Fr. Rick’s Pastoral Messages 2/26/23

Beginning (Today) the First Sunday of Lent, St. Christopher’s will once again offer the Blood of Christ during the Communion Rite at Mass. 

St. Christopher’s Has Suspended the Saturday Vigil Mass Indefinitely for the primary purpose of encouraging a closer and more genuinely Eucharistic Community. This realization is particularly important during our 3-year Eucharistic Revival as we reawaken the power of actually becoming One Body, One Spirit in Christ. Our tiny community does not need two Masses to accommodate our members even when considering the presence of our many visitors.

The Vigil Mass was added during the emergence from the Covid pandemic in order to accommodate safer distancing. Now that most people are moving about freely during the rest of the week, this is no longer a significant concern.

This change will be an inconvenience to some of our local Catholics and visitors; however, the aspiration and need for genuine community takes a stronger precedence. Thank you very much for your understanding and cooperation.

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

Share the Fun:  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.

Please get Vaccinated and Boosted:  A friendly reminder from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services via the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City.

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Homily Reflection – First Sunday of Lent

On this first Sunday of Lent we are starting a new season to help us better recognize the Resurrected Lord already in our midst.  In the gospel today Jesus is entering a new period of His life.  At the start of His public ministry He is, interestingly, led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  Jesus must be prepared to fight off all the subtleties, temptations and empty promises that seem to appeal to all humans.  This is the same devil that showed up at another beginning: Creation.  He is waiting in the garden to tempt the first human beings.  Adam and Eve are promised that they will be as smart as God if they will just trust Satan, this cunning animal spirit, rather than the God who made everything. Out of nothing. The same devil is promising Jesus this all-powerful omniscience to rule the world, but with the power of Satan.

In both cases the devil wants the humans to be stranded in this same animal spirit that will be trapped in a self-aggrandizing ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality.  After many centuries of struggling to evolve and become who God wants us to be, Jesus is a new beginning, a new creation.  This is not Jesus who wills this new beginning, but the same Father who created everything ex nihilo, that is, out of nothing.  Jesus has complete trust in the unfolding plan of the Father.  He wants to live in the Truth and not take things into His own hands.  No matter what happens.

Lent is a time to really focus on our own vulnerabilities to the empty promises of Satan.  If we are making significant life plans without some serious discernment of God’s plan, we are falling into the trap of the same serpent who wants us to do things on our own terms, which is really Satan’s terms.

Have we chosen to evolve as God intended or to jump to omniscience?  Are we tempted to become something that is not True?  Jesus came to enable us to be something brand new; but not by our own intelligence or power.  We are images of God, but we are not God.

Jesus has complete trust in the unfolding plan of the Father.  Do we?  He wants to live in the Truth and not take things into His own hands.  No matter what happens.  Do We?  God made us out of nothing; can He continue His plan for the world without our advice?

How do we actually discern God’s will in our lives?  How did we decide to move to this out-of-the-way, little gem of a place, Kanab? This desert.  A new beginning?  How did we know what type of place to buy or build?  How might that fit in with all the other people who moved to Kanab over the past 20 years?  What’s our mission here?

Let’s really make room for God’s plan this Lent.