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Sixth Sunday of Easter
9 May 2010
Dear Friends in Christ,
1. In most dioceses of the United States, the Solemnity of the Ascension is no longer celebrated on the Thursday of this week; instead, the celebration of the Ascension is moved to the following Sunday and takes the place of the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Accordingly, this Thursday is not a holy day of obligation, and the Ascension will be celebrated next Sunday.
2. On Friday of this week, 14 May, the Church keeps the feast of St. Matthias, the man chosen by the surviving Eleven Apostles to replace Judas Iscariot. We read of the selection of Matthias in the Acts of the Apostles 1:15-26, and there we learn that Matthias was thereafter counted an Apostle. Beyond these simple facts, we know nothing for certain about Matthias, although several ancient traditions speak of his ministry and his martyr’s death. The most important lessons to take from the selection of Matthias are these: 1) No one in the Church is irreplaceable, except of course for the Lord Jesus, and 2) The apostolic succession always provides shepherds for the Lord’s flock, even when one entrusted with the apostolic ministry falls into wretched sin and disgrace as did Judas. In these days of public scrutiny and shame caused by the moral failures of too many bishops and priests, let us take courage from the example of St. Matthias.
3. Pope Benedict XVI has urged Catholics throughout the world, including priests, to bring the light of the Gospel to the world wide web and especially to the blogosphere, a place where millions of people exchange ideas about everything under the sun. In keeping with our Holy Father’s instructions, Father Longenecker and I are both bloggers. He is an old hand at this, and I am a neophyte, but we are both attempting to promote the New Evangelization with this newest of tools for communicating with others. You can find Father Longenecker at gkupsidedown.blogspot.com, and I’m at fathernewman.blogspot.com. A blog allows a more personal and pointed form of expression than liturgical preaching permits, so if you visit our sites, expect a raucous good time.
4. Our parish school is blessed to have four Dominican Sisters from the Congregation of St. Cecelia — our principal and three classroom teachers. But our school is only one of thirty-five possible mission assignments for the Sisters, and so a regular feature of school life will be the rotation of Sisters in and out of St. Mary’s as the needs of the Congregation are determined by the Prioress General in Nashville. Because the average length of service for a classroom teacher in any one school is about three years, we might have expected all three of our teaching Sisters to be transferred this year, but I learned this week that all four of our Nashville Dominicans are returning to St. Mary’s for the next school year. For which God be praised!
Father Newman