A Message from Fr. Murray

Now that the glory and celebration of the Easter season has ended, we enter Ordinary Time and begin to reflect on our faith and living that faith. Ordinary Time is when we begin to look at the regular teachings of our faith. We are, in a way, preparing to go out to the whole world as instructed by Jesus at the Ascension. Last week, we celebrated the first time this happened, aided by the power of the Holy Spirit. It shows us we can do extraordinary things, as ordinary people, when we let Jesus be our teacher and the Holy Spirit be our sustenance. It is also our pattern for the future. If we are going to continue to thrive as a Church, we too must go out to the world (Salem) and preach the Gospel.

For the next two Sundays, before we move into “real” Ordinary Sundays, we are given the opportunity to reflect upon two major teachings of our faith. The first is the way God is revealed to us in the Trinity: One God with three distinct parts that are equally made up of love and are in continuous communication with themselves and with us. I love the Russian icon by Andrei Rublev  (shown on the front cover) as it shows this extraordinary reality. (If you ever visit the Levesque Funeral Home, Paul Levesque has a beautiful reproduction of it on one of the walls in the back of the home.) There is a small rectangle at the center of the table that art historians believe contained a mirror. The message is that every viewer is invited into the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. See yourself as part of the Trinity too. Extraordinary. I have a copy of this icon in my chapel in the rectory, and I never tire of contemplating it. When we say, “Who is our God? What is God’s name?”, we can say, “Trinity is God’s name.” There is, as St. Thomas Aquinas would say, “so much more to say,” but working to understand who God is by contemplating the Trinity is a good start.

Many years ago, I was in Cuzco, Peru, for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. There was a huge procession that included the Eucharist in a monstrance, borne on a carriage pulled by men and women through the streets of the city until arriving at the cathedral. After that came scores of statues of saints from nearby churches being carried by parishioners to the cathedral. The crowd watching would cheer as the saints passed by them. Afterwards, there was   all-day adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the church. It was the celebration of the truth of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The procession was a concrete way to say, “We believe that Christ is present here and now, in this monstrance.” Our own Peter Gordon has been reflecting on the Eucharistic presence for this whole year and posting wonderful videos on YouTube. They are great reflections on our belief that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ at the Mass, and that we are all sharers in this grace-filled moment when we are at Mass or when we attend adoration. “There is so much more to say,” and yet it may be summed up by saying that Jesus is here among us in the humblest of ways to help us grow in holiness.

Peace, Fr. Murray

Building news. We continue the work on the tower at St. James and recently received donations for the bell at Immaculate. Thank you to everyone for your generosity. There is still the opportunity to help if you would like to be part of these projects, to memorialize a family member, or just to help preserve these buildings with a financial donation.