Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Please note! The Sunday 5 pm Mass has changed to 5:30 pm.

 The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults begins September 11, and we welcome all who are interested in becoming Catholic. Please get in touch with the parish office for more information.

 Our Parish Life Ministry Fair next weekend, September 16 & 17. Please take advantage after Mass to visit with ministry leaders and representatives outside under the tents about various ministries and choose one for your commitment this year.

 The Diocese is hosting a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, MD, on October 7th. To learn more about the pilgrimage, visit the Diocesan website. 

Catholic Charities is offering English and Citizenship classes every Tuesday and Thursday starting September 26. Registrations will be held on September 19 from 7-9 pm in the school.

 High Schoolers are invited to join us for a bonfire and s'mores this Tuesday, the 12th. We’ll meet at the rectory patio from 7 pm until 8:30 pm. Please see the bulletin for more details.

 On September 16, Fr. Wilson celebrates 50 years in religious life and the 45th anniversary of his ordination. We will be planning a reception – watch the bulletin for details.

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Please note! The Sunday 5 pm Mass has changed to 5:30 pm.

 The Parish Offices will be closed on Monday, 4 September, in observance of Labor Day. There will be no 7 am Mass.

 The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults begins September 11, and we welcome all who are interested in becoming Catholic. Please get in touch with the parish office for more information.

 All 6th-8th graders are invited to join us for games and fellowship in the gym this Wednesday, September 6th, from 6:45-8 pm. We’ll meet every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month.

 All High Schoolers are invited to join us for dinner next Saturday, September 9th, after the 5pm vigil Mass in the Bradican Room. Please see the bulletin for more details about Middle and High School Youth Ministries, including our weekly Small Groups and other upcoming events.

 Our Parish Life Ministry Fair weekend is coming up on September 16 & 17. Please take advantage after Mass to visit with ministry leaders and representatives outside under the tents about various ministries and choose one for your commitment this year.

 The Diocese is hosting a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, MD, on October 7th. Saint Bernadette will be providing transportation if there is enough interest. There is a $30 fee to help defray the cost of the bus. Space is limited. You can sign up here or call our parish office for more information. To learn more about the pilgrimage, visit the Diocesan website. 

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

This week, I spent some time just thinking about Saint Peter. We’ve had a lot of readings about him at Mass lately. It is Peter who suddenly says,” You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” and just two chapters later, on Mount Tabor, he seems to forget what that means. Even with Jesus’ Glory visible, he wants to “collect” Jesus, Moses, and Elijah and keep them safely in tents. He tells Jesus, “I will never leave you,” and Jesus tells him that before morning, Peter will have denied him three times. Remember, however, Peter didn’t just disappear into the night. He cared. Maybe Jesus’ rebuke to Peter when he had cut off the soldier’s ear at Jesus’ arrest was still stinging. Peter was definitely a man of action. We forget that he was the only one who defended Jesus with the sword against the soldiers Judas brought to take Jesus away. Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, even if for a short time, before his fear got the better of him. Peter is complicated, and he is the one that Jesus chose for the foundation of his Church.

In the Gospel today, Jesus is predicting his own passion and death one of the several times he does so on this their final trip to Jerusalem, and Peter exclaims, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you!” Jesus calls him Satan and an obstacle to him. I wonder if I could have figured it out earlier or if what was about to happen would have been impossible to imagine. We can easily look back on the facts and make judgments.

I always try to find art for the bulletin cover from all genres and periods that is meditative and represents the Tradition. Nobody ever painted “Get behind me, Satan” because (I think) it is hard to reconcile. Jesus does not offer that reconciliation and mercy to Peter until after the resurrection: up until that time, I imagine, Peter is torn apart with guilt and grief, wishing that he had acted differently when the time came to acknowledge Jesus. But he denied him at the house of Caiaphas. Finally, the restoration of their friendship happens when Jesus approaches Peter with the words, “Do you love me?” Peter does, and Jesus knew it all along.

The painting on the cover of the bulletin this week is a marvel. Peter and John are running to the tomb: they have just heard that Jesus is risen; he is not at the tomb. It was painted in the year my mom’s mother was born.

I do not know this artist, but I think I will study him. Eugène Burnand is apparently famous in Switzerland and France but not well known anywhere else. He knew Peter. Look at Peter’s face. It is a confusion of hope, regret, and dread of how Jesus will receive him now, after what he did and didn’t do. What is the one left in charge to do now? “Upon this rock...” He is running to the tomb to find out.

~~ Pope Francis has declared September (until the Feast of Saint Francis on October 4) the “Season of Creation,” a time for us to reflect on God’s gifts of life and how we are to care for the life of holy creation in all its forms. Watch the bulletin and our social media for upcoming activities and events.

Also, RCIA starts next week. Be sure not to get a late start!

The Lord be with you,

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

The Synod on Synodality is a subject that most people think they can’t get their minds around. This is principally because synodality is not a word that the Church has used seriously for centuries. It is still very much alive in the ecclesial life in the Churches of our sisters and brothers in the East, both Eastern Catholic as well as Orthodox.

It is based on this idea that, as we have become the Body of Christ, the Body of Christ has a voice that should be listened to. To not listen is to say we don’t really believe that it is real in the first place or that membership might be a voice, but no vote. So why say anything?

Pope Francis is trying to return the Church from an institution of a monologue to a living Body that is in dialogue. Dialogue requires two things: the admission that the “other” actually might have something worth hearing and the openness to hear it. Change is something that is directed by the Holy Spirit when we are together. He doesn’t work in our isolation because, ultimately, we will not agree when our humanness moves him aside. There can be no dialogue without both speaking and hearing.

The whole idea that there needs to be a Synod on Synodality itself underlines the fact that we, as a Church, are not familiar or even comfortable with these premises. The recent “listening sessions” last year seemed to illustrate this: the perfunctory listening happened, and the results for dioceses were condensed into a few pages and passed on to Rome. Boxes checked, we have moved on to more important things.

Mainly, what we heard from those who were speaking is that the Church is either not doing what she should be doing or doing it badly. True, it was not a complete dialogue – there was only listening, right? The next step is that we must look at what was said and prayerfully determine if we seek healing. I guess that is the agenda for those who are participating in October.

I was thinking about this a lot this week. It is easy to say the Church is failing in its mission. The parish is not providing what we need. Our children and youth are leaving the faith. There is a crisis of basic Catholic teachings, and our adults don’t know what they don’t know.

We all agree on what the Church or parish should be doing. But the deeper question is: Who is the Church? Who is the parish?

It is you.

We have homeless people living behind our brand-new Whole Foods. We have people living outside the sacraments just because they don’t realize they don’t have to. We have alienated too many people by demanding conversion before offering mercy and compassion. We have so much outreach we might be doing but don’t have a building to do it in.

At the time I write this, we begin teaching our children religious education program classes this weekend, and eight classes will not be able to start because we don’t have adults to teach them. Let’s own this, Body of Christ!

The Lord be with you,