St. James Catholic Church

The Catholic community of St. James Church is made up of loving and sensitive members seeking to meet their spiritual needs, strengthen their faith, and affirm their continued existence as the church of Jesus Christ today and tomorrow.  In their quest to evangelize, it is their mission to assist everyone toward a more abundant experience of the riches of their liturgy and scaraments, and to convince all of Christ's sheep that the Lord's Day is indeed for all.

Thursday at 12:00 Noon, please bring your announcements and notices to the office in legible and written form for insertion into the bulletin. Thank you!

https://diocesecc.org

COVID-19 PROTOCOL

Parishioners attending Mass are strongly encouraged to continue wearing masks, keeping six feet social distancing, and sanitizing their hands as they enter the church. 

Parishioners should stay home, if they have COVID-19 symptoms, or if they have had direct contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. If a person has had a secondary contact – not directly exposed to a COVID-19 positive person, but in contact with someone who was in direct contact, they should stay home.

As stated in last week's encyclical, the dispensation for attending Sunday Mass and Holy Days of obligation is extended until August 31, 2020.   Those who are at risk or who are not comfortable attending Mass should stay home.

Diocesan Mass Precautions:
https://diocesecc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Abbreviated-Directives.pdf

Online Mass Resources:
https://diocesecc.org/faith-resources/

St. James parish welcomes all newcomers.  Please contact the parish office to register.

Cyber scammers are impersonating Priests, CFOs and people in ministry leadership roles. They are asking for money, gift cards and personal information.  DO NOT reply and immediately delete any email or text.  This is NOT a request from our parish priest, deacons, administrative personnel or any of its ministry leaders.

Dear Lord,

There is no greater feeling of liberty than to experience freedom from sin and death that you provided for us through Jesus Christ. 

On this Independence Day, we are reminded of all those who have sacrificed for our freedom, following the example of your Son, Jesus Christ. Let us not take our freedom, both physical and spiritual, for granted. May we always remember that a very high price was paid for our freedom. 

Lord, today, bless those who have served and continue to give their lives for our freedom. With favor and bounty, meet their needs and watch over their families.

Dear Father, thank you for the opportunities and freedoms we have in the United States of America. 

Help us to live our lives in a way that glorifies you, Lord. Give us the strength to be a blessing in someone's life, and grant us the opportunity to lead others into the freedom that can be found in knowing you more dearly. 

We ask theses through Christ our Lord

Amen.

Disturbing statistics on stress: A few years ago, Comprehensive Care Corporation of Tampa, Florida published a booklet about stress in our modern world. The facts are disturbing. (1) One out of four of us suffers from mild to moderate depression, anxiety, loneliness and other painful symptoms which are attributed mainly to stress. (2) Four out of five adult family members see a need for less stress in their daily lives. (3) Approximately half of all diseases can be linked to stress-related origins, including ulcers, colitis, bronchial asthma, high blood pressure and some forms of cancer. (4) Unmanaged stress is a leading factor in homicides, suicides, child-abuse, spouse-abuse, and other aggravated assaults. (5) The problem of stress is taking a tremendous toll economically, also. We are now spending $64.9 billion a year trying to deal with the issue of stress. That is why Jesus shared the “Good News” with us a long time ago when He said: “Come to me all of you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

The readings of today invite us to reflect on peace and consolation through the Word of God. This word reveals to us and shows us that God is all powerful and mighty and yet is always accessible. He is the God who is our creator and all surpassing, yet approaches us on intimate personal terms. He is our King, says Prophet Zechariah in the first reading, yet comes meekly riding on a placid donkey rather than on a prancing war horse. He is the new king whose arrival brings peace to the weary people. He has dominion from sea to sea, and yet he is concerned personally of each one of us. That dominion is expressed in today’s Gospel when Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father.” He reveals the Father to us, and so we are swept up, in the Holy Spirit, into the intimacy between Father and Son, as we ourselves become his sons and daughters in Jesus Christ. Jesus thanks the Father for granting the disciples the grace to grasp his teaching while keeping its meaning hidden from the so-called wise and intelligent people of the day. At the same time he says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light and hence we must come to him in order to receive rest from him. In the second reading Paul reminds us that the spirit of God dwells in us. Christ’s dominion is His victory over death; our intimacy with Him is the fact that the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us and him who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies by His indwelling in us. Thus, when we think spiritually, we are no longer burdened by the worldly ways because we are walking our living faith and hope with a spiritual heart. The Spirit enables us to overcome selfishness and live for God.

Gospel exegesis: A blow to intellectual pride: In the first part of the Gospel, Jesus is condemning intellectual pride.  He knows that ordinary people with large, sensitive hearts can accept the “Good News” he preaches, while proud intellectuals cannot. Even the learned rabbis of Jesus’ time recognized that the simplest people were often nearer to God than the most learned.   They composed stories to show that ordinary people often practiced great love and compassion, for instance, the story of the man who lent his tools to someone in need, or the woman who helped her neighbors.  Jesus says that such people will inherit Heaven, rather than the learned and the “wise” who pride themselves on   their intellectual achievements but do not love. 

Jesus’ unique claim to be God’s perfect reflection: “No one really knows the Father except the Son, and him to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him" (Matthew 11:27). The claim that Jesus alone can reveal God to men forms the center of the Christian Faith. Jesus makes the same claim in different words, as we see in the Last Supper discourse. Jesus says, "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). What Jesus says is this: "If you want to see what God is like, if you want to see the mind of God, the heart of God, the nature of God, if you want to see God's whole attitude to men -- look at Me!" 

Accept the light burden of Jesus’ teaching: The second part of Jesus’ claim is: "My burden is light" (11:30). Jesus does not mean that the burden is easy to carry, but that it is laid on us in love. This burden is meant to be carried in love, and love makes even the heaviest burden light.  When we remember the love of God, when we know that our burden is to love, both directly and by loving men, the God Who loves us, then the burden becomes easy.  Jesus is returning to the simplicity of God's original Covenant and Law, giving people what they need to guide them on their path easily.  By following Jesus, a man will find peace, rest, and refreshment.  Although we are not overburdened by the Jewish laws, we are burdened by many other things: business, concerns about jobs, marriage, money, health, children, security, old age and a thousand other things.  Jesus' concern for our burdens is as real as his concern for the law-burdened Jews of his day.   "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest" (11:28).    Jesus still gives us rest! Is Jesus calling on those who are carrying heavy loads to come and add a yoke to their burden? Doesn’t that sound like adding affliction to the afflicted? No! Jesus is asking us to cast away our burdens and take on his yoke. This is because, unlike the burdens we bear, his yoke is easy and his burden light. The yoke of Jesus is the love of God. By telling us: "Take my yoke . . . and you will find rest" (11:29), Christ is asking us to do things the Christian way. When we center in God, when we follow God’s commandments, we have no heavy burdens.

Life messages: 1) We need to unload our burdens before the Lord. One of the effects of Worship for many of us is that it gives us a time for rest and refreshment, when we let the overheated radiators of our hectic lives cool down before the Lord. This is especially true when we unload the burdens of our sins and worries on the altar and offer them to God during the Holy Mass. But whether we are in Church, alone in our quiet spot where we come before God each day, in our homes, or in the homes of our friends and neighbors, we find that prayer and Christian fellowship bring us the rest and refreshment that we all need so much. There is nothing quite like coming to the Lord and setting aside our burdens for a while - nothing quite like having our batteries recharged, our radiators cooled down, and our spirits lifted. Jesus promises us rest from the burdens that we carry -- rest from the burdens of sins, legalism, and judgment, from the weight of anxiety and worry, from the yoke of unrewarding labor, and from the endless labor for that which cannot satisfy. The absolution and forgiveness, which, as repentant sinners, we receive in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, take away our spiritual burden and enable us to share the joy of the Holy Spirit.

2) We need to be freed from unnecessary burdens: Life's greatest burden is not having too much to do, nor having too much demanding our attention and care. Some of the happiest folk are the busiest and those who care the most.   Rather, the greatest burden we have is our constant engagement with the trivial and the unimportant, with the temporary and the passing, and with the ultimately uncontrollable and unpredictable. The issue in life is not whether we shall be burdened, but with what we shall be burdened. The question is not “Shall we be yoked?” but “To what and with whom shall we be yoked?” Jesus has no interest in unburdening us from our exaggerated self-esteem and from other modern infatuations (which are themselves debilitating burdens), in order to leave us with nothing to carry, no work to do. Instead, Jesus is interested in lifting off our backs the burdens that drain us and suck the life out of us, so that he can place around our necks his own yoke, his burden, that brings to us and to others through us, new life, new energy, new joy. God's incomparable, compassionate forgiveness is a gift that releases us into life with God as responsible human beings who want to grow deeper in love and joyful obedience. We are called not only to find peace, refreshment and rest for ourselves, but also to live the kind of life through which others, too, may find God's peace, God's refreshing grace, and the joy of placing their lives in God's hands. 

A Coronavirus Prayer

Jesus Christ, you traveled through towns and villages “curing every disease and illness.” At your command, the sick were made well. Come to our aid now, in the midst of the global spread of the coronavirus, that we may experience your healing love.

Heal those who are sick with the virus. May they regain their strength and health through quality medical care.

Heal us from our fear, which prevents nations from working together and neighbors from helping one another.

Heal us from our pride, which can make us claim invulnerability to a disease that knows no borders.

Jesus Christ, healer of all, stay by our side in this time of uncertainty and sorrow.

Be with those who have died from the virus. May they be at rest with you in your eternal peace.

Be with the families of those who are sick or have died. As they worry and grieve, defend them from illness and despair. May they know your peace.

A prayer for first responders during the coronavirus pandemic

Loving God, in the midst of our world’s—your world’s—coronavirus crisis, we beg to bring before you the brave women and men who are closest to the sick and suffering. In earlier times, such bravery appeared in direct service by saints—the young Jesuit Aloysius Gonzaga contracting the plague from the poor of Rome and dying with them at 23, the Belgian missionary Damian of Molokai becoming a leper to live and die with lepers over 16 long years of being theirs for Christ. Today the tools of science—medicine and surgery and, yes, ventilators—have changed the scene but not its anguished human face.

Be with the doctors, nurses, researchers and all medical professionals who seek to heal and help those affected and who put themselves at risk in the process. May they know your protection and peace.

Be with the leaders of all nations. Give them the foresight to act with charity and true concern for the well-being of the people they are meant to serve. Give them the wisdom to invest in long-term solutions that will help prepare for or prevent future outbreaks. May they know your peace, as they work together to achieve it on earth.

Whether we are home or abroad, surrounded by many people suffering from this illness or only a few, Jesus Christ, stay with us as we endure and mourn, persist and prepare. In place of our anxiety, give us your peace. We ask these through Christ our Lord. Amen

1)      Diocese of Corpus Christi:  https://diocesecc.org

2)      Vatican website: http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html

3)      Monks of the desert video: https://youtu.be/U5YY684ZXDE

4)      Catholic League: http://www.catholicleague.org/ 

5)      Community in mission blog: http://blog.adw.org/author/cpope/

6)      Church teachings index: http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/teach/index.html

7)      Catholic liturgy library: http://www.catholicliturgy.com/

8)      Church cartoons: http://www.toonfever.com/