January/February 2025 (Ordinary Time I)

01-14-2025Reflections and Resources

Ordinary Time begins on Monday, January 13 and ends on Mardi Gras, the day before Ash Wednesday (March 5). This is the first season of Ordinary Time during the Liturgical Year; the second begins after Pentecost and lasts until Advent. Ordinary Time is not called this because it is lacking pizzaz or something special. It is so-called because it has a numerical, an ordinal, base; its Sundays are counted, as in the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (January 19), etc. During Ordinary Time, we walk with Jesus as he ministers to the people of this time, healing, forgiving, welcoming those around him and we hear his call to us to do the same today. Joan Chittister, OSB, in her 2009 book The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life, says that “Ordinary Time translates the life of Jesus into the very marrow of life itself” (p. 29). Ordinary Time is about the reality of Jesus’ life and our life as his followers…day by day, action by action.

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2024 Advent and Christmas Seasons

12-01-2024Reflections and Resources

December 1, 2024 is the First Sunday of Advent as well as the first day of a new liturgical year, Year C. We will hear from Luke’s gospel most of the Sundays during this new liturgical year. Luke’s primary audience was most probably Gentiles, or non-Jews; his primary message was one of God’s acceptance of and salvation for the poor, the outcast or marginalized, and the lowly. You can read about Luke’s gospel at the US Bishops’ website, bit.ly/BishopsLuke. You can also watch two videos about this gospel produced by the Bible Project; Part One: bit.ly/LukePartOne, and Part Two: bit.ly/LukePartTwo.

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November 2024

11-01-2024Reflections and Resources

This month of November brings us to the end of liturgical Ordinary Time; we begin the season of Advent, and a new liturgical year, on December 1st. The readings of the first Sunday of November, November 3, remind us that we are to love God and love our neighbor; these are the two greatest commandments. The following week, November 10, Jesus compares the monetary contribution of the poor woman, the widow’s mite, as it is sometimes called, to the monetary contributions made by the rich, saying that the poor woman gave all that she had while the rich have contributed from their surplus wealth. A challenging message for many of us! The next Sunday, the thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, with its apocalyptic readings from the Book of Daniel and the gospel of Mark, focuses our attention on the end times; only God knows when the end will come, we are told. Finally, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King on November 24; this is the final Sunday of the current liturgical year. We remember that our King, Jesus, is the ruler of the entire universe, all of creation; he is thus not like other kings that the world has known. You can prepare for the Sunday readings at liturgy.slu.edu/.

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October 2024

10-01-2024Reflections and Resources

We remain in the Church’s liturgical season of Ordinary Time this month, our attention focused on Jesus’ recorded words and actions in his time, and their meaning in ours. We are reminded of the great bond of marriage in the gospel on Sunday, October 6, (Mark 10: 2-16) and we hear that Jesus gave sight to the blind Bartimaeus on October 21 (Mark 10:46-52). The second reading on all of the Sundays of October is from the Letter to the Hebrews. The main theme of this “treatise” is the “sacrifice and priesthood of Christ”; this theme is developed so as to strengthen our own faith. From the Letter to the Hebrews we also hear that God’s word is living and effective (Hebrews 4:12), a good parallel to the words of Jesus from Mark’s gospel on that day, that all things are possible for God (Mark 10:27). You can read an introduction to the Letter to the Hebrews on the US Bishops’ Bible website at bible.usccb.org/bible/hebrews/0. And, as always, at the St. Louis University liturgy website, liturgy.slu.edu/ you can find means of preparation for each Sunday’s readings.

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September 2024

09-01-2024Reflections and Resources

September is here. Amazing!!! Where did the summer go? With this month comes a spirit of freshness…the school year begins, organizations hold meetings, the Patriots start a brand new season. Listen to the song Holy Wisdom, Lamp of Learning (bit.ly/LampofLearning) to capture this sense of renewal. On the other hand, we experience constancy in our Church life as we continue to celebrate the Season of Ordinary Time. During September, we will listen to Sunday gospels which tell of Jesus’ mighty deeds and Jesus’ words that help us to become better disciples. This month, along with Jesus’ disciples, we are also asked the question “Who do you say that I am?” The daily and Sunday Mass readings are always available at bible.usccb.org; you can prepare for the Sunday readings at liturgy.slu.edu.

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

09-01-2024Pastoral ReflectionsReverend Bob Poitras

Dear Friends,

I’d like to introduce to you a young man from Franklin and a son of St. Mary’s Parish, Mr. Sean McKeown. Sean is a seminarian, studying for the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Boston. He is currently in his second year of preparation for Theology studies.

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20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

08-18-2024Pastoral ReflectionsReverend Bob Poitras

Dear Friends in Christ,

Earlier this year the Parish Pastoral Council and I took up a conversation about our weekend Mass schedule. My concern is the declining numbers for the 12:00pm Mass that our parish has traditionally held between September and May. During my first year as Pastor, I witnessed that our 12:00pm Mass was not only our lowest attended Mass, but it is also a Mass with the smallest collection as well as the hardest Mass to find Liturgical Ministers for service.

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We Welcome Most Reverend Richard G. Henning, S.T.D.

08-11-2024Pastoral ReflectionsCardinal Seán P. O'Malley, OFM, Cap.

Dear Friends,

The Holy Father announced that he has named the Most Reverend Richard G. Henning, S.T.D. as the tenth bishop and seventh archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston. Archbishop-elect Henning is currently the Bishop of the Diocese of Providence.

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(Practicing) Catholic - Recognize God In Your Ordinary Moments

08-04-2024Pastoral ReflectionsColleen Jurkiewicz Dorman

It’s so easy to do the right thing because we want to tick all the right boxes. We want to live by the law. We want to accomplish the work of God. Or, at least, we say that we do.

But Jesus tells us that in order to accomplish the work of God, we have to believe in the one he sent. And to believe in Christ is to be filled with the spirit of truth — to do what is right because it is right, not because we want to be filled with good feelings.

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