Announcement

Bulletin This Week

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Peace be with you!

As we continue living during the pandemic, our parish has worked very hard to help keep our parishioners spiritually nourished. Together with Father Joseph Thai, we thank God for all the blessings that He bestowed upon our parish, and we also want to express our deep appreciation to all of you for your love and support, this past year. In this special bulletin, I am giving our Parish Annual Financial Report to all of you for the period June 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020. In this report you will find our spending totals, including maintenance costs, and the special funds reserved for the new John Paul II building and the grand Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang. I ask all of you to continue to provide support more generously in our weekly collections and special collections for our new building. This coming Thursday, November 26 is Thanksgiving Day, and I invite all of you to our Thanksgiving Day Mass at 9 am. Again, we are grateful to you all and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. It was Pope Pius XI who brought the Feast of Christ the King into the liturgy in 1925 to bring Christ, his rule, and Christian values back into the lives of Christians, into society, and into politics. The Feast was also a reminder to the totalitarian governments of Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin that Jesus Christ is the only Sovereign King. Although Emperors and Kings now exist mostly in history books, we still honor Christ as the King of the Universe by enthroning him in our hearts and allowing him to take control of our lives. This feast challenges us to see Christ the King in everyone, especially those whom our society considers the least important, and to treat each person with love, mercy, and compassion as Jesus did. The first reading from Ezekiel introduces God as a Shepherd reminding us of Christ’s claim that he is the good-shepherd-king, leading, feeding, and protecting his sheep. In the second reading, St. Paul presents Christ as the all-powerful ruler-king who raises the dead and to whom every form of power and authority must eventually give way. Today’s Gospel describes Christ the King coming in his Heavenly glory to judge us, based on how we have shared our love and blessings with others through genuine acts of charity in our lives. Jesus is present to us now, not only as our good shepherd leading, feeding, and healing his sheep, but also as dwelling in those for whom we care. In the parable of the separation of the sheep from the goats at the Last Judgment, every person to whom we give ourselves, "whether hungry, thirsty or a stranger, naked, sick or in prison," is revealed to us as having been the risen Jesus. Our reward or punishment depends on how we have recognized and treated this risen Jesus in the needy.

We need to recognize and appreciate Christ’s presence within us and surrender our lives to Christ’s rule: Since Christ, our King, lives in our hearts with the Holy Spirit and with His Heavenly Father, and fills our souls with His grace, we need to learn to live in His Holy Presence and do God's will by sharing His forgiving love with others around us. Being aware of His presence in the Bible, in the Sacraments and in the worshipping community we need to listen and talk to Him. We need to learn to be servers. Since Christ was a serving King, we are invited to be His loyal citizens by rendering humble service to others and by sharing Christ’s mercy and forgiveness with others. We need to use our authority to support the rule of Jesus. This feast is an invitation to all those who have power or authority in the public or the private realms to use it for Jesus by bearing witness to Him by the way we live. Parents are expected to use their God-given authority to train their children in Christian ideals and in the ways of committed Christian living.

Sincerely yours in Jesus Christ the King and Our Lady of La Vang!

Reverend Joseph Luan Nguyen, Pastor