From the Pastor's Desk | August 18, 2024

Dcn. Carl Boehlert

In the spring of 2023, three months before I arrived here as pastor, Bishop Boyea asked Dcn. Carl to prayerfully consider a reassignment to the Catholic Community of Cristo Rey. Fr. Vincent Richardson needs help in ways particular to the ordained ministry such as preaching and assisting at weekend liturgies in addition to OCIA, faith formation, the healing ministry of annulments, and various other tasks. Dcn. Carl is gifted in many ways including languages, particularly Spanish. This would be most helpful at Cristo Rey.
Before Dcn. Carl left for his trip to Spain for the summer, he informed me that, after careful and prayerful consideration,, he has decided to agree to the bishop’s request. Therefore, it is with great sadness that we will be saying goodbye to Dcn. Carl. I am most grateful to Dcn. Carl for his nine years of service as a deacon to St. Martha Parish and School. As an aside, he and I were ordained deacons together May 10, 2015. 
Dcn. Carl has been instrumental in bringing people to the faith through his leadership of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. I have personally witnessed his dedication to OCIA and the joy it brings him to see others encountering the Lord in the Catholic Church. He goes out of his way in trying to accommodate everyone throughout the process. Seeing the joy on his face during last year’s Easter Vigil was not only uplifting, it was inspiring. 
Dcn. Carl is probably one of the most joyful and laid back people I know. He approaches everything with a spirit of giving whatever lies before him over the Lord - something I, myself, still need to work on. He is able to let go and give it to the Lord so easily. 
I am sad to see Dcn. Carl leaving his ministry here at St. Martha Parish and School. Our loss is Cristo Rey’s gain! I told Dcn. Carl that he is most welcome to serve at the altar whenever he wants to. So, I would not be surprised if we see him around here more often than not! He will always remain a part of St. Martha! 
Please keep Dcn. Carl and Paula in your prayers as he moves on to this new ministry!

Click here to read Dcn. Carl's message to the parishioners of St. Martha. 

OCIA

Given the news about Dcn. Carl, I have asked Dcn. Jim Collom to take over OCIA. He has graciously agreed; thanks be to God! Thank you, Dcn. Jim, for taking on this vital ministry!  

Back to School

I cannot believe that school starts next week! The teachers have been working hard to get ready with various diocesan professional development events, beginning of the year orientations, and preparing their classrooms for students. Please keep Mrs. Patton, our faculty and staff, and the students in your prayers as the excitement of the new year begins. 

Faithful Citizenship Presentation and Daily Rosary

This is a reminder about Mr. Paul Stankewitz’s presentation on Faithful Citizenship on Thursday, September 19, 2024, in the parish hall. Please attend if you are able. Beginning the next day, Friday, September 20, we will begin offering a rosary and divine mercy chaplet in the Creation Chapel at 3:00 pm every Monday - Friday until Election Day, November 5. As Christians, the best thing we can do for our nation is to pray for it. On Election Day itself, our church will be open for Eucharistic Adoration and prayer the entire time that the polls are open. 

Gospel Reflection

“If it’s just a symbol to hell with it” - Flannery O’Connor, Catholic American novelist. 
In my opinion, Flannery O’Connor’s words sum up today’s Gospel pretty well. As we move further into the Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus intensifies His teaching on the Eucharist. He will further intensify His teaching next week. He not only says that He is the bread come down from heaven but that this bread is His flesh for the life of the world. Jesus doesn’t stop there, He continues, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” (John 6:53)
This is where our Protestant brothers and sisters err. We cannot reconcile the Eucharist as a symbol to Jesus’s words in John chapter 6. He clearly says that the Eucharist is His body and blood and commands us to eat and drink it. From the earliest Church writings, the Didache down through the Patristic Fathers, the Church has always taught that the Eucharist is more than a symbol - it is Jesus Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity. 
I would like to offer some evidence to back up my claim in the previous paragraph:
St. Ignatius of Antioch, c. 110 A.D.
I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible, (Letter to the Romans 7:3)
St. Justin Martyr c. 100 - 165 A.D. 
For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus (First Apology, 66).
St. Irenaeus c. 140 - 202 A.D. 
But what consistency is there in those who hold that the bread over which thanks have been given is the body of their Lord, and the cup His blood, if they do not acknowledge that He is the Son of the Creator… How can they say that the flesh which has been nourished by the body of the Lord and by His blood gives way to corruption and does not partake of life? …For as the bread from the earth, receiving the invocation of God, is no longer common bread but the Eucharist, consisting of two elements, earthly and heavenly… (Against Heresies 4:18:4-5)
Origen c. 185 - 254 A.D. 
You are accustomed to take part in the divine mysteries, so you know how, when you have received the body of the Lord, you reverently exercise every care lest a particle of it fall, and lest anything of the consecrated gift perish….how is it that you think neglecting the word of God a lesser crime than neglecting His body? (Homilies on Exodus 13:3)
St. Cyprian of Carthage c. 200 - 258 A.D.
He Himself warns us, saying, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you.” Therefore do we ask that our Bread, which is Christ, be given to us daily, so that we who abide and live in Christ may not withdraw from His sanctification and from His Body. (The Lord's Prayer 18).
St. Ephraim c. 306 - 373 A.D. 
Our Lord Jesus took in His hands what in the beginning was only bread; and He blessed it, and signed it, and made it holy in the name of the Father and in the name of the Spirit; and He broke it and in His gracious kindness He distributed it to all His disciples one by one. He called the bread His living Body, and did Himself fill it with Himself and the Spirit. And extending His hand, He gave them the Bread which His right hand had made holy: "Take, all of you eat of this, which My word has made holy. Do not now regard as bread that which I have given you; but take, eat this Bread [of life], and do not scatter the crumbs; for what I have called my Body, that it is indeed. One particle from its crumbs is able to sanctify thousands and thousands, and is sufficient to afford life to those who eat of it. Take, eat, entertaining no doubt of faith, because this is My Body, and whoever eats it in belief eats in it Fire and Spirit. But if any doubter eat of it, for him it will be only bread. And whoever eats in belief the Bread made holy in My name, if he be pure, he will be preserved in his purity; and if he be a sinner, he will be forgiven.” But if anyone despise it or reject it or treat it with ignominy, it may be taken as a certainty that he treats with ignominy the Son, who called it and actually made it to be His Body. (Homilies 4:4)
St. Athanasius c. 295 - 373 A.D. 
You shall see the Levites bringing loaves and a cup of wine, and placing them on the table. So long as the prayers of supplication and entreaties have not been made, there is only bread and wine. But after the great and wonderful prayers have been completed, then the bread is become the Body, and the wine the Blood, of our Lord Jesus Christ…Let us approach the celebration of the mysteries. This bread and this wine, so long as the prayers and supplications have not taken place, remain simply what they are. But after the great prayers and holy supplications have been sent forth, the Word comes down into the bread and wine - and thus is His Body confected. (Sermon to the Newly Baptized, from Eutyches). 
Let us, together, stand with the Church in our belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. As we pray today, let us pray for a Eucharistic Revival here at St. Martha Parish and School. Let us revive within ourselves our personal belief in Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist. 
O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine!  

Know of my prayers for you all!
Fr. Ryan