Corpus Christi Blog

Celebrating Our Parish Feast Day

04-22-2018Weekly ReflectionFr. Chad King

Our parish feast day is coming up – and this year, with double-blessings! As you may know, the Feast of Corpus Christi moves around a bit since it is liturgically celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, which is the first Sunday after Pentecost (50 days after Easter)! This year, Corpus Christi falls on the same day as the Feast of the Visitation, which was when Mary visited Elizabeth following the Annunciation. How blessed we are to have so many opportunities to celebrate the events in the life of Our Lord and Blessed Mother!

After prayer and discussion with the staff and Pastoral Council about how we should celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi and the Visitation, we are encouraging every parishioner to go on a little daily retreat. We will spend 33 days growing in love as we consecrate ourselves and the parish to Jesus in a deeper way through Mary, our Mother. This retreat and preparation will begin on Saturday, April 28. It concludes on Thursday, May 31, the Feast of Corpus Christi and the Visitation, with a special Consecration Mass at 6:30pm and a reception following. I am inviting either Bishop Olmsted or Bishop Nevares to come and celebrate this Mass with us. The personal retreat consists of following along with the book 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It Yourself Retreat, by Fr. Michael Gaitley, MIC. We will learn about four saints (one each week): St. Louis de Montfort, St. Maximillian Kolbe, St. Teresa of Calcutta, and St. John Paul II. The focus will be on how these saints lived their lives with Mary and how their love and devotion to her deepened their consecration of their lives to Jesus, and thus help us to do the same.

If you don't have a copy of the book, there are some copies in the Gift Shop, and it's available through Amazon, or through other retailers. It is a book that is worth purchasing so you can use it to re-consecrate yourself annually. However, if you don't have, or cannot obtain a book, you can still participate because Formed.org has an excellent way for all of us to follow along each week. As part of this preparation for consecration, at the start of each week, we will send you a link via Flocknote to the videos in which Fr. Gaitley highlights some of the aspects of the saint from the book, as well as a few discussion questions to reflect on. The video segment pages have links to Participant Resources (.pdf files) to help you along each week. It would be your responsibility to reflect on the questions each day of the personal retreat. The format allows for small group discussions, so we encourage you to form a small group with your spouse, your family, or with some friends. Reflecting on the questions yourself or within a group will be beneficial either way.

Be sure you are signed up with Flocknote and Formed.org to access the videos and questions (not to mention the hundreds other faith formation resources). For Flocknote, please see page 3 of the bulletin for instructions. On the Formed.org site, enter your email address and use the parish code: VD6QM2 as the password.

I firmly believe that this consecration will not only help each of us individually to fall deeper in love with Mary and Jesus, but also benefit us as a parish to become more united and to help us become the Corpus Christi we are meant to be. In doing this consecration, I also ask you to pray for the whole parish, including the parishioners who are not as actively involved in their faith or the life of the parish, as well as for those who have yet to join our family of faith. Thank you for joining us in this most worthy consecration and celebration beginning April 28 and concluding on May 31.

  • Through Him, With Him, In Him,
  • Fr. Chad King, Pastor
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