At Christmas the God who is fully other makes himself known to us; He shows himself to us…
Pope Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass, December 24th, 2011, St. Peter’s Rome

God has appeared--as a child. It is in this guise that he pits himself against all violence and brings a message that is peace. At this hour, when the world is continually threatened by violence in so many places and in so many different ways, when over and over again there are oppressors’ rods and bloodstained cloaks, we cry out to the Lord: O mighty God, you have appeared as a child and you have revealed yourself to us as the One who loves us, the One through whom love will triumph. And you have shown us that we must be peacemakers with you. We love your childish estate,  your powerlessness, but we suffer from the continuing presence of violence in the world, and so we also ask you: manifest your power, O God. In this time of ours, in this world of ours, cause the oppressors’ rods, the cloaks rolled in blood and the footgear of battle to be burned, so that your peace may triumph in this world of ours.

Christmas is an epiphany--the appearing of God and of his great light in a child that is born for us. Born in a stable in Bethlehem, not in the palaces of kings. In 1223, when Saint Francis of Assisi celebrated Christmas in Greccio with an ox and an ass and a manger full of hay, a new dimension of the mystery of Christmas came to light. Saint Francis of Assisi called Christmas “the feast of feasts”--above all other feasts--and he celebrated it with “unutterable devotion” (2 Celano 199; Fonti Francescane, 787). He kissed images of the Christ-child with great devotion and he stammered tender words such as children say, so Thomas of Celano tells us (ibid.). For the early Church, the feast of feasts was Easter: in the Resurrection Christ had flung open the doors of death and in so doing had radically changed the world: he had made a place for man in God himself. Now, Francis neither changed nor intended to change this objective order of precedence among the feasts, the inner structure of the faith centred on the Paschal Mystery. And yet through him and the character of his faith, something new took place: Francis discovered Jesus’ humanity in an entirely new depth. This human existence of God became most visible to him at the moment when God’s Son, born of the Virgin Mary, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. The Resurrection presupposes the Incarnation. For God’s Son to take the form of a child, a truly human child, made a profound impression on the heart of the Saint of Assisi, transforming faith into love. “The kindness and love of God our Saviour for mankind were revealed” – this phrase of Saint Paul now acquired an entirely new depth. In the child born in the stable at Bethlehem, we can as it were touch and caress God. And so the liturgical year acquired a second focus in a feast that is above all a feast of the heart.    



 

The New Translation of the Roman Missal is now here....
 As we arrive in Advent, we welcome the new translation of the Roman Missal.  This is a wonderful opportunity to re-engage ourselves in purposeful worship.  We never accidentally celebrate Mass.  Rather, it must be something that we do on pupose and with purpose.  These new words to the very same Mass will help us to engage in the mysteries we seek to encounter with a new concentration and appreciation of the original Latin, the official language of the Roman Catholic Mass.  This new translation is just that; a move toward a more faithful translation of the Latin to English.  Each of us, priest, deacon, chorister, music minister, and participant in the pew needs to prepare well for this event.  Here is the link to the USCCB website to which you can go to learn more about this important initiative of our English speaking Catholic Church.  http://old.usccb.org/romanmissal/  Study well! Fr. James
 

Religious Education Schedule for 2011-2012 School Year

As we continue to grow as a parish (985 families now) and to help alleviate some of the Sunday morning congestion in our parking lot between masses, R.E. will have a new schedule this year. 

Kindergarten - 5th Grade..........Sundays from 9:15AM-10:15AM
10th Grade (Confirmation II) and 11th/12th..........Sundays from 9:15AM-10:15AM
6th Grade - 9th Grade (Confirmation I)..........Wednesdays from 6:30PM-7:30PM
Pre-Registration for R.E. will begin on August 14th after all of the masses.  For families that were registered last year, please pick up your personalized packets in the narthex of the church.  The packet will need to be checked for correct information and returned with the R.E. payment, made out to Christ the King, in order for your child to be enrolled.  If you are new to the parish, welcome!  We are happy to help you.  Please see a Religious Education team member after each mass in the Narthex.  You can also contact our Director of Religious Education, Krissie Lastovica, at 939-0806.  This years R.E. book fees are $30 per child with a maximum of $90 per family. 

Christ the King Hires its first ever Coordinator of Youth Ministry!!! 

  My name is Krystalyn Gates, better known to the youth with whom I’ve worked as ‘Miss Krys’.  I am an Austin native.  My grandparents still live in Austin, and I have returned frequently to visit them after I moved and lived in various other places around the country.  Most recently I lived in the Dallas area, where I completed my Master’s degree in Humanities at the University of Dallas.  I finished my undergraduate  degree in Philosophy at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.  I also lived in Michigan in a convent with the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist for a year, where I had some intensive courses in Theology, the Catechism, and Vatican II documents.  

The second of eight children, most of who are still in South Florida with my parents, I have been a Catholic school teacher for the past several years, as well as a mural artist, office manager, music leader, and youth group volunteer.  I love apologetics, my greatest weakness is goldfish, and my patron saints are all named a variation of Therese and Philomena, among many others.  I claim no particular favorite to any spirituality be it Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite, or Benedictine, but I did travel barefoot for a year and Cardinal Ratzinger laughed at me for it. I am extremely excited to be here at Christ the King Parish, where I hope to get to know you, and to help get you and especially the youth more deeply involved in the life, mission, and work of the Church.