Fr. Rick’s Pastoral Messages 10-23-22

World Mission Sunday THIS weekend.  The annual collection for the Propagation of the Faith will occur next weekend.  Please see the enclosed envelope.  These funds help train seminarians, catechists, and instruct children in the faith in some of the more impoverished, but dynamic Catholic communities throughout the world.  It also helps support the efforts of Catholic religious sisters, homes for orphaned children and the elderly, as well as the operation of clinics.

Intermountain Catholic Newspaper – Recall that October is also the month for renewing your subscription to our Catholic Diocesan newspaper.  The annual cost is $25.  The parish is charged $800 annually regardless of how many people actually pay in.  If 32 people paid, we would cover our assessment.

Senior Activity Center – Please see the flyers in the gathering space to discover the many activities offered to seniors in our area.

St. Christopher’s Library: Come on in and browse during our social hour after the Sunday Mass.   Books are organized by category, plainly marked on the shelves. If your knowledge of an aspect of our faith is weak, we have books for just about every Catholic topic. 

“Do not let a day go by without some spiritual reading.”- St. John Bosco

Hospitality:  Remember that we are a ‘Hospitality Parish’ with a major outreach to our many visitors. Please sign up to help host our Sunday morning Coffee and Muffin gathering. Sign up list is in the gathering space.

A man who governs his passions is master of his world.  We must either command them or be enslaved by them.  It is better to be a hammer than an anvil.”  St. Dominic

Homily Reflection:  The Scriptures today remind us of the importance of genuine humility in prayer and also that God does not show any partiality.  If God does not show any partiality, why should anyone go before God with anything less than humility?  God is God…and we are not.  We will probably not impress God very much with our brilliance and beauty and holiness.  We all have real needs and likely more than we can even conceive of.  Going to God with genuine humility and receptivity takes some courage because in preparing us to receive His gifts, God will likely reveal to us the obstacles WE have to His love.  Obstacles such as sin, fear, woundedness and ignorance.

In our biweekly Mass reflection from the Diocese this week we heard about the penitential rite that occurs at the beginning of each Mass.  The Mass is the ‘source and summit’ of our religion and is the model of perfect prayer.  In the Mass God calls us together, lifts us up and sends us out to do the mission given to us by Jesus.  The mission of the Church is certainly beyond any individual; hence He calls us all together.  The mission is beyond any group of people without first removing the obstacles we have to God’s love.  When we have collectively removed the obstacles, we then have the immediate tendency to glorify God which is also an act of humility.  The Mass calls us into a state of Love with God and each other which transcends any other kind of love we can experience.  It is a foretaste of Heaven.  Taking this Love to the world is the mission given to us by Jesus.

How many people do we know that say they don’t need the Church?  They prayer ‘their own way’ on their own terms.  This is sort of the opposite of humility.  How about leaving before the end of the Mass?  What are we saying, that we don’t need all the grace and blessings that God is offering us?  We’ve got everything figured out and can maintain the clarity and strength needed to do God’s will?  Really?

We should also say a good Act of Contrition every day before we go to bed, just in case…

Oh my God I am heartly sorry for having offended Thee and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God who art all good and deserving of all my love.  I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.  Amen.