A year in faith passed

After a couple of weekends away, I'm back to the routine of words which I hope may inspire.  This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King, and as it so happens, we also are able to begin using the bell in this parish once again (after a silence which has lasted throughout the summer, but which has also lasted in some respects for the better part of twenty years).  What wonderful reasons for a celebration of our patronal feast.

Read on or listen in for more reasons for this celebration.

Happy Feast Day!

Can you believe that Advent begins next Sunday!  That means that today is a special day of celebration for all of us who are parishioners at Christ the King.  The Solemnity which we are celebrating today is observed all over the world, and that means that all Catholics are invited to this party.

Throughout the year, the scriptures remind us that in Jesus, God came to live among us.  In the person of Jesus, God came to show us his tender love for us.  In Jesus, God reminds us each time we pray that this tender love is gentle and kind.  Because God loves us, we too must return his love by loving others.  In fact, when the time for judgement comes, the criteria he will use depends on whether we have loved: whether we have recognized Him in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger or the person in need, and responded to His need.

As we celebrate our Feast Day today, I for one am mindful of all those who have helped to build this parish into the place of welcome we have today.  Each act of kindness that has ever welcomed a stranger within these walls has helped us to grow.  Each word of comfort or encouragement that has ever been uttered to a nervous bride or groom waiting for their wedding to begin has expressed God’s loving welcome.  Each prayer uttered within these walls for the sake of someone who needed assistance in whatever way has brought some measure of comfort to someone who needed it most. 

The work of building a community of faith continues every day.  It can’t be done by one person, or even by a few.  Everyone who comes through our doors has a gift to offer.  A few years ago, we conducted a survey of our parishioners and invited them to tell us about the ways that they are involved in parish life, or how they would like to be involved.  We are ready to repeat this process within the coming two weeks.  In your bulletins this weekend, you will find copies of the parish survey.  We ask that you fill it in and return it to us within the next two weeks.  If there is some way that you would like to help, or something that we can do better, please let us know.

Our parish’s Feast Day also gives us the perfect occasion to thank God for the talents of those who have been working so diligently on the restoration of our bell towers.  Engineers had to plan the work, skilled labourers had to put hammers and chisels to the bricks and mortar, even the scaffolding was a work of art that demanded precision and planning to put in place.  The last bits of mortaring were completed at the end of October, and just this past week, the wiring was completed so that the bell can now be rung.

At the end of this reflection, we will rededicate the bell, and ask God to watch over us with the same tender love he speaks of in the first reading of this liturgy.  Beginning this evening at 6:00pm, the bell will chime for the Angelus once again: something it hasn’t done for far too long.  The Angelus bell will also ring at noon every day, beginning tomorrow.  In the coming weeks, other reasons for the bell to sing out will also be added, each with its own explanation provided so that children young and old may more deeply appreciate the rich history that bells have held in the practice of our faith.

Next week, we begin a new liturgical year.  This week, we give thanks for all that has been, even as we look forward in hope to all that is yet to come.