July 11, 1999 |
You ain't seen nothing yet! I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us (2). Ours is a God of great bounty. His many gifts (especially the gift of his Word) spread out over the world like so much seed (3). What becomes of the seed that falls into our lives is our business, but we do well to remember that God's will is an effective will. God's word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it (1). If we cultivate God's gifts in our lives then we shall be ready for the harvest. If we fail to be good stewards we are to be counted with the weeds. With our time, with our treasure, with our talents let us yield a hundred- or sixty- or thirty-fold.
This Sunday brings us the very familiar parable of Jesus about the sower and the seed. Parables were used by the Rabbis and teachers of Jesus' time, and certainly himself, to teach about the Kingdom of God and our response. They are meant to illustrate in a very real way the truths of God, and are how we should respond to God's call, and the result of our lack of response! This parable is a bit different, because the Lord himself gives an explanation. Keeping in mind that it is from the Church that our Scripture comes...these parables were used by the Church quite early on to illustrate and proclaim - at Liturgy and elsewhere - the message of Jesus. The oral form of these parables (like the rest of Sacred Scripture) were eventually put into their written form, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became the Scriptures we now know and use for our prayer in the Lectionary at Mass! This particular parable can be a good examination of conscience..are we the path that has no room for the Word of God, OR the rocky soil, that is initially enthusiastic with the gift of Faith, but when challenges come quickly fade, or the good soil, that yields that harvest of good works and peace? That is for us to consider. I would also like to share a few words about this passage from the NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY on St. Matthew:
This verse also helps us understand the meaning of the parable of the sower, a parable which gives a wonderful explanation of the supernatural economy of divine grace: God gives grace, and man freely responds to that grace. The result is that those who respond to grace generously receive additional grace and so grow steadily in grace and holiness; whereas those who reject God's gifts become closed up within themselves; through their selfishness and attachment to sin they eventually lose God's grace entirely. In this verse, then, our Lord gives a clear warning: with the full weight of divine authority he exhorts us - without taking away our freedom - to act responsibly: the gifts God keeps sending us should yield fruit; we should make good use of the opportunities for Christian sanctification which are offered us in the course of our lives.
In the Roman Catacomb of Priscilla there is a very ancient figure called the "orant," the praying one. It probably dates back to the first century after Christ. So, it gives us a pretty good idea of how Christians prayed in the early Church. This figure has the head tilted back with eyes looking up. The arms are extended in a gesture of supplication, petition, even down right begging. The early Church prayed standing. Standing to pray is part of our Hebrew past. Other postures of prayer developed in Church history. Kneeling comes much later, particularly with the development of the nation states and their kings. It was required to go down on the left knee to petition God. This is the source of the genuflection. When people came into the presence of the king, they showed respect by going down on one knee. This became the common gesture for showing respect to God on entering a Church or coming into the presence of the Holy Eucharist. Eventually, these gestures became exaggerated. Is God more present when the Holy Eucharist is on display than when it is reserved in the tabernacle? No! Yet, when the Eucharist was on display, it became common place not to genuflect but actually kneel, or what was called a double genuflection. In reality, this was and is practice, custom, discipline, but not doctrine. People simply applied to God what was expected of them in their relationship with the king. Besides, even the king was expected to show these courtesies to the King of Kings. Once these gestures became common place, the idea of bowing our heads and kneeling easily became the most common gesture of prayer. Yet, the liturgy retained standing with the arms extended as the priest's posture whenever he says, "let us pray" and standing with arms extended, he imitates the "ornat" found in the catacomb of Priscilla. Just remember, in your private prayer you can assume any posture and use any gesture that enhances your conversation with God, your prayer.
Father Michael Doyle, OSM
One of the quirks of human nature is to presume that more of something that is good is better. Within the Church this has led to the multiplication of feast days in the calendar and added prayers in the Mass. A reform of both was begun with Vatican II Council. In getting "back to the basics" the Mass was once again simplified in form while at the same time providing more options for the usage of the form. The calendar also was simplified. It retained only those saints that were important to the whole of the Church, emphasized the importance of the Sunday liturgy and the importance of the ordinary life of a Christian. Local saints are to be honored locally but never at the expense of the Sunday liturgy. All of this is to say that today is also the feast of St. Benedict. Sometime after Mass today, pray for the monks and sisters of St. Benedict who have given so much to the universal Church and especially for those who have served here at our parish.
...from Fr. Charles
Oh When the Saints, Go Logging On...
The Internet and e-mail are so much a part of our lives that the Catholic Church could not avoid getting immersed. I found my way into "Catholic Online" several days ago and found that St. Isidore of Seville is the proposed patron of Internet users. After a bit more "Linking" I found the following information which I thought would be good to share with the parish. The information is from the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and dated June 14, 1999. It's title is the title of this Bread to Offer, "When the Saints Go Logging On."
The next time you have trouble surfing the Net, spiritual help could be at hand. In answer to the prayers of many Net users who have just crashed, the Vatican is considering giving the Internet its own patron saint. The choice of religious saviour is thought to be St. Isidore of Seville, who died 1,400 years ago. The Spanish saint is the preferred choice for the Net by many users. He is credited with creating the world's first databaseÑa 20-volume encyclopaedia. St. Isidore was a prolific writer and his works include a history of the world. He introduced the works of Aristotle to Spain and was considered to be one of the most learned men of his day.
Spokesman for the Catholic Media Office Tom Hallwood said: "There are patron saints of many things, so why not let the Internet have one? It is a good idea and might be able to help us when we are about to crash. There has been no official statement from Rome but this has been an idea ßoating around for awhile, so why not?"
The Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church are heavily involved with the Internet. The Pope broadcasts live speeches on the Web and Vatican Radio and can be heard Online. It also uses three servers to cope with the heavy demand made on its websites, appropriately called Raphael, Gabriel and Michael. The move to appoint a saint for the Internet has been attributed to pressure from Catholic users around the world, predominately Spain.
And for your information, I also found the following prayer for all our parishioners who are Internet users. It is entitled, "Prayer Before Logging Onto the Internet."
Almighty and Eternal God, who has created us in Thy image
and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful,
especially in the divine person of Thy only Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ,
Grant, we beseech thee that,
Through the intercession of St. Isidore, bishop and doctor,
during our journeys in through the Internet,
we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee
and treat with charity and patience
all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
St. Bonaventure was a Franciscan friar and was one of the most profound theologians of his age. He died in 1271 and probably saw St. Francis personally when he was a young man. When the pope sent a delegation to announce his appointment to be a Cardinal of the Church, St. Bonaventure had them wait until he finished washing dishes with the friars. It is said that the papal delegaton got tired of waiting and left, leaving the proclamation and the "red hat" of a Cardinal hanging on a tree outside the friary door. To this day, the "seal" on the books that were written by Bonaventure show a tree in whose branches hangs a cardinal's red hat. St. Bonaventure considered being a cardinal less important than finishing the dishes with his brother.
The Holy Mass is the highest form of worship. It is the sacrifice of Calvary renewed. One Mass gives God more praise and thanksgiving, makes more atonement for sin and pleads more eloquently than does the combined and eternal worship of all the souls in Heaven, on earth and in Purgatory. In the Holy Mass, it is Jesus Christ, God, as well as Man, who is our Intercessor, our Priest and our Victim. Being God - as well as Man - His prayers, merits, and His offerings are infinite in value.
In our Gospel today, Jesus shares with us the parable of the sower and the seed. A parable is a form of literary expression that uses concrete images and analogies to convey a deeper message to the listener. Those listening to parables are called to enter into the story to be able to unearth its message. And so we have the parable of the sower and the seed. Let us imagine that our lives are soil, into which is planted seed. The seed is God's life, which comes to us in Word and Sacraments. The growth of the seed depends on several key elements working together. First, the condition of the soil. Is it rocky or thorny? Is it beaten down as a footpath? Or is it good rich soil that will yield a hundred or sixty, or thirtyfold? What kind of soil are you providing for this precious seed? If our lives are not producing the spiritual fruit of peace, joy, holiness, and deepening faith, perhaps, we have allowed our lives to become too cluttered, too busy, to hostile to the Word of God. Let us be good soil so that the harvest of the Spirit will be a hundredfold.
I know it depends on who you "hang around with," but I find that certain issues rise to the surface in cycles as regular as the seasons. Often, the concerns are not earth-shaking, end-of-the-world issues. Still, they do raise questions to consider.
A letter printed in a recent edition of the Saint Louis REVIEW crystallized the subject. I quote (with some editing): "I am one who believes that many people's attire at Mass has gone to the casual extreme, with no sign of return...Yet, we can all anticipate what would happen if someone actually asked the congregation to dress more respectfully. We would hear an outcry to stop dictating dress standards and to be thankful that people even showed up! In short, we would be told to tolerate the situation...How very sad it is that so many no longer believe in the importance of respectful appearance in the house of the Lord! It is equally sad that this has occurred in the one true Church of Jesus Christ, while people still wear their "Sunday best" in fundamentalist churches. Apparently, casual dress is bringing on casual attitudes towards His Real Presence in our lives."
I know words like these raise hackles because they challenge choices as well as perceptions. Suggestions from others can incline us to bristle in self-defense or they can direct decisions to make changes by more appropriate choices. There are times we all experience "hot potato" issues demanding a response which does more than pass the concern off to someone else or dismiss the situation as not applicable.
What we wear does reflect much about our attitude toward self. Image consultants build their service on this concept. Such insights may well encourage us to reconsider how others may see us when we gather for prayer.
Where do we draw a line which determines that T-shirts, tank tops, and shorts are less than suitable choices for a community celebration of worship with others in God's presence. The days for women in fancy dresses and showy hats, for men in ties and starched collars, for showy apparel and elegant trappings are long gone. Many would say "good riddance to that." Nevertheless, we should show we celebrate a mystery of faith and appreciate this blessing of Word and Sacrament.
Certainly, clothing is literally an external. Competition to out-do and show-off is not a better choice. Yet, any evaluation of attitude toward the importance of Holy Mass, any reflection on individual roles as participant and minister, any consideration of witness shared in gathering together for prayer asks that we consider matters of church etiquette and dress.
Think about it! Pray about it! Know that you are loved for who you are! Come to the Banquet, but consider what you wear!?!?
POPE JOHN PAUL II IN ST. LOUIS
Youth Gathering, Part One
We are gathered here this evening to listen to Jesus as he speaks to us through his word and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
We have just heard the Apostle Paul say to Timothy, his young fellow evangelizer: Train yourself for devotion (1 Tim 4:7). These are important words for every Christian, for everyone who truly seeks to follow the Lord and to put his words into practice. They are especially important for you, the young people of the Church. And so you need to ask yourselves: what training am I doing in order to live a truly Christian life?
You all know what training is, and what it signifies. In fact, we are here in the Kiel Center where many people train long and hard in order to compete in different sports. Today, this impressive stadium has become another kind of training ground Ñ not for hockey or soccer or baseball or basketball Ñ I'll say here nothing about football! Ñ but for that training that will help you to live your faith in Jesus more decisively. This it the training in devotion that Saint Paul is referring to Ñ the training that makes it possible for you to give yourselves without reservation to the Lord and to the work that he calls you to do!
Dear young friends, in the Reading we have just heard, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy: Let no one have contempt for your youth (1 Tim 4:12). He says this because youth is a marvelous gift of God. It is a time of special energies, special opportunities and special responsibilities. Christ and the Church need your special talents. Use well the gifts the Lord has given you!
This is the time of your training, of your physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual development. But this does not mean that you can put off until later your meeting with Christ and your sharing in the Church's mission. Even though you are young, the time for action is now! Jesus does not have contempt for your youth. He does not set you aside for a later time when you will be older and your training will be complete. Your training will never be finished. Christians are always in training. You are ready for what Christ wants of you now. He wants you Ñ all of you Ñ to be light to the world, as only young people can be light. It is time to let your light shine!
Pope John Paul II
Reflections on Jesus, The Holy Spirit, and the Father
by Pope John Paul II
The family is a community of particularly intense interpersonal relationships: between spouses, between parents and children, between generations. It is a community which must be safeguarded in a special way. And God cannot find a better safeguard than this: Honor.
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives to you (Ex 20: 12).... The fourth commandment is closely linked to the commandment of love...Honor is essentially an attitude of unselfishness. It could be said that it is a sincere gift of person to person, and in that sense honor converges with love.... You parents, the divine precept seems to say, should act in such a way that your life will merit the honor (and the love) of your children! Do not let the divine command that you be honored fall into a moral vacuum! Ultimately then we are speaking of mutual honor.
The commandment Honor your father and your mother indirectly tells parents: Honor your sons and your daughters. They deserve this because they are alive, because they are who they are, and this is true from the first moment of their conception. The fourth commandment, then, by expressing the intimate bonds uniting the family, highlights the basis of its inner unity. [TPS 39/4, 1994, 225-6]
With this series of historical vignettes we review the history of the parish and archdiocese.
The transfer of Louisiana from France to Spain first was felt in the mid-Mississippi Valley in 1770, the year of the arrival of Don Pedro Piernas, lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana. In 1772 the Capuchin Friar, Father Valentine Neufchateau established himself in St. Louis, not so much as a pastor but more of a chaplain to the Spanish garrison. Still, St. Louisans were grateful. A military chaplain was better than no priest at all. One of Governor Piernas' first acts was the building of a church. It was a small rectangular building built of logs, with a roof of clapboards, erected facing east on the northeast corner of the lot. It was located on a line between the northeast corner of the present rectory of the Old Cathedral. It was blessed on June 24, 1770 by Father Gibault.
However, it was Father Valentine who officiated in a colorful ceremony, the baptism of Pierre Joseph Felicite, a bell for the log church. The bell now displayed in the Old Cathedral museum has a controversial origin. Most accounts state that it was gift of Lieutenant Governor and Senora Piernas. But descendants of Benito Vasquez, a Spanish soldier assigned to the St. Louis garrison, make a convincing case that it was he who ordered it in New Orleans in 1772; and he donated the 200 Spanish silver dollars which were added to the molten bronze, supposedly to sweeten the tone. Father Valentine's record of the baptism of the bell contained in the parish archives do not clear up the controversy since it makes no mention of who actually acquired the bell, and all the principals on both sides of the controversy signed the record.
