image: Christ and the woman taken in adultery, Rembrandt
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Letter from Fr. Allen: Passion Sunday - The Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 4, 2019
+JMJ+
Dear Friends,
Today, the fourth of April, is the feast of a great saint and bishop of the Church, Isidore of Seville, who fell asleep in the Lord on this date in the year 636. Isidore came from a family of saints (two brothers and a sister in the glorious company!), and is often thought of as the last of the Church Fathers. Through his preaching the Visigoth kings of Spain were converted from Arianism (a pervasive and powerful heresy which denies the full divinity of Christ) to the Catholic faith.
But Isidore is most especially remembered for his great learning. He knew, essentially, everything there was to be known in the seventh century A.D., and wrote a kind of encyclopedia which was truly, well... encyclopedic, a compendium of human knowledge, agriculture to zoology - a work so vast, so complete, so well organized that it remained a standard textbook for the next 900 years.
Isidore's vast accumulation of knowledge, of information, prompted Pope St John Paul II to propose Isidore as "Patron Saint of the Internet." And this seems fitting. Pope Benedict XVI in his consideration of Isidore noted that "rather than the precious gift of synthesis it would seem that he possessed the gift of collatio, that is, of collecting, which he expressed in an extraordinary personal erudition."
That sort of names the problem, or a problem, with the internet, doesn't it? It's a vast sea of information, a collection, but without order - the beautiful and the ugly, the good and the evil, the true and the false, all jumbled together and ever at our finger tips either to inform or deceive. It is a tool by which we can communicate and share and entertain, or by which we can slander and exploit or even be enslaved. For many it is simply the near occasion of sin. And, "having information at our fingertips is not the same as having it stored in our mind."
What we need, of course, is virtue - the prudence that allows us to use this tool rightly and righteously, and perhaps even more the temperance that allows us simply to log off and read a book, watch the bees buzzing about the yard, or to have a real chat with a real person with whom you are in the same actual room. Virtue develops from practice - intentional decisions which become disciplines which become habits which become character, who we are. But, given our fallen natures and that we are so often at war with "the devices and desires of our own hearts," at every step of the way we must be carried along by grace - grace which is amazing and abundantly poured out for us in Christ. As the Catechism says, "Christ's gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of the virtues" (no. 1811). And there is no other way in which we will persevere in the virtues; indeed, "no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4.12).
All of which is to say it is a good idea to pray over our laptops and phones and to seek good St Isidore's intercession that ever more dependent on the grace of Christ we may become virtuous, both online and off.
St. Isidore, pray for us!
God bless you,
Fr. Allen
Easter Egg Hunt 2019
We will host an Easter Egg Hunt after the 11AM Mass on Sunday, 5 May 2019. We will have Punch on the Portico at the same time. [Note that we have changed the date of the Easter Egg Hunt to 5 May.]
There will be separate areas for toddlers to hunt for eggs away from the older children for safety reasons.
Inclement weather plans: we will move Punch on the Portico to the Narthex and distribute eggs to the children rather than having them hunt for them.
Parents are requested to bring 10-12 filled plastic Easter Eggs no later than Palm Sunday, 14 April. It is requested that treats in the eggs have limited nuts and dairy/egg contents as a few children have allergies. Loose change is always a good egg stuffer!
Judi Lester will collect the eggs from you and is happy to answer any questions you may have. She is available by email or at 843.425.0783.
RSVP for Wednesday School: 10 April 2019
Joining us for Wednesday School on April 10th? Please RSVP using the form below so that we may adequately prepare. If you’re one of our regularly Wednesday School families and you’re not able to make it this week, would you please also respond and mark the number of people coming as 0? This also helps us prepare. Thank you!
Corpus Christi Updates: The Fourth Sunday in Lent & Evensong
image: Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt
Click the image for updates from Corpus Christi Catholic Community for this week.
Letter from Fr. Allen: The Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 28, 2019
+JMJ+
Dear Friends,
Greetings, felicitations, and happy Opening Day of baseball season! Although for some reason not considered to be a Solemnity in the Church's calendar, my own pastoral advice is that this is one of those days on which one might consider a small relaxation of one's personal Lenten disciplines, at least to include a hot dog or three, peanuts, Cracker Jack, maybe even a cold barley pop.
One of the things that makes Opening Day so special is the sense that anything can happen. It's a day that is brimming with possibility, when every team, every player, every fan can think, "this is it; this is the year we win it all!" It is a fresh start.
In Christ, every day is Opening Day. The mercies of the Lord are new every morning (Lam 3.22-23). All that is required is that we accept that mercy - which means, of course, accepting our own sinfulness, confessing it, and then leaving it behind for ever. Every time we confess, we are made new, our sins are removed "as far as the east is from the west" (Ps 103.12), and then, anything is possible: we may love; we may lives as God's own children; we may be free.
[Here] you will see the announcement that my friend Father - now Monsignor - Carl Reid has been appointed by Pope Francis to be the Ordinary of our sister Ordinariate in Australia, The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. An "ordinary" is not a diocesan bishop, but has the juridical authority of a Diocesan bishop though not the sacramental powers (so, for instance, he can not ordain priests).
Monsignor Reid has been a great encouragement and support in many ways, not least by lending his musical expertise. He is responsible for producing the St. Peter Gradual, which compiles the proper chants from our Missal, and which our choir uses every Sunday. So join me in praying for Msgr Reid and the clergy and faithful of the Australian Ordinariate, that this new ministry will bring greater glory to God and build up the Church.
God bless you,
Fr. Allen
Easter Egg Hunt 2019
Update: the Easter Egg Hunt has been rescheduled to Sunday, 5 May, after the 11AM Mass.
We will host an Easter Egg Hunt after the 11AM Mass on [updated date:] Sunday, 5 May. We will have Punch on the Portico at the same time.
There will be separate areas for toddlers to hunt for eggs away from the older children for safety reasons.
Inclement weather plans: we will move Punch on the Portico to the Narthex and distribute eggs to the children rather than having them hunt for them.
Parents are requested to bring 10-12 filled plastic Easter Eggs no later than Palm Sunday, 14 April. It is requested that treats in the eggs have limited nuts and dairy/egg contents as a few children have allergies. Loose change is always a good egg stuffer!
Judi Lester will collect the eggs from you and is happy to answer any questions you may have. She is available by email or at 843.425.0783.
RSVP for Wednesday School: 3 April 2019
Joining us for Wednesday School on April 3rd? Please RSVP using the form below so that we may adequately prepare. If you’re one of our regularly Wednesday School families and you’re not able to make it this week, would you please also respond and mark the number of people coming as 0? This also helps us prepare. Thank you!
Priest of the North American Ordinariate chosen to lead Australian Ordinariate
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
To the Clergy and Faithful of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter
HOUSTON, TEXAS, March 26, 2019
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
It is my privilege and joy to share with you the happy news that our Holy Father, Pope Francis and has appointed our own Father Carl Reid as Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia. This comes as the Holy Father has accepted the retirement of Monsignor Harry Entwistle, who headed the Ordinariate there since its founding in 2013. [...]
Father Carl will be installed as Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross on Tuesday, August 27, at 7pm at the Cathedral of St. Mary’s in the Archdiocese of Sydney by the Archbishop, Most Rev. Anthony Fisher, O.P. Archbishop Fisher will be joined by Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, O.P., Adjunct Secretary of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Monsignor Keith Newton from the UK Ordinariate and I will be representing our respective Ordinariates at the Installation celebrations. All of our clergy and faithful are welcome, though admittedly it’s a long way to go for Mass! [...]
With prayerful best wishes, I am
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Rev. Steven J. Lopes
Read Bishop Lopes' entire message here.
