Monday Evening, June 15th, 2020:
Dear St. Charles Family:
It was wonderful to see each one of you who arrived for Communion yesterday - thank you for participating!
As mentioned earlier, the liturgy committee and I are working on a plan to safely provide, for those who will be comfortable doing so, the opportunity to attend Mass in person. Beforehand, however, we have much planning and preparation ahead of us. Therefore, we will continue with our current schedule until the aforementioned has been completed. Stay tuned to my flocknotes for updates.
If the topic of reopening the Church piques your interest, you are invited to participate in Tuesday evening's Q&A session on Zoom, where this will be discussed. Meanwhile, on Thursday evening, our Adult Bible Study topic will be "Stories in the Book of Judges". Below, you can find the Zoom links to these sessions (and more!).
Meanwhile, if you didn't (and still don't) have time to watch Sunday's Mass video, I hope you will consider taking the time to read my bulletin message, which is also included below, as you may find the information to be helpful in understanding the way the Eucharist nourishes each one of us by transforming our mindset.
Meanwhile, if you didn't (and still don't) have time to watch Sunday's Mass video, I hope you will consider taking the time to read my bulletin message, which is also included below, as you may find the information to be helpful in understanding the way the Eucharist nourishes each one of us by transforming our mindset.
Blessings,
Fr. Kwame
Jun
16
TUESDAY Evening Q&A w/Fr. Kwame
Are you going?
Yes
No
Maybe
going.
not going.
might be going.
Jun
17
WEDNESDAY Evening: "Come and See"
Adult Faith Formation Zoom Meeting
Are you going?
Yes
No
Maybe
going.
not going.
might be going.
"COME AND SEE"
Adult Faith Formation Zoom Meeting
We welcome all who are interested in walking with Jesus
Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM
These meetings will be held every Wednesday at 7:00 pm. You don’t have to go to one to be able to go to another. Each meeting will last about 40 minutes and includes a brief discussion on a topic basic to the Catholic faith. The meeting format will accommodate discussion, so please bring your questions.
"Come and See" is targeted at various groups of people:
- Catholics who feel their spiritual formation has stopped and are not sure how to get it growing again
- Non-Catholics who are curious about our faith
- A first step for those who wish to explore becoming Catholic
- Those Catholics who wish to complete the sacraments of Eucharist and/or Confirmation.
If you have a friend or family member who wants to learn more about our Catholic faith we invite you all to “come and see” on Wednesday evenings at 7 PM...
To Join Zoom Meeting, Click HERE
Meeting ID: 321 832 6812
Password: Jesus2020
Password: Jesus2020
Questions? Contact Daniel Goodman at gotfordtires@gmail.com.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Jun
18
THURSDAY Evening Adult Bible Study
Are you going?
Yes
No
Maybe
going.
not going.
might be going.
Fr. Kwame's Adult Bible Study Program
"Stories in the Book of Judges"
Thursday, June 18, 2020, at 7:00 PM
Meeting ID: 845 3921 5596
Password: 5DJfWa
Regular Telephone? Dial: +1 669 900 6833
Meeting ID: 845 3921 5596
Password: 494934
VIEW PREVIOUS BIBLE STUDY VIDEOS
Jun
20
SATURDAY Morning Grief Support Group
Are you going?
Yes
No
Maybe
going.
not going.
might be going.
Monthly Grief Support Group
Saturday, June 20th, 10:00 AM -11:30 AM
On Zoom
This meeting provides an opportunity for anyone who has lost a loved one, to share their experience with others in a safe place. Expressing your feelings will help your mind process what you are going through.
Please join us. If you need more information and the Zoom link, please contact Claire La Scola at clairelascola@gmail.com or 447-9800. Claire is a retired nurse and psychotherapist.
Jun
22
MONDAY Morning - Walking with Purpose
Are you going?
Yes
No
Maybe
going.
not going.
might be going.
Angela Layton's Zoom Invitation:
Walking with Purpose
Monday Mornings at 10:00 am.
Meeting ID: 782 7094 3952
Password: jesuslives
Jun
25
THURSDAY Morning WINGS on Zoom
Are you going?
Yes
No
Maybe
going.
not going.
might be going.
WINGS – Women in God’s Spirit - Presents:
THE BOOK OF RUTH
THE BOOK OF RUTH
Thursday, June 25th at 10:30 AM On ZOOM
(Enjoy WINGS Presentations in the Comfort of Your Own Home!)
Guest Speaker:
Jan Stegner
Spiritual Study Leader
San Damiano Retreat Center
Topic:San Damiano Retreat Center
The Book of Ruth - the Story of Love, Loyalty, and Transformation.
All Are Welcome!
The ZOOM Link Will be
Included in a Future Focknote
If You Missed Last Thursday's WINGS Session,
Here is the Video:
Bulletin Message from Fr. Kwame for
Sunday, June 14, 2020:
The Practice of the Eucharist: Healing the Human Race
Anytime I think of the Eucharist, I think of my mother and how she handled the little chickens we raised in our home when I was growing up.
Near the end of each day, my mother would ask us to go outside and bring the chickens into the coop. As children, we would run after all the little chickens at first. Unfortunately, in that process, we would end up stepping on some of them because they were very small.
My mom would get furious about losing her chickens because of our ineffective and reckless tactics. As a result, she would go out and gather the chickens herself. With a basket, she would slowly sneak up on the “mother-hen” and cover her. Once the mother-hen was trapped in the basket, we would see all the little chickens surround the basket on their own.
At this point, my mom would open the basket just enough for the little chickens to get in, and not enough for the mother-hen to get out. That’s how she would safely move all of the chickens into the coop, without injuring any of them as we had done previously.
Jesus tells us in the gospel reading today that the Eucharist is true food and drink, but how does the Eucharist nourish us? Does it fill our bellies and satisfy our taste buds like physical food and drink? Certainly not. If you want to be physically satisfied, you instead consume physical food and drink in much larger portions than the little round wafer and sip of wine.
The Eucharist is food that feeds our spiritual needs and life. Our spiritual needs include the values and attitudes that make us original, true and good human beings in the image and likeness of God. These values of love and good character are shaped by our cultures and our mindset. The culture of a people has a strong influence on the way individuals live their lives in relation to one another and to those in other cultures. Therefore, the Eucharist nourishes the beings we are and how we behave.
I see a similarity in the way the Eucharist nourishes our lives and the way my mom brings the chickens safely into the coop at night. Like my mom, the Eucharist does not target all of our values and attitudes. Instead, the Eucharist goes for the “mother-hen” first. The mother-hen of all of our values is our culture and our mindset.
The Eucharist transforms our mindset and perspectives as if it were a pair of heavenly eyeglasses through which we see people and things in a good light. With this perspective, we can treat every person with dignity, respect, justice, and grace. This is in contrast to a culture that is flawed with discrimination - that would result in generating a community of inequality, oppression, injustice, suffering, and death.
For this reason, the Eucharist provides us with spiritual insight that sanitizes our thinking capacity, and most notably our conscience. It reaches within our hardened hearts to make them tender so that we can reach out to others with compassion, patience, and love.
Father Bryan Massingale, a professor of Moral Theology at Fordham University, wrote the book entitled, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church. In this work, he claims that Catholics have great resources in our faith traditions to engage and address racial justice problems. The most important and effective Catholic tool against racism is “the practice of the Eucharist.”
The Eucharist is a powerful resource to fight racism because the Eucharist is about creating a “Welcoming Table” in a “Beloved Community”. But the fact that racism, discrimination, and exclusion of all kinds continues to exist in our lives and in our Church shows that we are misusing or misunderstanding what the Eucharist stands for – its significance for providing us with cultural value.
Racism is a culture and a symbol. The Eucharist, as a sign, works on our own culture, minds, conscience, and perspectives. The Eucharist changes our worldview – especially worldviews that see other people as inferior or superior. The Eucharist must transform our minds so that we can go into action and similarly transform our relationships with one another and create a peaceful, better world.
Please remember this: Do not eat the bread and drink the wine to have your belly filled; go beyond the physical refreshment and nourishment. Think about the consequence of what you have eaten - the teaching, the value, the laws, the meaning, and the implications it has for your relationship with your family members, co-workers, church and ministry colleagues, classmates, and - most particularly - persons unlike yourself.
Several of our children are about to come to the table of the Eucharist for the first time. May they all experience the spiritual transformation of their minds and hearts, to be the best version of themselves as children in God’s image, and may they grow up with that nourishment to embrace a world and country full of love, justice, and peace.
Fr. Kwame
How Are You Remaining Physically Fit These Days?
St. Charles parishioner Wendy McGee has just released "Fitfannie", her new fitness app for iPhone, and she is currently offering it at no charge for our parishioners. For more information, click here.
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Community
1315 Lomitas Ave.
Livermore, CA 94550
