Corpus Christi Blog

As we continue to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the dedication of our church, we will take a look at the remaining stained-glass windows to further help us connect the visual to the spiritual.

Stained glass has been an amazing artform since ancient times. As early as the 7th century, craftsmen began including stained-glass windows in Catholic churches. Since the vast majority of the population was illiterate, the windows included details from stories in the Bible. Imagine the truth and beauty of hearing the Scripture readings at Mass and then looking up at a window depicting the story as the sunlight streams through as if to highlight the listener’s understanding. Perhaps while praying the rosary, one could gaze upward to a window featuring one of the mysteries. Stained-glass windows in churches serve many beautiful purposes!

This year marks the 758th celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi (Latin for “Body of Christ”) – also known as the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Since this is our parish feast day, which we’ll celebrate next Sunday, it’s helpful to know the history of this special day.

Today, we celebrate the birthday of the Catholic Church on the feast of Pentecost. As Jesus’ time here on earth was coming to a close, He promised He would not leave us alone.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17)

How often do you find yourself filled with worry or anxiety over the problems of your daily life? We frequently look for solutions to various challenges and pray for specific outcomes as we would like to see things untangled in our lives according to our limited human understanding of the problem. Many of us are so busy trying to work through our day-to-day lives, by the choices we make and the actions we take, that we sometimes we forget who really is in charge.

I have received a number of questions recently about the practice of infant baptism versus reserving baptism for adulthood, when the individual chooses it for his or herself. I’ve decided to take it as a sign from the Holy Spirit to offer an explanation of the Church’s teaching on infant baptism on a larger scale.

Our Catholic faith is very rich in the numerous paths to holiness it offers. You may notice the various devotions people are drawn to or the different practices your friends have adopted to express their faith. There are as many paths to holiness as there are people walking them. It may be confusing to understand what exactly is required of a practicing Catholic in the midst of so many options for prayer and devotion. To help clarify, today we will examine the differences between public and private revelation and how the Church treats each version.

This year, Sunday, May 8th has been designated as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The term “vocation” can mean different things within different contexts. In a particular sense, it essentially means that all of us have a calling from God to fulfill a very specific role or roles in each of our own lives. For example, some of us are called to be parents, doctors, artists, or activists for a moral cause. In this context, we often have more than one vocation at a time, such as one woman being a wife, mother, and teacher in obedience to all God has called her to be. When we acknowledge our God-given gifts and agree to do with them what the Lord intends, we are living out our vocational life.

Imagine your teenager confides in you that a friend at school is pregnant. What are your first thoughts? Do you ask questions, determine if the friend has a support system, or if she is scared and doesn’t know where to turn? What if it was your daughter? Or maybe it’s a friend at work who is living paycheck to paycheck, perhaps with an unstable homelife, who has turned to you for advice.

Like many elements of our Catholic faith, the Divine Mercy devotion is deeply rich and powerful in numerous ways. It is relatively new compared to the rest of our Catholic history, although the message originates with Jesus. For three years, Jesus spent time with His disciples, teaching them, healing the sick, and forgiving sins. In fact, this act of forgiving sins was one of the most shocking things Jesus did! In the Gospel of Mark, we hear:

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Child, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, ‘Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?’” (2:5-7).

We have spent the last several weeks of Lent looking at the Passion narrative from the perspective of various characters in the story. When you consider each of the different perspectives, you can see how the situation got out of control through sin (Caiaphas), difficult circumstances (Pontius Pilate), or how God still provided blessings in the midst of the pain and chaos (Veronica, Simon of Cyrene, the Centurion, and the good thief). When we consider other perspectives, we can get a clearer sense of the big picture. It is a skill that we can employ, not only when we read the gospel stories, but also in our own lives, today, to give us empathy and understanding when approaching a difficult situation that is imbued with the effects of sin.

We have finally made it to Palm Sunday and Holy Week, the final week of Lent. Hopefully, you have all done well this Lent and allowed the Lord to transform you through the sacrifices you’ve offered to Him. Did you notice the times throughout the last several weeks in which you struggled, or even fully dropped the ball on your Lenten promises? More importantly, like several characters in the Passion narrative, did you pick yourself up from your stumbles and falls and try again? Like the apostles, perhaps you fell asleep for a moment, but managed to grab a spiritual cup of coffee and woke back up. Perhaps you tried very hard to keep on track and do the right thing in a particular moment, like Pontius Pilate, but found yourself surrounded by opposition, making it very hard to follow through with your best intentions. Regardless of how your Lent has gone thus far, it is not over yet, and you can still make this Holy Week your best one ever. Re-commit to your Lenten promises now and ask God to help you finish strong as you persevere with Christ in His final moments of life.

Last week, we made a close examination of the darker and more sinful parts of ourselves as we considered the perspectives of Barabbas and the crowd. This week, we will highlight the better and more virtuous parts of our human nature as we consider those who were kind and offered works of charity to our Lord during His great suffering.