Pastoral Messages from Fr. Rick 7-24-22

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.

Knights Roundtable Meeting: Sunday, July 31st the Knights will meet in the library following Mass.  We start with the Rosary, followed by business.  Any men at St. Christopher interested in discovering Knight’s activities, grab a cup of coffee and a snack and join us.  Meetings are less formal than the Knights Council meetings.  Noel Poe, Roundtable Coordinator

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 (NFP) Awareness Week!   July 24th begins the week-long celebration:   https://www.usccb.org/topics/natural-family-planning/national-nfp-awareness-week

See also:  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:  “Lord, teach us to pray.”

It’s interesting to speculate on what the disciples might have expected from Jesus when they made this request.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) takes 79 paragraphs to explain the depth and richness of the Our Father..  CCC:   2777-2856

Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “Jesus … involves us in his own prayer; he leads us into the interior dialogue of triune love … This also means, however, that the words of the Our Father … aim to configure us to the image of the Son. The meaning of the Our Father goes much further than the mere provision of a prayer text. It aims to form our being, to train us in the inner attitude of Jesus (cf. Phil 2:5).  Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, trans.Adrian J. Walker (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 132

CCC 2784: The free gift of adoption requires on our part continual conversion and new life. Praying to our Father should develop in us two fundamental dispositions:  First, the desire to become like him: though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace; and we must respond to this grace.

CCC 2785 Second, a humble and trusting heart that enables us “to turn and become like children”: for it is to “little children” that the Father is revealed.

The disciples of Jesus were living in a tumultuous time, indeed the end of the world as they knew it.  They didn’t know exactly what the changes would be, but they had this strong inner prompting that they would need to pray differently.

What is our collective, most heinous national transgression?  Are we more ready to change than Sodom?  Do we know how to change?  Do we really know how to pray?

How will we teach young people about healthy and holy sexuality?  How will we discuss the pending legislation to protect the legalization of same-sex marriage?

How will we respond better to the needs of mothers with unplanned pregnancies? 

During NFP Awareness Week will we be able to help others pray as Jesus taught us, i.e., in the inner attitude of Jesus?  See quote from Pope Benedict above.

See also ‘Prayer from the Heart’ as in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)2562-63