From the Desk of Fr. Barry “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” So says Jesus to his disciples in the Gospel passage from Matthew. Jesus uses a number of images to try to illustrate for them what this “kingdom” is and what he’s talking about ... including a pearl of great price and a net filled with fish. And while many things Jesus says about the kingdom in other places in Scripture are somewhat puzzling and baffling, this exchange is a little more pointed and direct. You see, by using these examples, Jesus is trying to get his disciples to reflect on what is most important, what has the greatest value, what is the one “treasure” in this life that trumps all others? And he’s inviting us to ask ourselves that exact same question. Where do we put our priorities? Who is our priority? Is God at the top of that list, in the middle or at the bottom? My sisters and brothers, God wants to be a part of each of our lives. He wants to guide us, nurture us, and make us each the best person we can be. Think of all the ways we fight Him on this. All the times we have done “our” thing knowing that it wasn’t the right thing to do, but it satisfied a desire or want. Our treasure is freely given; through the Cross we are given a new existence, new purpose, new beginnings. Our treasure doesn’t go outside ourselves, but resides within each of us. Sometimes its suppressed, sometimes it’s not convenient, sometimes it goes against what the world imposes on us. But I am here to let you know it’s the right way when it comes from and for God. May each of continue to seek out that treasure, and when we discover Him, may we see the great sacrifice that Jesus made for each of us and experience peace in a way we have never known it before. Rectory update: We have moved in! The new address for all Church mail is 306 S. LaSalle St, Spencer, WI 54479. Our PO Box has been canceled. Pam’s office is just inside the front entrance. To help identify the entrance, we have added the Christ the King logo on the front door. Please ring the door bell and come on in. Pam’s office is in a lot better shape than mine, she’s unpacked and fully functional. My office on the other hand is a complete mess. I have boxes of books everywhere and I’m praying that no one askes me to find a file folder right now! With that said, my phone and computer are working so we’ll manage together! Boxes will slowly be unpacked, but just being in one place is such a relief. The new rectory is in better shape with the help of all who volunteered their time. Thank you so much to all who helped make this transition so much easier. You don’t know how much stress you took off my shoulders. The sidewalk leading into the offices was completed a week before moving in and the other walkways and driveway will wait till next year when the ground settles. I’m looking forward to the open house / picnic August 9th. This will take place that Sunday from 11:30 – 2. Life Tributes is donating hamburgers and brats, we ask that you bring a side dish and your drink. We will maintain the social distancing requirements by having volunteers dish out the food wearing masks and gloves. Tables will be set up in the parking lot. I’ve been trying to come up with an idea that makes this new rectory and offices feel like it’s more yours. So this is what I would like to do. Each family from the parish please bring a crucifix or cross no larger than 12” high. Write your family name on the back and when you are here at the rectory you will nail it (nails provided) to the main entrance hallway. I am donating a 24” Christ the King Crucifix which is mounted in the center of the wall. Our parish families will then surround that cross with theirs. Have a blessed week, Fr. Barry
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If you would like to have a “Mass Intention” for a deceased loved one or special intention in 2020 please call the parish rectory @ 715-659-4480 and talk to Pam. There are numerous openings for Wednesday * Thursday * Friday, morning mass is at 8 a.m. Only a limited number of openings available, for weekend masses in 2020. Garage Sale donations can be dropped off at the Seton Center, in room 7 during normal business hours, Mon – Thurs from 8:30am -5pm and Friday 8:30am – 12:30pm. Evening donations and setup will be on Tuesday, July 21 from 5pm – 7pm, Wednesday, July 29 from 4pm – 8pm and Wednesday, August 5 from 4pm – 8pm. Please contact Deb Mlsna if you have any questions. Thank you for supporting our Youth! From the Deacon’s Desk Last Sunday, July 5th, marked the end of this year’s “Fortnight for Freedom”, the two week period that begins with the memorial of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More. Both were beheaded by order of King Henry VIII when they resisted the king in the matter of his divorce and refused to recognize him as head of the Church in England. Each year, our Bishops ask us to remember these two martyrs and to reflect on the importance of religious freedom to us and to future generations. The struggle between Church and state is as old as the Faith itself. Jesus was a threat to the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin and the Roman officials, and Pontius Pilate. Whenever the state perceives a threat to it’s existence, it has the tendency to try to abolish that threat, by whatever means it deems necessary. Pilate and the Sanhedrin chose crucifixion, Henry the VIII chose beheading, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain chose the Inquisition, while the French Enlightenment chose the guillotine. While today’s secular leaders are less violent and more subtle, they are, none-the-less, just as great a threat to religious freedom and the separation of Church and state. Since it’s inception nearly two thousand years ago, the Church has always sought peaceful means to spread the “Good News” of the Gospel, while the secular world has sought, mainly by violence, to prevent it. In today’s world, we still seek to peacefully proclaim the Gospel, while others seek to prevent us, by using against us those powers available to the secular world; the law, the press, etc. Most people believe that the secular world invented religious freedom, but in reality, it began with the early Church. Conversion to Christianity had to be done freely as an act of the will and could not be forced on anyone. The secular world demanded conformity with the state sponsored religion, and it still does! Just as in the days of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, we need to resist the temptation to take the easy path of giving in to the demands of society. We must insist on our right to proclaim the truth, THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!!! Deacon Jeff As a simple reminder, an audio version of the homilies are still available on the parish website for each Sunday.
Sacrament of Reconciliation will be again on Saturday afternoon from 3:15 - 3:45 p.m. Also July 2 (4 –6 pm) and July 3 ( 4-6 pm) with social distancing & sanitizing being done. From the desk of Fr. Barry
Our Gospel from this last weekend in June really helps us see how God wants to be in our lives and what we are to do with that presence. He revealed himself through Christ not because he had to, but out of love for his creation. He gives us that free choice though, to follow him or to look the other way. This allows each of us to look at how we relate to that passage in our daily lives. Our motives behind why we do the things we do. I think many times we do something for the recognition of it, or sometimes because it does something for us. I know when I worked in sales, I often did something that would benefit me, and not the customer. They left happy, but could have they left ecstatic? Could I have done more to help them? Did I push something that benefited me, or did I push something that truly was a benefit to them? Sometimes it was both, but the underlining motivation behind any sale is how much commission the sales person gets. I have to say that money has never been my motivation to do anything, but at times when large bonuses were put on certain things, it did create that desire to win. But did I win? So what is our “bonus” in life? What does that win get us? Is it all about us? Or could it be about what is yet to come? When we really look hard at what this Gospel is teaching us, we see that our human desire is met here on earth but does not follow us after death into eternal life. Our gratification, praise, or even acknowledgment is met, but how does it aid any of us in the afterlife, life eternal? It is only met when it is done out of love. That love that is unconditional and is done not looking for any type of reward. That is what the Father sees and that is where we all will get our true reward As hard as this is to admit, our motives behind things we do sometimes only serve us in the here and now. Our homes, our cars, our personal belongings, none of it goes with us. The plaques on our walls, the trophies on our mantels, the medals on our old military uniforms, they stay too! We work hard for all of these things, but they do not define who are in the end. When we are asked how did you serve my children, how will you reply? My sisters and brothers, we have a faith community here at Christ the King that just amazes me. I have been welcomed in with open arms, and when I was told it would take a year to raise the money to build a new rectory/office, you all pulled together in five months and we met our goal to build. When my plea went out for help with lacking funds during this pandemic just last week, again so many of you have already stepped forward with contributions. Thank you, it is in our struggles that we know God will reward us in times yet to come. Reaching out in times of difficulty is what it is all about. You all do it so well! Update: The new completion date for the rectory/offices is now July 13 . With a few delays in trim, doors and countertops the date has been pushed back a few weeks. But I have to say, Aumann Construction has been wonderful to work with, and completing the project in such a short time has been a true blessing. When we bond together, amazing things start to happen. This is the true spirit of this Gospel and this is the true spirit that makes me proud to serve you. Have a blessed week ahead and don’t forget to mark your calendars for August 9 . Our open house/picnic will be from 11:30-2 at the new offices/rectory, 306 S. LaSalle!! Burgers and hotdogs will be served! More to come on this in future bulletins as we work out all the details. Your brother in Christ, Fr. Barry Religious Freedom Week 2020: For the Good of AllJoin us, June 22 - June 29, as we pray, reflect, and take action on religious liberty, both here in this country and abroad.
More information here Dear Christ the King Parishioners, After 2 weeks of experiencing the sign-up for masses, I have decided we will not be doing this anymore. Our numbers have been low at each mass to indicate a lot are not ready to return to Mass. Therefore, those who wish and are able to return can do so. With that said, Sat. 4 pm Mass has been the fullest of the 3. We are still limited to the 25% of occupancy rule, which means we can have 50 in the church body. If we should go over 50, please understand you will be asked to come to another Mass, most likely on Sunday morning. Thank you for your understanding, we will get better at this as time goes on and hopefully soon these requirements will be lifted. Have a blessed week. Your brother in Christ, Fr. Barry From the Desk of Fr. Barry With the Easter Season having come to an end, it always leaves me feeling a bit discouraged. Discouraged not by what has happened, but because we are back to the reality of life as we know it, Ordinary time. What the Easter Season did was build us up on all the gifts that Jesus’ short ministry gave and showed us. It allowed us to see and feel (if we allowed it) that we are a part of all that ridiculing, all that suffering, all the deceitfulness of those who condemned Jesus, and yet, he went through his passion whole heartedly for each of us anyway and opened the gates of eternity to us! That pure love of God that shines forth through any tragedy, pandemic, death or life situation. That promise that he will never abandon us and be with us for all times. And that is ever so pronounced as we celebrate The Holy Body and Blood of Christ on this Feast of the Church. A time that allows us to look beyond the Resurrection and Ascension and to see that the nourishment Jesus always talked about is still with us today and every day. The sacrifice of himself does not mean the separation of himself to us. Rather, it is that total giving of himself in ways we can not even understand wholly. As a child I always knew without a doubt that I was receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ at Mass. Then as I grew older, well into my 20’s, I started to doubt that teaching. I started to ask questions on why are we the only Church that sees it this way? Why do we have to receive in a Church when Jesus is all around us? And through much searching, both in other faith denominations and in prayer, the light bulb went on. We are given this precious gift each and every day because we need it. We need that cleansing, that purification of Jesus within us to get through another week. To endure and mend broken relationships. To lift us up when so many things are bringing us down. To ensure we know that it was all done for us, and Christ wants us to share in that joy. With a deep desire to answer my questions, I came across an article describing a miracle. In the city of Lanciano, Italy, then known as Anxanum, some time in the 700s, a Basilian hieromonk was assigned to celebrate Mass at the monastery of St. Longinus. Celebrating in the Roman Rite and using unleavened bread, the monk had doubts about the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. During the Mass, when he said the Words of Consecration; "This is my body. This is my blood", the priest saw the bread change into living flesh and the wine change into blood which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size. The miracle was contemporaneously investigated and confirmed by the Church. As I read more and more, I found that this has been happening all over the world; Italy, Venezuela, Chile, Germany, France, Mexico, Argentina, even in Salt Lake City in 2015 (which is still under investigation by the Vatican). In total, The Vatican has investigated and approved sixty-five miracles of this nature. Every time the test is done on the Eucharist, it has come back the same. O Negative (the universal donor), heart muscle, under severe distress. This is no coincidence. Our Lord continues to meet us where we are at. Giving us miracles through signs we can understand. My friends, as we start to come back into our Church, we come back with that yearning for the precious Body and Blood of Christ that we have missed so much. Allow it to transform you. Allow it to bring about newness of life, of purpose. Allow it to transform you as Christ himself transforms! A gentle reminder. We have been allowed to receive in the hand for some time now. When we received/receive on the tongue it is just that, receiving. With the addition of being able to “touch” the precious Body, we still “receive” Jesus. This is why we cup our hands together, one under the other, to “receive” and not to “take” Jesus. By doing so we create our own tabernacle, a place worthy for Jesus to be placed. Have a blessed week ahead, and mark your calendars for AUGUST 9 ! From 11:30 - 3 we will have an OPEN HOUSE at the new offices/rectory. All are invited! More details to come. See you at Mass, Your brother in Christ, Fr. Barry |
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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