Corpus Christi Blog

A Father's Reflections

05-28-2017What's Your Story?Chuck Wold

"I only want to be so Catholic....I don't want it to limit me too much…" Like a foolish child refusing to listen to his parents, I limit my trust in God. "Ignorance is bliss" and who doesn't like bliss — there are perhaps some things I don't want to know about Catholic teaching because it might burden me. I live in the "real world;" I am not a monk or a priest. I wish I could, but I can't always be "perfect." That is the job of the religious....no one expects lay people to be saints. If I get too "churchy" I will never have any fun. I have real problems I have to solve; if I don't worry about these issues I will be in big trouble...I need tograb control....

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Encounter and Witness

05-28-2017HomiliesFr. Chad King

Today we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, we celebrate that Jesus went back home to the Father. This must be a day of celebration for us, because it is through the Resurrected Jesus ascending from earth into heaven that we have the ability to go to Heaven ourselves. And though we should see our lives here on earth as just a temporary pilgrimage to our everlasting Heavenly homeland, today I want to focus on the experience of the Apostles and see how for them, the Ascension is a kind of preparation for Pentecost in which they will receive the Holy Spirit, which we’ll celebrate next Sunday.

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The Apparitions of Fatima Part Two: Our Lady of Fatima

05-21-2017Weekly Reflection

© 2017 EWTN, www.ewtn.com/fatima

Leading their flock out from Aljustrel on the morning of the 13th of May, the feast of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, the three children passed Fátima, where the parish church and cemetery could be found, and proceeded north to the slopes of the Cova. Here they allowed their sheep to graze as they played in the pasture land. After having had their lunch they decided to pray a rosary, although in a somewhat truncated fashion, saying only the first words of each prayer. Shortly, they were startled by what they later described as "lightening in a clear sky." Thinking that a storm might be approaching they debated whether they should take the sheep and go home. Preparing to do so they were again surprised bya strange light.

And we began to go down the slope driving the sheep towards the road. When we were half-way down, near a holm oak there [the large tree which today is encircled with an iron fence], we saw another flash of lightening, and after a few steps we saw on a holm oak [a small one lower on the hillside] a lady dressed in white, shining brighter than the sun, giving out rays of clear and intense light, just like a crystal goblet full of pure water when the fiery sun passes through it. We stopped astounded by the Apparition.

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Through the Sacraments we become One in the Trinity

05-14-2017HomiliesFr. Chad King

Last week we heard from John chapter 10 where Jesus revealed two titles.  One, that He is the Good Shepherd who will seek and gather all the sheep, especially those that are lost; and second, Jesus said that He is the Gate- the only entry to salvation.  Today we pick up a few chapters later, but we continue Jesus’ revelation of Himself and teaching to his disciples. If you look at John’s Gospel, beginning in chapter 13, we get an account of the Last Supper, and then in John chapters 14 through 17 we have what is sometimes called the farewell discourse. It’s Jesus's teachings to the apostles at the Last Supper, but not on the Eucharist per se, but rather on what their lives will be like and what they will be engaged in after he has died, risen and ascended into heaven. So let's peek into what's going on at the Last Supper and see what Jesus says to his disciples.

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The Apparitions of Fatima Part One: The Angel

05-14-2017Weekly Reflection

© 2017 EWTN, www.ewtn.com/fatima

Beginning in the spring of 1916, three visitations of the Guardian Angel of Portugal served as preparation for the visits the next year of the Mother of God.

In rural Portugal of 1916, it would not have been unusual to see children leading their family flocks to pasture. This is what the children of the Marto and Santos families, cousins all, did on many days. Often it was Lucia Santos, Francisco Marto and his sister Jacinta, who gladly undertook this chore, grateful for the chance to be outdoors and to play as the sheep silently grazed. They would take their families' few sheep to graze on small plots of land owned by their parents in different parts of the sera, the mountainous plateau on which was located the village of Fátima (where the parish church was) and Aljustrel (where the children actually resided).

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Mass Intentions

05-07-2017Weekly ReflectionFr. Chad King

You might be aware that our Mass Intention book is now completely full for 2017. This hasn't been a problem in the past, but this year we have simply "run out of Masses." First of all, it warms my heart because it shows your love for your loved ones and also your deep faith in the power of the Mass. However, I am sorry as I know many have not been able to have a Mass said for someone and particularly not on the day you would like to have it.

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Becoming a Good Shepherd

05-07-2017HomiliesFr. Chad King

The 4th Sunday of Easter every year has become known as Good Shepherd Sunday, as the Gospel each year is taken from a section of John chapter 10, where Jesus uses the image of sheep and shepherd to teach his disciples.  So today, we start to transition in our Gospel from the Resurrection accounts to prepare for Pentecost and the start of the Catholic Church.  So let us prepare ourselves too.

To help understand the image Jesus uses today of the sheep and shepherd, at night the shepherds would put their sheep in a corral with stone walls to help keep the sheep contained.  And there is only 1 gate to enter in and out of it, and a gatekeeper who knew the shepherds would stay in front of the gate.  Therefore, any strangers or thieves would have to go over the walls because they couldn’t go through the gate.  He would let the shepherds in though, and the shepherd would call his sheep by name, and the sheep knew and would follow the shepherds voice.  This is such a powerful and meaningful image.  But the disciples didn’t understand the meaning of this figure of speech.  Therefore, Jesus clarified that He himself “is the gate, and anyone who goes through Him will be saved and will find pasture in eternal life”.  Therefore, not only is Jesus the Good Shepherd who leads his flock to the green pasture of salvation, but He is also the gate- the only way entrance way to eternal life.  However, this is not just nice imagery Jesus is using to instruct his disciples, but it is actually a fulfillment of the Old Testament in which God foreshadows that He will be the Good Shepherd who will seek and save the lost sheep.

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