We’re happy to have Fr. Wilfred Emeh, the parochial administrator of our sister parish, St. Martin de Porres, celebrate our 5:00pm and 9:30am Masses this weekend as we continue our 45-year tradition of sharing our faith with our sister parish. And, as they have done for many years, members of St. Martin de Porres parish will join us at the 5:00pm Vigil Mass. This year, their parish choir, along with members of our adult choir, will lead us in lively song! We will then host our sister parishioners for dinner following the Mass; everyone is invited to join us.
For the past 45 years, our parish has enjoyed a special relationship with parishioners who live around 24th Street and Lehigh Avenue in Philadelphia. Originally, they belonged to St. Columba Parish, a parish that had been founded in 1895, two years after our parish was founded. When St. Columba parish was combined with two other parishes (St. Mary of the Eternal, which closed in 1976, and Corpus Christi, which closed in 1987) to become St. Martin de Porres Parish in 1993, we continued our relationship with a special focus on its newly-established St. Martin de Porres School. In 2011, St. Martin became an independent Catholic School under the management and financial responsibility of Friends of St. Martin de Porres. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which had worked closely with the school at its foundation, continues to provide curriculum support. The school has an enrollment of 445 students from kindergarten to eighth grade. Although only about 10% of the students are Catholic, about 80% of its graduates attend Catholic high schools. The school has done so well, in fact, that it continues to be a model for the 13 other Independence Mission Schools that have been established throughout the Archdiocese. And, much of its success is due to the courageous and farsighted leadership that a handful of our parishioners have provided – along with their outstanding financial support – and the generous financial assistance our parish continues to provide.
Those of you who are familiar with the neighborhood of 24th and Lehigh know that most of the people living there have rather limited financial resources and face many challenges as they try to raise their families. And, although they live just 20 miles from us, they live in a culture that is different from ours in a variety of ways. Additionally, although they are fellow Catholics, they also express their faith in ways that are unfamiliar to some of us, especially in their music, which is often rather lively. So, our ongoing relationship with them enriches both us and them in many ways as we share our lives and faith experiences.
Due to the financial challenges that many of the families with children in St. Martin de Porres face, we started supporting them and the school with food staples, Christmas food baskets and school supplies. Last Christmas, you provided large boxes of food and gifts for 80 families! Twenty-six years ago, we expanded our support. As we became aware of the financial needs of the school, we initiated an annual collection to provide assistance for its operating costs. We have also contributed significantly to the restoration and maintenance of the school – especially its library – and provide additional financial assistance throughout the year. Twelve times a year, I am privileged to send a $1,000.00 check to St. Martin de Porres parish from the Feed the Needy second collection we take up monthly. We do all of this in response to Christ’s call to love our neighbors as ourselves and our awareness that we all benefit as we share our blessings with them and they share theirs with us.
As we welcome Fr. Emeh and some of his parishioners, we will hear him speak at all the Masses to explain the present situation at the parish and school. A second collection will be taken up to support St. Martin de Porres parish and school. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to share our Easter joy with our long-time friends!
CONGRATULATIONS FIRST COMMUNION CLASS!
Next, at the 5:00pm, 9:30 and 11:30am Masses, 92 of our parishioners will receive our Lord in Holy Communion for the first time! This is a very important event in their faith lives as they now join with the rest of the believing community in participating fully in the Celebration of the Eucharist. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains so clearly, Holy Communion is “our fellowship with Jesus and other baptized Christians in the Church, which has its source and summit in the celebration of the Eucharist. In this sense, Church as communion is the deepest vocation of the Church” (p. 871).
According to the Catechism, the “Mass is at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated and the sacred banquet of communion with the Lord’s body and blood” (§ 1382). As we just celebrated a few weeks ago during the Easter Triduum, our Lord offered his sacred Body and Blood to us when he instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper and then He offered His life for us to our Heavenly Father on the cross. The Eucharistic celebration involves us in both of these mysteries through which we are able to offer to God the only gift worthy of Himself – that is, Himself – as the Son of God offers Himself to God the Father.
At the same time, we are invited into the heavenly banquet at which Christ offers us Himself for our spiritual nourishment. The Catechism explains, “the altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from heaven who is giving himself to us” (§ 1383).
It is so important for us to receive our Lord in Holy Communion. The Catechism continues, “The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him in the sacrament of the Eucharist: ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’” (§ 1384).
It is also important for us to receive the Eucharist worthily: “To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: ‘whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord’” (§ 1385).
Worthy reception of our Lord in the Eucharist brings us into union with Christ and his Body, the Church: “Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it, Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body – the Church. Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church, already achieved by Baptism. …‘The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread’” (§ 1396).
There are so many aspects involved in this sacred act of receiving Holy Communion that we do well to reflect on them often and receive our Lord frequently with gratitude and joy. Again, congratulation to our First Holy Communicants!
DEACON DAVID WANG TO BE ORDAINED A PRIEST
We are delighted to officially announce that Deacon David Wang will be ordained a priest with eight other transitional deacons of the archdiocese on Saturday, 16 May, with a special Ordination Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul beginning at 10:00am. All are invited to the Mass. He will also celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving at our 5:00pm Vigil Mass that evening; again all are invited! Our parish is hosting a dinner for the newly-ordained Father David Wang at the Radnor Hotel immediately following the Vigil Mass. This dinner is by reservation only and space is limited. Please visit our parish website (sksparish.org) or call Kim O’Neill, our coordinator of parish life and ministry (610-688-4584) to make a reservation. Congratulations, Fr. Wang!