Dear Parishioners,
PGA Championship: Welcome to any spectators (or participants!) for the PGA Championship who are here with us this weekend. We hope that you feel welcome here at Saint Monica Parish!
Today we celebrate the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. When given seemingly impossible tasks or if we carry burdens of fear and doubt, the Lord does not abandon us. When we question the presence of the Lord in the midst of our very human struggles, he reminds us that he is the living bread that came down from heaven. If we taste and see the goodness of the Lord, if we eat this bread and fervently ask to become what we receive, then anger will dissipate in our lives. The marks of faith in Jesus — kindness, forgiveness and compassion will define our lives.
Next weekend will be the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The readings next weekend will invite us to surrender whatever holds us back from living as signs and witnesses to the love of Jesus Christ. In Word and in Sacrament, Jesus comes to us and invites us to the banquet of faith. But if we accept the invitation, we must pay attention to how we live, not as foolish persons but as wise people who make the most of this opportunity to be the bread of life in the world. We have been given the means, the ticket, if you will, to live forever. Do we accept the invitation?
This coming Wednesday, August 15th, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, IS a Holyday of Obligation this year. Please recall that the U S Bishops have dispensed the Obligation to attend Holy Mass on several Holydays of Obligation when they fall on either Saturdays or Mondays. This is not one of them. However, this year, since the Feast is on a Wednesday, it is a Holyday of Obligation. Our Masses will be 6:30 A.M., 8:15 A.M., 12:10 P.M., and 7:00 P.M.
The Assumption. The Catechism of the Catholic Church has the following about our Blessed Mother and the mystery of the Assumption:
Mary – Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church
963 Since the Virgin Mary’s role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. “The Virgin Mary … is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer. … She is ‘clearly the mother of the members of Christ’ … since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head.” “Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church.”
- MARY’S MOTHERHOOD WITH REGARD TO THE CHURCH
Wholly united with her Son . . .
964 Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. “This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death”; it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begot- ten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lov- ingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: “Woman, behold your son.” (Second Vatican Council, Constitution Lumen Gentium)
965 After her Son’s Ascension, Mary “aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers.”506 In her association with the apostles and several women, “we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation.”
. . . also in her Assumption
966 “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:
In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death. (Byzantine Divine Liturgy for the Assumption)
Finally, paragraph 2853 Victory over the “prince of this world” was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is “cast out.” “He pursued the woman” but had no hold on her: the new Eve, “full of grace” of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever virgin). “Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her off- spring.” Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: “Come, Lord Jesus,” since his coming will deliver us from the Evil One.
School: This is covered elsewhere in the bulletin, but our Parish School will begin its 2018-2019 school year this coming Thursday with a half day. Welcome back students, faculty, and staff.
Our prayers are with you!
Faithfully yours,
Fr Joe Weber