From the desk of Fr. Barry: Happy Easter everyone! This is my ultimate favorite time of year, and I have to say this is the most unusual Holy Week any of us have ever celebrated. Our Masses are being brought to us through the television, radio, or the internet. Distance is the focus of our actions. Trying to contain and stop the spread of this vicious virus, Covid 19 is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. With it has brought a time of anxiety for some, a time of doubt, a time of unsureness for others, and a time that some have gotten depressed. But through it all, the message stays the same. CHRIST HAS RISEN! During these last 40 days we have focused on our relationship with Jesus. We have journeyed in private or public settings, developing a closer relationship with a God who loves us so much he sent his only begotten Son to redeem us. Taking on our sin, our unworthiness, or brokenness, our humanity to unite us in a way that we had never been united before. And this was all done out of LOVE! It was through his example that we are able to see what an authentic, faithful life looks like.It was this journey that has allowed us to mirror the life of Jesus Christ. How did we do? Did we spend time contemplating the mysteries of the Cross? Did you attend the Stations and try to unite Christ’s suffering within us? Did we talk to him more? Did we succeed in adding or deleting something from our lives that we didn’t have before these 40 days? If the answer is yes, then the Holy Season served you well! If the answer is somewhat, I tried, or a flat out no; there is still good news! It’s not over! We continue in this Holy Season of Easter for eight more weeks, ending with Pentecost Sunday on May 31st. After all the Easter basket goodies have been eaten up, the new clothes the kids received maybe already have holes in them, or the dyed eggs are all gone... Jesus is still making himself present and we are still being guided by the Holy Spirit. This Sunday, may we see Easter as a time of renewal. May we see it as a time to continue good habits while turning away from those that were bad. May we see that the sacrifice of Our Lord and Savior was for each of us, knowing that we are not perfect but we strive to imitate Christ and be holy people. May we see that the world needs the kindness, compassion, forgiveness and love from our Lord, which ultimately is given to us from him. Now the question remains, do we keep it, hold on to it, and never let it go? Or will we pass it on and make this world the world God wants it to be! Blessings for a joyous and Happy Easter, Fr. Barry
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Mass will be live-streamed from Christ the King on Facebook * April 6, 7 & 8, 2020
Please check parish website: ctkspencer.net as the Marshfield Deanery Catholic Priests will be celebrating Holy Thursday Mass / Good Friday Service and Holy Saturday Mass, together and these will be lived streamed, from Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church. EASTER SUNDAY OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD will be live streamed from our Facebook page; Christ the King Spencer April 12, 2020 * 10 a.m. Mass Effective July 1, 2020, Judy Drechsler will retire after 17 years of faithful service to the parish. This opens the secretarial position with the addition of adding finance tasks. If you or anyone you know would be interested in this job opening, please go to parish website: ctkspencer.net for a complete job description and details on how to submit your resume by deadline of May 1, 2020. From the Desk of Fr. Barry: Although this will be heard by some of you, I thought I would include my homily here so those who don’t have internet could see it. Happy Palm Sunday and remember to pick up your palms in Church Sunday from 11am to 2pm. Sorry for the punctuation but wanted to fit it all on one page. It seems like we were just here. Oh, I don’t mean in this church. I mean at the base of a hill, a lonely hill, a daunting hill. Here we are ... looking up at a hill we’d rather not climb. In fact, it’s a hill we would probably trade anything and everything to NOT have to walk up. Weren’t we just here? Not that long ago we celebrated another Easter ... another celebration of joy and family and new life. A celebration of God’s great love for us, perfectly shown through the life and person of Jesus ... a life that led him up this same hill. And here we stand again. Surrounded in different circumstanc- es, but still experiencing Jesus once again reaching out to us ... asking us to make the journey with him. Weren’t we just here? What happened? Wasn’t everything supposed to be different? Wasn’t Easter sup- posed to have changed everything? Are we really being asked to climb this hill again? And next year? And the year after that? And the one after that? My friends, the reason we are standing at the foot of this hill once again is because the journey we are about to take this week is not a one-time thing. It certainly was for Jesus. That much is true. Jesus gave his life on that hill once and for all and for all-time. This singular act of love changed absolutely everything and unleashed on this world a power beyond our wildest imagination. And while this act might have been singular for Jesus, our participation in this act is anything but. You see, what we are about to enter into this holiest of weeks is nothing short of the pattern of each and every human life – a template for the journey each human being makes, but one that has special meaning for the followers of Jesus. And just because we are confined to our homes, that doesn’t mean we are to sit back and do noth- ing. To forget about Church and what this Holy Season means to each of us. It’s a time to be involved, a time to bond closer to our families, but importantly to a God that gave everything to us. We take this journey knowing that there will be many times throughout our lives ... in some cases daily ... in which we will once again find ourselves at the bottom of this hill ... facing some sort of difficulty, some sort of heartache, some sort of challenge, some sort of tragedy ...you could even say we are in that time right now. And Jesus will ask us once again to follow in the steps he first made two thousand years ago. And we are asked not to simply try to avoid the challenges in our paths, but to embrace them. We are asked not to try to bury our sorrow but to work through the pain. We are asked not to give up in the face of disappointment but to con- tinue placing our feet directly in Jesus’ footsteps. And we are asked not to ignore our sin, or deny our sin, but to bring it to the light, take responsibility for it, and allow the healing love of God to bring about some- thing beautiful from the ashes of it. We do so not because we don’t have a choice, but precisely because we do. We do so because we believe, in faith, that the top of the hill is not the end of the story, the pain and suffering are not the end of the story, the sorrow and loneliness are not the end of the story. And that my dear friends gives us courage – courage to accept our imperfect lives that don’t always work out as we had planned, accept a world that sometimes hurts us rather than heals us, accept uncertainty rather than know every step and every outcome. That’s what this week is all about ... taking Jesus’ hand ... and letting him take ours ... and walking with him up this lonely hill together. Doing so is an act of faith. Doing so is an act of trust. Doing so is an act of love. May we have the courage to make this journey this Holy Week with the Lord ... but not just this week, or this season, but every single day ... every time we find ourselves in need of another Easter morning. Blessings, Fr. Barry Have you been receiving our emails? A parish email group has been recently created. If you have email but have not received our messages, please check your spam folder, if the emails are not present, please contact the parish office to update your information so that it includes your email address. You will be added to the parish email group at that time. Or send Deb Mlsna an email and she can add you - her address is [email protected] From the Desk of Fr. Barry: My heart is broken over what is transpiring as of late. When I was ordained, I took my responsibilities very seriously, bringing the Sacraments to each of you is not only my responsibility but is also my passion and brings me much joy. With what has been man- dated by the State and also reiterated by Bishop Callahan, I wanted each of you to know what will transpire over the next few months and how we are responding here at Christ the King. With the closure of all schools, restaurant dining rooms, bars and gatherings of over 10 people, we have had to suspend Masses until further notice. At this point we don’t know how long that will be, but we are expecting further out than May. So here is what to expect at Christ the King in the coming months:
Fr. Barry Televised Mass Broadcast Schedule
Currently, the Televised Mass is broadcast on the following channels:
Pope Francis announced on March 18 a call to join with an initiative of the Italian bishops, to pray the Rosary all together at 9 pm Rome time, on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, March 19.
People from many countries joined in, making this Rosary a worldwide plea for the end of the pandemic. Italy on March 19 surpassed the number of deaths reported in China. Before praying the Rosary, which was live-streamed from the Vatican, the Holy Father offered this message, and prayer: Read More... From the desk of Fr. Barry:
Before we get into the readings from this weekend, First, thank you! I wanted to give you a quick update on the sale of the current rectory. It did indeed sell and we have closed on the property netting $72,227! With the $50,000 from the Knights of Columbus, donations of $46,675 ... these total $168,902. We will use the $80,000 from our diocese savings account to cover the remaining balance ($48,000 has already been pledged to replenish this over the next 3 years). This leaves us being able to pay for the rectory/office/maintenance shop in full. This does not include appliances, office furniture for the secretary (my office furniture has been donated by a parishioner from St. John’s), window treatments, pavement for the walkway and driveway, permits, gas and electric hook-up fees, or landscaping. I am amazed and blessed by the generous hearts of those of you who have given so graciously and for the sacrifices you have made in making this a reality. We are also blessed for all the prayers from those who were not able to give. Without those prayers we would not be where we are today. We have not reached our goal of 200 families yet, but I am confident that with those donations we will reach 100% of our goal to cover the remaining costs by the time construction is completed. Those of us of a certain age ... and maybe some younger people who enjoy musical theater, will remember the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, from the 1950s, based on a book by James Michener. It’s about U.S. troops stationed on an island during World War II. As with all musicals there are many songs throughout the play and/or film ... some romantic ballads, some upbeat numbers, a silly song or two ... the usual assortment. But one song really stands out as best expressing the heart of the story. It is called “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught.” In this song, a soldier struggling with feelings for a native girl, sings about prejudice ... and how we often grow up to have the same attitudes as the people most important to us ... especially our parents. It’s a touching and painful song, but it reveals some deep truths about why we often think the way we think. Could someone’s sin make another person blind? You bet. But God is NOT responsible for it. He is not the cause of it. We are. We take our own harmful attitudes, our own sinful thoughts, our own hatred and bitterness and cynicism and greed and dishonesty and we pass it on to others. To sons and daughters. To spouses. To siblings. To friends. To neighbors. To co-workers. Maybe not always intentionally. Maybe without us even being aware that we are doing it. But many of us ... sadly ... do it nonetheless. Maybe all of us to one degree or another. And the cycle continues. Our own blindness becomes someone else’s blindness. And so, as we travel through Lent, as we take a deep look within ourselves, as we strive to name and root out our sin ... let’s be sure to see our “blindness” as something that needs to be healed also ... see our “blindness” as something that doesn’t just harm ourselves but harms others. In other words, let’s sincerely acknowledge our lack of sight ... our harmful thoughts and attitudes and prejudices ... and ask God to help us see more clearly ... ask our loving God to put clay on our eyes, so that we can see and think and act more like him. And in doing so, may we start carefully teaching others by word and deed ... helping them see more clearly too. The truth is ... if we can pass on blindness to one another, we certainly can pass on sight too. Be careful ... we might just change some hearts and thereby change the world. Now to our Gospel passage, where John gives us an account of the man born blind. The question is asked “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The answer of course from Jesus is neither sinned to cause this. Blessings during your Lenten journey my friends! Fr. Barry Catholic broadcasting networks such as EWTN and Catholic TV make it possible to watch Mass on a daily basis through their YouTube channels. This allows the homebound and sick, or even non-Catholics curious about the Mass, to participate in the Holy Sacrifice from anywhere in the world. They can view it from their computer, TV, or phone, and engage spirituality in the Mass being celebrated elsewhere. You can also view a pre-recorded video of one on the diocesan YouTube channel, or broadcasted on TV at the following times:
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MASS SCHEDULE
Tuesday - Friday: 8:00 AM Saturday: 4:00 PM Sunday: 8:00 AM & 10:00 AM RECONCILIATION
Saturday: 3:15 - 3:45 PM OFFICE HOURS
Monday - Thursday: 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM Friday: 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM Stay Connected with Our ParishWelcome from Our PastorWelcome to Christ the King Catholic Church! Ever since 1938 this parish has been assisting souls in their quest for deeper union with God. Our mission statement is essentially found in the stained glass window above the main altar: “For Christ our King.” Insofar as God made us and we belong to Him, we have come to... Read More
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