3rd Sunday of Easter: The New Mission

04-24-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Jn 21:119 or 21:114

Jesus shows Himself first to Mary Magdalene, and one of the instructions He gives her is to tell His disciples: “Go tell my disciples to go to Galilee, and there they will see me (Mt. 28:10).” Moving the setting to Galilee, the disciples, Peter, and six others went to the Sea of Tiberias as instructed. Not knowing anything except that they must wait there, Peter said to the group, I am going out to fish.

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Easter Sunday 2022

04-17-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Rejoice! The Lord is Risen.Today, the whole of Christendom marks its highest feast, EASTER, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Behind the great salvation of humanity is the story of the Lord Jesus Christ suffering and dying for us. His death was the Redemptive Death. The whole redemptive act started when He was born: His life, death, and resurrection. But without His resurrection, His life, suffering, and death would be meaningless for our salvation.

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Palm Sunday: A Journey of Faith

04-10-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Palm Sunday signals the beginning of the Holy Week, the heart of the Church’s liturgical year. All our prayers, fasting, and acts of charity throughout Lent lead to this week. It is a week filled with high emotion and drama, the PASSION of the Son of Man who suffers and dies a cruel death, and three days after rises to give us new life. The Passion narrative tells us how much God loves us and how hopeful our situation is. Now, God invites us to a journey of faith, a way of life, or a new level of existence.

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5th Lent Sunday: Mercy in Action

03-27-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Last Sunday presents the Parable of the Prodigal Son; many call it the parable of divine mercy. The Gospel today; carries the same theme where we draw closer to the heart of the mystery of mercy. Jesus shows mercy in action with the story of the woman caught in adultery.

1. In the story of the prodigal son, the father condemned not the returning son who asks for forgiveness. And when the older son arrives, the father tries to convince and win his heart to extend mercy towards the younger brother.

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4th Sunday Lent: Merciful Father

03-20-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Lk 15:1-3, 11-32

The Gospel today is about the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In the parable, a father had two sons, and the younger claims his inheritance in advance. But know that in Jewish custom, the first-born by right inherits most of the wealth.

The older son - based on the cultural standard at that time pictures an ideal son. He is obedient and works hard even if he is guaranteed a double share of the inheritance. But he shall acknowledge the first son by giving him a double portion of all that he owns; for he is the first-fruits of his strength, the right of the first-born is his. (Dt. 21:17).

The action of the younger son appears selfish and insulting to the father. When he asks for an early distribution of inheritance, he insults and disrespects his honor and authority. His desire for independence dishonors and neglects the needs of the aging father.

After receiving his share, he proceeds to squander everything on a life of debauchery in another country. The parable shows a sad reality; from the same root, the two sons grew to be different in their values and the direction of their life. Many families, like soil, from the same dirt, grow fruits of every kind.

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3rd Sunday Lent: Bearing Fruit Abundantly

03-13-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Scriptures provide us with hundreds of proofs that God’s mercy knows no bounds. In the New Testament, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection makes evident His love and power over sin and death. The forgiveness of sins is possible through the Paschal Mystery and the mediation of the Church. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained (Jn. 20:23). God forgives sins, and He never tires forgiving sins. But it is in the sacrament of reconciliation that He forgives sins, and He completely blots out all our offenses. Jesus is the Divine Mercy; through the absolution, the priest gives in the Sacrament of Penance - restores the penitent to the grace to act with charity, and grow in love with Him.

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2nd Lent Sunday: Transfiguration Moment

03-06-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

In the Old Testament, many consider Abraham as the Father of Faith. The first reading narrates the story of God choosing Abram, later to Abraham, and the promise God made to provide him and his descendants both progeny and land. Although childless and now over seventy-five years old, Abraham responds with great faith because this is how he built his friendship with God. God establishes a covenant with Abraham, whose descendants would be as numerous as the number of stars in the sky. Despite being without a child at that time, Abraham believed. The faith of Abraham is the faith we received as his spiritual descendants.

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1st Sunday of Lent: Confession and Lent

02-27-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to bring salvation to humanity: And you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (Mt. 1:27). Jesus saves His people from the power of Satan, from sin and its ultimate consequence, death. In His ministry, especially; of healing and casting out unclean spirits, Jesus would forgive sins and reconcile us with the Father. The salvific sacrifice on the cross brought about reconciliation and peace; served as a ransom for all our sins.

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Thanking God for Missing Spears

02-20-2022StewardshipTracy Earl Welliver, MTS

Imagine how Saul must have felt when he awoke from his sleep and saw his spear missing from its resting place. Now imagine how he felt when he realized that the person who had it was the same person seeking his life - and there he sat, safe and sound. Now there’s a day you don’t forget your morning prayers.

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Interior and Exterior Silence

02-20-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

One of the growing concerns by many here at St. Rose and Good Shepherd Mission is the level of talking and other noise in the church before and after the Mass. I remember that there was a time when we would enter the church even when it was capacity - like entering into the realm of mystery and holy silence.People didn’t talk in church. One would enter, find their pew, genuflect, and then kneel for private prayer before Mass began. And when the Mass is over, people kneel for a brief moment for prayer; but then leave quietly, not talking until in the vestibule or outside the church.

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The Beatitudes

02-13-2022Gospel MeditationFr. Bing Colasito

The Gospel contains the teaching of Jesus about the Beatitude, The Blessed. They are those who seem in the eyes of the world not blessed - at the same time, Jesus warns the blessed in the world’s estimation. In the first part, Jesus presents the Blessed: the poor, hungry, those who are weeping, those who are hated and insulted. Why did He say “woe” to the rich, those who have much food, who are laughing, and whom people speak well? The Gospel Beatitude is both a teaching and a reproach - they are an indictment to people who feel blessed because they have more than what they need, strive to be secure, and work to make people speak well of them.

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God is Preparing a Way for Us

02-06-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

At every Mass, before the priest or deacon proclaim the Gospel - he silently prays: Cleanse my heart and my lips Almighty God, that I may worthily proclaim the holy Gospel. Praying this is the only way a man can stand before the congregation and proclaim the word of God. And as soon as He announces the Gospel, he signs the Gospel book, himself, and everyone else in the congregation signs themselves with the cross on the forehead, lips, and breast. We all pray to be cleansed by the word of God as we listen to it.

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