Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, The Lord is Risen, Alleluia! He has Risen indeed, Alleluia! On behalf of Deacon Gene Favinger and our Rectory Staff, I extend to you and your families sincere and joyful Easter blessings! We also welcome with great joy the newest members of the Church and of our OLC Parish Family: Katie Kish, Wendy Nafe, Travis Oswald, and Andrew Rodrígues.
On this Day that the Lord has made, let us truly rejoice and be glad, for the tomb is empty and Jesus Christ, Our Lord is truly Risen. We who are baptized into his death have been raised with Him and are called to proclaim the Good News that everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins through His Name. Christ, our Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed. Let us feast with joy in the Lord and find in the Banquet of the Eucharist in His Word and Sacrament the strength to bear faithful witness to His Resurrection! In Christ’s Peace, Fr. O’Neill
3-24-24
“Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!” Mk. 11:8-10
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, As we embark on this Holy Week, we seek to accompany our Lord, Jesus Christ, as He journeyed to complete His mission, the mission of our salvation. In our walk with Him this week, we look to Him for strength in the midst of our fears, in our prayers and sacrifices, and in our efforts to serve our neighbor. May the Crucified One, by whose stripes we are healed and who emptied Himself for our sake, lift us up with Him in the New Life of the Resurrection promised to us and that even now we share in! May this ancient sermon from St. Andrew of Crete be a source of inspiration for our reflection on this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, which inaugurates this Holy Week. And may The Lord of Glory fill your hearts with His grace and blessings this Holy Week and Easter! In Christ’s Peace, Fr. O’Neill
From a sermon by Saint Andrew of Crete, bishop (Oratio 9 in ramos palmarum: PG 97, 990-994) Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel. “Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today he returns from Bethany and proceeds of his own free will toward his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority, and power, and every other name that can be named, now comes of his own free will to make his journey to Jerusalem. He comes without pomp or ostentation. As the psalmist says: He will not dispute or raise his voice to make it heard in the streets. He will be meek and humble, and he will make his entry in simplicity. Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward Jerusalem, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us. In his humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world and he is glad that he became so humble for our sake, glad that he came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to himself. And even though we are told that he has now ascended above the highest heavens—the proof, surely, of his power and godhead—his love for man will never rest until he has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with his own in heaven. So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel.
3-17-24
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, We begin Passiontide with this 5th Sunday of Lent, meaning that we are at the threshold of Holy Week. Our readings begin now to focus more on the events leading up to Jesus’ passion. Today, our Lord uses the image of a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying as a sign of His own death leading to new life in the resurrection.
He calls us as His disciples to do the same. Here is a reflection that echoes that desire to die to self so that the new life in Christ might come to fruition, based on a personal experience of God’s grace and loving providence, written by St. Patrick in the 5th Century, from his Confessions.
He desires to be “spent” for the people of Ireland who once enslaved him and now desires their eternal salvation in Christ: “If I am worthy, I am ready also to give up my life without hesitation and most willingly, for his name. I want to spend myself in that country, even in death, if the Lord should grant me this favor. I am deeply in his debt, for he gave me the great grace that through me many peoples should be reborn in God, and then made perfect by confirmation and everywhere among them clergy ordained for a people so recently coming to believe, one people gathered by the Lord from the ends of the earth.
As God had prophesied of old through the prophets: "The nations shall come to you from the ends of the earth, and say, 'How false are the idols made by our fathers: they are useless.”’
It is among that people that I want to wait for the promise made by him, who assuredly never tells a lie. He makes this promise in the Gospel: They shall come from the east and the west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is our faith: believers are to come from the whole world.” -St. Patrick, Confessions, ch.16 In Christ’s Peace, Fr. O’Neil
3-3-24
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, In our Gospel from John today, Jesus boldly announces to the money changers and the Jewish authorities “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”(Jn2:19). But, which understanding of His Body was He referring to? His physical Body? The Eucharist? The Mystical Body of the Church? All three!! Jesus takes this very personally!! John narrates that Jesus was referring to the temple of His Body, meaning His physical Body and a foreshadowing of His Passion, Death and Resurrection after three days. (See Jn 2:21) However, on his way to Damascus, the young Saul, the one time persecutor of the early Church, later to become St. Paul, one of the Church’s greatest saints, was literally knocked onto the ground by our Lord, who now risen and at the Father’s right hand, asks why he was persecuting Him. When Saul asks, “Who are you?”, the Lord replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (See Acts 9:4-5) Paul would later go on to develop the theology of the Mystical Body of the Church, seeing each member as a member of Christ’s Body and that each of us as a living temple of the Holy Spirit. (See 1 Cor. 3:16-17) Each one of us, then, is a temple, a “sacred space” for the Lord to dwell in within the world. We receive Him in the Eucharist and each member is fortified and enlivened by this great grace and His Presence and healing. Jesus takes our redemption literally. He identifies with us, as His living Temple, His Body, but each of us is a “mini-temple,” a member of His Body the Church. Each week, we find solace, refreshment, and an encounter with our loving God in the sacred space of our church here at Our Lady of Consolation during our Sunday worship, our other celebrations, and personal prayer time. May the Lord, present within us and nourishing us in the Real Presence of the Eucharist, form us into that sacred space for others, as His instruments and “mini-temples,” so that others may find solace, refreshment, and an encounter with God through His Presence to them through us in the midst of the rat race of their daily lives. In what ways can we take personally the temple cleansing or Lenten “spring cleaning” that God is inviting us to do during this holy season to better encounter Him within us and become people in whom others can meet the compassionate and loving Christ dwelling within us? In Christ’s Peace, Fr. O’Neill
2-25-24
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Everyone can look back over their lives and identify key milestones in their life experience: graduations, embarking on a career, getting married, becoming a parent, achieving certain goals and certainly on a spiritual level, we reach certain milestones, too. Modern Scripture scholars have identified literary milestones throughout the Old and New Testaments, including the Gospels. In particular, much emphasis has been placed on the importance of “narrative of placement”: that is, the location of a particular episode in the Gospel and its intended impact with respect to our discipleship and our salvation. Today’s passage from Mark recounts his version of the Transfiguration, which is found in the other Gospels, with slightly different details, and it occurs in the 9th chapter, a little past the mid-point of the Gospel. Most of Mark’s Gospel is not only about revealing to us who Jesus is, but about the disciples’ (and our) ability to come to see who He is as we journey with them and our Lord through the Gospel narrative. The opening line of the Gospel according to Mark reads, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mk. 1:1) This describes fully who Jesus is. At the very end of the Gospel, after Jesus’ death on the Cross, the Centurion exclaims, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mk.15:39) Just seeing our Lord die on the Cross evokes the Centurion’s confession of faith and allows him to understand who Jesus really is. In chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel, which comes before today’s passage, Peter confesses that Jesus is the “Christ” (cf., Mk. 8:29b). At this halfway point of Mark’s Gospel, Peter and the disciples have it “half-right”: He’s recognized as the Christ, the Messiah, or “anointed one” of God. For them and any first century Jew, the Messiah was understood more as an earthly king, like David, who was promised by God through the prophets to deliver Israel from oppression by other foreign rulers. In the context of Jesus’ era, this would have meant someone to deliver the Jews from the oppression of the Romans. Indeed, Jesus was this Messiah of God, but much more than an earthly king or political figure or a rescuer from mere temporal oppression. He would rescue us from the oppression of sin and Satan. Rather than announce His conquest over the enemies of Israel, Jesus announces instead His Passion, Death and Resurrection three times. Before and after this part of the Gospel, Jesus cures a blind man (see Mk. 8:22-26 and 10:46-52). These healings contrast with the “blindness” of the disciples, whose inability to “see” who Jesus really is and the true meaning of His suffering and Cross. Even after sharing with them a glimpse of His glory in the Transfiguration, Jesus’ disciples still didn’t understand. Not long after that in fact, they would argue among themselves who was the greatest in the Kingdom! (See Mk. 9:33ff) Mark’s message and warning couldn’t be any clearer: Christian discipleship includes the Cross and true “transfiguration” in our lives demands transformation. The Greek word used in the Gospels for the Transfiguration is the same we use for the changes we see occurring in our natural world, especially this time of year when we transition from winter into Spring: metamorphosis. As we journey through Lent, how is our Lord calling us to be transformed, to go through the “metamorphosis” with Him? What practical, intentional and proactive change might our Lord be inviting us to open our eyes to and to allow to unfold in our lives this Lenten season? What might it cost us? Let us surrender to Him in trust, the Messiah and Son of God. In Christ’s Peace, Fr. O’Neill
2-18-24
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Sometimes, the understated, “less is more” approach can be more impactful than the dramatic and overly descriptive. St. Mark’s narrative of the temptations of Jesus in the desert are not the descriptive battle between Our Lord and Satan recounted in the other Gospels. In fact, Mark’s version is simply that, a narrative. However, that’s not to say by any means his account is any less impactful. There is a constant movement, an urgency in Mark’s Gospel that keeps things moving. Absent from the passage cited for us by the Church on this First Sunday of Lent, which every year presents the Lord entering into he desert to be tempted by the devil, are two words: “And immediately” (Mk. 1:12a). Jesus has just been baptized by John in the Jordan River. The voice of the Father from heaven proclaims Jesus as His only Beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased. (see Mk. 1:9-11) “And immediately,” Mark’s narrative continues, “the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert”, where we are told he remained for forty days to be tempted by Satan. An urgency and an intensity are very palpable when we reread this text without the omission of these two words. Why is this important? First, Jesus’ forty days of being tested is a condensing of the forty years of the Israelites’ testing in the desert. Called and sent by God to bear witness to the covenant to the world, Jesus is linked with Israel, who was given the covenant by Moses at Mt. Sinai. Secondly, Jesus’ forty days of trial links Himself to us and to every one of His disciples past, present and future. His baptism did not lead Jesus to a contemplative and peaceful experience, but rather to be tested and then to bearing public witness. Like the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea, like His own baptism in the Jordan, and like our own baptism, the testing takes place along with the witnessing. The Israelites gave witness to the One, True God before the gentiles; Jesus bore witness to the Father and the ushering in of the Kingdom before Israel and we are called to do the same in our corner of the world. St. Mark’s account may not have the dialogue between Jesus and Satan, the colorful challenges of the Devil to Our Lord to change stones into bread, or to leap from the pinnacle of the Temple or the offer of all the world’s kingdoms if He but worship before him. His is the understated, “less is more” account, but one that we can easily identify with. Mark simply recounts for us that Jesus was in the wilderness, among the wild beasts and that angels administered to Him. Is not his description of Jesus’ forty days in the desert very much like our own experience? Don’t we have our own “inner beasts” to contend with and “outer beasts”, that is, the persons, places and events of every day that challenge and test us? Equally, haven’t you and I met our share of “angles” along the way that have given us comfort, encouragement, fresh perspective and compassion in the midst of our struggles? This Lenten season invites us to immediately enter into the desert with Jesus, seeking His help, to name and tame those inner beasts and to approach the outer beasts with a desire with God’s grace, to transform those relationships and situations. Finally, who are those angels in our life who are there for us? Have we expressed our gratitude to them and how with God’s help, might we ourselves become “angels” to others? May the Lord bless you and your families with a most Blessed Lent! In Christ’s Peace, Fr. O’Neill
2-11-24
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Mark relates that after the healing of the Leper, it was difficult for Jesus to move about freely. There might be a few plausible reasons for why this happened. For one, because Jesus had touched the leper when He healed him, Jesus Himself would have been considered unclean. He had broken both social and religious norms and one thought is as a result, this hampered His ability to travel. However, we have seen already that after Jesus healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law in last week’s Gospel passage, more people came to Him. Mark’s Gospel shows us that each healing or action of Jesus goes on to build upon what He was doing, and His popularity continued to grow. His difficulty in moving about from one place to another implies that it was His growing fame that was the culprit. People even would seek Him out in deserted places. The cured leper could not help but to ignore Jesus’ instruction to not say anything about Him being the One who healed him. Yet, we know that many of His would be followers would reject eventually reject Him. We enter the Holy Season of Lent this week on Ash Wednesday. We are invited, like the crowds that followed Him everywhere as we’ve seen in today’s Gospel. Yet, unlike the crowds in the Gospel, we are also called to follow Jesus when we’re not looking for a miracle, or a special favor. Rather, like we do with all of our friends and loved ones, we stay with Him no matter what. He doesn’t hesitate to reach out to us as He did to heal the leper, but He also wants us to be with Him. May this coming Lent give us a time to deepen the time spent with our Lord. We have opportunities for prayer and devotion, adoration and Confession and of service and penance during this Holy Season. May our greatest desire to simply be with the Lord and walk with Him during these upcoming 40 Days of conversion and prayer. In Christ’s Peace, Fr. O’Neill
2-4-24
Dear Parishioners, After much thought and consideration, it is with a heavy heart that we announce that the Early Learning Center will be closing its doors at the end of this school year. This difficult decision was made due to lack of staff for next year. The past 20+ years have been filled with love, friendships, learning, and so much more. Every family that has come through our doors will remain forever in our hearts. It has been a pleasure teaching so many children over these many years and being a small part of their future educational path. We hope to remain in their memories as a special time in their life. We are thankful for the dedicated teachers, staff, families and children that have been a part of our OLC Early Learning Center for almost 21 years. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without you. Our Early Learning Center opened in 2003. Last spring, we held a special 20th Anniversary Event honoring the teachers, staff and parents and students from past and present, who still hold a special bond with our ELC Staff. We hope to hold a special celebration thanking God for the years of blessings that we’ve received and shared with so many. More information will be forthcoming on this.. For the families whose children will be attending Kindergarten in the fall, we will continue to prepare them for their big transition. In the meantime, please pray for our teachers, staff, families and children as we continue through the end of their school year.
In Christ, Fr. O’Neill, Pastor Janice Dagney, OLC-ELC Director Shelly Carr, OLC-ELC Assistant Director Scott Ray, Parish Business Manager
Our Lady of Consolation Church 603 West Second Avenue Parkesburg, PA 19365