Changes and Blessings

Dear Parishioners,

This is the time of the year for changes. As you know, our deacon, Steve House, will be leaving to serve at St. Mary’s in Annapolis, and our music director, Jay Klapka, is retiring after a long career. They will be very much missed. However, the Lord has blessed us and given us two replacements. Deacon Howard Klohr and his wife, Sandy, will be joining us on July 1st. Deacon Howard was just ordained, has lived in Pasadena the last 30 years, is the father of 3 grown daughters and a grandfather of three. Our new Director of Music is Robert Henry and has served as an organist/music director for the past 21 years in different churches in the Archdiocese. I am pleased to welcome both of them on board.

While I am not a fan of modern technology and am frequently frustrated by my computer and the never ending changes, I cannot live without my smart phone. I so much appreciate the information I can get and the tasks it will do for me. Today, we can do so much more with it and all the other labor saving devices on the market, that we are losing the virtue of patience. Our consumerist culture brainwashes us to expect almost instant, visible results. But that’s not how God works. In the Gospel (Mk 4:26–34), Jesus uses the image of the farmer and the seed. It takes a good while for all the seeds planted to grow and become the harvest. It took 600 years for God to plant the seed with Abraham and bring it to fruition in Moses, and another 1200 years to grow into the incarnation of Jesus. Now there are over 1 billion Catholics in the world!

We have had the seed of God’s love planted in us at baptism and are called to grow in holiness. But that takes time—actually a whole lifetime. And so we must be patient with ourselves as we grow. We will make mistakes along the way, so we must be patient with ourselves, because God is patient with us. As Mother Theresa used to say, “God doesn’t ask us to be successful; he asks us to be faithful.”

Fr. Carl

Feast of Corpus Christi

Dear Parishioners,

I was driving to church a couple of weeks ago when my car was hit on Richie Highway. It was totaled, and we had to get a new car. This is what I feared about the trip from Annapolis. So, I am relieved that with my reassignment, I won’t have to regularly do the trip. But the accident also brought home to me God’s protection. Had the car hit my car a couple of feet further to the front, my door would have been hit, and who knows what injury would have occurred. As it was, I was thankfully not injured.  
 
God’s protection and presence in my life is a source of goodness and holiness that I readily acknowledge and seek out. This is a reflection of my faith. Today we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi. This Solemnity recognizes the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It is his body and blood, soul and divinity. It dates back to 1264 and Pope Urban IV, under the influence of St. Juliana of Mount Cornillon, Belgium, a sister who had great devotion to the Eucharist and St. Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian. The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist means that we believe that Christ is truly present, and as we consume the Eucharist, Christ comes to be present in our body, mind, and spirit. The Eucharist is significantly described by the Vatican II Council as the source and summit of our faith. Christ is therefore present in the world around us and in ourselves, having partaken of the Eucharist. We live in him and he in us, in him we have our being. Let us therefore be aware of his true presence and be open to the fruits of his presence and thankful for its benefits.

Blessings,
Deacon Steve

Part Of The Family

Dear Parishioners, 

In last week’s bulletin, Deacon Steve announced that he was being reassigned to St. Mary’s in Annapolis, effective July 1, 2021. While it is sad to see him go, it will be a relief for him and his wife, Rochelle, to serve in a parish much closer to their home. Deacon Steve has been a tremendous help to the parish and me personally. St. Mary’s is getting a choice blessing with him and his wife. We wish them all the best. 

This weekend, we celebrate Trinity Sunday and look to this central mystery of our faith. It’s all about God’s family—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who live in an eternal relationship and community of mutual love and support. It’s a community like no other, for as you travel about, you find many lovely communities. However, the nicest are usually gated to keep out unwanted visitors. The Holy Trinity is an open community where all are welcome. When we were baptized, we were welcomed into this community and given membership privileges to dine with the Trinity at Mass and socialize and converse with them in prayer. At the same time, we are expected to reflect their behavior of love both towards God and neighbor.

May we always strive to make the Trinity proud to call us part of the family.

Fr. Carl

Farewell from Deacon Steve

Dear Parishioners,

It is with sadness that I report that I will be leaving St. Jane Frances Parish in July. I have been reassigned to St. Mary’s Parish in Annapolis, effective July 1st. This past December, 2020, I was asked if I would be interested in joining the staff at St. Mary’s. Because I live in Annapolis, it was an opportunity that was hard to turn down. I went through the process for clergy to be reassigned, and I recently received a letter from Archbishop Lori indicating my change in assignment. 

I have to admit that the drive from Annapolis for St. Jane Frances for activities and Mass can be stressful and tiring. I welcome the loss of an hour trip to make an evening meeting, but I also will mourn the loss of the opportunity to serve the people of St. Jane Frances Parish. In my almost 5 years here, I have developed many wonderful relationships. It has been a pleasure to serve the community. It has been a pastoral assignment that I have enjoyed. I have grown as a deacon through the many communion services, Grief ministry meetings, Marriage prep, Men’s ministry, Adoration, days at NCEON, RCIA and ME time presentations, homilies, baptisms, weddings, and funerals. 

My love of the deaconate comes from the opportunity it gives me to be involved with people and share Christ with them. I thank the staff—Gina, Tracey, Melissa, and Claire—for their dedication and help over these years. I want to especially thank Fr. Carl for his leadership, support, and openness to my activities. I wish also to apologize for my shortcomings and for anything offensive I may have said or done. I keep a prayer list of people for whom I pray, and on this list are several parishes where I have worked during my time as a deacon. Please know that I will also pray daily for the good people of St. Jane Frances de Chantal. Please pray for me and for our church.

Blessings,
Deacon Steve

Heaven On Earth

Dear Parishioners,

As we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus, our thoughts are lifted up to heaven. We might well wonder what it will be like. And if things are not going well in our lives, we might hope to get there soon. However, we don’t have to wait until death to experience heaven. As a matter of fact, every time we come to church and participate in Mass we are joined to the heavenly wedding feast of the Lamb through Holy Communion. Furthermore, we are even more deeply connected to Jesus as we practice the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. And the more we grow in those virtues, the greater our sharing now in the prize of heaven despite our earthly problems.

Fr. Carl

Hail Mary, Full Of Grace

Dear Parishioners, 

May is Mary’s month. The weather has been pleasant, sunny, and warm. I imagine it to be like Mary’s disposition. When I think of Mary, I recall her “Yes” to the angel of God. Yes to being the mother of our Lord. Yes to a life she was probably not expecting. Yes to a major role in the history of the world. Yes to her contribution to the life of her son. Mary’s humanity was given freely to Jesus. His love and mercy, his self-giving spirit, his obedience to the Father—all these reflect also the disposition of his mother. 

How can we judge our own “Yes” in faith compared to Mary’s? I have said yes to marriage, probably not really knowing what I was getting into. I said yes to having kids, again not knowing the full life-changing decision that would be. I was ignorant but hopeful, willing to take the risk tempered by optimism. I said yes to the deaconate, not really knowing how I would be changed by the journey but open to God’s hand in my life. These pale to the enormity of Mary’s yes. Her yes further opened the door to God’s intervention and revelation in this world. Her yes was not the whole of it, but it began the revelation of God in earnest. 

The birth of Christ was given a place, a time, a family and a person in Mary. Like the gears of a huge clock turning through the years, churning through the centuries, Mary’s yes was the clock striking the significant hour that resounded through the universe. God’s plan was made real. It stood on the simple yes of a very young woman whose assent flung open the movement of God’s goodness and love. The spirit was released and rested upon her, sending grace into her life in a way not seen before. Mary, Mother of God, how can we thank you, how can we love you, how can we adore you enough? This month of Mary, let us contemplate the ways we can fashion our yes to God after hers. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Blessings,
Deacon Steve

 

“Never be afraid of loving Mary too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.”
- St. Maximilian Kolbe

No “Free Lunch”

Dear Parishioners,

This past weekend, a number of our children made their first Holy Communion, receiving Jesus’ body and blood, soul and divinity for the very first time. And I tried to impress upon them and their parents the
importance of this sacrament. Of the seven, it is the only one we call the “Blessed Sacrament,” because this food doesn’t just become a part of us. We become a part of it and become one with Jesus and the other members of the Church. We enter into a common union, and strengthen it by our prayers and sacrifices. 

This weekend it is fitting that Jesus refers to himself as the vine and ourselves as the branches. The vine carries the nourishment for the branches and keeps them alive so that they can provide fruit. The branches depend on the vine, for without it, they cannot produce fruit. As branches of the vine, Jesus nourishes us with the Eucharist, expecting us to bear the fruit of obedience and love of God as well as love of neighbor.

With this great privilege of being in communion with Jesus and the Church comes the responsibility of being fruitful Catholics. Jesus refers to the unfruitful branches as withered and useless, and fit only to be thrown into the fire and burnt. That’s a wake up call for all of us and a reminder that there’s no such thing as a “free lunch.” However, great things await those who live in God’s words and bear much fruit, for they truly become Jesus’ disciples.

Fr. Carl