Pastor's Corner

Live-Streamed Homilies

To watch one of Fr Ed's homilies click the image to your right.

To download a copy  of the PDF  document from the JPII Healing Center click HERE

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Welcome to St. Stephen the Martyr Catholic Church. Whether you are a Catholic Christian, non-Catholic Christian, or non-Christian, we want to share our faith, hope and love with you. We believe that Jesus, the Son of God and the Light of the world, came to save and sanctify every person ever created. This means that you are called to salvation and holiness. As Pope Benedict wrote, “Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.” We gather in prayer, learn the truth, and share it with love. Please join us on the road to God together.
Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr Ed




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 ...whoever gives only a cup of cold water  to one of these little ones to drink  because the little one is a disciple...

    Jesus begins this passage with hating family and ends with rewarding any stranger with the slightest generosity and faith (Matt. 10:37-42). Strange, this Savior of humanity. Faith is key here. Faith, according to Jesus, makes for true family. Forget blood as a bottom line. What makes for connection at the end of the day, the end of life, is belief in Jesus and active love for Him and all the truth that He represents. Jesus said, "I am the Truth..."
    Through COVID and the civil strife that we are suffering, our faith is being tested. Are we people of Divine faith or a voluntary body of like-minded individuals with all the staying force of a cultural club? If the latter, we will fall away. The trials today are too severe. We must choose. When Jesus says "hate" your family, He is using radical Jewish exaggeration to make an important point: love and fidelity to Him are most important, and everything else - family, work, nation - all must be reoriented around discipleship. 

COVID Response

    We at St. Stephens have fought to stay safe and healthy, reading and implementing pages and pages of both state and Church regulations and recommendations. We've formally moved into Phase 2 in King County, but that doesn't mean we will open as quickly as possible. Phase 2 allows for 200 people to worship indoors. Our facility and team weren't ready for that last weekend, which is why I preferred to hold Mass outdoors. We may continue outdoors depending on the circumstances. 
    This week (June 22-28) we are studying what's possible for daily Mass, how to expand our adoration hours, and broadening the times our church is open. All this takes teamwork. If you are able to volunteer, we need your help. It does mean wearing a mask and other regulations required by the Archdiocese and the State of Washington. Whether you agree with the regulations or not, obedience on these matters is a healthy act of humility. 

Holy Father Francis' Words on Racism
Dear brothers and sisters in the United States, 

    I have witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest in your nation in these past days, following the tragic death of Mr. George Floyd. My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form, and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life. At the same time, we have to recognize that “the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost.” Today I join the Church in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and in the entire United States, in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism. Let us pray for the consolation of their grieving families and friends, and let us implore God for the national reconciliation and peace for which we yearn. May Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, intercede for all those who work for peace and justice in your land and throughout the world.
May God bless all of you and your families.         -  Pope Francis

U.S. Bishops' Prayer to Overcome Racism
Mary, friend and mother to all, through your Son, 
God has found a way to unite himself to every human being, called to be one people, sisters and brothers to each other. 
We ask for your help in calling on your Son, seeking forgiveness for the times when we have failed to love and respect one another. 
We ask for your help in obtaining from your Son the grace we need to overcome the evil of racism and to build a just society. 
We ask for your help in following your Son, so that prejudice and animosity will no longer infect our minds or hearts but will be replaced with a love that respects the dignity of each person. Mother of the Church, the Spirit of your Son Jesus warms our hearts: pray for us. 

Amen

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Fear no one

    Jesus, You teach us to "fear no one," but we are afraid, body and soul. Set us free with Your truth from all fear. We read in 1 John 4:18 that "perfect love casts out all fear;” cast it out dear Lord and Savior, that we might "share the transforming light of Christ without fear."
There is so much fear in our world these days, from pandemic to civil unrest. It is time to cling to Christ, the Rock of ages, and His Church built upon Peter, a man transformed by the Holy Spirit. Are you clinging yet? I hope so. It's been a challenging time. 

Pandemic

    The coronavirus continues to afflict our world and our church. Sacraments are limited. We currently have two outdoor Masses per week for 100 people each. I do offer confession, anointing, and Holy Communion as often as possible. We have a few hours of "Open Church" every week, but we hope to increase that along with more hours of adoration. 

    
Racial Strife
    Civil unrest continues since the killing of George Floyd and more recently in Atlanta, Rayshard Brooks. May they rest in peace +++.  Martin Luther King, Jr. Said: 

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love... Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding.

There is one power of love that Rev. King proclaimed: Jesus Christ. Jesus remains the solution to every human problem, including racism. A good commentary on this comes from Baptist preacher Robert Jeffress. He rightly identifies both racism (the socially presumed cause of these deaths), along with the lawlessness in the civil unrest that has resulted, as effects of sin: a rejection of God. Any attempt to cure racism or social unrest that does not include God will fail. 

    
Jesus the Way

    This past Sunday we processed the cure (Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament) through some of our parish neighborhoods, from St. Stephens to the Lovers of the Holy Cross convent, to the Cottage retreat, to parishioners on SE 224th St. and then 148th Ave SE near the Water District facility. He walks among us to heal, to bless, to teach, and to deliver. I saw beautiful tears along the way, your faith overflowing with love. 

Year of the Eucharist/Pastoral Letter

    It was a beautiful way to celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Eucharist proclaimed by Archbishop Etienne. I hope you received his pastoral letter in the Northwest Catholic magazine. In it you will find several important points, beginning with a call to focus on understanding the Eucharist better during this coming year. He writes: 

During the coming year, I ask every Catholic and every parish community to commit themselves to deepening our understanding and experience of the Eucharist, and strengthening our Eucharistic liturgies.

We commit to this focus and I plan to keep this in front of us even as we implement our parish vision of Sharing the Transforming Light of Christ. There is no greater transforming light than Jesus present in the Holy Eucharist. These foci complement each other. As we begin our summer in this wild 2020, may we pray the prayer of St. John the Baptist:

"He must increase, and I must decrease."
Gospel   MT 10:26-33

Jesus said to the Twelve: “Fear no one. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

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  ...taking along the two stone tablets

    "Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets." Exodus34:4b (First reading for Sunday, June 7, the Most Holy Trinity.) Moses gives us an image of true discipleship with his obedience to God and readiness to receive. I pray you are ready to receive the grace of God, and have brought the two tablets of heart and mind into the lofty presence of God. He wants to write His law of love with you. 
    I'm writing this from Baring, Washington at a friend's cabin as I take a few nights rest after this challenging Lenten and Easter seasons. Normally, I would have done my annual 8 day retreat in Idaho, but because of the virus crisis I needed to stay close to home. Please pray for a safe reopening of our parish as we seek to have one public Mass this weekend for 100 people.     
    I write this on June 1st, the new feast of Mary, Mother of the Church. Let us appeal to Our Lady for healing and peace in our world. 

Mary, Mother of the Church
From an allocution by Pope Paul VI at the Second Vatican Council  
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

Meditating on the close relationships between Mary and the Church, for the glory of the Virgin Mary and for our own consolation, we proclaim the Most Blessed Mary Mother of the Church, that is to say of all the people of God, of the faithful as well as of the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother. And we wish that the Mother of God should be still more honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this most sweet title.
      This is a title, venerable brothers, not new to Christian piety; it is precisely by this title, in preference to all others, that the faithful and the Church address Mary. It truly is part of the genuine substance of devotion to Mary, finding its justification in the very dignity of the Mother of the word Incarnate.
      Just as, in fact, the divine maternity is the basis for her special relationship with Christ, and for her presence in the economy of salvation brought about by Jesus Christ, thus it also constitutes the principal basis for the relations between Mary and the Church, since she is the mother of him who, right from the time of his Incarnation in her virginal bosom, joined to himself as head his Mystical Body which is the Church. Mary, then, as mother of Christ, is mother also of all the faithful and of all the pastors.
      It is therefore with a soul full of trust and filial love that we raise our glance to her, despite our unworthiness and weakness. She, who has given us in Jesus the fountainhead of grace, will not fail to succour the Church, now flourishing through the abundance of the gifts of the Holy Ghost and setting herself with new zeal to the fulfilment of its mission of salvation.
      And our trust is even more lively and fully corroborated if we consider the very close links between this heavenly Mother of ours and mankind. Although adorned by God with the riches of admirable prerogatives, to make her a worthy Mother of the Word Incarnate, she is nevertheless very close to us. Daughter of Adam, like ourselves, and therefore our sister through ties of nature, she is, however, the creature who was preserved from original sin in view of the merits of the Saviour, and who possesses besides the privileges obtained the personal virtue of a total and exemplary faith, thus deserving the evangelical praise, beata quae credidisti (blessed art thou who believed). In her earthly life, she realised the perfect image of the disciple of Christ, reflected every virtue, and incarnated the evangelical beatitudes proclaimed by Christ. Therefore in her, the entire Church, in its incomparable variety of life and of work, attains the most authentic form of the perfect imitation of Christ.

Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!

...they were all in one place together

               What a suffering, not to be together on Pentecost. It's hard to imagine not being free to gather and celebrate the power of God in the Holy Spirit. Yet, here we are. I had hoped that some moderate freedom to have Mass, even outdoors, would be possible by now. We'll find out more during the week about how this can be done on the near horizon.
               While the Church and State continue their negotiations about how to safely open churches, the Lord wants to bless you with an increase of the Holy Spirit this Sunday. The Spirit of God is not limited by buildings or governmental restrictions. The Spirit is free and wants to liberate us as well from all that binds us. May that Spirit of true interior freedom prevail in our hearts and minds.
               The first Church was truly free. After nine days of prayerful preparation, they were ready and available for the Lord. He fills the empty vessel, the vessel that awaits Him. As Our Lord commanded, "Wait in the city..." We are waiting, Lord, for You to fill us and our parish, our Church and our world. Come, Holy Spirit...

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Once again, here is the Sequence that you will hear on Sunday:

Veni, Sancte Spiritus
 
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
 
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
 
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
 
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
 
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
 
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
 
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
 
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
 
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
 
Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end.
 
Amen.
Alleluia.

 
Keep Vigil

               We are incorporating the full readings for the Vigil of Pentecost this year. As President Trump said the other day, "We need more prayer, not less." There will be four old testament readings with their responsorial psalms, followed by the new testament reading and the Gospel. You can find those readings at http://www.usccb.org/.

 
Study

               I struggle to find time to study, but when I do get a few minutes here or there, I'm greatly blessed by what I read. Two books that have been blessing me lately are the Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort and The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. The Secret gives delightful and challenging vignettes of how the Rosary has brought extraordinary graces to those who pray it. The Practice gives a sweet and simple practice of connecting with God through the day, especially in the "pots and pans" of daily life. I hope you have a chance to read spiritual books, beginning with the Bible. Take time to study, you are worth it.