July 16, 2023

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Fr. Boniface Endorf, O.P

Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

I’ll be on vacation this week and next but will be back in time for the Cardinal’s blessing of our new perpetual adoration chapel on 7/30. I won’t be writing letters while away but will resume when I return.

We’re continuing to work to open the chapel so please pray for its success and consider signing up yourself if you haven’t already done so. It will bring many graces to your life!

God Bless,
Fr. Boniface

Mass Tidbit:

Continuing with the first set of names in the Roman Canon, we continue with:

-Sixtus: Pope from about 114-124 AD and another pope martyr. St. Sixtus required that the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy…) be sung after the Preface at Mass. There are five more popes who took the name Sixtus, which is a bit strange because Sixtus means ‘sixth,’ so Sixtus V means ‘the Sixth the fifth.’ Sixtus IV oversaw the construction of the Sistine Chapel in the 1470’s, which is why it’s named the ‘Sistine’ Chapel.

-Cornelius: Pope from 251 AD until his martyrdom in 253. As pope St. Cornelius had to deal with the Novatian controversy. The Roman Emperor Decius persecuted Christians by forcing them to offer sacrifice to pagan gods or face death. Some Christians out of fear offered sacrifice, and they were called the lapsi. Novation held that those who ‘lapsed’ into apostasy could never reenter the Church. St. Cornelius held that with repentance and penance they could return to the practice of the faith. St. Cornelius’s support for mercy won the day. St. Cornelius died when the next Roman Emperor, Trebonianus Gallus, exiled St. Cornelius. Accounts differ, but St. Cornelius either died from hardships on his way to exile or was beheaded. He was buried in the Roman catacombs as a martyr pope.

-Cyprian: St. Cyprian was the Bishop of Carthage and died in 258 AD. He is the first name in the Roman Canon who is not in Jesus’ family, an Apostle, or a pope. Born a wealthy pagan, he converted to Christianity and gave his wealth to the poor. He wrote many important theological and spiritual works and died a martyr under the persecution of Emperor Valerian. Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian were friends and allies against Novation and so they are often mentioned together.