Steady rain didn’t stop the celebration of Caribbean culture along Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights on Labor Day. And the Catholic community was near the front of the West Indian Day Parade on Sept. 2 to proclaim their Caribbean Catholic culture and religion and invite others to join them.
If you ask any Catholic theologian what the most important part of Christian life is, they’ll tell you the Eucharist.
St. Mary Magdalene’s feast day this past year was greeted not only with the sing-ing of the Gloria at Mass, but also with a “Twitter-storm.” Father James Martin — a Jesuit priest who’s one of the most famous and influential priests in the United States — released the following tweet on July 22:
Results from a new Pew survey show that Jews are the most knowledgeable among America’s religious communities about world religions, while only half of American Catholics know what their own Church teaches on core principles such as communion.
On the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi Sunday, Pope Francis said that in a culture obsessed with profit and personal gain, the Eucharist is a remedy for selfishness, inviting people to imitate Christ in sharing themselves with and for others.
If the Eucharist is merely a symbol – a nice thing to show community and unity among people – then we, as Catholics, are wasting our time.
BACK IN OCTOBER I had to prepare a Sunday homily on St. Matthew’s Gospel (22: 1-10) about the parable in which the king invites people to a wedding feast for his son but many refuse to come. In my homily, I wanted to help the members of the congregation understand more deeply what we do when we celebrate a Eucharist.
This past week, Pope Francis spoke to an Italian liturgical conference and made a definitive statement, with magisterial authority, that the changes to the liturgy from the Second Vatican Council’s document, Sacrosanctum Concilium, are “irrevocable.”
This past week, at the urging of Pope Francis, the Vatican’s Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, issued an important circular letter about the matter, the bread and wine, used for the Eucharist. This is important and essential information for all churches and chapels in all Roman Catholic dioceses in the world.
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
Recently, a letter was sent to all pastors regarding the current Mass schedules that are maintained in our parishes. The shortage of clergy necessitates that we must look at the current Mass schedules to see if we can sustain each long term. We are particularly sensitive to the need for language Masses in our diocese in Brooklyn and Queens which may not have the attendance of other Masses.
