Bulletin: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 9/15/24
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 8, 2024: Offertory: $1390; Donations Mail: $300; Retired Priest of SLC: $997 and counting!! You’re amazing! 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: John Farmer, Sergio Olvera, Deacon Sifo Manu, Marre Presto-Giacomo, Rosemary Baron, Fr. Michael Buckley, Stan Tuczakov. 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!
Catholic Climate Covenant Conference Webinar: Check out this webinar for a more thorough discussion on responsible voting for Catholics. Consider the principal of voting for the candidate rather than just a single issue. You can go to our parish website and click on this link from our online bulletin.
Homily Reflections:
Take up your cross and follow me.
The cross is an instrument of torture. We can surely understand Peter’s reluctance to have the Lord suffer and die. It is also understandable why none of us would be anxious to be subjected to such torture. The ‘Suffering Servant’ in the first reading today from the Prophet Isaiah speaks of the abuse he has received: beatings, beard plucking and spitting. This Suffering Servant is understood to be a man who prefigures Christ and His suffering. It all seems so severe. If this cross is requisite to saving one’s life eternally, then our personal witness as disciples of Christ would likely include a very definitive point of suffering, dying and new life? Have our children and grandchildren heard the stories of our crucifixion and new life in Christ? Have we shared this experience with our closest friends? It all seems so dramatic. Is this type of suffering really required? Still? In the 21st Century?
We might find some solace in today’s second reading from the Letter of James. He seems to be suggesting that ‘good works’ might be sufficient witness to our faith in Jesus. That’s sort of a relief!! As I look around the congregation today, I can say with confidence that most or all of you have been very generous with your good works and your almsgiving.
So, what might have changed since the Prophet Isaiah lived 6 or 7 hundred years before Jesus or what has change in the 2000 years since Jesus? Are prayers and good works sufficient? What would actually constitute good works and how do we know if we have accomplished enough of them? What is the reliable measurement to help us avoid losing eternal life? Does everyone just decide on their own? What might be the modern understanding of beatings, spitting, crucifixions and good works?
Considering some of the Mass prayers from the modern Roman Missal can give us some more insights. There are many options for different occasions and intentions. Consider:
Collect for Masses for the Preservation of Peace and Justice
Let us pray. O God, who have revealed that peacemakers are to be called your children, grant, we pray, that we may work without ceasing to establish that justice which alone ensures true and lasting peace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Prayer after Communion from Masses for the Progress of Peoples
Having been fed with the one Bread by which you constantly renew the human family, we pray, O Lord, that from participation in this Sacrament of unity we may draw a love strong and pure to help peoples in their development and, prompted by charity, to fulfill what justice requires. Through Christ our Lord. AMEN
Intrinsically related to charity is justice. We are called to justice and to actively participate in the creation of a just society and world. Especially as Americans, we should consider what it means to ‘deny ourselves’ for the sake of the most needy and vulnerable.
Is. 50:6 I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. What was the greatest humiliation You have suffered for Christ?
Mk. 8:34-35 “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Describe your most severe denial of self?
Mk. 8:35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” What part of your life have you tried hardest to save (Hold back) for yourself?
Ps. 116: 3-4 The cords of death encompassed me; the snares of the netherworld seized upon me; I fell into distress and sorrow, and I called upon the name of the LORD, “O LORD, save my life!” When did you most fervently cry out to the Lord? What was the result?
Ps. 116:5-6 For he has freed my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living. Wow! When did THAT happen?
See also: https://www.usccb.org/offices/justice-and-peace/catholic-social-teaching from the US Bishops on Catholic Social Teaching.
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“Trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.” St. Teresa of Avila