Pastor’s Corner — December 12th, 2021
Preaching Series on the Mass Continues
Last week Fr. Miguel continued the preaching series in which he spoke powerfully about how we can intentionally offer ourselves with Jesus to the Father at Mass and even gave practical reminders of how to pray. Please watch/listen to it if you missed it.
One thing that strikes me about the Mass as a Sacrifice, that Father didn’t talk too much about, is how much weight our meagre prayers and offerings have when they are united to Jesus’ perfect sacrifice to the Father. When it comes down it, our prayers and our very lives are only “acceptable” to God because we have been reconciled to God in Jesus and are united with him. Therefore when we join ourselves and our prayers with the perfect sacrifice of love to his Father on our behalf, they are infinitely valuable and acceptable to the Father. Since the Mass is the eternal sacrifice of Calvary extended in time, there is no more perfect prayer and offering than that of the Holy Mass. This is what makes Mass so powerful. There are many concrete implications from this, but let me very briefly mention two.
First, there is nothing like praying to God at Mass. Sometimes fallen away Catholics wryly suggest that they don’t need to go to a church to pray; they can pray in the woods hunting, or on the lake fishing or on the golf course golfing. Well, of course they can pray there, but it is not even close to the same. Notwithstanding that worshipping with the people of God on Sunday at Mass is a commandment of God and that you can’t receive Holy Communion in the woods, lake or on a fairway, praying to God at Mass is very unique and can be replaced by nothing.
Second, it’s one thing to pray for the repose of someone’s soul after they’ve passed away, it’s quite another thing to offer a Mass for them. It’s one thing to offer some prayers for someone you know struggling, it’s quite another thing to offer a Mass for them. We don’t want to get into the misleading territory of trying to “quantify” grace here. But there is simply nothing as powerful as the Mass because the Mass is the infinitely pleasing sacrifice of Jesus to God the Father in the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, along with what Fr. Miguel said, if we don’t actually intentionally join ourselves to this sublime sacrifice when we attend, the fruits of this sacrifice will elude our grasp. This week we will talk about receiving the supreme gift of Holy Communion.
St. Pat’s Letter Regarding Brighton School Board on Marijuana Dispensaries
Our school principal and I wrote letters to several local townships and the city council (Brighton, Genoa, Hamburg, and Green Oak, and Brighton City Council) expressing our strong support and agreement with Brighton Area School Board. The board had recently approved (by a unanimous 6-0 vote) a resolution which urges the elected leaders of all local municipal/township governments to protect the youth of our community from the negative consequences of marijuana use, by prohibiting marijuana businesses in each jurisdiction within the greater Brighton area. You can seethe Brighton School Board resolution here and our letter here.
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias