SCCR Parish Blog

  On the weekend of June 19th, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati will be celebrating the bicentennial of our founding.  That's 200 years of the Catholic faith in the Archdiocese, a gift we should not take for granted.

  Just in time for the month of May (the month in which the Church has traditionally emphasized the importance of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary), some of our parishoiners are organizing a consecration to Mary, using a great resource entitled: Mary's Mantle Consecration: A Spiritual Retreat for Heaven's Help.   It is designed to be done mostly at home, and can be adapted for individuals and families.  Please stay tuned for more information.  We are hoping to start this up on either May 13th (Our Lady of Fatima) or May 31 (Feast of the Visitation). 

  On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations   and Good Shepherd Sunday, please pray with your family for good and holy priests. Here is a blog post by Catholic blogger Philip Kosloski that helps explain how and why. It includes a great quote from a Trappist monk, Fr. Chautard, reminding us that the holiess of the people of God depends on the holiness of their priests. 

  I will be preaching this week on Acts 4.  That include St Peter's bold teaching that anyone who is saved is saved only through Jesus Christ.  The Church also teaches (infallibly) that anyone who is saved is saved only through the Catholic Church, regardless of his faith background.  (If you really want to show off, you can use the Latin phrase for this doctrine,  extra ecclesiam nulla salus) This teaching is highly controversal (as many truths are) and should be understood properly.  To study it in depth, I recommend this fine article on that topic from the apostoalte Catholic Answers.  It is written by one of their Catholic evangelists, Tim Staples. 

  Our Holy Father Pope Francis has asked Catholics around the globe to pray for vocations on Sunday, April 25th, the World Day of Prayer for Vocations . Please check out the excellent resources at the website. 

  I highly recommend this excellent article from the National Catholic Register on how and why to protest abortion-tainted vaccines , especially the recent Covid vaccines.

  The presidential administration of Mr. Biden continues to advance its strongly pro-abortion agenda. In a recent move, Mr. Biden's cabinet recently reversed the ban enacted by President Trump's administration using tissue from aborted children in federal research.   The Catholic Church has long uphold the principle that one can not perform an intrinsically grave evil (such as killing a child through abortion) even if a good may come of it (such as advances in medical research).   A ghastly result of this practice is that the federal government funded by our tax dollars will now in effect be creating a "market" for the tissue of innocent children killed in the womb.  On the question of the status of baptized Catholic politicians who promote grave sins against life and their relationship to the Holy Eucharist, see Bishop Olmsted's recent pastoral letter .  For more on the difficult issue of a baptized Catholic president promoting abortion, read what Archbishop Nau

At all diocesan parishes this weekend, there will be a special collection for Catholic Relief Services.  Please be generous. Here is the Archbishop's letter about that collection  

  Saturday, May 1st, is the memorial of St. Joseph the Worker.  In honor of that occasion, we will have a new tradition: a blessing of tools.  That will be at 9:00 a.m. at St. Peter's.  Please feel free to bring your tools used at work or home to be blessed that day.  

  We recently celebrated the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.  This includes a beautiful tradition of transferring Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament to a chapel outside the Church for adoration, before the celebration of Good Friday and the absence of Our Lord's Eucharistic presence in churches around the globe. While honoring Our Lord, the Church sings the magnificent hymn to Our Lord in the Eucharist written 800 years ago, by St Thomas Aquinas, the Pange Lingua .  ("Sing my tongue the Savior's glory").  It includes the line "Down in adoration falling" ( veneremur cernui ). Recently Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix, Arizona, wrote a pastoral letter to his flock with this title, about the importance of understanding and living out the mystery of the Holy Eucharist. I highly recommend reading it.  It is a bit long (about 100 paragraphs) but if you read about 10 paragraphs a day, can finish it fairly quickly. I am going to adopt some of his ideas for

  As we rejoice in the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Easter is not over yet. The Church continues to celebrate Easter Day for 8 days in a row, through Divine Mercy Sunday. This is a special time to encounter the forgiveness of the Lord for which He died on the Cross. You can read more about Divine Mercy Sunday and the gift of the Divine Mercy of Our Savior on the website of the Marian Fathers . We will have a Divine Mercy devotion at St. Mary Parish starting at 2:30 p.m. and ending about 3:30.  It will include the Divine Mercy chaplet, Eucharistic adoration, and opportunity for confessions (Fr. Tim from St. Bernadette and Fr. Reutter will both hear confessions). 

  As we enter into the sacred Triduum (three days of intense prayer leading up to the Easter mystery), the devotional magazine Magnificat is providing complementary access to its prayers and reflections for Holy Week.  I highly recommend it.

Here is an  Easter message from Archbishop Schnurr  on video. Also, Fox 19 will be televising Archbishop Schnurr's Easter Mass live at 11:00 a.m. on Easter Sunday.

  The U.S. Bishops provide the text for the Exsultet , the centuries-old hymn to the Paschal candle -- the symbol of the Resurrection of Our Lord from the dead. 

  Here is a video of the last Good Friday meditation given publicly by great American preacher and Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.  He speaks of "spectators at the Cross" - those who observe with indifference, pain, or love. 

  For your meditation on this Holy Thursday, I am including a post from a blog that has a few excerpts from the great American bishop and Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen on the meaning of the Mass of the Lord's Supper.