January 19, 2020
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Saint Francis Xavier Parish Second Sunday in Ordinary Time January 19, 2020 ` St. Francis Xavier Church Our Lady of the Lake Church 151 Bridge St., Narrowsburg Rt. 52, Lake Huntington Masses Saturday 4:30pm Sunday 8:30am 11:00am Our Lady of the Lake Church Daily (Tuesday-Friday) 8:30am Holydays of Obligation As announced is closed for the winter season Confessions Saturday 4:00pm Or by appointment Religious Education Sunday 9:45-11:00am SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM REV . DENNIS M. DINAN , PASTOR Regularly scheduled on available Sundays of each month after our last Mass. Arrangements are made by contacting the ABBY RODDEN , PARISH SECRETARY Rectory. One Godparent is required and must be 14, confirmed, a practicing Catholic, and obtain a Sponsor Certificate from their parish. Only one male and one female OFFICE HOURS : TUESDAY -FRIDAY 10:00 AM -3:00 PM Godparent is permitted. Parents should be registered in the OR BY APPOINTMENT parish and meet with priests. SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY TELEPHONE : (845) 252-6681 Arrangements should be made at least 6 months prior to wedding date. Marriage Preparation Conferences must be FAX : (845) 252-6519 attended. Either the Bride or the Groom must be a registered WEB ADDRESSES : www.sfxnarrowsburg.com parishioner or be associated with the parish. They must meet www.ollhuntington.com with the parish priest before a wedding date can be scheduled. EMAIL : [email protected] RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Grades K-8 meet Sundays. Contact the Religious Ed Office to RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OFFICE : (845) 252-6681 register children. We ask families to be registered & involved EMAIL : [email protected] parishioners. Children must be baptized. Parents & children are expected to attend Mass each week. SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME , JANUARY 19, 2020 FATHER DENNIS M. DINAN Dear Parish Family, will be full and total only after the resurrection, when the human person as a whole shares in the divine immutability.” Although last week the Church celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, the theme of “Baptism” continues this week too. With this in mind, it would be good to reflect on the words of Today is also the beginning of the Week of Prayer for Christian Pope Paul VI, writing on Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Unity. This is another reminder of Baptism, since we are all an essential aspect of our Catholic tradition. He says that, baptized into the one Body of Christ. In the Second Reading, Devotion to the Mother of the Lord becomes for the faithful Saint Paul speaks to the people of Corinth as those “who have an opportunity for growing in divine grace, and this is the been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those ultimate aim of all pastoral activity. For it is impossible to everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” honor her who is “full of grace” (Lk. 1:28) without thereby Corinth, we must remember was a cesspool of corruption. It honoring in oneself the state of grace, which is friendship was a people living in the filth of immorality. with God, communion with Him and the indwelling of the This new condition in which Saint Paul says the Corinthian Holy Spirit. It is this divine grace which takes possession of converts are now living comes from the gift of their Baptism the whole man and conforms him to the image of the Son of and the receiving of the “indwelling” presence of God by which God (cf. Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:18). The Catholic Church, they have been sanctified . We could also say that they have endowed with centuries of experience, recognizes in been freed. Our Holy Father Saint John Paul II makes note of devotion to the Blessed Virgin a powerful aid for man as he this, when writing about Saint Augustine of Hippo. Augustine strives for fulfillment. Mary, the New Woman, stands at the was a man who knew first hand about sin and immorality. He side of Christ, the New Man, within whose mystery the was also a master of rhetoric. So, he does not simply talk mystery of man alone finds true light; she is given to us as about his slavery to sin. Rather he says, “The enemy held my a pledge and guarantee that God's plan in Christ for the will, and out of it he made a chain and bound me. Because my salvation of the whole man has already achieved realization will was perverse it changed to lust, and lust yielded to habit, in a creature: in her. Contemplated in the episodes of the and habit not resisted became necessity.” And, “With the object Gospels and in the reality which she already possesses in of the experiment as myself I was able to see how the flesh lusts the City of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary offers a calm against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh” (St. Paul, see vision and a reassuring word to modern man, torn as he Romans 6, 7, and 8). He says he was “held captive by the law of often is between anguish and hope, defeated by the sense sin ,” which he said was, “the fierce force of habit, by which the of his own limitations and assailed by limitless aspirations, mind is drawn and held even against its will, and yet deservedly troubled in his mind and divided in his heart, uncertain because it had fallen willfully into the habit” He could look at before the riddle of death, oppressed by loneliness while himself and truthfully say “what a wretched man I am” He could yearning for fellowship, a prey to boredom and disgust. She use other images to describe the person living in sin, including shows forth the victory of hope over anguish, of fellowship himself, like “the swine returns to the mire.” over solitude, of peace over anxiety, of joy and beauty over boredom and disgust, of eternal visions over earthly ones, The pope spoke of Saint Augustine’s “new found” freedoms of life over death. that came along with his conversion, saying that Augustine celebrated, Like Saint Augustine, let us celebrate our Baptism. In it we Christian freedom in all its forms, from the freedom from recall the words of the prophet Isaiah, “For a child is born to error … to the final and inalienable freedom, the greatest of us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, all, which consists in the inability to die and in the inability to Prince of Peace. His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, sin, i.e. in immortality and the fullness of righteousness. All from David's throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms other freedoms which Augustine illustrates and proclaims and sustains by judgment and justice, both now and forever” find their place among these two, which mark the beginning and the end of salvation: the freedom from the dominion of (Is 9:5-6). A Son is given us—that is for sure! By water and the the disordered passions, as the work of the grace that Spirit, he has poured his life into us. We have his indwelling Spirit. We are temples of the Lord. He has united himself to us enlightens the intellect and gives the will so much strength in Baptism—only sin can destroy this. If we understand this, we that it becomes victorious in the combat with evil (as he understand why Saint Augustine prayed, “Lord that I may know himself experienced in his conversion when he was freed me; and I may know Thee.” With Saint Augustine, we are from the harsh slavery); the freedom from time that we devour and that devours us, in that love permits us to live certainly in this together! anchored to eternity. In conjunction with what Pope Paul said above, we are certainly in this together with the Blessed Virgin Mary too! The Holy Father describes this as “the unutterable riches of Although in a class all her own, she is one of us. She is also justification” which is nothing less than “the divine life of there for us! As she said to Saint Juan Diego, as Our Lady of grace,” which is nothing less than “the indwelling of the Holy Guadalupe, outside of Mexico City in 1531, “Listen and Spirit, and deification .” This is the sanctification that Saint Paul is describing as present and active in the lives of the understand, my humblest son[/daughter]. There is nothing to Corinthians. This is also the sanctification that is or should be frighten and distress you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and let nothing upset you. Is it not I, your Mother who is here? taking place within each of us. Using the mind of Saint Are you not under my protection? Are you not, fortunately in Augustine, Saint John Paul elaborates on this condition of the my care?” baptized, “called to be holy.” Baptism was not merely an important moment in history for us. Yes, there was the God’s Peace, “remission of sins which is total, full and perfect on the one hand,” but present and ongoing on the other hand, is the sanctification : “the interior renewal which is progressive and We apologize for not having a full list for the Do you use a cleaning service or snow plow service flower offerings in the Christmas bulletin, as that you like or do you have one you would some of the envelopes were misplaced. recommend? Please call the rectory and let us know.