Adult Faith Formation, October 24th -- Canterbury Tales, Session 6 -- The Franklin's Tale and Overview of the first half of the Tales

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!

Sunday Sermon, October 22nd -- Cyrus the Great, the Lord's Anointed

 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]!

Adult Faith Formation, October 17th -- Canterbury Tales, Session 5 -- The Merchant's and Franklin's Tales

 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.

Sunday Sermon, October 15th -- The Parable of the Wedding Feast, according to the Senses of Scripture

 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]!

Parish Schedule Changes, October 18th to 21st

St Luke Brisket Dinner! Wednesday, October 18th! No 7am Mass. Confessions 4:30-5:30. Sung Mass 5:30pm. Dinner at 6:45pm!

7am Mass on Thursday, October 19th, as normal.

Due to diocesan meetings in Billings:
No afternoon confessions, Thursday, October 19th
No Mass or confessions, Friday, October 20th
No 9am Mass on Saturday, October 21st

(adoration continues as normal)