Meditation on November 1, 2015 readings

Meditation on November 1, 2015 readings

Direct link to audio file:2015-Nov-01_08-45-54

Reading 1
Rv 7:2-4, 9-14

I, John, saw another angel come up from the East,
holding the seal of the living God.
He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels
who were given power to damage the land and the sea,
“Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees
until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal,
one hundred and forty-four thousand marked
from every tribe of the children of Israel.

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
They cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne,
and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne
and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They prostrated themselves before the throne,
worshiped God, and exclaimed:

“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me,
“Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.”
He said to me,
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”

Reading 2
1 Jn 3:1-3

Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.

Gospel
Mt 5:1-12a

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.”

Express Announcements ~ November 1, 2015

Express Announcements ~ November 1, 2015

* There will be two additional Masses at Noon and 6pm on Monday, November 2 for All Souls’ Day.

* We welcome seminarian Daniel Mitchell to our parish this weekend to celebrate National Vocations Awareness Week, November 1-7. Please consider saying a Prayer for Vocations each day this week (see page 7 for the prayer).

* Parish Photo Directory sign-up continues. Please visit our parish website to schedule your portrait appointment.

coming events:

* Fr. Don’s class on Lectio divina will take place first on Tuesday, November 10. Please call and let us know you are coming. It has always been the Tradition of the Church to pray with the Word of God, not use the Bible as a textbook! Class will be repeated later in February.

* Our annual Seminar on Life Decisions will be held Saturday, November 14 from 9:30-1pm with Fr. Don, David Mathers and Regis Keddie, chair of our finance council. Join us if you have questions about how to prepare plans for your funeral (Church teachings and liturgy planning) and other financial planning you would like to work on, including remembering our parish in your giving.

 

From Our Pastor ~ November 1, 2015

From Our Pastor ~ November 1, 2015

 Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Last week about 25 of us gathered for our first of three meetings to discuss and respond to Pope Francis’ encyclical on Care  for the Earth, Laudato si’. One of the great things that happens in a large parish like ours is that you discover such diversity of backgrounds and knowledge of people who come together, people who represent such different disciplines as  environmental sciences, farming, teaching, economics, conservation and weather. Then there’s people like me who get to learn from all of you.

Somebody corrected me, as previously I had referred to this encyclical as the Pope’s document “on the environment,” and I realize it is such an error that I need to print a correction! It is about the environment, in part, but this simplification has led many to decide they can dismiss it as a document merely about climate change, words that boil up so much political controversy over already-formed alliances. I believe sides have divided our culture over this issue for personal gain, without really  looking at it. In our day we have allowed real moral issues to become so aligned with politics that it seems people don’t even consider the objective reality of them without the lens of partisan affiliations. Early in our discussion last week, we decided to leave the words climate change aside and look at what the Pope is really saying. He says so much more.

It came up in our discussion that some say the Pope is a Marxist. Another political label meant to distract attention  from the reality of which he speaks. It is true he speaks out of his own experience (how could he not?) of the struggle he knew all his life with South American totalitarian regimes who had no compassion, no mercy for human persons. But he spent his visit to our country not calling us out and condemning us for being a free market society built on hard work and well-earned success, but challenging us to use its fruitfulness for the good, and leave behind the part that can destroy us spiritually and culturally, to avoid what destroys the fragile balance of God’s creation given to us as  stewards, meant to be preserved, nurtured, valued.

He does say often that politics and economics so dominate the discussion that what we do today—in all spheres of our lives and the life of our planet—has more to do with the bottom line and cost per unit than it does with the dignity of workers, their right to a fair wage, the promotion of peoples and the care of the earth. Would we not rather get things cheap (especially the things we don’t really need) than pay what it costs to give someone a good paying job? Maybe we wouldn’t do this consciously; Pope Francis is saying that we have gotten to the point that the people who work for $5 a day in different countries in the world aren’t even remembered as a part of the system anymore.

You don’t have to travel very far to witness personally the damage done to fragile ecosystems. The health of our bay is a subject of great concern, much more than just the price of crabs. What about the changes being made in the southwest, where cities along the paths of rivers have dried them up, leaving people further along without any water at all? Some countries are now trying to replant lost hardwood forests with “sustainable” cash crops of fast-growing trees, often “invader” plants that cause the extinction of further species? Some of these forests require six or seven generations to be reestablished, more time than we have or are willing to give.

I think the most compelling point that Pope Francis makes about the earth is that it is the place God designed where  the encounter takes place between him and mankind. God created the earth to be a safe place for human beings, not a place where the law would protect a pet more than an unborn child. Not a place where the poor become poorer, where indigenous peoples disappear because of another’s greed. Not a place where we consume, waste, and throw away the fruits of that creation without regard to the impact that we have on others.

When I was looking for a college, my parents said that they wanted us to find a college that actually taught ethics in their curriculum. This was over thirty years ago: ethics was virtually impossible to find. This, I think, is the main point that Pope Francis is trying to make with his encyclical. God’s gifts are given to us with a moral charge included: we must once again look at our lives and the way we are using his gifts from a moral perspective. Ultimately we must understand the Planner behind the plan, if that plan is to succeed. He is returning ethics to the discussion table.

We meet again next week; the week after, we plan our parish’s active response.

God bless you.

Fr. Don

Meditation on October 25, 2015 readings

Meditation on October 25, 2015 readings

 

Direct link to audio file: 2015-Oct-25_12-44-46

 

Reading 1
Jer 31:7-9

Thus says the LORD:
Shout with joy for Jacob,
exult at the head of the nations;
proclaim your praise and say:
The LORD has delivered his people,
the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I will bring them back
from the land of the north;
I will gather them from the ends of the world,
with the blind and the lame in their midst,
the mothers and those with child;
they shall return as an immense throng.
They departed in tears,
but I will console them and guide them;
I will lead them to brooks of water,
on a level road, so that none shall stumble.
For I am a father to Israel,
Ephraim is my first-born.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6

R. (3) The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Reading 2
Heb 5:1-6

Brothers and sisters:
Every high priest is taken from among men
and made their representative before God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,
for he himself is beset by weakness
and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself
as well as for the people.
No one takes this honor upon himself
but only when called by God,
just as Aaron was.
In the same way,
it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest,
but rather the one who said to him:
You are my son:
this day I have begotten you;
just as he says in another place:
You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.

Gospel
Mk 10:46-52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more,
“Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.