ST. MICHAEL CATHOLIC CHURCH ONLINE GIVING ♦ Parish Bulletin  Calendar of Events ♦ Map and Directions ♦ Contact Us ♦ Login-Out |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME |
||
| March 9, 2014 | ||
| THE NEW ADAM | EL NUEVO ADÁN | |
|
Today’s readings launch us into Lent with the story of salvation. How did we humans get where we are? How do we get out? Genesis— through the Adam and Eve narrative—explains that we got separated from God and happiness through greed, selfishness, arrogance.
But, as Paul explained to the Romans, God has not abandoned us, and never will. We get out through the “new Adam,” Jesus Christ, through whom the death of sin is conquered by the life of “overflowing grace.”
From the start, though, Jesus—like Adam and Eve, like you and me—had to face “the tempter.” Shown fame and wealth, he was tempted to grab for it. But Jesus saw through such foolishness. During Lent we will look at what the tempter spreads before us daily, then try to make choices that put us on the side of the angels.
Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.
|
Las lecturas de hoy inician la Cuaresma con la historia de la salvación. ¿Cómo llegamos nosotros los humanos a donde estamos? ¿Cómo salimos de aquí? Génesis —en el relato sobre Adán y Eva— explica que nos hemos separado de Dios y de la felicidad a causa de la avaricia, el egoísmo y el orgullo.
Pero, como Pablo explica a los romanos, Dios no nos ha abandonado y nunca lo hará. Salimos por medio del “nuevo Adán”, Jesús, quien ha conquistado la muerte del pecado con la vida de “gracia sin medida”.
Desde el principio, sin embargo, Jesús —igual que Adán y Eva, igual que tú y yo— tuvo que enfrentarse al “tentador”. Cuando le mostró la fama y la riqueza, fue tentado a poseerlas. Pero Jesús entendió que eran una bobería. Durante la Cuaresma consideraremos lo que el tentador nos pone ante nuestros ojos diariamente, y trataremos de escoger lo que nos pone del lado de los ángeles.
Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.
|
|
|
“The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” (Matthew 4:10)
|
“Adorarás al Señor, tu Dios, y a él sólo servirás”. (Mateo 4:10)
|
|
|
PASTOR'S MESSAGE
Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Today is the First Sunday of Lent. What is Lent?
• The word Lent is derived from the Old English lencten, which means "lengthen." It refers to the
lengthening of the daylight hours that occurs in the northern hemisphere as spring approaches. It is in this period of transition from late winter to early spring that the season of Lent falls. It has been used from the Anglo-Saxon period to translate the more significant Latin term quadragesima (Italian quaresima, Spanish cuaresma), meaning the "forty days", or “fortieth”. Lent is a forty-day liturgical season that initiates the most sacred part of the Christian year. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on the Great Vigil of Easter. During Lent, Christians meditate on the great paschal mystery -- the salvation God won for us sinners by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• Why 40 Days? Forty is symbolic for trial, testing, and waiting...it is a journey that leads to a spiritual time of growth and change. The meaning of the season is further enriched by other biblical occurrences of the number 40 (either in years or days). Among them: it rained for 40 days and 40 nights during the time of Noah (Gn 7:4); Moses was on the mountain with God for 40 days (Ex 24:18); the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years (Nm 32:13); the prophet Jonah warned the people of Nineveh they had 40 days until God would overthrow the city, they repented and fasted and God spared Ninevah (Jon 3:4); Elijah fasted 40 days in the wilderness (1 Kings 19:8); Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and struggled with the devil (Mt 4:1-2); Jesus, by tradition, spent 40 hours in the tomb (a Blessed Sacrament devotion originated in Milan in 1534 and was propagated by the Jesuits); and Jesus spent 40 days on earth from His Resurrection to His Ascension (Acts 1:3).
• Lent is a time of preparation and self-sacrifice through prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving, fasting and abstinence, and self-denial or giving up worldly desires and activities.
The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many and various ways. Scripture and the Fathers insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others." [Catechism of the Catholic Church #1434]
• Why Fast and abstain during Lent? The primary meaning of the fast is considered to be a way of identifying with the suffering of Jesus. Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah.... This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: "For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning." By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert. [Catechism of the Catholic Church #540]
• All Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence for those 14 years and older. Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are obliged to fast and abstain on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
|
||
|
|
||
| ONLINE GIVING | OFFICE HOURS | CALENDAR OF EVENTS | LITURGY SCHEDULE | MAP AND DIRECTIONS | CONTACT US | ||
