The liturgical year of the Church does not stop during the week. In fact, each day is different and corresponds to a particular saint. These days are commonly known as "feast days" and focus our attention on the beautiful example of holiness that different men and women have given over the centuries.
While most people are familiar with Saint Patrick's Day or Saint Valentine's Day, there are many more saint days than that and each are given a specific "rank" in the hierarchy of the liturgical year. To help you better understand how the Church celebrates the feast days of saints, here is a breakdown of the "hierarchy" (solemnities, feasts and memorials): A solemnity is celebrated if it falls on a Sunday of ordinary time or Christmastide. But it is usually transferred to the following Monday if it falls on a Sunday of Advent, Lent or Easter, or during Holy Week or the Easter octave. A feast honors a mystery or title of the Lord, of Our Lady, or of saints of particular importance (such as the apostles and Evangelists) and some of historical importance such as the deacon St. Lawrence. Feasts of the Lord, such as the Transfiguration and Exaltation of the Holy Cross, unlike other feasts, are celebrated when they fall on a Sunday. A memorial is usually of saints but may also celebrate some aspect of the Lord or of Mary. Examples include the optional memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus or the obligatory memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (EWTN, emphasis added) During week, there can be a "solemnity" on Monday, a "feast" on Wednesday, and a "memorial" on Friday. Each celebration has a specific focus and may commemorate a specific event (Christmas Day) or a specific saint (Saint Patrick). The USCCB has a handy calendar on their website that lets you know what is being celebrated on a specific day and denotes whether it is a "solemnity," "feast," or "memorial." Along with this "hierarchy," each saint or celebration is given a color. These colors correspond to the type of saint (priest, religious, martyr, etc.) or focus of each celebration (Holy Spirit, penance, etc.). Here is how the General Instruction of the Roman Missal explains the colors: [the various colors are] “meant to give effective, outward expression to the specific character of the mysteries of faith being celebrated and, in the course of the liturgical year, to a sense of progress in the Christian life.” a) White is used in the offices and masses during the seasons of Easter and Christmas; also on celebrations of the Lord, other than of his passion; on celebrations of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the angels, saints who were not martyrs; on the solemnity of All Saints (November 1); the feasts of the Birth of John the Baptist (June 24), John, apostle, evangelist (December 27), the Chair of Peter (February 22), and the Conversion of Paul (January 25). b) Red is used on Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday) and Good Friday, Pentecost Sunday, celebrations of the Lord’s passion, “birthday” feasts of the apostles and evangelists, and celebrations of martyrs. c) Green is used in the offices and Masses of Ordinary Time. d) Violet is used in Advent and Lent. It may also be worn in Offices and Masses for the dead. e) Black may be used, where it is the custom, in Masses for the dead. f) Rose may be used, where it is the custom, on Gaudete Sunday (Third Sunday of Advent) and Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent). However, regarding liturgical colors, the Conference of Bishops may define and propose to the Holy See adaptations which respond to the needs and genius of the peoples.” (GIRM, no. 345-6) So remember, the Church does not only celebrate Saint Patrick or Saint Valentine; each day is devoted to a saint or celebration in the Church. Check out the USCCB website to find out! The Church wants to highlight the lives of holy men and women so that we can see that anyone can become a saint! The next time we celebrate a "feast day," let us make sure to honor the life of the saint by imitating their virtues and not simply throwing a big party! Read the Entire Series
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 Parish office “closed” Monday, September 5, 2016 in observance of Labor Day
REMINDER to Parishioners * 24 Hour Eucharistic Adoration – 2016 -First Friday – Sept. 2 through Sept. 3, 2016 ** Starting at 9 am on Friday an ending at 9 am on Saturday) Note: There will be a prayer petition book placed out the week prior to our First Friday Eucharistic Adoration. Anyone wishing to have petitions offered during Adoration may enter their petition into the book and they will be prayed for. Attention: Church doors are locked @ 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. if you are coming to pray during this time please knock on door (under carport) 5 minutes before the start of each hour and you will be let in by person already inside of church. Cards FOR SALE single or box available … Sponsored by the PCCW.. Please take time to look over all the wonderful selections. The price is marked on each box. (Located in carport / north entrance of the church ) PCCW Church Cookbook - Consider purchasing the “New” cookbook as a gift or for other upcoming events, such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, etc. The cost: $15. You can pick them up at the parish office during weekday office hours. The United Sates Bishops are calling for Friday-September 9th, 2016 to be a “Day of Prayer for Peace” in the United States in the wake of all the violence that has been occurring in recent weeks and months.  News from the Diocese
REMEMBERING Mother Teresa- From 1989 to 1996, 17 more letters from Mother Teresa were addressed/delivered to me. The last 17 were personal, yet always spiritual, and always signed by her. It’s not always easy to think of one’s self as a good Catholic, but I do still pray often each day. That’s one lesson that’s stuck with me from Mother Teresa’s letters. If I am a little pencil and little lens myself, it helps to think my work, me and those dearest to me, are in God’s hands, depending on inspiration from that divine source. And along the way, I am very glad I met, photographed and received letters from Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who has been a great inspiration not only to me and my family, but to many other people as well....Read More News from the Pope: At Audience, Pope prays Rosary for earthquake victims - In the wake of the powerful earthquake that struck central Italy on Wednesday, Pope Francis at the General Audience postponed his prepared catechesis, and led the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square in the recitation of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary....Read More News from the Church: Vatican Prepares for Mother Teresa’s Canonization - Masses, prayer vigils, exhibitions and even a musical will be some of the many events taking place in Rome to celebrate the canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa on Sept. 4. Not only will Pope Francis be raising Mother Teresa to the altars at a canonization Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 4, the entire week — Sept. 1-8 — will be devoted to celebrating the Albanian religious sister who became known as the “angel of the slums.”......Read more  HIGH SCHOOL CCD CCD class time for high school students will be Wednesday, 6:30-7:45p.m. (same as all CCD) It is the hope and expectation that students will continue to be enrolled in CCD during their high school years. Registration for all CCD classes will be Wednesday, September 7 at 6:30pm in the church. For questions about high school CCD, contact Mr. Dan Kitzhaber.
SHS High School Luncheon Bible Study: Starting September 13, then every Tuesday meet in room 310 during your lunch period. Bring a hunger to grow in your faith. We take turns providing the food. We read, discuss & share God’s Word and the food. This year, we’ll be reading the Gospel of Mark. This is a GREAT opportunity! Bring your friends!! Going to College? Know someone who is? Do you know someone who is heading off to college this fall? A new website sponsored by the Serra Club can help. At www.newmanconnection.com , click “Get Connected” and your students coming to campus can sign up to receive information about campus ministry at prospective schools across the nation. Don’t miss out on the opportunities to meet great people and experience the prayer, service, and social events that campus ministry offers. If you know someone going to college, make sure they visit www.newmanconnection.com ! Teen & Young Adult Retreat Team Looking for teens and young adults to help lead youth retreats. Living Stones is the name of the group and it rocks! Meet lots of great people, grow in your faith, and have tons of fun. If interested, contact Mr. Dan Kitzhaber. 
After celebrating the great mystery of Christ's presence in the Holy Eucharist on Corpus Christi, the Church almost immediately turns her gaze towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
These feasts are celebrated on the Friday and Saturday following Corpus Christi (when it is moved to the Sunday). Ever since Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque had a vision of the Sacred Heart, the Church has been eager in highlighting this aspect of God's revelation. Leo XIII reiterated the value of this devotion in his encyclical Annum Sacrum: "When in the days near her origin, the Church was oppressed under the yoke of the Caesars the Cross shown on high to the youthful Emperor was at once an omen and a cause of the victory that speedily followed. And here today another most auspicious and most divine sign is offered to our sight, to wit the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a Cross set above it shining with most resplendent brightness in the midst of flames. Herein must all hopes be set, from hence must the salvation of men be sought and expected." Devotion to Jesus' Sacred Heart brings us to the "heart" of Christianity and helps us to see how much love God has for us. We see the image of the Sacred Heart pierced and bloody, outside of Jesus' body. This shows to us how Jesus' love is so great that he can not contain it within himself! Jesus wanted us to devote ourselves to his Sacred Heart so much that He gave us "promises" for those who spread the devotion in faith. (1) I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life. (2) I will establish peace in their homes. (3) I will comfort them in all their afflictions. (4) I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all, in death. (5) I will bestow abundant blessings upon all their undertakings. (6) Sinners will find in my heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy. (7) Lukewarm souls shall become fervent. (8) Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection. (9) I will bless every place in which an image of my heart is exposed and honored. 10) I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts. (11) Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in my Heart. (12) I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment. The devotion is not meant to be a mundane checking-off of rules, but an invitation to a deeper relationship with Christ. When Jesus shares his heart with us, He wants us to share our own heart in return. The following day the Church celebrates the "Immaculate Heart of Mary" and Pope Benedict XVI explained the reason why these two feasts are celebrated together, saying,“The heart that resembles that of Christ more than any other is without a doubt the Heart of Mary, his Immaculate Mother, and for this very reason the liturgy holds them up together for our veneration.” So when we celebrate these two feasts let us remember that God is inviting us to deepen our relationship with Him and His mother and to have a "heart-to-heart" with both of them, giving to them all the wounds and warts that are there, asking Jesus to wash our heart in the bath of His mercy. Read the Entire Series
 Ministry Participants: September / October / November / December 2016 schedule has been completed. Please stop to pick your copy up at the back table in the gathering room of church. Your time and talent in helping with these ministries is greatly appreciated.
REMINDER to Parishioners * 24 Hour Eucharistic Adoration – 2016 -First Friday – Sept. 2 through Sept. 3, 2016 ** Starting at 9 am on Friday an ending at 9 am on Saturday) Note: There will be a prayer petition book placed out the week prior to our First Friday Eucharistic Adoration. Anyone wishing to have petitions offered during Adoration may enter their petition into the book and they will be prayed for. Attention: Church doors are locked @ 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. if you are coming to pray during this time please knock on door (under carport) 5 minutes before the start of each hour and you will be let in by person already inside of church. The United Sates Bishops are calling for Friday-September 9th, 2016 to be a “Day of Prayer for Peace” in the United States in the wake of all the violence that has been occurring in recent weeks and months.  News from the Diocese
Bishop Share Resources on Faithful Citizenship - In everything we do, let us all be Catholics first because as such we have a special duty and a unique ability to strengthen our families, our local communities, and our nation. No matter who is elected to public office, let us follow what Pope Francis urged our members of Congress to do, ‘Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves. In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities.’...Read More News from the Pope: Pope at Angelus: Church doesn’t need bureaucrats but impassioned missionaries - (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday spoke about the fire of the Holy Spirit, saying the Church doesn’t need bureaucrats but impassioned missionaries with this fire inside their hearts. He warned that without this fire, the Church risked becoming a cold or merely lukewarm Church, made up of cold and lukewarm Christians....Read More News from the Church: Transform Your Hearts: Milwaukee’s Archbishop Addresses Riots - Archbishop Jerome Listecki asked people to pray for peace, adding that they needed to restore the family, the economy, and low crime rates in order to defuse the situation.....Read more  We are in need of Catechists for grades 5 & 6, please contact Deb for more information.
In-service for Catechists is August 24 at 6:30pm, we would love our entire teaching staff present that evening!! Registration and first night of class for students in grades 1 to 8 is September 7 at 6:30pm. Please meet in church first! ** high school does not meet that night ** Please pray for our dedicated volunteers as we embark on a new year! CCD Registration letters have been mailed out!! Please contact Deb if you did not receive a letter. Letters were sent to all families with students age 4 and up (to confirmation). 
Last week we learned how the Eucharist is not a “what” but a “who;” Jesus Himself, truly present under the appearances of bread. But how is that possible?
First of all, let us remind ourselves of Jesus’ affirmation of His presence in the Eucharist in the Gospel of John, chapter 6: “‘I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me’” (John 6:48-57).Jesus said clearly in this passage that He is the bread of life and that we must eat His flesh in order to have life. It is at the Last Supper that these words find their fulfillment when Jesus holds up the bread and wine and says “This is my body…this is my blood.” It is clear as well that Jesus’ followers did commit cannibalism while Jesus was on earth and did not feast on his dead body. Instead, they continued on what Jesus instructed them to do; to “do this in memory of me.” It is in the celebration of the Eucharist that the Apostles believed they could fulfill Jesus’ words to “eat my flesh and drink my blood.” This means that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ precisely because that is what He wanted. Jesus desired that all may have life in Him and so left us His abiding presence in the Eucharist to grant us life. Secondly, this transformation is possible because Jesus is God and He who created the world of out nothing can certainly create something out of something. Or as Saint Ambrose put it: “Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed… . Could not Christ’s word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature.” Third, Jesus is present in the Eucharist by way of transubstantiation: Catechism of the Catholic Church 1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: “Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.” 1377 The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ. To put it in similar terms, the appearances of bread remain, but what the bread is, becomes Jesus Himself. By way of analogy, water is known scientifically as h2O and remains that way whether it is ice, water or steam. In this example the outward appearances change, but the essence of what it is, remains. When it comes to the Eucharist, it is the reverse. The outward appearances do not change while the essence of what it is, changes. The Eucharist is a great mystery, one that we will not fully understand here on earth. However, we have the assurance of the Holy Spirit that this indeed happens and on occasion it is confirmed through Eucharistic miracles, when the outward appears actually change and the Host becomes the blood of Christ. In the end, we must pray the words of the father, whose boy was healed by Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24) Read the Entire Series
 Call to Action a Call to Prayer from Wisconsin State Council Knights of Columbus . State Chaplain Father Rick is calling on all Brother Knights in Wisconsin to pray a 54 day “Novena for our Nation.” Beginning on Monday-August 15th, All catholic people of faith in our country will embrace a mission of what is considered self-survival, praying this 54 day novena. Please go to website for more information: www.novenaforournation.com and The United Sates Bishops are calling for Friday-September 9th, 2016 to be a “Day of Prayer for Peace” in the United States in the wake of all the violence that has been occurring in recent weeks and months.
Please pray for Bishop Callahan: As many of you know, Bishop Callahan had rather serious heart surgery on July 20th in Milwaukee. The surgery went very well and the Bishop is recovering nicely. He is grateful for our prayers and hopes to return to La Crosse soon. Let’s keep him in our prayers so that he may be able to continue to fulfill his role as Successor of the Apostles and so to lead us closer to God. Ministry Participants: The ministry schedule will be worked on for September / October / November / December 2016. Please let parish office know if you will stepping down from your ministry position so the next ministry schedule can be adjusted properly.. Deadline is: Monday - August 15 @ Noon ... ** There is a need of participants in the ministries of lector / servers/ crucifix bearers / Ushers at weekend masses. Please consider using your time and talent to help out at these masses. There are reference guides, in the sacristy, that help you to prepare for the weekend masses. If you have any questions about a particular ministry do not hesitate to ask Father Martin or one of the ministry participants who are in that particular ministry that you have a interest in. If you would like to be a Minister of Holy Communion please talk to Father Martin as there is certain protocol for this ministry. |
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 Pastor
Welcome 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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