Bulletin: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 9/8/24
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 21, 2024 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.
FINANCIAL REPORT: September 1, 2024: Offertory: $1305; Donations Mail: $25; R&I $215; Votives: $121. Thank you!
You can also donate on-line at kanabcatholicchurch.org
Diocesan Development Drive (DDD) for 2024. We are over … if everyone pays their full pledges!! Our goal this year is once again $8800. We have $1240 in unpaid pledges with $8525 paid in!! Thirteen households have participated. Thank you all who have already given so generosity.
PRAY FOR HEALING: Eva Montelongo, Sergio Olvera, Deacon Sifo Manu, Marre Presto-Giacomo, Rosemary Baron, Stan Tuczakov, Molly Bauer, Victims of Natural Disasters, Warfare Casualties. 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
Religious Items: While enjoying the fabulous conversation and refreshments during our social hour, take some time and browse our extensive selection of religious gifts including some amazing. New items on the way!
Priests’ Retirement Fund: Today’s second collection is for the Retirement Fund of the Priests of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Please be your usual generous selves. And thank you in advance!
Knights of the Roundtable: The Knights’ next meeting will be September 29th after Mass in the Social Hall Library. All men of St. Christopher Church are welcome to attend this meeting and get acquainted. Questions? Contact Noel Poe, Mike Bzdewka, or one of the other Knights.
Homily Reflections: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Here is your God, he comes with vindication;
with divine recompense he comes to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.
Streams will burst forth in the desert and rivers in the steppe.
The burning sands will become pools and the thirsty ground springs of water. Is. 35:5-7
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For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here, please,” while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs? Jas. 2:2-4
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And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” — And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.
He ordered them not to tell anyone. Mk. 7:32-36
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The readings are all pointing to an age when the disciples of Christ will be able to see and hear in a supernatural way. We will not be deceived by the deceivers, the confused and the malevolent. This age will not come about magically. It will take centuries for individuals and groups to slowly learn to give their will over to the Father as is demonstrated by Jesus. In the first reading today Isaiah ‘sees’, envisions, this age coming as a time of God’s vindication against all those who have thwarted His plan for a well-ordered world of peace and love.
In the second reading today from James he envisions a community (assembly) of believers who will see beneath the surface of superficial wealth and beauty. A community who can see with the eyes of their hearts, the person that God created. A person whom God loves infinitely. A person like themselves at the core.
As in the Gospel today, Jesus frequently instructs the recipients of a miracle to not tell anyone. Jesus does not want to be the traveling magician who wanders around and heals the peoples’ many ailments immediately as with the blind and deaf man today. Jesus is a ‘hands on’ kind of guy. He puts Himself into the ministry and healing. He spends much time in prayer to make sure He is hearing the instruction of His Father. Prayer gives Him the strength to ‘channel’ the power and wisdom of the Father to those in need. He looks up to heaven and then he groans indicating great effort and exertion. It’s not magic. It’s a miracle. Miracles require the healer to be an open receptacle or conduit between the Father and the wounded. It also requires the openness of the wounded person to know their infirmity and a true desire to be healed, indeed to beg,
Like Jesus we too, the Body of Christ who have been sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, will need to be open channels to the wisdom and healing power of the Father. We will need to make the effort to connect personally with those in need and exert ourselves, “Ephphatha!” To ‘see’ and ‘hear’ at the supernatural level will take more than lots of effort and good intentions. It requires the grace we receive from the sacraments. We must prepare to receive the sacraments worthily. We must remove the obstacles to God’s presence in our hearts while forming the communities necessary to actually respond locally and globally to the many desperate people begging for help.
Where do we start? When did we first see, REALLY SEE, the throngs of suffering people in our midst? Maybe in our families, our neighborhoods, the streets and sidewalks in a city. What were our first impressions? What excuses did we make up to justify our lack of response? When did we first realize that it would take a close community of true believers to make a credible response? Who is our close community? When did we first realize the true need for the sanctifying grace of the sacraments in order to ‘see’ and respond on a supernatural level?
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“When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross, and when we confess Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord: We are worldly. We are bishops, priests, cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord.” Pope Francis – from a homily given in the Sistine Chapel the day after becoming pope.