Over the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed a few changes at Mass. Towards the end of March, the diocese gave us some revised guidelines regarding COVID safety, and this has allowed us to make some adjustments that we hope our parishioners enjoy. One of the first things you’ve probably noticed is that we’ve been able to fill the baptismal font, as well as the holy water fonts at all entrances. I know that many people have greatly missed holy water since we drained the font over a year ago, so I was very excited that we were able to reintroduce it. (It seemed especially appropriate that we were able to reintroduce holy water on Easter. It was also incredibly special to be able to baptize four of our parishioners in the newly-filled font.)

Another change you may have noticed involves the music at Mass. Jessica has done an amazing job over the past year adapting to the tight restrictions on singing that were required under COVID, and we’ve been very blessed to have beautiful liturgical music throughout this whole time; but I know that congregational singing has been greatly missed. Just prior to Lent, the diocese gave us some revised guidelines that relaxed these restrictions a bit. We put those changes in place at the 5pm and 8:45am Masses, but we didn’t reintroduce congregational singing at the other Masses. The Pastoral Team figured that this would be a good way to reintroduce singing while still giving an option to folks who weren’t quite comfortable with that yet. After testing the waters during the 40 days of Lent, we decided to reintroduce singing at all Masses beginning Easter Sunday. Parishioners are now allowed to […]

Alleluia!  He is risen!  It always feels good to say that after 40 days of Lent, but that is especially true this year.  Last year we were unable to gather in person for our Easter celebration, so it feels especially good to celebrate it together (as well as with our parishioners who continue to watch the livestream Mass at home – we miss you and pray for you on this holy day).  I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you some of Pope Francis’ Easter homily from last year, written during the middle of the COVID lockdowns.  I hope this message will continue to give us hope as we try to emerge from this pandemic with a stronger faith.  God bless you all!

“After the Sabbath” (Mt 28:1), the women went to the tomb.  This is how the Gospel of this holy Vigil began: with the Sabbath.  It is the day of the Easter Triduum that we tend to neglect as we eagerly await the passage from Friday’s cross to Easter Sunday’s Alleluia.  This year however, we are experiencing, more than ever, the great silence of Holy Saturday.  We can imagine ourselves in the position of the women on that day.  They, like us, had before their eyes the drama of suffering, of an unexpected tragedy that happened all too suddenly.  They had seen death and it weighed on their hearts.  Pain was mixed with fear: would they suffer the same fate as the Master?  Then too there was fear about the future and all that would need to be rebuilt.  A painful memory, a hope cut short.  For them, as for us, it was the darkest hour.

Yet in this situation the women did […]

We’re just one week away from our Parish Retreat! Our Parish Retreat is always a special event, a time when we can come together for prayer as a parish family, especially as we try and support one another during our Lenten preparations. I’m especially excited that we’re able to have our Parish Retreat at this particular moment. We’ve had to cancel so many events during this pandemic, and we’ve had to severely modify so many others. The Parish Retreat is one of those rare events that we didn’t have to modify or scale back during the pandemic. In fact, because we’re live streaming the retreat, we have the potential to come together with even more of our parishioners.

The theme of our Parish Retreat this year is “In Hope We Are Saved.” The retreat will take place over the course of three nights and will feature three speakers who are very dear to our hearts at Christ the King:

On Sunday March 21st at 7pm, Fr. Tom Jones will give a talk entitled “Called to Hope”. Fr. Tom served as Pastor of Christ the King from 1996 until 2007. He currently serves as the Superior of Holy Cross House, the skilled-care facility for Holy Cross priests and brothers.
On Monday March 22nd at 7pm, Mrs. Megan Urbaniak will give a talk entitled “People of Hope”. Megan served as Director of Adult Faith Formation at Christ the King for several years, and she now works in Campus Ministry at Notre Dame.
On Tuesday March 23rd at 7pm, Br. Matt Rehagen will give a talk entitled “Hope to Bring”. Brother Matt has assisted in our school over the last two years, so many of your kids know him […]

Lent has begun!  This is an important penitential season where we “step up our game” with 40 days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in preparation for the great celebration of Easter.  Hopefully all of us have a plan for how we’re going to make this a meaningful season of prayerful preparation, but if you haven’t got your plan together yet, it’s not too late!  Here are some things we’ll have going on at the parish to help you in your observance of this season.

We’ll offer Massat 5:30pm every Monday through Friday during Lent.
There will be many opportunities for confessionduring Lent

¨ Confessions will be offered at 6pm every Wednesday during Lent, in addition to our normal Saturday morning 9am confession time.

¨ We’ll be participating in the diocese’s The Light Is On for You campaign, offering confessions from 6-8pm on Tuesday, March 9th.

¨ Additional confession opportunities will be offered during Holy Week, and we’ll publicize those times when the dates get a little closer.

Our Parish Mission will take place on March 21stthrough the 23rd, at 7pm each night in the church.  We’ve got a terrific lineup of speakers:  on Sunday we’ll have Fr. Tom Jones, former Pastor of Christ the King; on Monday we’ll have Megan Urbaniak, our former Director of Adult Faith Formation; and on Tuesday we’ll have Br. Matt Rehagen, who assists in our school (and the brother of our former Parochial Vicar, Fr. Chris Rehagen).  Each night will also be live streamed, so mark your calendars!
This year’s Fish Frywill be a drive-thru event, with the proceeds going to our sister parish, Corpus Christi in Jalchatra, Bangladesh.
We’ll have a special (free!) Lenten Zoom Bible Study.  Contact Fr. Gil for registration or additional information:  frgil@christthekingonline.org.
We also have prayer resources available in the […]

This week is Catholic Schools Week, a great time to celebrate the importance of Catholic education in handing down the faith to our young people.  It’s an especially good time to celebrate the many ways that this is being done right here at Christ the King!  So many good things are happening at our school every day.  I hope that all of us are proud of this ministry, whether or not we have kids in the school.

As with everything else these days, Catholic Schools Week will look a little different this year.  (It feels like I say that a lot these days, doesn’t it?)  Normally we have our Open House today (January 31st).  We not only invite prospective families to tour our school and meet our teachers, but we welcome existing families and even parishioners with no children in the school.  After all, as we always say, the school is the largest ministry of the parish, and so all of our parishioners have a stake in how it’s doing.

This year, though, tours will just be with new families by appointment so that we’ll be able to follow all of our protocols regarding social distancing.  However, we encourage you to take the virtual tour of our school, which can be found on the school web site:  https://school.christthekingonline.com/ in order to get the latest on the great things going on in our school.  And also, please continue to spread the word about our school to families you know who may be looking for a school for their children.  Even if they weren’t able to make the Open House today, we would still love to meet them and give them a tour to show them what our school has to […]