The next pre-baptism class will be on Saturday February 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the Family Center. If anyone plans to attend this class, they need to call the Sacred Heart Office at (505)722-6644. Classes are held the last Saturday of the month with Baptisms being held on the Last Sunday of the Month after the 11:00 a.m. Mass.  Reminder there will be no baptisms until Easter Sunday; there are no baptisms during lent.

The second of seven festivals on the “Year of the Priest” as initiated by the Vatican will be held October 18, 2009 in the family center immediately after the 11:00 a.m. Mass.  A light meal will be served and the “Priesthood in the Old Testament” will last until 2:30 p.m.  Bring all members of the family for this special event and bring your bibles.

Please keep our seminarians in prayer and write them notes of encouragement.  See them UP CLOSE in the August issue of the Voice of the Southwest, page 11

Lowell Jensen & Josh Mayer
St. John Vianney Theological Seminary
1300 S Steele St
Denver, CO 80210-2526

TAKEN FROM THE USCC. VISITS THE WEBSITE FOR THE NEW MISSAL AT HTTP://WWW.USCCB.ORG/ROMANMISSAL/.

The Missale Romanum (the Roman Missal), the ritual text for the celebration of the Mass, was first promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as the definitive text of the reformed liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. A second edition followed in 1975.

Pope John Paul II issued a revised version of the Missale Romanum during the Jubilee Year 2000. The English translation of the revised Roman Missal is nearing completion, and the Bishops of the United States will vote on the final sections of the text this November. Among other things, the revised edition of the Missale Romanum contains prayers for the observances of recently canonized saints, additional prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayers, additional Votive Masses and Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Intentions, and some updated and revised rubrics (instructions) for the celebration of the Mass. The English translation of the Roman Missal will also include updated translations of existing prayers, including some of the well–known responses and acclamations of the people.

This website has been prepared to help you prepare for the transition. As this site continues to be expanded, you will find helpful resources for the faithful, for the clergy, and for parish and diocesan leaders.

May this process of the implementation of the revised Roman Missal be a time of deepening, nurturing, and celebrating our faith through our worship and the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy.

JESUS’ GIFT OF THE EUCHARIST – PART V … With this Sunday’s Gospel reading, we come to the climax of our five-Sunday reflection on the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel.  Today’s passage opens with most of the people refusing to accept Jesus’ proclamation of the Eucharist.  Bear in mind that this is the same group which, at the beginning of the chapter, was so enthusiastic about Jesus – even to the point of wanting to make him their king.  Now, having heard what he has to say, and having evaluated it only from a human common-sense point of view (i.e., sat in judgment on it), many of them come to the conclusion, “This sort of talk is hard to endure!  Who can take it seriously?”   The Gospel later tells us, “from this time on, many of his disciples broke away and would not remain in his company any longer.”

The issue at stake here, and it is an issue for all of us, is how do we accept Jesus?  The crowds were willing to accept the Lord – but only on their terms, according to their perceptions and attitudes.  As long as he lived up to their expectations, they were with him.  When they found his sayings “hard to endure,” when they could no longer understand what he was talking about, they “broke away and would not remain in his company any longer.”   Jesus knew well where this crowd was coming from. He had faced this attitude before (cf., e.g., Mt. 11.16-18).  He does not back down from his proclamation; he does not try to convince or persuade them.  He instead tells them the reason for their lack of faith in him: “This is why I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”  The only way that Jesus can be approached, understood or accepted is by means of a God-given faith, embraced by each person wholeheartedly and without reservation.

The embodiment of such faith is found in the declaration of Peter.  In reply to his earlier profession of faith in Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus had told Peter, “Blest are you, Simon son of Jonah!  No mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father …” (Mt. 16.17).  In other words, Jesus is telling Peter, “It is the Father Himself who has revealed to you that I am the Messiah, the Son of the living God … and you have believed and are therefore blest!”

At the conclusion of the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, most of the crowd has walked away.  Jesus is left alone with his apostles, and sadly asks them if they also wish to leave him.  Peter responds, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe; we are convinced that you are God’s holy one” (Jn. 6.68-69).  Peter’s statement of faith in Jesus – after almost everyone else has refused to believe – forms the climax of the whole chapter. Even though he has not fully understood the kerygma of the Eucharist, Peter affirms his faith in the Lord.  He does not try to impose his own expectations on Jesus.  He places no limits; he sets no conditions.  His faith in the Lord is absolute.  Peter and his complete faith in Jesus is the Rock upon which Christ was to build his Church.  In our own day, we are still called to that simple, absolute commitment to Christ so beautifully expressed in Peter’s response.  We stand with Peter in his conviction that Jesus Christ is God’s holy one, and that whatever he proclaims is true!

JESUS’ GIFT OF THE EUCHARIST – PART IV … We continue our five-Sunday reflection on Our Lord’s kerygma (proclamation) of the Eucharist, as given in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. The concluding portion of last Sunday’s Gospel – in which Jesus announces that he himself is “the living bread come down from heaven” and “the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world” – is repeated in the opening of today’s Gospel.  Because of these words, the crowd now escalates its protest: instead of merely “murmuring,” they now “quarrel among themselves, saying, ‘How can he give us his flesh to eat?’” Jesus, in response, comes to the heart of what the Eucharist truly is: “My flesh is real food and my blood real drink.  The man who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.  Just as the Father who has life sent me and I have life because of the Father, so the man who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn. 6.56-57)

The Catholic Church has always understood these words as speaking of the “real presence” of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.  The power of the Holy Spirit, acting through the words of consecration spoken by the priest at Mass, changes the substance of bread and wine into the true Body and Blood of the Lord.  It is not a “symbolic” presence, but a true and real change of substance of bread and wine into the full presence of Jesus – body and blood, soul and divinity.  But why?  Why does Christ choose to come to us in the form of food? We know in faith what the Eucharist is, but what does it really mean?  More to the point, what does it mean for us?

Jesus himself gives us the answer:  “… the man who feeds on me will have life because of me.”  In another place, Jesus announces, “… I came that they might have life and have it to the full” (Jn. 10.10).  In the natural world, God has ordained that we live and grow and are nourished by the food we eat and the liquids we drink.  If we do not eat and drink, we grow weak and eventually will die.  If we do not eat and drink properly, we can do physical harm to ourselves, even to the point of death.  Jesus tells us that this same principle holds true in the spiritual realm.  We live, grow and are nourished by our heavenly Father with the “true bread from heaven,” and that bread is the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus himself!

When Jesus speaks of his “flesh” (body) and “blood,” he is speaking of a spiritual reality: “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless.  The words I spoke to you are spirit and life” (Jn. 6.63). When a man says to the woman he loves, “I give you my heart,” he is not really speaking of just one of his bodily organs.  If his words are sincere, he is really saying, “I give you myself and my life – everything that I am and hope to be, my whole life, my hopes and my dreams.”  When Jesus commands us to eat his body and drink his blood, he is not speaking in a gross, cannibalistic mode.  He is telling us that he wants the most intimate union with us, that through this union we will be transformed and have the fullness of life.  Christ nourishes us with his body and blood in order that we might grow in his likeness, accomplishing over a lifetime the mission for which the Father has created us. This is what Jesus did in his earthly life.  This is what we, as his disciples, are called to do in our earthly life.

JESUS’ GIFT OF THE EUCHARIST – PART III … Today and next Sunday we come to the heart of Our Lord’s kerygma (proclamation) of the Eucharist, as given in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. We have seen that up to this point the crowd, which began by being so enthusiastic, has been at least receptive to Jesus and his words.  Today we see a change in their attitude.  The Gospel begins with the words: “The Jews started to murmur in protest because Jesus claimed, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’  Jesus, on his part, is actually confrontational with the people.  He rebukes their muttered protests by saying, “Stop your murmuring!”  He does not argue with them.  He does not try to persuade them.  He is not even trying to teach them.  He is doing something else.

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