BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) Every couple of years I like to read my One Year Bible. This is one of those years. Just this past Friday, I read the following in Exodus 13: “Consecrate to me every firstborn.” Every firstborn animal had to be sacrificed to God. A donkey could be “ransomed” with a sheep; and “Every human firstborn of your sons you must ransom.” Remember that Moses was leading God’s people to Canaan, a land where child sacrifice was not unheard of. God was stating emphatically: DON’T DO THAT! The “purification” mentioned in the beginning of today’s Gospel refers to the period after childbirth when a woman could not even enter the temple, not because she was in any way “dirty,” but because she had incurred ritual “uncleanness” due to loss of blood. After that time, she would offer a lamb and a turtledove or pigeon; or, if she couldn’t afford a lamb, two turtledoves ...

February 2nd, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord [originally known as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin] It occurs forty days after the birth of Christ and is also called Candlemas, in reference to the blessing and procession of candles in today's liturgy. The story of the Presentation is told in Luke 2:22-29. Simeon the Righteous met Mary, Joseph, and Jesus when they entered the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfill the requirements of the Torah. Simeon was a "just and devout" man of Jerusalem who had been visited by the Holy Spirit and told he would not die until he had seen the Son of Man. Scripture records that Simeon prays the Nunc dimittis [Canticle of Simeon] in which Jesus' mission is prophesied. Seeing the infant, Simeon took the baby in his arms, blessed the Lord and joyously proclaimed: Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: My own eyes have seen the salvation which you h...

Detail, The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew , Caravaggio, 1603–1606. Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings )  One of the most beautiful texts in the whole Bible reads: “Wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. Where you die I will die, and there be buried.”  People are sometimes surprised to learn that these words are not spoken between two lovers. They are the words of Ruth, to her mother-in-law, and simply mean: I will never leave you.  That hardly matters. The classical musical setting by Gounod is often heard at weddings. The Weston Priory version is sung by the monks to each other as a pledge of mutual fidelity in their monastic life. The text suits any commitment of persons to each other.  The response of Simon, Andrew, James, and John to the call of Jesus seems to have be...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) If you go out into the North African desert with its rolling and shifting hills of sand, you will likely come upon quicksand. You can also encounter quicksand in our North American swamps, in our Florida Everglades, and even in some of our own inland lakes. Nearer to us you’ll find it in the marshy, reed-filled edges of Michigan’s inland lakes. Sometimes these spots are called sinkholes. They are pockets of loosely packed sand that has collected in a hole with a really deep bottom. There’s nothing solid at the bottom of these sinkholes. When you step into one you immediately begin to sink down and the more you thrash around the more it sucks you down until you are under the sand and then die of suffocation. Many people find themselves in spiritual sinkholes. They are being sucked down into alcoholism, drugs, sex, mistreatment of others, and other sorts of addictions. They are caught in behavior pat...

Msgr. Rudolph G. Bandas On Sunday, [January 12th] the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord. This brings to an end the season of Christmas. The Church recalls Our Lord's second manifestation or epiphany which occurred on the occasion of His baptism in the Jordan. Jesus descended into the River to sanctify its waters and to give them the power to beget sons of God. The event takes on the importance of a second creation in which the entire Trinity intervenes. In the Eastern Church this feast is called Theophany because at the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan God appeared in three persons. The baptism of John was a sort of sacramental preparatory for the Baptism of Christ. It moved men to sentiments of repentance and induced them to confess their sins. Christ did not need the baptism of John. Although He appeared in the "substance of our flesh" and was recognized "outwardly like unto ourselves," He was absolutely sinless and impec...

Adoration of the Magi , Gentile da Fabriano, 1423, Uffizi Gallery, Italy. Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) The Feast of the Epiphany was celebrated in Eastern Churches before being observed in Rome. It seems originally to have been a feast of the nativity of our Lord. January 6th. For those Churches it was the equivalent of December 25th in the Roman Church. The Epiphany, as you know, celebrates the manifestation of our Lord to the whole world… the shining forth of the Light of the World… the manifestation of the Incarnation to the entire world beyond the Jewish world. The three kings symbolize the coming of God to the Gentiles… the entrance of God into all of the world in all of its history. Today’s Liturgy is surrounded with other epiphanies… the manifestation of God’s marriage to us, symbolized in the wedding feast at Cana, the manifestation of Christ’s Sonship in His baptism by John the Baptist in the River Jordan… ...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) My dear brothers and sisters, all of our ideals, all of our dreams of what we want to be, and of what our world can be… all of our visions and understandings of God, and of God’s ways with us, are focused now on a child… God’s Anointed One, God’s Christ. For a child us born unto us, a son is given us, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying powerless in a manger, there being no room for him elsewhere in our world for his birth. It is a sacred moment into which we now enter, a precious moment, a holy hour observed all over the world in Midnight Masses. Midnight Mass gathers so many different people in a lovely moment of peace and happiness – Blacks and Whites, Asians, Africans, Latinos and Anglos…. Catholics, both active and devout as well as marginal and estranged, Protestants, members of others great faiths, and even doubtful believers with hesitant faith. It is a transcendent moment when we suspend busine...