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SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME B
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Leprosy was a dreaded, but misunderstood disease. The illness we call leprosy is actually "Hansen's disease," a sometimes fatal but non-contagious ailment. Yet, quarantine was the treatment for those in the past. A leper dared to break that quarantine so he could receive a cure from Jesus. By breaking that taboo, both the leper and Jesus became unclean. By breaking that taboo, both did the will of God.
Leviticus laid out treatment for someone with a contagious rash (called "Leprosy" by the ancient writers). The reaction was quarantine. The infected were to live outside the community until their condition improved. The priests were the gates that allowed the sick to leave and reenter the community.
Psalm 32 was a hymn of repentance, confession, and forgiveness. Blessed is the sinner who repents, then leads others to repentance.
When can we do what we want? That might sound like a self-serving question, but it is a choice we face everyday in Western society. My self interest vs. the common good. However, we don't have to face this dilemma, if we take St. Paul's advice from his
First Letter to the Corinthians. Do whatever you like, but do it FOR the glory of God.
In
Mark's Gospel, a leper approached Jesus with a desire for a cure. Jesus obliged. In fact, Jesus made himself unclean by touching the leper, but that touch healed the sick man. Despite instructions to the contrary, the healed man went out and spread the Good News of this Jesus, the one who had God's power.
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| Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - B |
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THE SEASON OF LENT - NEXT WEDNESDAY - FEBRUARY 14
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Drive-thru Ashes - 6:00-6:40 AM
(Drive toward end of parking lot near the Pines)
Mass and Ashes - 6:45 and 8:45 AM
Prayer Service and Ashes - 12:10 and 7:00 PM
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LENTEN SCHEDULE
Mondays
Praying with the Seven Last Words of Christ-Lectio
Divina (Divine Reading) - Monday evenings during Lent
from 6:30-8:00 PM in the Church. Each evening will begin
with the Stations of the Cross followed by prayer and
discussion of a Scripture verse from
Jesus' Seven Last Words from the Cross
Monday, Feb. 19 - Week One
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
Luke 23:24
Thursdays
Faith, Formation, & Fraternity-This Lent all college
age adults and up are invited every Thursday (beginning
on February 15) from 7:00 to 8:30 PM in the Church for
30 minutes of adoration, 30 minutes of a talk, and 30
minutes (at least) of fraternity. Father Silva will begin with
a series of talks on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. If you
are worried that you will be the only one there your age,
then bring a friend...or five; we hope to see you all there!
For additional information, please contact Father Silva via
Fridays
Lenten Suppers
6:00 PM
on Fridays in Lent:
Come to Parish Center before Stations of the Cross for a hearty bowl of soup or stew and
fellowship. Bring a friend! There is no charge for the sup
per.
Call the Parish Office if you'd like to contribute some-
thing to one of the meals. (203)775-1035.
Stations of the Cross
7:00 PM on the Fridays of Lent:
Immediately following the first Stations of the Cross
on Friday, February 16, we have invited guest speaker
Thomas Awiapo of Catholic Relief Services to share his
truly inspirational story of survival and success. Please
join us for the Stations of the Cross and to listen to how
we at St. Joseph's can further help Thomas and the very
mission that saved his life.
Confessions
Tuesdays, 7:00-8:00 PM
Saturdays at 3:45 PM
Every M-W-F - 7:30AM-8:30AM
(during Lent)
SEE THIS WEEK'S BULLETIN FOR RULES FOR FASTING AND ABSTINENCE DURING LENT
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What is the difference between fasting and abstinence?
Abstinence
The law of abstinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in honor of the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. Meat is considered to be the flesh and organs of mammals and fowl. Also forbidden are soups or gravies made from them. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted, as are animal derived products such as margarine and gelatin which do not have any meat taste.
On the Fridays outside of Lent the U.S. bishops conference obtained the permission of the Holy See for Catholics in the US to substitute a penitential, or even a charitable, practice of their own choosing. They must do some penitential/charitable practice on these Fridays. For most people the easiest practice to consistently fulfill will be the traditional one, to abstain from meat on all Fridays of the year. During Lent abstinence from meat on Fridays is obligatory in the United States as elsewhere.
Fasting
The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th Birthday (Canon 97) to the 59th Birthday (i.e. the beginning of the 60th year, a year which will be completed on the 60th birthday) to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. Such fasting is obligatory on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The fast is broken by eating between meals and by drinks which could be considered food (milk shakes, but not milk). Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem to be contrary to the spirit of doing penance.
Those who are excused from fast or abstinence Besides those outside the age limits, those of unsound mind, the sick, the frail, pregnant or nursing women according to need for meat or nourishment, manual laborers according to need, guests at a meal who cannot excuse themselves without giving great offense or causing enmity and other situations of moral or physical impossibility to observe the penitential discipline.
Aside from these minimum penitential requirements Catholics are encouraged to impose some personal penance on themselves at other times. It could be modeled after abstinence and fasting. A person could, for example, multiply the number of days they abstain. Some people give up meat entirely for religious motives (as opposed to those who give it up for health or other motives). Some religious orders, as a penance, never eat meat. Similarly, one could multiply the number of days that one fasted. The early Church had a practice of a Wednesday and Saturday fast. This fast could be the same as the Church's law (one main meal and two smaller ones) or stricter, even bread and water. Such freely chosen fasting could also consist in giving up something one enjoys - candy, soft drinks, smoking, that cocktail before supper, and so on. This is left to the individual.
One final consideration. Before all else we are obliged to perform the duties of our state in life. Any deprivation that would seriously hinder us in carrying out our work, as students, employees or parents would be contrary to the will of God.
---- Colin B. Donovan, STL
Clear
explanation
as to why we fast?
Humanity's "Fall" away from God and into sin began with eating.
God had proclaimed a fast from the fruit of only one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17), and Adam and Eve broke it. Fasting is here connected with the very mystery of life and death, of salvation and damnation.
Food perpetuates life in this physical world, which is subject to decay and death. But God "created no death." (Wis. 1:13) Humanity, in Adam and Eve, rejected a life dependent on God alone for one that was dependent rather on "bread alone." (Dt. 8:3; Mt. 4:4; Lk. 4:4)
The whole world was given to man as a kind of food, as a means to life, but "life" is meant as communion with God, not as food. ("Their god is their belly." Phil. 3:19)
The tragedy is not so much that Adam ate food, but that
he ate the food for its own sake, "apart" from God and to be independent of Him. Believing that food had life in itself and thus he could be "like God." And he put his faith in food. This kind of existence seems to be built on the principle that man does indeed live "by bread alone."
Jesus Christ, however, is the
new Adam. At the beginning of his ministry in the Gospel of Matthew, we read, "When He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He became hungry." Hunger is that state in which we realize our dependence on something else-when we face the ultimate question: "on what does my life depend?" Satan tempted both Adam and Christ, saying: Eat, for your hunger is proof that you depend entirely on food, that your life is in food. Adam believed and ate. Christ said, "Man does NOT live by bread alone." (Mt. 4:4; Lk. 4:4) This liberates us from total dependence on food, on matter, on the world. Thus, for the Christian, fasting is the only means by which man recovers his true spiritual nature.
In order for fasting to be effective, then, the spirit must be a part of it. Christian fasting is not concerned with losing weight. It is a matter of prayer and the spirit. And because of that, because it is truly a place of the spirit, true fasting may well lead to temptation, and weakness and doubt and irritation.In other words, it will be a real fight between good and evil, and very likely we shall fail many times in these battles. But the very discovery of the Christian life as "fight" and "effort" is an essential aspect of fasting.
--- Rev. Daniel Merz - a former Associate Director of the USCCB Divine Worship office.
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Saint Cyril and St Methodius - February 14th
Because their father was an officer in a part of Greece inhabited by many Slavs, these two Greek brothers ultimately became missionaries, teachers, and patrons of the Slavic peoples.
After a brilliant course of studies, Cyril (called Constantine until he became a monk shortly before his death) refused the governorship of a district such as his brother had accepted among the Slavic-speaking population. Cyril withdrew to a monastery where his brother Methodius had become a monk after some years in a governmental post.
A decisive change in their lives occurred when the Duke of Moravia asked the Eastern Emperor Michael for political independence from German rule and ecclesiastical autonomy (having their own clergy and liturgy). Cyril and Methodius undertook the missionary task.
Cyril's first work was to invent an alphabet, still used in some Eastern liturgies. His followers probably formed the Cyrillic alphabet. Together they translated the Gospels, the psalter, Paul's letters and the liturgical books into Slavonic, and composed a Slavonic liturgy, highly irregular then.
That and their free use of the vernacular in preaching led to opposition from the German clergy. The bishop refused to consecrate Slavic bishops and priests, and Cyril was forced to appeal to Rome. On the visit to Rome, he and Methodius had the joy of seeing their new liturgy approved by Pope Adrian II. Cyril, long an invalid, died in Rome 50 days after taking the monastic habit.
Methodius continued mission work for 16 more years. He was papal legate for all the Slavic peoples, consecrated a bishop and then given an ancient see (now in the Czech Republic). When much of their former territory was removed from their jurisdiction, the Bavarian bishops retaliated with a violent storm of accusation against Methodius. As a result, Emperor Louis the German exiled Methodius for three years. Pope John VIII secured his release.
Because the Frankish clergy, still smarting, continued their accusations, Methodius had to go to Rome to defend himself against charges of heresy and uphold his use of the Slavonic liturgy. He was again vindicated.
Legend has it that in a feverish period of activity, Methodius translated the whole Bible into Slavonic in eight months. He died on Tuesday of Holy Week, surrounded by his disciples, in his cathedral church.
Opposition continued after his death, and the work of the brothers in Moravia was brought to an end and their disciples scattered. But the expulsions had the beneficial effect of spreading the spiritual, liturgical, and cultural work of the brothers to Bulgaria, Bohemia and southern Poland. Patrons of Moravia, and specially venerated by Catholic Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Orthodox Serbians and Bulgarians, Cyril and Methodius are eminently fitted to guard the long-desired unity of East and West. In 1980, Pope John Paul II named them additional co-patrons of Europe (with Benedict).
Reflection
Holiness means reacting to human life with God's love: human life as it is, crisscrossed with the political and the cultural, the beautiful and the ugly, the selfish and the saintly. For Cyril and Methodius much of their daily cross had to do with the language of the liturgy. They are not saints because they got the liturgy into Slavonic, but because they did so with the courage and humility of Christ.
Saints Cyril and Methodius are the Patron Saints of:
Slavic Peoples
Ecumenism
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Legend of St Valentine
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Education in the context of Faith is Wisdom
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FORMED - CATHOLIC PLACE OF LEARNING AND GROWING
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(click above to listen)
St Joseph Church Brookfield parishioners need only sign in to FORMED.ORG and
create personal account.
Your account is covered through the parish license.
Parish Code =
2BJN6X (case sensitive)
Call office if you are having problems registering your personal account.
God bless you!
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HOW TO MAKE A CATHOLIC CONFESSION
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Let us pray for those in our parish who were recently welcomed through
the Sacrament of Baptism
May their lifetime journey in faith sustain them and light their way.
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FOR THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED
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Let us pray for those in our parish who have entered into their eternal rest...
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.
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Let us celebrate with great joy those within our parish who have recently joined hearts and hands in the most sacred union of Holy Matrimony.
May God continue to bless them and keep them in his watchful care for the rest of their lives as the two of them became one in their new seamless union of love.
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*** NEW ***
ST JOSEPH CHURCH 2017 SECOND QUARTER FINANCIAL REPORTS
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In His Peace,
,,,
Rev. George F. O'Neill
Pastor
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