Pastoral Messages from Fr. Rick – 7-17-22
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.
Care and Share: The local CARE and SHARE needs your empty egg cartons. Please bring them to the social hall and we will get them to the right place.
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 concept, including those that explain all the tenets under “Basic Catholicism”. So please check it out! No library card needed!
“Do not let a day go by without some spiritual reading.”- St. John Bosco
Encountering Jesus – We are once again offering the web-based Catechist preparation course, ‘Echoes of Faith: Emmaus Journey’. This is an excellent way to deepen our understanding of the basic tenants of our faith, but also learn how to evangelize on a more personal level. When did you sit at the feet of Jesus? When did you actually encounter the Resurrected Christ and how has the Holy Spirit guided you through the various stages of your life. For more info, see Fr. Rick.
Walking with Mothers in Need in Utah: Gearing up for the ‘post Roe’ world. https://www.dioslc.org/respect-for-life/walking-with-moms-in-need
Natural Family Planning Awareness Week! July 24th begins the week-long celebration: https://www.usccb.org/topics/natural-family-planning/national-nfp-awareness-week
See Catechism of the Catholic Church on Chastity, paragraphs 2337-2344. Notice especially: 2344 Chastity represents an eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is “an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society.”131 Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular the right to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life.
Homily Reflection: Sitting at the Feet of Jesus
This familiar story likely has us relating more to the busyness and disappointment of Marth than to the focused attentiveness of Mary. Sitting before Jesus is not always so easy. Perhaps we have most starkly realized this when trying to spend 30 to 60 minutes with the Lord during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Sometimes it doesn’t feel so comforting.
Jesus can look right into the very heart of our being (see CCC excerpts below). He know us as we really are. When we are really open to His presence, we know He knows; better than we know ourselves. Think of the extended encounter Jesus has with the Samaritan woman at the well. After a lengthy conversation in just the perfect tone, Jesus demonstrates to the woman that ‘He knows everything that she has done’. Her reaction is not to sulk away in shame and hopelessness. It is the opposite. She returns excitedly to her friends exclaiming “Come see a man who has told me everything I have done!” (John 4:29)
This is real evangelization. First we must give our heart over to the mystery of God’s presence among and within us. Let the Truth sink in. Feel Jesus lifting the burden of sin and shame. Feel the new life and the exuberance of honesty. One of the tests of our real encounter with Jesus Christ is our exuberance at sharing with others the new Life we have found. Notice the ‘angels’ in our midst who have come to show us more than we could ever imagine. (See Fr. Rick’s homily on our website and ‘ENTERTAINING ANGELS: THE DOROTHY DAY STORY’ starring Moira Kelly and Martin Sheen).
‘Prayer from the Heart’ as in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)
2562 … According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.
2563 The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place “to which I withdraw.” The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant.