Wednesday, November 1st is All Saint's Day! A holy day of obligation for Catholics.
Masses at Corpus Christi are:
Tuesday, October 31st - 5:30pm
Wednesday, November 1st - 7am and 5:30pm (with incense)
All Souls' Day Masses on Thursday, November 2nd are:
7am - Two consecutive Masses
5:30pm - Sung Mass with incense and catafalque
We discuss the Franklin's Tale as the capstone to the "marriage group" and ultimately answering the question of the Wife of Bath's Tale: Who should have the power in a marriage?
We also review some of the tales that are not in our edition: The Tales of the Man of Law, the Friar, the Summoner, and the Squire.
As we have a few month's break until resuming our course series after Christmas, I encourage listening to the Canterbury Tales on LibriVox (especially the tales so far which are not in our printed edition) and reading the Prioress' Tale and the Pardoner's Tale. For additional enjoyment of medieval England, consider reading or listening to Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott -- this would be very helpful!
King Cyrus the Great of Persia is unique as being the only pagan who is spoken of as the Lord's "anointed" -- this word is messiah in Hebrew, or christ in Greek. Cyrus the Great foreshadows Christ Jesus as King of Kings. The example of Cyrus the Great illustrates how God is most powerful in human history, and how he brought about the fulfilment of his will according to his promises.
This sermon is more of a history lesson in ancient civilization, but helps us both to understand the Old Testament and to trust in God's plan for the world today.
Listen online [here]!
We begin by going back to the Clerk's Tale and covering points we missed last week. Then we move on to the Merchant's Tale - especially highlighting the responses of the various pilgrims to the Tales so far, especially the way that the Host (Harry Bailey) speaks about his wife. We only briefly speak of the Franklin's Tale.
There are four "senses" of Scripture: The literal, and the three spiritual senses.
The literal or historical sense does not intend a fundamentalist or literalistic reading - but rather is "literal" in the sense of "literary" and "historical" in the sense of "historical context in which the event occurred or in which the human author wrote". The literal sense is the historical context of the event, and the original intention of the human author in writing.
The first spiritual sense is the allegorical sense: How an event/person/thing points to another or a future event/person/thing.
The second spiritual sense is the tropological or moral sense: What this passage tells us about the human soul, or about the virtues/vices.
The third spiritual sense is the anagogical sense: How an event/person/thing foreshadows the end of time.
We interpret today's parable according to these four senses.
Listen online [here]!
St Luke Brisket Dinner! Wednesday, October 18th! No 7am Mass. Confessions 4:30-5:30. Sung Mass 5:30pm. Dinner at 6:45pm!
We focus mostly on the Tale of the Wife of Bath.
Pope Leo XIII published twelve encyclicals and five apostolic exhortations related to the Holy Rosary! We consider the importance of the Rosary, especially in the Month of October, and give some ideas of how to pray the Rosary.
Listen online [here]!
In this session, we discuss the way that Chaucer develops the idea of the novel, with the various characters (and their stories) interacting with (and against) each other in an over-arching plot line.
Class Schedule
Sept 12 -- Introduction
Sept 19 -- The General Prologue
Oct 3 -- The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale, The Reeve's Tale
Oct 10 -- The Wife of Bath's Tale, the Clerk's Tale
Oct 17 -- The Merchant's Tale, the Franklin's Tale
Oct 24 -- Review and looking ahead to the second half
The parable of the two sons (Matthew 21) comes in the last public sermon our Lord gave -- on Tuesday of Holy Week, when Jesus had cleansed the Temple the day before and then spent this whole day preaching in the Temple area.
There are many memorable parables and lessons from this portion of public preaching - and this parable is an invitation to repentance.
We also see that the conversion of others should lead us to a deeper conversion, even as our own personal conversion is the best witness to bring others to the Church.
Listen online [here]!
No 7am Mass on Thursday, October 5th -- Mass moved to 5:30pm followed by 6:30pm parish dinner to celebrate Jess entering Carmel!
No 7am Mass on Wednesday, October 18th -- Mass moved to 5:30pm (solemn Mass with incense) followed by 6:45pm parish dinner for our patronal feast of St Luke!
No 5:30pm confessions on Thursday, October 19th; no Mass or confessions on Friday, October 20th; no 9am Mass on Saturday, October 21st --- diocesan meetings in Billings.