Christ the King Parish

Dear friends,
 
I am leaving this Saturday, June 24^th after the 5.00 pm Mass for the Spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius.  It is a 30-day silent retreat. Often described as Ignatius's greatest gift to the world, these exercises unfold a dynamic process of prayer, meditation, and self-awareness. The retreat experience begins with two days of preparation and concludes with a day of reflection. During the retreat itself, the retreatant prays four or five times a day, sees a spiritual director once a day, and participates in daily Eucharist. An atmosphere of prayerful silence pervades the property and the hearts of the retreatants. While talking to the priests at the rectory, Fr. Brian Joyce told me he could not survive the first ten days of silence. The basic thrust of the retreat is to make us more attentive to God's activity in our world, more responsive to what God is calling us to do. I ask for your prayers.
 
There can be no better place to enter into the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius than the birthplace of Ignatius Loyola itself. I will be at the Loyola Centre of Spirituality in Bilbao, Spain. There are many chapels and places of prayer available including a beautiful hillside chapel, the famous chapel of Ignatius' conversion and the peaceful 14th Century hermitage of Olatz. There is a private garden behind the Centre in the magnificent setting of the hills of Loyola. The retreat includes preparation days with a visit to the local sites associated with Saint Ignatius. During the retreat there are likely to be three rest days when we hope to visit Javier, the home of St Francis Xavier, Aránzazu, where Ignatius first stayed after his conversion on the way to Montserrat and an optional day in the beautiful seaside resort of San Sebastian. I have given you all the information that I have been given. Am I excited about the retreat? Absolutely! You can count on my prayers. I am grateful to Bishop Barber who sent in a letter of recommendation on my behalf.

Fr. Vince Cotter will also be away during the month of July. He will be visiting friends and family. He is in no mood for silence or solitude during his vacation. He is prepared to encounter God in the midst of all the noise. We will be blessed with a visiting priest, Fr. Jose Kuruvachira SDB in July. A native of India based in Rome, Fr. Kuruvachira teaches at the Salesian Pontifical University. He is a recognized specialist in interfaith dialogue. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He will be offering a couple sessions on interfaith dialogue and Islam.

We have moved on from the great feasts of Easter and Pentecost and now embraced what Church calls, “Ordinary Time.” Ordinary Time is called "ordinary" not because it is common but simply because the weeks of Ordinary Time are numbered. The Latin word ordinalis, which refers to numbers in a series, stems from the Latin word ordo, from which we get the English word order. Thus, the numbered weeks of Ordinary Time in fact represent the ordered life of the Church—the period in which we live our lives neither in feasting (as in the Christmas and Easter seasons) or in more severe penance (as in Advent and Lent), but in watchfulness and expectation of the Second Coming of Christ. Thus for Catholics, Ordinary Time is the part of the year in which Christ, the Lamb of God, walks among us and transforms our lives. Enjoy summer! Let the Ordinary Time speak to you of God’s extraordinary feats in our lives.
 
 
 

Weekday
8:00am
Saturday
8:00am, 5:00pm (vigil)
Sunday
7:00am, 8:00am, 9:15am, 10:45am, 12:15pm, 5:00pm (summer youth mass [6pm will resume September 3rd])
Holy Days
8:00am, 7:00pm
First Friday
8:00 am, 6:30 pm (during Lent);
Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 12 noon-7:00 p.m. (except summer)

Reconciliation:
Saturdays, 3:30-4:30pm