Flocknote

St. Michael the Archangel Pastorate

Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish & St. Augustine Parish

Friday Flocknote - June 9th, 2023

Liturgy Schedule & Mass Intentions:

Sunday, June 11th

Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Sacred Heart

8:30am ET/7:30am CT

Mass Intentions: Pro Populo

Confessions before Mass: 6:45-7:15am CT

St. Augustine

11:00am ET/10:00am CT

Mass Intentions: George Borntrager

Confessions after Mass

Monday, June 12th

—No Mass—

Tuesday, June 13th

St. Augustine

1:00pm ET/12:00pm CT

Mass Intentions: Rose Korniak

Confessions after Mass

—No Mass at 6:30pm ET/ 5:30pm CT—

Wednesday, June 14th

Autumn Trace 10am CT

St. Augustine

1:00pm ET/ 12:00pm CT

Mass Intentions: Bill Valade

Confessions 11:15-11:45am CT

Thursday, June 15th

Sacred Heart

9:15am ET/8:15am CT

Mass Intentions: Doug Swartzell

Confessions before Mass: 8:30-9am ET

Friday, June 16th

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart

9:15am ET/8:15am CT

Mass Intentions: Rita Nagel

Eucharistic Holy Hour after Mass

—No 8:15am CT Mass at St. Augustine—

Saturday, June 17th

St. Augustine

5:30pm ET/4:30pm CT

Mass Intentions: Mary Lois Luers

Father Joshua Bennett, Missionary Pastor fr.jbennett@dol-in.org

Marie Oliver, Director of Operations marieoliver@parish.dol-in.org

Kris Dobson, Coordinator of Continuing Formation and Evangelization

kdobson@parish.dol-in.org

Sarah Hall

Coordinator of Youth Religious Education

shall@parish.dol-in.org

Angela Nagel

St. Augustine School Principal

nagel@s-augustine.org

Natalia Brady

Administrative Assistant for the Pastorate

nbrady@parish.dol-in.org

Nancy Goodwin

Bookkeeper for Sacred Heart Parish

ngoodwin@parish.dol-in.org

—Open Office Hours —

Pastorate Office at St. Augustine

Tuesdays: 12:30-5:30pm CT and Fridays: 9:00am-2:00pm CT

Father Bennett & Marie Oliver will be available throughout the week by appointment, please call ahead (219) 866-5351

A Message From Our Pastor

Solemnity of Christ’s Body and Blood – Corpus Christi

Today in the Church we celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi, a feast truly contained in all our celebrations within the Catholic Church, as all things find their beginning and end in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist, Christ’s Body and Blood.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

“The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the Christian life.’ ‘The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.’” (paragraph 1324)

Everything we believe and do as Catholic’s is oriented and directed towards our participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and our participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. This is why Sunday Mass attendance is not optional for active, practicing Catholic’s who profess the true Faith; it is not possible to say you believe and not participate in the Mystery of Faith.

It has been said before, but must be repeated for the good of souls, watching Mass on TV or the internet is NOT, nor ever has been a substitute for the active and conscious participation the Church requires of us all by being physically present at the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Only in extreme situations is the weekly obligation to attend Mass dispensed. The most common is when someone, due to illness, is unable to attend. However, vacations, poor planning, even an inability to hear well are not adequate justifications for not attending Mass in person.

Many people put too much emphasis on, and even whether they will attend Mass, based on the quality or their agreement with the preaching at a Mass, when the preaching or the preacher is not why any of us should be at Mass. Our fundamental purpose for going to Mass is Holy Communion. Communion with God and communion with neighbor, both symbolized and made truly realized through our active and conscious participation in the Holy Eucharist. 99.9% of the time people after Mass will comment about the homily at Mass, yet rarely if ever does anyone every comment (or marvel), at least vocally, at the reality of Christ’s true presence in the Eucharist and/or the power of this gift in their day/life.

We shouldn’t come to Mass, as we encounter the almighty, eternal and timeless God, demanding that He and this celebration of Him conform to our demands. We should prepare our hearts and minds with a spirit of Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication, (aka A.C.T.S) the four types of prayer that define the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

I mentioned at the dedication of Sacred Heart, that the Eucharist is the heart of the parish church, because it is truly Christ’s presence that brings life to the building and the community of the faithful. We must never lose sight of this reality. It is so easy to make ourselves as individuals and as a community the purpose of our own existence; to make the parish and pastorate all about us. The reality is, all that we are and all that we do as Catholic Christians, rightly ordered, flows from and towards the Eucharistic center of our Faith. The Catechism says in another paragraph:

“The moral life is spiritual worship. We ‘present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,’ within the Body of Christ that we form and in communion with the offering of his Eucharist. In the liturgy and the celebration of the sacraments, prayer and teaching are conjoined with the grace of Christ to enlighten and nourish Christian activity.

As does the whole of the Christian life, the moral life finds its source and summit in the Eucharistic sacrifice.” (para 2031)

That is also why it is so important for all of us to be properly prepared, each and every time, we receive the Holy Eucharist. In addition to the prayerful preparation I mentioned above with the A.C.T.S. prayer, most fundamentally we must approach the altar worthily, free from mortal sin. The Catechism teaches very concisely:

“Anyone who desires to receive Christ in Eucharistic communion must be in the state of grace. Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive communion without having received absolution in the sacrament of penance.” (para 1415)

St. Paul in his First letter to the Corinthians says of our preparation to receive the Holy Eucharist:

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.” (1 Cor 11: 26-29)

The Sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion are therefore intimately linked. Just as it is pretty common to take a shower and change our clothes before we go out to eat for dinner at a restaurant; regular confession ought not be stigmatized as a place of shame or failure, but rather our getting ready to enter into the wedding banquet of the Lord. (see Matthew 22: 1-14)

The Eucharist is rightly the center of our earthly life, as it leads us to the center of our eternal life: Christ. There should be no greater devotion or emphasis in this life than that of Christ and His memorial sacrifice: The Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist. As we celebrate this great feast of Corpus Christi, I invite you all to examine your devotion and relationship to the Eucharist, and by analogy the Church. Use this examination to cast off what is keeping you from Him, and embrace and enhance those aspects of His Presence in your life that will ever deepen His Communion with you and the whole world.

God Bless,

Fr. Bennett

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – Have Mercy On Us

Immaculate Heart of Mary – Pray For Us

Sts. Joseph, Michael, Peter, Paul and Augustine – Pray For Us

Summer Seminarian Series

What is Love? - by Joe Bower

Last week we identified the Trinity as THE Model of Love - that of full mutual self-giving love. We reflected on the inability to give ourselves love, which then necessitates relationship and communion with others in order for us to give and receive love. This week we turn to the love between the Father and the Son - a parental love.

The love of parents provides a child with security, a constancy of love. Further, the parent develops and fosters opportunity for the child to grow into their own individual uniqueness and personhood. The growth and development of the child is a place of immense pride, joy, and delight for the parent; as well as for the child as they consistently turn to their parents with an affirming gaze.

We can all remember moments of our lives where we have experienced this ‘gaze’ between parent and child: an elementary art project, a graduation, a maturing youth that turns to their parents for wisdom and advice.

Fr. Jacques Phillippe had a wonderful quote regarding parental love..

“The loving presence of a parent helps me acquire the certitude that I am loved with an unconditional love, a love that I cannot lose, a love on which I can always count, whatever may happen. But this alone does not suffice…. To acquire true interior security I need, I must also know that I can love. It’s not sufficient to receive love; one must also give it.”

Such a perspective in mind, we can see the ‘gazing’ back and forth between parent/child as this consistent affirmation in love. The parents’ gaze tells the child of their receipt, admiration, and approval. The child’s gaze seeks the parents' endorsement, processes their approval, and enlivens them to further self-worth and development. There is a mutual giving and receiving of love.

A parent fosters this affirmation in love in teaching their children admirable things, putting them in situations in which they can succeed and grow, introducing them to opportunities to share their gifts and talents.

When scripture tells us of Christ that “all things were created through him and for him” (Col 1:16) we see this opportunity of love in creation. All of creation - and specifically man - is given as the canvas for Christ to prove his ability to give love; and turn back to the Father with his ‘gaze’ of offering, approval, and delight.

Let us pray this week on the ‘gazes’ of love throughout our lives with adoration and delight.