Fr. Bill Melancon
Fr. Bill J. Melancon has been ordained to the Priesthood for the past 14 years, and has served as the shepherd of our community for seven and half of those years. If you would like to contact him you may do so by email .
From the Pastor
Christ, the King
November 16, 2008Coming to the end of the liturgical year of the Church, consideration needs to be given to this past year and to look forward to the new liturgical year. The liturgical year moves us through the events in the life of Christ and thereby deepening the life of Christ within each of us. To be aware of the celebrations of the liturgical year necessarily means an openness to the working of God within our lives.
The feast of “Christ, the King” focuses on the end of time when all of creation is given over to the Father in Heaven. That time is when Christ reigns triumphantly! Creation is returned to its previous glory and purity. The profane is transformed into the sacred. The time has come to reflect on our cooperation in that glorious Kingdom. We are to live now as citizens of that Kingdom.
Many events, people and things impinge on our time and energy. We can lose sight of the truly important. Worrying about food and security often outstrips the time and efforts placed on spiritual well-being. This feast of Christ centers us again on our own place in God’s salvific plan. The feast reminds us of our glorious goal of praising and giving glory to God! Through this action of praising and giving glory we move toward our own place in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Evangelization
June 6, 2008One of the task put forth to all who follow Christ is to “spread the Good News” to the ends of the earth. That task is usually termed evangelization. Through prayer and witness to faith we are called to share our lives with others. Christianity is not an individual endeavor, but a social one. We work and live at this in the context of a community. Each member is responsible for some part of this action. It can never be sloughed off to someone else.
In August 2007, we began to plan for this evangelization outreach. Our approach will be multi-faceted so that we can reach people in their particular situations. Prayer will be the essential ingredient. From prayer comes all good works. Please, to your prayers, add one for the “spread of the Gospel.” Be willing to participate in this work of the Lord. As plans become concretized, more information will be coming from the bulletin and from the pulpit. Praise God for all He has done for us!
Feasting on Purple
February 6, 2008As she serves her divine mission, the pilgrim Church remains a most real, sensate, even sensuous, creature. Few times of the year reveal this more clearly than the season of Lent.
For the next several weeks, the Church, despite her penance, will wrap herself and her prayer in the most ostentatiously imperial of colors - purple (or violet, for the more liturgically precise). Consequently, one should notice that as Christian stomachs fast during this holy season, Christian eyes, in church at least, will continue to feast.
To know the history of this color is to become aware of the near scandalous use the Church makes of it. On a deeper level, however, to appreciate the Church's adoption of this color for penance is to see more clearly the transformative power of her Master's grace. Conversion lies at the heart of Lent. Thus, we are reminded that, in the Redemption, everything can restored to the Lord and his purposes.
In ancient times, purple was the color of royalty and power. In Egypt, Rome, and Constantinople, the purple trappings of their offices singled out the emperors and nobles. Purple cloth, purple furnishings, and even purple ink served to distinguish visually the dignity and power they possessed. Worthy of note in this regard is a practice once found in the Byzantine world. Not to be outdone be their Western counterparts in imperial flair, the empresses of the East gave birth to their royal children in a purple chamber, in a room lined with porphyry, the purple stone of royalty. Thus, the infant princes earned the name porphyrogenitus - "born to the purple" - and the first thing that struck their infant eyes was the color of their future office. Even in ancient China the color purple gained royalty favor. The official name of the Forbidden City in Beijing is the "Purple Forbidden City."
Scripture also speaks of the royal and decadent use of the color purple. In the Old Testament, Daniel is promised jewels and purple garments if he would translate the mysterious writing that appeared on the palace walls (Dan 5:16). Dives, the wealthy sinner from St. Luke's Gospel (16:19), is described as draped in purple. So too is the cursed City of Babylon and its infamous whore in the Book of Revelation (17:4, 18:16). Not all instances of the color in Scripture, however, are associated with prideful human power. Elaborate instructions are given the book of Exodus for the use of purple cloth in the Temple. And all four Gospels detail how Christ's body, the New Temple, whipped and spat upon, was in kind adorned with purple.
It is this "Ecce homo" image of Christ, depicted in so many works of art, that inspires and shapes the Church's penitential use of this opulent color. The humiliated Messiah - beaten, bruised, and bleeding - is clothed by the soldiers in a purple robe as the King of the Jews. The world looks on this scene with horror. So too do Christians, but we also see in the mocked Christ the form of our discipleship and the salvific mystery that shapes our prayer. Christ is the King of Glory, so the soldiers were indeed right to drape his shoulders in purple. We too put on purple in Advent in expectation of the King's second coming.
Lenten purple, however, is different. During this season, the color draws us not to Christ's kingship only, but also to his Passion. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that the Messiah's dignity attained perfection especially through his suffering (2:10). Consequently, if Christ changes anything, if he infact makes all things new (Rev 221:5), it is not by royal edict. He signs nothing with pruple ink. Rather, as the suffering servant, he assumes the punishment for man's sins, suffers rejection and humiliation, mounts the wood of the cross, and, in obedience and love, sheds his blood for all. Thus, Lenten purple reminds us not only that Christ is king, but also how he is king, and by what means we are converted and are made new. Lenten purple calls us to conversion because it contains the crimson hues of Our Lord's blood.
The color purple, then, highlights the whole program of Christ's Lenten prayer. The purple shades of Lent focus our attention on Christ's kingship and, more importantly, on the sufferings that perfect his royal dignity and merit us grace, that gratuitous gift of God's own life that transforms our sinful hearts. It is a small sign of Christ's power that the feasting of our eyes on this luxurious color prompts our souls to prayer and contrition. In the Redemption, the color purple no longer lifts human heads in earhtly pride, but instead it lowers our heads, bends our knees, and brings our fists to our breasts as we plead for mercy. If, for our benefit, Christ effects this conversion in history's proud use of the color purple, imagine what greater wonders he wants to do this Lent to still prideful parts of our souls.
Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, OP
Dominican House of Studies
The Christmas Season
December 23, 2007Merry Christmas! The Christmas season begins after Evening Prayer on Christmas Eve. The season continues until the celebration of the "Baptism of the Lord." Christmas day is the beginning of the season and not the end. The period after Christmas is the time for home celebrations. We can still send out Christmas cards and share the peace, joy and love of the Season. In her liturgies during the Season, the Catholic Church continues to celebrate the wonders of the birth of the Christ and anticipates His Second-Coming at the end of time. Let us truly celebrate for the Season and not for just a day.
Christ the King — 2007
November 25, 2007The celebration of Christ the King on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, brings to a conclusion the liturgical year of the Catholic Church. Throughout the year we celebrate the life of Christ, the life of the Blessed Virgin, the saints, important dedications of churches, and we keep the days holy by celebrating liturgical seasons. This sanctification of time is important to the faithful because it makes present to us here and today the life of heaven itself. To enter into the Liturgical Year of the Church makes every moment a holy encounter with God and the mystery of salvation.
The Season of Advent
The Season of Advent is a joyful anticipation of two events. The first event is the birth of the Christchild at Bethlehem. Christmas carols, decorations, gatherings, and gift-giving mark the time before the Christmas day celebration in the secular world. In the Church, this is a time of solemn and serious preparation for the celebration of Christmas day. It is a season of reflection on the mystery of God-becoming-man among us. It is a season of personal introspection. It is a season of "sweeping" out the dust and cobwebs from the stable of our hearts in order to present to the Christchild a clean and warm place to lay His head. The second event is the return of Christ at the end of time. In some, this raises more fearful anticipation. Questions like "am I ready," and "do I have the faith and its accompanying good works" so that the King might say, "Come, my good and faithful servant." For a faithful follower, the Second Coming is not a fearful event, but a joyous one! There can be no greater event than to be able to gaze upon the lovely face of God.
The Tridentine Mass
October 13, 2007Since January of 2007, with permission of our Bishop, once a month we have celebrated the Mass of the 1962 Missal. This monthly celebration took place on Sunday afternoons. With the latest Motu Propio from Pope Benedict XVI the Church Universal has been allowed to celebrate that Mass on a more regular basis. It is not to replace the Novus Ordo Mass of the Second Vatican Council. It is an appeal to those whose spirituality was affected by the changes coming with the Council and an attempt at reconciliation. With the request of those who were already participating in the monthly celebrations, after checking with the Bishop, I have given permission for the weekly celebration of the Mass. This Mass is celebrated weekly on Sundays at 1:00 PM. Anyone may attend and it does fulfill the Sunday obligation.
Holy Days of Obligation
"Holy Days of Obligation" are a necessary part of our liturgical year. They are a part of the rhythm of our celebrating the life of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary and our own hopes for eternal life! In simpler times it was much easier to follow the prescriptions of fasting, Mass and prayer when these days came around. Nowadays it has proved difficult to "fit" these practices in our busy lives. The important things to remember is that these are days of rest and celebration. They are religious practices that we in this country are free to engage in and promote. Too many times it is said that "I can't get off of work to get to Mass." The Constitution of the United States guarantees the right to practice your faith. No coercion by employers can stop someone from practicing his or her faith. It is not a question of asking permission to have the time for Mass, but the responsibility of informing the employer that you will be gone for the time it takes for Mass. They may not like it, but they do not have a choice. A threat to terminate employment because of this is considered harassment and a strike against "freedom of religion."
All Saints and All Souls Days
We commemorate all those who have gloriously entered Heaven on All Saints Day. This day is a holy day of obligation. With the saints we celebrate our hope to be with them in sharing in the light of God's glory. On All Souls Day we remember our loved ones who have died. This is the proper day to visit cemeteries and the graves within, because it is on this day we remember our relative and friends who have gone before us. On this day we reassure ourselves and the souls of our loved ones of the future glory to be shared. In a very intimate way we see the working of the "communion of saints" which we mention in the Creed. Just because someone has died does not mean they are gone. Just the opposite is true since after death one is not constrained by time or space. Through prayer the relationships that were so vibrant here on earth endure into the next life.
What is “intinction?”
July 8, 2007In the latest "General Instruction of the Roman Missal" (GIRM), 2002, the Church rubrics on how Mass is to be celebrated and the options allowed within the Mass have been given to us. This is the instruction placed in the first pages of the Sacramentary (the book of prayers for the Mass). The GIRM regulates the practices that are allowed and not allowed at the Mass. The following is taken from the GIRM:
"285. For Communion under both kinds the following should be prepared:
- If Communion from the chalice is carried out by communicants' drinking directly from the chalice, a chalice of a sufficiently large size or several chalices are prepared. Care should, however, be taken in planning lest beyond what is needed of the Blood of Christ remains to be consumed at the end of the celebration.
- If Communion is carried out by intinction, the hosts should be neither too thin nor too small, but rather a little thicker than usual, so that after being dipped partly into the Blood of Christ they can still easily be distributed to each communicant.
287. If Communion from the chalice is carried out by intinction, each communicant, holding a communion-plate under the chin, approaches the priest, who holds a vessel with the sacred particles, a minister standing at his side and holding the chalice. The priest takes a host, dips it partly into the chalice and, showing it, says, Corpus et Sanguis Christi (The Body and Blood of Christ). The communicant responds, Amen, receives the Sacrament in the mouth from the priest, and then withdraws."
There seems to be a misunderstanding by some about the practice of intinction. As seen from the quote intinction is allowed as a valid form of distributing the Eucharistic species. What is not allowed is "self-intinction." Self-intinction is the practice whereby one of the communicants attempts to dip the Sacred Host into the Precious Blood on their own. This is strictly forbidden by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in their 2001 Norms for the Distribution and Reception of Holy Communion Under Both Kinds in the Dioceses of the United States of America:
49. Holy Communion may be distributed by intinction in the following manner: "the communicant, while holding the paten under the chin, approaches the priest who holds the vessel with the hosts and at whose side stands the minister holding the chalice. The priest takes the host, intincts the particle into the chalice and, showing it, says: 'The Body and Blood of Christ.' The communicant responds, 'Amen,' and receives the Sacrament on the tongue from the priest. Afterwards, the communicant returns to his or her place." (53)
50. The communicant, including the extraordinary minister, is never allowed to self-communicate, even by means of intinction. Communion under either form, bread or wine, must always be given by an ordinary or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.
The reason for no self-intinction is the communicant should receive the Body and Blood of Christ as coming from Christ Himself, thereby by the ordained. Extraordinary ministers of Communion aid the ordained ministers, but are not apart from the community itself. The extraordinary ministers of Communion cannot self-intinct either, but may distribute Communion by intinction.
The practice of intinction at St. Peter Roman Catholic Church adheres to the allowance of the reception of the Eucharist under both species that is fostered by the USCCB and the local ordinary. Those who wish to receive the Sacred Host alone have the right to do so and we here at St. Peters readily pick up that indication. Currently, as presented in liturgical law, to receive from the chalice is not a "right". The option to receive under both species is encouraged. How that is to be offered is clearly outlined in the GIRM: Either the cup or by intinction. Here, the pastoral team in the year 2000 chose intinction as our norm of receiving both species.
