October 9th, 2022
twenty-eighth Sunday in ordinary time
by Fr. Boniface Endorf, O.P.
Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,
This weekend we have Gifts from Bethlehem at St. Joseph’s. They support Christians in the Holy Land, who are persecuted and in need of support. We should remember to pray for and to help Catholics and other Christians throughout the world who face oppression. Catholics in China, Nigeria, throughout the Middle East, and in many other regions are facing persecution today. We are joined to them in the Body of Christ, the Church: let us remember them in our prayers.
Mass Tidbit
The Gloria is an ancient prayer to God’s glory and is rich in depth. It begins with the words sung by the angels at Christ’s birth (Lk 2:14): “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.” With the birth of Christ all things on earth are restored through their reunion with heaven, which happens when the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God the Father, took to Himself our human nature. The wall separating humanity from God is ended as original sin is remedied through the union of our humanity with the Son’s divinity. Thus, the Gloria begins with the words of angels and continues with us humans, thus showing our connection with heaven as we continue the words of the heavenly angels. We of earth are united to heaven through Christ. The liturgy flows from heaven to earth and back up to heaven.
The Gloria then provides our response to our salvation in Christ: we praise, bless, adore, glorify, give thanks to God the Father for His wonderous mercy in sending His Son. We then affirm our faith in Jesus, the mediator between us and the Father. We acknowledge Him as the only begotten Son, the Lamb of God, who has taken away the sins of the world, and then ask for His mercy, for Him to receive our prayers at this mass.
We end with giving glory to the Trinity—starting with Jesus, then the Holy Spirit, and finally the Father. We praise the three divine persons who are the one God.
We can address the Trinity only because of Jesus, who has reunited us with God. It is because of Jesus that we can talk with God, praise God, and thus partake in the holy mysteries of the mass. Let us marvel at God’s works that have brought us into His presence at every mass—encountering that divine presence is the root of holiness.
God Bless,
Fr. Boniface
