves.
I want to hone in on: “If two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.”
The powers that God gives the Apostles and their successors depend on their communion with Him. Just as Ezekiel in the first reading is only to teach what he hears God say, so the disciples are to gather in His name and to pray and seek the will of our heavenly Father. This implies a well-studied, very prayerful process among people who know each other well. This points us right into the Mass which brings the largest group of Catholics together every week.
To put this whole message into the transcendent experience which the Mass calls us to, consider this excerpt from Bishop Robert Barron’s book, This is My Body, A Call to Eucharistic Revival. (p. 31-32). Please consider getting this short book for your Eucharistic Revival meditations … These pages remind us that we are lifted into a genuinely different cosmic reality with all the angels and saints and God Himself. Each part of the Mass is not just reminding us of what happened in the past, but is calling us into a genuinely intimate relationship with God and each other. Becoming One Body, One Spirit in Christ. Our souls are infused – together – with God and each other – which makes it possible to speak and act with God’s authority – to accomplish this awesome mission of teaching the nations and building the Kingdom of God. That is, making the world look more like Heaven than Hell…for the next generations. We can see that ‘the world’ is not neutral. It demands the intervention of God’s Church and we must attend carefully to the Psalm today: Ps. 95:8 ‘If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.’
Resilient hearts and ‘becoming ONE’ give us the perfect set-up for next week’s gospel…
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“Speak to them of the great mercy of God. Sometimes people are helped by your telling of your own lamentable.”
St. Francis Xavier