St. Pius X Roman Catholic Parish - Charlottetown, PE

Ash Wednesday Masses

St. Pius X — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:35:14 +0000

There will be masses on Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 7:00AM, 9:00AM and 6:00PM.

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Pius X — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:57:59 +0000

Our faith tells us that the Word of
God is “alive and active.” In other words, God’s Word touches our lives. God’s
Word is, at one level, about people who lived a long time ago in a far- away place.
At a deeper level, God’s Word is always about us. Take, for example, the gospel
today, and the story it presents about the paralyzed man and his friends. Where
are we in the story? Where is the world of 2012? Those are complex questions to
which there are many answers. But, for starters: Depending on our circumstances
and situation at certain points in our lives, we have been, or could become,
the man being carried or the ones maneuvering the stretcher. We need the help
and support and the faith of those around us. At other moments, we are the ones
who lend those necessities to others. Life, according to the gospel, is a
mutual affair. It’s a give and take. As one of the prayers of the Mass puts it,
life is “a holy exchange of gifts.” Sometimes we are the givers; sometimes, the
receivers. And that’s true no matter who we are, or what we have or don’t have.
No one of us is an island; no one of us, self-sufficient. No one of us has
nothing to give. If enough of us makes the decision to live according to that
truth, our lives will be changed, our Church more and more reflect the presence
of the risen Lord, our world be transformed. Then, like those people we hear of
in the gospel today, we will all be “amazed and [glorify] God saying, “We have
never seen anything like this!”

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Pius X — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:22:42 +0000

“Whatever you do, do everything for
the glory of God.” So says Paul in our Second Reading today from his First
Letter to the Corinthians. He is reminding us of a very important aspect of our
faith: God is involved in every aspect of our lives. In the second century, St.
Irenaeus of Lyon said that the glory of God is the human person fully alive. We
give glory to God in a particular way every time we reach out to another to
assist that person be more fully alive. Anything we do to show respect for our
brothers and sisters, no matter their stage of development, no matter their
abilities or lack thereof, anything we do to build up those whom life has torn
down, every time we act in love, we give glory to God. Giving God glory does
nothing to change God. Rather, it changes human persons and societies so they
are able to live more freely in the dignity of the children of God; it makes
all creation more closely resemble all God made it to be. May we find that same
God in all we think, say, and do.

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Pius X — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:41:31 +0000

In some ways, Jesus was sort of a
celebrity in his time. The wonders he worked caused quite a stir—among both
those who hoped he would act in their lives and those for whom he was no more
than a curiosity. “Everyone is searching for you,” said Simon and his
companions when they found him in today’s gospel. His response, “Let us go on
to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for
that is what I came out to do.” There are many, many ways to interpret a gospel
passage as we try to apply it to our own lives and the times in which we live. Ours
is an age of celebrity, and truth be told, maybe most of us would like a little
more time in the limelight, to be known and admired and having people try to
model our hairstyle or the clothes we wear or be impressed by how successful we
are. We might wonder if Jesus was ever attracted to that kind of thing.
Whatever the case, he had a strong enough sense of himself and the purpose of
his life to move beyond a preoccupation with the flattery of others and take
his rightful place among his loved ones, his friends, and the community in
which he lived. Therein is a word of salvation for us. It’s natural to want to
be liked and respected and to have people think well of us—after all, a little
later in Mark’s gospel (Mk.8) we’ll hear Jesus asking Simon and his friends
what people think of him. Indeed others can often guide us, and their honest
loving feedback is important to our lives. But there comes a point when we may
have to move away from the bondage of trying to impress and keep up with others
in order to live in the freedom and dignity of who God made us to be.

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Pius X — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:49:17 +0000

St. Francis of Assisi is report to have once said, “Preach
always; sometimes use words.” What he was, in effect, telling his listeners is
that we are constantly called upon to be witnesses to the risen Jesus, to let
others know that he is alive, and, therefore, we have reason to live our lives
with courage and hope. We witness to the reason for courage and hope most
effectively not by what we say, but by what we do. To use a contemporary
expression, “Talking the talk is good, but walking the walk is far better.” We
hear in today’s gospel that Jesus “taught…as one having authority, and not as
the scribes.” Jesus had authority because his deeds matched his words. He
practiced what he preached. For some, that authority drew them to him, and they
became disciples. For others, that authority threated and angered them. They
set out to get rid of him. A couple of questions for you and me: How does the
authority of Jesus’ words sit with us? How do our words and actions coincide
with each other?

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Pius X — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:52:31 +0000

Last week, we had John’s version of Jesus calling his first disciples; this week, Mark’s. Something for us to consider is that Jesus invites his followers right where they are: in the midst of the work that they do everyday. We read these sentences: “Immediately they left their nets and followed him… Immediately… they left their father Zebedee… and followed him.” The question arises, “Did the disciples abandon their work and their families to follow Jesus?” It doesn’t seem so, for in a couple of Sunday’s we will hear of Jesus entering the house of Simon and Andrew, where he heals Simon’s mother-in-law who is in bed with a fever. In Luke’s gospel, we hear the story of the disciples being discouraged because they have fished all night and caught nothing. Though it appears they remained with their families and their livelihood, what the disciples did leave behind was their former way of looking at who they were and what they did. They began—gradually, slowly—to see everyday realities with new eyes, more aware of the significance of all of that to their role in God’s plan to bring salvation. So for us. God calls us where we are in the midst of what we’re doing. What we are called to do is to see all of that with the broad vision of Christ.

Grade 5 “Class is Mass” re-scheduled

St. Pius X — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:52:37 +0000

The “Class is Mass” celebrations for Grade 5 catechism classes will now be held the weekend of February 25-26th at all the weekend Masses.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Pius X — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:23:34 +0000

When the present lectionary (the book of Scripture Readings used at Mass) was compiled after the Second Vatican Council, the decision was made that, on Sundays during the Season of Ordinary Time, the First Reading—from the Old Testament—would be chosen to correspond with the Gospel of the day. Though sometimes the connection is not readily apparent, in today’s Readings, the relationship is clear. In both cases, human beings are called to work with God to make the world more as God intended it to be. In the Old Testament Reading, Samuel is helped by Eli to recognize that God is inviting him. John the Baptist, in the Gospel, points out the Lamb of God—Jesus—to two of his own followers. One of them, Andrew, after discovering Jesus for himself, goes to his brother, the one-day-to-be-famous Simon Peter, and invites him along. As it was then, so it is now. God, in Christ, continues to invite human persons—you and I among them—to be associated with him in the task of bringing his healing and hope to the world. Also, as in the distant past, we recognize that call with the help and support of others, as they rely on us to do the same for them. Together, we set out—beginning with our own selves—to allow God’s love to transform the world to become as Jesus taught: a place of justice and peace, more resembling the Reign of God, where Jesus is Lord forever and ever.

Epiphany

St. Pius X — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:56:41 +0000

The gospel stories of Christmas focus, as we might expect, on the birth, infancy, and early life of Jesus. On the one hand, those stories appeal to children, and in some ways, hearing them brings out something of the awe and wonder of childhood in all of us. That’s a good thing! At the same time, the gospel stories of Christmas—as with all gospel stories—are meant for the entire Christian community: young, old and in- between. If we read these accounts closely, we see that the early life of Jesus was not easy. His conception, on the human level, was surrounded by the stress and anxiety of Joseph’s confusion and indecision when he discovered that his future bride was expecting a baby of whom, he knew, he was not the father. The poverty and social insignificance of Mary and Joseph resulted in Jesus’ birth taking place in a far-from-ideal location. The beauty and intrigue of the Star and the Magi are compromised by the fact that today’s gospel story finds the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph on the run, refugees , afraid of Herod, and even on their return from Egypt, forced to change where they planned to live because of lingering fears for the child’s safety. All of this telling us that from the very beginning of his earthly life, Jesus was in solidarity with all of us. One with us in any struggles and hurts and uncertainties of our own childhoods and growing-up years; one with us in the ups and downs of the entirety of our lives. And not only one with us in all of that, but dwelling with us in the midst of it all, redeeming those experiences, saving us in the midst and aftermath of them, empowering us—like him—to live fulfilled lives, ourselves , and in him to contribute for the good to the life of the world. The Christmas stories, like all gospel stories, are “Good News”, bringing us courage and hope, and assuring us that Jesus is truly Emmanuel: God-with-us in all the circumstances and relationships of our lives.