The Celebrating the Word Family Is Deeply Saddened to Announce the Death of One of Our
The “Celebrating the Word” family is deeply saddened to announce the death of one of our beloved contributors and supporter, Resurrectionist Father Charles (Charlie) Fedy, on January 31st, at the age of 80.
Fr. Charlie professed his religious vows in the Congregation of the Resurrection on September 8, 1953 and was ordained to the priesthood on May 28, 1960. In 1960, and for the next 12 years Fr. Charlie ministered as a teacher at Scollard Hall in North Bay, Ontario and served as principal in his last year there. He then served as Rector of St. Thomas Scholasticate, London, Ontario from 1972 to1982.
Fr. Charlie held a variety of leadership roles within the Congregation, including Director of Formation from Post Novitiate to Final Vows, chairman and member of a number of committees, provincial councillor, Assistant Provincial (2 terms), rector of Resurrection House in Toronto and assistant rector at Resurrection College, and pre-novitiate director during the past year. Fr. Charlie was highly regarded as a spiritual director.
In the Diocese of Hamilton, Ontario, Fr. Charlie served as Associate Pastor in Kitchener at St. Aloysius Parish, Pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in Hamilton and as Pastor of St. Agatha Parish, St Agatha for seventeen years until his retirement in 2010. On a regular basis, he also celebrated mass and was a confessor for the Carmelite Sisters of St. Agatha.
Fr. Fedy’s life of faith-filled service touched the lives of his students, his fellow religious, colleagues, parishioners, spiritual directees, family and friends during his life of dedicated ministry.
His gifts of quiet steadfastness, devotion and humbleness were personal traits recognized by all who encountered him. In addition he brought laughter and joy in his interactions with others; Fr. Charlie manifested a genuine sense of welcome and acceptance to all he met.
Father Charlie was an enthusiastic, and very valued, contributor to “Celebrating the Word,” and brought many important pastoral and formational gifts to that work. We deeply appreciated his generosity and passion for the Word of God, and his death deeply saddens us. However, as the funeral liturgy reminds us, “for your faithful people life is changed, not ended”. After a long life of faithfulness and generous service of the Lord, we entrust him to the Risen One, and we pray that he will share forever in Christ’s glory and peace. Thank you, Father Charlie, for all you shared with us!
The Team of “Celebrating the Word”
Revised by Fr. Ray Reitzel, C.R.
Father Ray was born in Waterloo and is #9 of a family of 9 boys and 3 girls. One brother (Harry) is a C.R. priest and two sisters are Notre Dame Sisters. He taught High School for 31 years and served in 4 parishes for 17 years. He is semi-retired and living in the priests’ residence at St. Jerome’s University, Louis Hall.
FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
February 22, 2015
GATHERING TIME (10-15 minutes)
Introduction to the Word:
Another Lent is upon us. As always, it begins officially on Ash Wednesday with ashes on our foreheads. Fr. Frank Ruetz, C.R. shared a story about when, many years ago, as a very young priest, he was assigned as chaplain to a junior high school. All 500 students had been herded into the school gym where he was to bless each student with ashes. The noise and din of a thousand feet shuffling for their proper place on the gym floor was deafening. Then on the stern command of the school principal, Sr. Regina, the huge gym immediately became stone still. He recognized the first student in line. Margaret, a precocious 14-year-old girl with a huge smile stepped forward for his blessing of ashes: "Remember Margaret that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." His ashen thumb was still on her forehead as she gave her clear enthusiastic affirmation for all to hear: "You'd better believe it!"
Margaret seems to have understood, better than most, that there is something deep inside all of us that knows exactly why we take ashes. Perhaps the heart understands this truth better than the head because more people go to Church on Ash Wednesday than on any other day of the year, including Christmas. So, the question, why are ashes so popular?
I suspect it comes from the fact that, as a symbol, they are blunt, final, and speak the language of the soul. Something inside each of us knows exactly why we take the ashes: "You are dust and unto dust you shall return." No explanation needed. To put on ashes is to say publicly that you are in a reflective and penitential space. Three areas of Penance are mentioned by Jesus in the gospel on Ash Wednesday: Prayer, God is #1; Almsgiving, sharing the gifts we have with those in need; Fasting, self-denial to control our bodily appetites. We will relate these to the Gospel later.
Warm-up Activity (about 8-10 minutes):
An expression I sometimes hear from people describing their disposition towards Sunday Mass is: “There’s got to be MORE!” meaning that they feel that their faith should be giving them more than what they are typically experiencing in Sunday morning worship.
Question: At this time in your life are you fully satisfied with your personal experience of "faith?" Or do you think there's got to be more to the faith life than what most of us experience?
Share your thoughts.
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The Table of the Word
LENTEN THEME
You will hear the words "repentance" which leads to the Greek word "metanoia", which implies a change of mind and heart, a spiritual conversion, a life process of transformation. Lent is not asking us for a temporary forgoing of something pleasurable, like giving up chocolate. The metanoia to which Jesus invites us is both a turning away from whatever limits the full flourishing of God's plan for creation, and a turning toward the actual source of divine love (Barbara Reid, 2009).
There is no better time to begin this turning than now, the beginning of the Lenten season. Good intentions to make better lifestyle decisions in the future become meaningless words in the light of Jesus' urgent invitation: "This is the time." This is the opportune time, the right time. Jesus himself makes this clear in the first words he speaks in the Gospel of Mark: the same words proclaimed and empowering this very day:
"The time is fulfilled! God's reign is at hand!
Repent and believe the Good News!"
Relating to these following words from the 1st reading: Noah, the flood, the rainbow, our covenant with God, we pray,
Lord Jesus, You give us your rainbow as a sign of your promise, Lord have mercy.
Christ Jesus, through our baptism, You free us from slavery to sin, Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, You invite us into a vital partnership with all creation, Lord, have mercy.
Let us pray (together):
O Lord, during these days of Lent
as we prepare to walk with your Son into the desert of our lives,
remind us always that you are with us, that we are never alone,
that we have nothing to fear, but everything to hope for.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION TIME (45 minutes)
(As Christians we believe that the WORD of God we hear proclaimed each Sunday is an empowering Word, and that God is present in the Word proclaimed. This is the Word that God wants us to hear today. The dynamic of the Small Christian Community, is such that God’s Spirit becomes present, and the gifts of the Spirit are experienced as empowering and life-giving).
FIRST READING (Genesis 9:8–15)
God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
SECOND READING (1 Peter 3:18–22)
Beloved: Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison. In former times these did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.
Baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you – not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for the good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with Angels, Authorities, and Powers made subject to him.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL (Mark 1:12–15)
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark. Glory to you, O Lord.
After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Lectio Divina means “sacred prayer.” It was a popular form of prayer in the early Church. This Word proclaimed today is God’s own Word, God’s way of speaking to you today through his own Spirit. So take a few moments to be quiet, allowing this Word you have just heard to touch you as you reflect quietly on the three readings. Is there a word or thought that somehow attracts you or has your interest? If so, simply identify it—no need to explain it—just identify it.
COMMENTARY:
In selecting this first reading for Lent, the Church is acknowledging that Lent is a season of covenant-making, and this covenant (i.e. a contractual partnership with God) marks our true place before God. In the first reading we hear the delightful story of Noah—a story not a history—that is more than a fanciful tale told to children. It is an important story in Israel’s coming to an understanding of the nature of its unique but awesome relationship with its Creator God.
The ancient stories of creation frequently included some kind of cosmic battle fought between the forces of chaos and a youthful warrior god. According to today’s biblical passage, this is the first covenant made by God. It is not only first in a series of covenants, but it is also fundamental to all other such relationships.
It provides an overview of cosmic order, and it highlights the place of human beings within that order. It is important to remember here that this covenant is not made between God and Noah alone, but with all of Noah’s descendants, generation after generation. Nor is it made merely with humankind but with all living creatures and with the earth itself, even to today’s generation. (Donald Senior, 1993).
And what is our place within this cosmic panorama? We are part of the breathless spectacle of life, along with every other living creature: the birds, the various tame and wild animals, the earth itself. But because we do not know our place in this world, or are not willing to accept it, we bring chaos back into it. We violate living systems; we hoard natural resources, we fight wars over oil and land; we deprive each other of necessary food. We act as if the natural world were a personal commodity to do with as we please, and we use the fruits of this magnificent world as weapons against one another.
Lent is a time to put things back into order, to take our proper place in the world. To do this effectively, we are invited to put on the mind of Jesus, a mindset that he lived to the hilt, a guideline we would be wise to follow in our pursuit of a meaningful and fulfilled life.
In Mark’s Gospel, after his baptism, Jesus enters the wilderness, the desert, to be tempted by the devil. In Mathew’s gospel, he describes the three temptations of Satan which are the three sources of sin. Satan’s challenge: “Change these stones to bread!” (bodily appetites; “I will give you all the kingdoms of the world..” (material possessions); “Jump down from the top of the temple, and the angels will save you.” (seeking self glory, pride).
How do we defend ourselves against these temptations? Jesus tells us in the gospel on Ash Wednesday: fasting, almsgiving, and prayer (adoration and gratitude to God). These areas of Penance will lead us to “metanoia”, a spiritual conversion. We have 40 days of Lent to transform ourselves, as Jesus did penance in the desert for 40 days to prepare himself for his mission and ministry. It slowly dawned on Jesus what he must do if he is to fulfill his Father's will. After the ordinary joys and sorrows of his life, Jesus came to understand that all that remained, all that endured would be "the Kingdom of God."