MOST HOLY TRINITY PARISH
10,000 PHEASANT RD.
EL PASO, TEXAS 79924
FR. TOM O’MAHONY, PASTOR
FR. PAUL D. O’TOOLE, ASSOCIATE
PARISH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
AND CHURCH – 751-2566
CCD OFFICE AND PARISH HALL 757-1693
RECTORY: 751-6416
PARISH OFFICE HOURS: MON-FRI 8:30-5:00 P.M. SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
SATURDAY EVENING MASSES SUNDAY MASSES
WEEKDAY MASS (MON-FRI)
FIRST FRIDAY
HOLY DAYS OF OBLIGATION
SACRAMENT OF PENANCE
FIRST FRIDAY: SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
PERPETUAL NOVENA IN HONOR OF OUR LADY OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL
PARISH SECRETARY: MRS. VIRGINIA REYNOLDS JANUARY 16, 1983
5:30 p.m. (Fulfills Sun. obligation) 7:30 9:00 10:30 12:00 and 6:00 p.m. 8:00 and 10:00 a.m., Sat. 8:00 a.m. 8:00 and 10:00 a.m., 6:00 p.m. 8:00 and 10:00 a.m., 5:30 & 6:30 p.m. Sat. 2:00-4:00 & 6:30-8:30 p.m. 9:30-9:55 a.m.; 5:30-5:55 p.m. Twice monthly. Arrangements must be made in advance at rectory. Benediction. Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. followed by
Rosary is publicly recited each Sun. before the 10:30 a.m. mass.
“Modern times are dominated by SATAN. the conflict with HELL can- not be won by men, even the most clever. The IMMACULATE HEART alone has from God the promise of victory over SATAN. SHE SEEKS SOULS WHO WILL CONSECRATE THEMSELVES ENTIRELY TO HER, who will become in her hands powerful instruments for the defeat of SATAN and the extension of the Kingdom of God.”
Blessed Maximilian Kolbe (Polish Franciscan Friar)
In the autobiography of St. Margaret Mary to whom Jesus revealed the great devotion of His Sacred Heart, we glean an impressive bit of spiritual encouragement concerning obedience in these words of Our Lord:
“The devil has a most intense fear of this devotion because of the sal- vation of the multitude of souls which it affects…. Satan is furiously bent on deceiving you. So don’t do anything without the approval of those who are guiding you. As long as you have the sanction of obedi- ence, he can never delude you, he is completely powerless over those who obey.”
- Isaiah 62, 1-5:
THE SACRED READINGS (C)
(a) Isaiah was born in or near Jerusalem about 765 B.C. and received his prophetic mission from God about 740 B.C. According to scholars, his writings rank among the world’s great literary masterpieces. He is praised as a highly gifted poet and master of a majestic prose style, and was capable of sustained brilliancy of style, highlighted by a gift and a very holy man, of magnificent imagery. He was also a theologian of no mean attainments
Some modern scholars question the Isaian authorship of the entire book. According to them, Isaiah authored Chapters 1-39; Chapters 40-55 are the work of an unknown 6th Century B.C. Jew and were written just before or immediately after the destruction of the Babylonian Empire by King Cyrus who permitted the Jews to return to their homeland; while Chapters 56-66 were written by another unknown Jew immediately after the return of the “remnant” from Babylon in 538 B.C. However, other is the author of the entire work. scholars support with strong arguments the traditional view that Isaiah
(b) The poem refers to the restoration of the City of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity had ended in 538 B.C. The prophecy had a multiple fulfillment: the historic restoration of the city and its temple after King Cyrus had released the “remnant” of Israel and the establish- ment of the new spiritual Jerusalem, the Catholic Church, by Christ.
time. (c) The holy city was built on two hills, one of which was called Zion. Hence Zion and Jerusalem became synonymous terms in the course of
(d) “You shall be called by a new name”, that, a name expressive of a new relationship with God, namely, “My Delight” and “Espoused” (see following verses). Names are given to express the nature and attributes of a person or thing.
- I Corinthians 12, 4-11:
(a) Corinth was an important port city of some 600,000 people, Jews and Gentiles. Paul converted many of them in 50 A.D. (See Acts 18, 1-17 for a full account).
This letter was occasioned by the lack of unity in this new community of Christians.
It is considered to be amongst Paul’s finest epistles.
(b) From the Acts we know that Paul tried to convert the Greeks of Athens by using the ornate terminology popular at the time. It was a failure, and so, after setting foot in Corinth, which was another Greek city, he decided to present the gospel in simple language.
In those days the Greeks had high regard for every philosophical system, no matter how bizzare. But Christianity is not just a philosophy. It is not the mere product of human reason. It is God’s revealed word, it is a way of life. What human reason, we ask you would arrive at the Cross as a means of salvation, as the triumph over evil? No wonder it is called a “Divine paradox” eternal life coming from the death of God’s Son made flesh on the gibbet of infamy. As St. Paul says, it is folly to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews.
Imagine how startling it was to those ancient Greeks. As Paul remarks, only God’s grace, “the convincing power of the Spirit”, could bring man to accept such a gospel.
Let us learn from Paul. The simple story of God’s love manifested so strikingly by the crucified figure of the Cross of Calvery should never be watered down or glossed over. With God’s grace it can draw even the most learned man or hardened sinner to his knees.
- John 2, 1-12:
(a) Though St. Luke’s gospel will be used on the Sundays in Ordinary Time during 1980, occasionally we will find a reading from another gos- pel. Today’s extract from St. John is an account of the first miracle, called a “sign” by John, which served to strengthen His disciples’ be- lief in Him.
(b) The three synoptics (Matthew, Mark and Luke) do not mention the event at Cana in Galilee..
(c) Cana no longer exists, but the site of the miracle is more likely to have been Kefr Kenna, about four miles northeast of Nazareth,
(d) Nuptial festivities generally lasted for about a week. Evidently Our Blessed Lady was a relative and, because of her, Jesus and His dis- ciples were also invited. St. Joseph, quite evidently, was dead.
Wine, be it noted, was and still is the ordinary drink in Mediterranean countries as water was scarce and often contaminated.
The presence of six stone jars, holding in all about 150 gallons of water is not surprising, as Jewish ritual prescribed frequent washings of the hands both before and after meals, as well as the washing of utensils. Stone was used instead of earthenware because the Jews believed stone could not contract ritual defilement.
(e) In addressing her as “woman” Christ was using a title, which in both Semitic and Greek use was regarded as a title of honor.
At first sight it might appear that Christ was rebuking His Mother when He said: “Woman, why turn to Me? My hour has not yet come”; but it was far from the case, since Mary immediately told the waiters to do what- ever He told them.
Our Blessed Lord knew that His mother was asking for a miracle and so He reminded her, as He did in the temple at the age of twelve years, that His mission on earth was independent of all family ties and that the working of miracles would be the beginning of the public manifestation of His Divinity and mission on earth.
The entire passage shows the power of Our Lady’s intercession.
(f) Notice that St. John, unlike the other evangelists, uses an unusual word for miracle. He calls it a “sign” because miracles are really signs of Christ’s identity.Finally the title “brothers”, as used here, does not mean blood-brothers. Even Protestant scholars admit this to be the case. Both Hebrew and Aramaic, which Our Lord spoke, had no word for “cousin”, so the words for brother and sister were used, the meaning being decided by the context.
(g) Readers of St. John’s gospel will not be surprised that John men- tions this first miracle of Christ’s as it has great symbolic value: (1) In O.T. imagery a wedding symbolizes the arrival of the Messiah; and was regarded as a symbol of blessing; (2) The prophets often re- ferred to the Messianic age as a feast with unlimited supplies of wine: (3) It is a symbol of the Eucharist; and (4) A sign of the changing of the water of the O.T. into the life-giving wine of the New.
However, in our meditation upon this incident, we must not forget that John emphasized that it was the first miracle Christ performed and that through it His apostles had their faith confirmed.
- PSALM 96
- REFLECTIONS:
At first sight it appears hard to find a common theme in the first and third readings. The Responsorial Psalm gives us the clue.
God’s tender love and mercy for men is a reason to be joyful and we should never cease to thank and praise Him for what He has done and will do for us.
In the first reading God promises to have pity on us and to unite us to Him as the bride is united to the groom in love. This beautiful imagery gives us an insight into the nature of God’s love for us.
It was fitting, then, that the first public miracle Christ performed should take place at a wedding feast. It symbolized the work of Christ. which was the change the water of the Old Covenant into the wine of the New. Be it noted that for the Jews water symbolized their law (Mosaic) because it purified the soul of the one, who remained faithful to its ob- servance. Through Christ, however, we would be not only purified of sin but made children of God and heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven.
NEXT WEEK’S READINGS (C)
(1) Nehemiah 8: 2-4, 5-6. 8-10.
(2) I Cor. 12: 12-30.
(3) Luke 1: 1-4; 4: 14-21.
(4) Psalm 19.
They say bad news travels fast, unless you mail it. And then there was the fellow who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He swallowed it and has hasn’t stirred since.
NEWS AND VIEWS:
- Americans should be alert to the plans of a priest-led British dis-armament organization, which reportedly has ties to the Communist Party, They intend to visit about 150 American campuses this year to stir up op- position to the government’s decision to strive for nuclear equality with Russia, if not superiority.
We do NOT expect the left-leaning media to inform us of the background of this organization.
The name of the priest involved with this Communist group is Msgr. Bruce Kent.
If anyone has any doubt that Russia is behind the international movement to stop the West from developing nuclear arms, the reported speech by Edward Leigh, Chairman of the London-based NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CIVIL DEFENSE, on April 14, 1981, should help to dispel it. According to him, “the KGB has spent $100 million in the anti-neutron bomb campaign in Western Europe.
- NEWSWEEK Magazine, owned by the same company that publishes the WASHINGTON POST received an award from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS COUNCILS (NABC) for its sympathetic treatment of homo- sexuality (see October 11th, 1982 issue). As NEWSWEEK is read by more than three million Americans, we should not underestimate the pernicious impact of such an endorsement.
- In Moscow the leaders of the Communist Party get free food on a lux- urious scale for their families, while the ordinary urban family of four easily spends half its income in providing a meagre food supply.
- The President’s statement that the Soviets were manipulating the so- called nuclear-freeze movement has been substantiated by the HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE. According to FBI Director William Webster his organization has supplied the President with “factual data on this problem. 5. Yuri Vladimirovich Andiopau, the new ruler of the Soviet Union, used to be Chairman of the KGB and during his reign “the practice of torturing political non-conformists in special psychiatric hospitals” was introduced according to READER’S DIGEST Senior Editor John Barron, author of the internationally acclaimed “KGB”. He also crushed the Hungarian uprising in a brutal manner. He is also responsible for the introduction of special programs to train foreign terrorists organizations a recent university of Chicago Survey shows that in 24 states a poverty-level family would be better off on welfare than if one of its memis an immoral situation. bers continued to work. According to Catholic social teaching, this
- Women have been in combat units since 1978. This was done by Jim- my Carter in direct violation of the intent of Congress and the American people. President Reagan is now trying to put them back in non-combat positions as stipulated by the law.
- The NATIONAL FEDERATION FOR DECENCY under Rev. Donald E. Wildmon, a United Methodist Minister has bestowed the title “Pornography of the month” on the R. J. REYNOLDS DEL MONTE – KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN”. This company has given large sums of money to pro- mote pornography via advertising in pornographic magazines.
Rev. Wildmon reminds Americans that by supporting this company they support pornography.
If you wish to express your opinion write to: Chairman J. Paul Sticht, R. J. REYNOLDS-DEL MONTE-KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN, 2705 Ban- tram Place, Winston-Salem, N.C., 27106.
Donnie: “My grandfather made a scarecrow so scary that is scared every crow off our farm.”
Donna: “You think that’s something? I made one so scary that the crows brought back the corn they took last year.”
DELIVER US FROM EVIL!
Within recent years the Devil appears to be getting his due. Long before THE EXORCIST called the attention of the ignorant to the existence and influence of his Satanic majesty, the Holy See and many of the bishops had already warned us to beware of him and his cohorts of fallen angels.
On November 15, 1972, Pope Paul VI devoted his entire General Audience to a brief but full explanation of this doctrine of our faith. “The question of the Devil and the influence he can exert on individual persons as well as on communities, whole societies, or events” he said, “is a very Important chapter of Catholic doctrine, which is given little attention to- day; though it should be studied again.”
No doubt that this remark of his prompted the study on Demonology published by the Vatican Congregation For the Doctrine of the Faith in L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO, July 10, 1975.
Coupled with this is denial or calling into doubt of the existence of evil spirits by so many modernists, theologians and biblical students. This in no new error, of course, since wherever Secular Humanism has its roots, and it is a fairly healthy plant today, one must expect that man, who is exalted to the place of God, cannot be subject in his process of perfection to any outside evil influence. He is self-sufficiently autonomous. The names of Satan and of the Devil are, therefore, mere words, which in our enlightened age can be deciphered to mean precisely nothing or can be regarded as mere personification of the evils the ancient peoples perceived In the world.
Cognizant of these false views Pope Paul stated in his 1972 General Audience: “It is contrary to the teaching of the Bible and the Church to re- fuse to recognize the existence of such a reality … or to explain it as a pseudo-reality, a conceptual and fanciful personification of the unknown causes of our misfortunes.
The final reason why the Evil One has apparently won the popularity con- test are the very evident signs of the Evil One”, as Pope Paul said. These signs are, for example, the widespread Atheism, which Vatican II called the greatest evil of our age, the militant efforts by Communists to eradicate the very name of God from the hearts of men, and the open gates engulfing man in the sewage of pornography, divorce, birth-control and abortion.
Who does not remember the frequent reference to the Evil Spirit made by Pope Pius XI in his famous Encyclical on Atheistic Communism? (1937)
“But ever since Adam’s fall, and in consequence of that hereditary sin”, he wrote, “virtue has had a bitter struggle to wage against the suggestions of vice, and the wily old tempter has never desisted from misleading men by false promises. The results has been one upheaval after another our time … through the course of the ages, until we have come to the revolution of ism…. threatening to reduce whole nations to the state of barbarian- of propaganda, probably unparalleled in history.” In another place he speaks of its “diabolically efficient system
As far back in 1952 the great Pope Pius XII warned: “In this most decisive hour of history, the Kingdom of Evil and infernal cunning uses all means and all forms to destroy faith and morality. God and evil have come to grips in a gigantic duel. The hour has struck, the battle most bitter, the most ferocious the world has ever known… has been joined”; and in November 1970, Bishop Gallagher of Lafayette, Indiana pointed out that “it is clearly possible that we, in our day, are dealing with the forces of Hell in a more critical way than any recent history.”
We cannot allow to go unnoticed a similar warning from Blessed Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Franciscan priest who accepted martyrdom in a German concentration camp: “Modern times, he said, “are dominated by Satan!”
Let us now return to Pope Paul. In the audience referred to above, he asked: “What are the greatest needs of the Church today? And his reply: “Do not let our answer surprise you as being over-simple or even super one of the greatest needs is defense from that evil insidious and unreal: which is called the Devil.”
“The Devil”, he continued, “is at the origin of the first misfortune of mankind; he was the cunning and fatal tempter of the first sin, original sin.
“From that fall of Adam the Devil acquired a certain dominion over man, from which only Christ’s Redemption can save us. It is a story still going on ….
“He is the enemy number one, the tempter par excellence.”
“He is the secret enemy that sows error and misfortunes in human history. He is the treacherous and cunning enchanter, who finds his way into us by way of the senses, the imagination, lust, utopian logic, or disorderly social contacts in the give and take of life, to introduce deviations, as harmful as they are apparently in conformity with our physical or psychical structures, or our deep instinctive aspirations
“Not that every sin is directly due to diabolical action, but it is true that those who do not watch over themselves with a certain moral strictness are exposed to the influence of the ‘Mystery of Evil’, to which St. Paul (I Thess. 2, 3-12) refers, and run the risk of being damned.”
And why, we may ask, does God allow this “terrible reality, mysterious and frightening called the Devil, to have such influence over us? In reply the concluding paragraph of the Vatican study on Demonology is offered: “We scarcely know any better than the apostles knew why the Lord permits it, nor how he makes it serve His designs. It could be, however, that, in our civilization obsessed with secularism that excludes the transcendent, the unexpected outbreaks of this mystery offer a meaning less alien to our understanding. They force man to look further and higher, beyond the immediate evidence. Through their menace, which stops us short, they enable us to grasp that there exists a beyond which has to be deciphered, and then to turn to Christ in order to hear from Him the good news of salvation graciously offered to us.
In the presence of so terrifying a being as this fallen archangel, whom we call the Devil or adversary, along with his cohorts of fallen angels, instinctively we ask ourselves in the words of Pope Paul: “What defense, what remedy is there against the action of the Devil?”
The Vatican study gives us this answer: “It is to faith in fact that the apostle St. Peter leads us back when he exhorts us to resist the Devil, ‘strong in faith’. Faith teaches us that the reality of evil’ is a living spiritual being, perverted and corrupting’ (Paul VI). Faith can also give us confidence, by assuring us that the power of Satan cannot go beyond the limits set by God. Faith likewise assures us that even though the Devil is able to tempt us, he cannot force our consent. Above all, faith opens the heart to prayer, in which it finds its victory and its crown. It thus enables us to triumph over evil through the power of God.
Pope Paul VI at the 1972 audience put it thus: “Everything that defends us from sin shelters us for that very reason from the invisible enemy. fortress. Grace is the decisive defense. Innocence takes on the aspect of a
“The Christian must be militant; he must be vigilant and strong (I Peter 5, 8). and he must sometimes have recourse to some special ascetic exercises to stave off certain diabolical attacks. Jesus teaches thus, indicating ‘prayer and fasting’ as the remedy (Mark 9, 29). The Apostle (Romans 12, 21; Matt. 13, 29) suggests the main line to follow: ‘Resist evil and conquer it with good’
In his encyclical on Communism (n.n. 83-84) Pope Pius XI proposed as a remedy against the influence of the Evil Spirits, as exemplified in this diabolical system, “the spirit of prayer and mortification”. Reminding us that on one occasion when the apostles asked Jesus Christ why they had not been able to cast the devil out of a possessed man, He replied “there is no way of casting out such spirits as this except by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 27, 20), the Holy Father wrote: “It is our conviction that the only way to cure the evils which torment humanity in our age is by a strenuous and holy campaign of prayer and penance in which earnestly all must join against the common foe. We therefore beseech everyone most … to multiply prayers and works of mortification, imploring God’s aid for the Church in these difficult times, and begging the intercession of His Immaculate Mother, who long ago crushed the old serpent’s head and is forever today our most sure Protectress and the unfailing Help of Christians,
MORALLY OFFENSIVE MOVIES
CLASS REUNION”
CONAN, THE BARBARIAN” “HALLOWEEN 111
“MONSIGNOR”- “SENDER.
THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY OF AMERICA
This society was founded and incorporated in 1977 and is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Two laymen started it: Professor Charles E. Rice of NOTRE DAME LAW SCHOOL and Paul B. Haring, a lawyer with the U. S. Government. Rev. John A. Hardon S.J. is the Spiritual Director. The Bishops of Corpus Christi and Galveston-Houston are on the Board of Directors. The goal of this society is to disseminate the authentic teachings of the Church through the mass media.
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