South Kent Roman Catholic Family of Parishes

The local emergency shelter service location is often full and many people across C-K find themselves living on the street. NeighbourLink is collecting sleeping... bags to give to the unsheltered to help them through the cold days ahead. If you have a used sleeping bag(s) that is in fairly good condition and you wish to donate it, call the NeighbourLink office at 519-352-5647 Mon-Fri, 9-5 or anytime after hours to leave a message. You can also drop them off at the Mission Thrift Store on Wellington Street or at the New Life Thrift Store at Queen & Richmond Streets in Chatham during their business hours. Please share this post with your Facebook friends, co-workers, local churches, etc. Thanks! See more

Please be sure to click on the link below to send in your letter and of course keep this situation in your prayers.

November is a very special month as we honour the Saints and remember and pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Tomorrow, Monday November 2nd, Masses will be held at 7:00pm at St. Michael’s and St. Mary’s and at 6:30pm at St. Paul’s. Please come out as we gather as community in prayer for the souls of our loved ones.

Our bulletin for Sunday, November 1st, 2020

Your daily Gospel reflection... Wednesday, October 14, 2020 WEDNESDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 11:42-46 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus turns his withering critique on the ways that religious leaders fall into corruption: Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces. He also expresses this judgment in Matthew’s Gospel: All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. Phylacteries were strips of cloth inscribed with scriptural quotations. A pious Jew would wear them as a sign of devotion. Well, why not widen them, and show people how pious you are. Let them see me kneel and pray ostentatiously. Religious people and especially religious leaders can be tempted to use the law and morality as a means of inflating the ego. Now, what all of this does is to keep one locked in the prison of his own egotism. This sort of religious person has not escaped from himself in order to explore the infinite mystery of God; he is locked in a little, cramped prison, looking at himself. To be great is to be a servant: lowly, simple, often forgotten. Eschew marks of respect; don’t seek them. Be satisfied with doing your work on behalf of God’s kingdom, whatever it is. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Sunday, November 1, 2020 SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS... MATTHEW 5:1-12A Friends, today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. Many who have stood in the presence of the Gothic rose windowsbrightly fashioned with images of the saintshave heard the windows sing. The Lord Jesus says, Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it, and this wonderful loss of self happens when we listen to the singing of the rose window. The rose is also an evocative symbol of what the spiritual masters refer to as the center. At the center is a depiction of Christ. Then wheeling around the Christic core is a harmoniously arranged amalgam of medallions, images, from the lives of the saints. The medallions are often connected to one another and to the center by a series of spokes. This structured harmony is intended to be a picture of the well-ordered soul. When the divine power is the uncompromised center of our livesas it is for the saintsthen the myriad energies of our soulsintellectual, moral, physical, emotional, sexualtend to fall into harmony around it. When Christ is the ground of the soul, the soul finds peace, order and beauty. Make God’s will the center of your concerns, and your proximate needs, desires and longings will tend to find their place. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Tuesday, October 13, 2020 TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 11:37-41 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus declares the value of almsgiving: "As to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you." Almsgiving is valuable because we’re members of a Mystical Bodywe’re implicated in each other. I can never say that your suffering is not mine or that your neediness is not mine. All of us are co-implicated. We’re responsible for each other, and giving alms is a very concrete way to acknowledge that. When we share gifts or charity with those in need, we’re acknowledging the fact that we’re not in this alone, that the things that we own are meant for others. Almsgiving is also tied to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, which every Catholic is obligated to practice every day. Numerous spiritual masters have witnessed that belief in God is strengthened not so much from intellectual effort as from moral action. When a man asked the English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins what he must do in order to believe, Hopkins replied, "Give alms."As you love through tangible acts, you will come to believe more deeply and to enter more fully into friendship with God. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Friday, October 30, 2020 FRIDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 14:1-6 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus heals a man on the sabbath, thus demonstrating his authority over the Law. The Jesus portrayed in the Gospels consistently speaks and acts in the very person of Yahweh, the God of Israel. On another occasion, defending his disciples against the charge of picking grain on the sabbath, Jesus reminds his interlocutors that priests serving in the temple can, under certain circumstances, violate the sabbath and still remain innocent; then he adds with breathtaking laconicism, "I say to you, something greater than the temple is here." The only one who could reasonably claim to be "greater" than the temple would be the one who was worshiped in the temple. In a number of places in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus states, "You have heard it said . . . but I say . . . " This almost casual dismissal of the Torah, the revelation given by Yahweh to Moses himself and hence the court of final appeal to any pious Jew, would have overwhelmed any first-century Jew. Once more, the only one who could legitimately overrule the Torah with such insouciance would be the one who was himself the author of the Torah. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

God has given us so many gifts through creation. We are all connected!

Your daily Gospel reflection... Monday, October 12, 2020 MONDAY OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 11:29-32 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the crowd that no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah, a vague hint of his Resurrection. The Resurrection means that Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed throughout his public life to be speaking and acting in the very person of God, and who was brutally put to death by Roman executioners, rose bodily from the dead. One implication of the Resurrection is that we have a real advocate in heaven. The biblical imagination on this score is not Greekthat is to say, not marked by sharp dualisms of matter and spirit. The great hope of Israel is not a jailbreak, not an escape from this world, but precisely the coming together of heaven and earth. The bodily Resurrection of Jesusas the first fruits of those who have fallen asleepis the great sign that the two orders are coming together. A body that can be touched and that can consume baked fish has found its way into the realm of heaven. And thus bodies are not finally alien to God. We have indeed an Advocate in the heavenly places. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Thursday, October 29, 2020 THURSDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 13:31-35 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus compares himself to a mother hen who longs to gather her chicks under her wing. As the theologian N.T. Wright points out, this is much more than a sentimental image. It refers to the gesture of a hen when fire is sweeping through the barn. In order to protect her chicks, she will sacrifice herself, gathering them under her wing and using her own body as a shield. On the cross, Jesus used, as it were, his own sacrificed body as a shield, taking the full force of the world’s hatred and violence. He entered into close quarters with sin (because that’s where we sinners are found) and allowed the heat and fury of sin to overwhelm him, even as he protected us. With this metaphor in mind, we can see, with special clarity, why the first Christians associated the crucified Jesus with the suffering servant of Isaiah. By enduring the pain of the cross, Jesus did indeed bear our sins; by his stripes we were indeed healed. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Sunday, October 11, 2020 TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME... MATTHEW 22:1-14 Friends, today’s Gospel likens the kingdom of God to a king who gives a wedding feast for his son. The biblical authors couldn’t find a more apt metaphor for the coming together of divinity and humanity than a wedding banquet. God and humanity are married, and they are surrounded by joy, peace, celebration, and good food. What was Jesus’ strategy? Open table-fellowship; outreach to all, to the righteous and the unrighteous, to the healthy and the sick, to the mainstream and the marginalized. Here comes everybody. You don’t have to be good to receive God’s grace; that’s why they call it "grace." But then something puzzling emerges. When the king comes to welcome his guests, he finds someone not properly dressed: "The king said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’" It was customary at the time (as it still is) for people to come to a wedding dressed up. The play here is between grace and works. We can refuse the invitation altogether, or we can refuse the transformation that should follow from grace. We have to cooperate with grace, donning the wedding garment of love, forgiveness, peace, and nonviolence. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Wednesday, October 28, 2020 FEAST OF SAINTS SIMON AND JUDE, APOSTLES... LUKE 6:12-16 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus chooses the Twelve, whom he names Apostles. In the apse of the church of San Clemente in Rome, there is a gorgeous twelfth-century mosaic, which gives visual expression to the call of the Twelve. At the center of the composition is the crucified Jesus. Surrounding the cross are twelve doves, symbolizing the Apostles who would fly around the world with the message of salvation. No biblical figure is ever given an experience of God without receiving, at the same time, a commission. Moses spies the burning bush, hears the sacred name of Yahweh, and is then told to go back to Egypt to liberate his people; Isaiah enjoys an encounter with God amidst the splendor of the temple liturgy and is then sent to preach; Saul is overwhelmed by the luminosity of the risen Jesus and is subsequently called to apostleship. Now the Apostles are not simply a distant memory; rather, they live on through what we call the apostolic succession. Therefore, the apostolicity of the Church is our guarantee that we are, despite many developments and changes across the centuries, still preserving the faith that was first kindled in that company of Jesus’ friends. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Saturday, October 10, 2020 SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 11:27-28 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus transforms a woman’s blessing of his mother into a blessing of those who obey God’s word. Jesus turned upside-down many of the social conventions of his time because he was so concerned to place the instantiation of the kingdom of God first in the minds of his followers. Among first-century Jews, the family was of paramount importance. An enthusiastic disciple of Jesus took this for granted when she shouted out, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed." But Jesus dramatically relativized the family in responding, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." He was insisting that the new community of the kingdom is more important than even the most revered social system. When we give the family a disproportionate importance it becomes in short order dysfunctional. Another time, a prospective disciple said that he was willing to follow Jesus but first begged permission to bury his father. But Jesus, having none of it, responded in a manner that undoubtedly scandalized him: "Let the dead bury the dead." Once again, he was insisting that God’s kingdom is of paramount importance. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Have you heard of Carlo Acutis who will be declared Blessed on Oct 10? He is a real life, modern day teenager whose story reminds us of how we should all strive to be a Saint!

Your daily Gospel reflection... Friday, October 9, 2020 FRIDAY OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 11:15-26 Friends, in today’s Gospel we learn of a person possessed by a demon. Jesus meets the man and drives out the demon, but then is immediately accused of being in league with Satan. Some of the witnesses said, "By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons." Jesus’ response is wonderful in its logic and laconicism: "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?" The demonic power is always one of scattering. It breaks up communion. But Jesus, as always, is the voice of communio, of one bringing things back together. Think back to Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand. Facing a large, hungry crowd, his disciples beg him to "dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." But Jesus answers, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." Whatever drives the Church apart is an echo of this "dismiss the crowds" impulse, and a reminder of the demonic tendency to divide. In times of trial and threat, this is a very common instinct. We blame, attack, break up, and disperse. But Jesus is right: "There is no need for them to go away." Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Our God is Creator, Lover, and Keeper. Don’t ever forget how much you are loved and cherished by Him!

Your daily Gospel reflection... Thursday, October 8, 2020 THURSDAY OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 11:5-13 Friends, our Gospel offers a wonderful promise of answered prayer: And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Petitionary prayer is one of the most fundamental ways that we raise our minds and hearts to God. It is also the commonest form of prayer in the Bible. Every major Scriptural characterAbraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, Ezra, Nehemiah, Peter, James, Paul, and Johnall pray in this way; they all ask God for things. There is something, of course, primal and elemental about this kind of prayer: O God, please help me! O Lord, save my child! If we could place a net capable of catching prayers as they waft their way to heaven from hospitals and churches, we would corral millions upon millions of them. Finally, the paradigmatic prayer that Jesus taught usthe Our Fatheris nothing but a series of petitions, and Jesus urged his followers, again and again, to persevere in prayer. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Wednesday, October 7, 2020 MEMORIAL OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY... LUKE 11:1-4 Friends, our Gospel today gives us an opportunity to reflect on the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer for the Christian journey. I want to consider three of the prayer’s petitions. "Father, hallowed be your name." We’re not implying that God should make his name holy (as though it isn’t); we’re praying that we might make it holy for us, that God might be honored above all. Everything else in the spiritual life flows from this prioritization. "Your Kingdom come." God’s kingdom refers to God’s way of ordering things. Jesus’ teaching and his manner of life give us a very good idea of what this kingdom would look like: peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, healing, walking the path of compassion. "Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us." How central to the teaching of Jesus is forgiveness. And how central to the suffering of the world is the incapacity to forgive, both on the smallest, most intimate level and on the grandest, geo-political scale. How wonderful and how deeply challenging that, at the very heart of the prayer that the Son of God taught us is a petition to be given the grace to forgive. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Tuesday, October 6, 2020 TUESDAY OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 10:38-42 Friends, today’s Gospel is the account of Jesus’ visit with Martha and Mary. I have a different perspective from the standard view of balancing the active versus the contemplative life. In service of God’s way of ordering the world, Jesus allowed women into his inner circle. The story of Martha and Mary gives us a very interesting clue in this regard. Martha is in the space reserved for women: she is in the kitchen preparing the meal. But Mary is in the place reserved for men: she is sitting at the feet of the rabbi. It is the attitude of the disciple. Luke, who told this story, was a companion of Paul, and his Gospel reflects many of Paul’s themes. In Galatians, Paul famously said, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." This was very radical stuff, for these were some of the most basic social divisions of the time, and each carried a clear evaluative weight. Free men were a lot better off than slaves; Jews had huge advantages over Greeks, and males were seen as superior to females. But not anymore, in light of the kingdom of God that Jesus announced. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States

Your daily Gospel reflection... Monday, October 5, 2020 MONDAY OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME... LUKE 10:25-37 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus affirms a scholar’s identification of the greatest commandment: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. All of religion is finally about awakening the deepest desire of the heart and directing it toward God; it is about the ordering of love toward that which is most worthy of love. But, Jesus says, a necessary implication of this love of God is compassion for one’s fellow human beings. Why are the two commandments so tightly linked? The best response is the simplest: because of who Jesus is. Christ is not simply a human being, and he is not simply God; rather, he is the God-man, the one in whose person divinity and humanity meet. Therefore, it is finally impossible to love him as God without loving the humanity that he has, in his own person, embraced. Those who know Christ Jesus, fully divine and fully human, realize that the love of God necessarily draws us to a love for the human race. They grasp the logical consistency and spiritual integrity of the greatest commandment. Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, PO Box 170, Des Plaines, IL 60016, United States