The 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time
From The Font
“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus”
From the time of King David (~1000BC), the Lord anointed kings to rule over the Chosen People. Cyrus was NOT one of those kings. Isaiah was writing in the midst of the so-called “Babylonian Exile.” King Cyrus of Babylon (now Bagdad, Iraq) was not Jewish and was, in fact, a conqueror. So why would the second greatest prophet in Jewish history call him the Lord’s Anointed?
Most of us got very little non-Western history in high school or in college. We learn about the Fertile Crescent, the Egyptians, the Greek side of the Battle of Thermopylae and we get a vague outline of Chinese history and that’s mostly it. That’s largely due to certain trends in European academia and that most of our history books originate in the early 1900s when the Ottoman Empire was not running an especially strong PR game.
In fact, the history of the empires of what we can Iran and Iraq is hugely important in understanding Biblical History. The ancient Assyrian Empire ruled with fierce and absolute control for 2500 years before the Romans even settled their city. The Assyrians were unseated (shockingly!) in the Eighth Century BC by a coalition that became the Babylonian Empire. The Babylonians conquered all of what we call the Middle East (including the Jews) before being defeated by the Persian Empire. The Persians would melt into a confederation of Muslim theocracies which were ruled more or less until the defeat of the Muslims at Lepanto in the 16th century AD. (They were almost destroyed by Subutai and the Mongol Hordes in the 13th century, but Subutai abandoned the campaign.) From the 16th century until the discovery of oil, the Ottoman Empire was largely inconsequential to us in the West.
While this history is not essential to be a good Christian, we can’t really understand most of the Bible without it. After all, the Jews and Jesus were not Western. Culturally, this forgotten history of the Middle East is essential to understand the customs, concerns, and fears that permeate most of the Old Testament and much of the New! Even today, Eastern Christianity is thriving and it looks wildly dissimilar to our experience of Faith.
Thoughts from Fr. Ryan
This week I’m out of town for our annual retreat. Priests are required, by Church law, to attend at least one retreat annually.
Those in our parish who have recently attended an ACTS retreat are happy to explain why. The modern world is all inclusive. It’s desperately trying to sell us everything that we need and to hide from us everything that might distract us from that sales program. Lily Tomlin explained it best in a joke from the 80s: “the problem with the rat race is that whether you win or list, you’re still a rat!” Retreats yank us out of our familiar patterns - the good ones and the bad ones - and force us to ask important questions about what really matters and why we’re doing what we do.
We may not realize it, but it’s exactly this kind of thing that happens when someone close to us dies or gets bad news from the doctor. We get yanked out of our usual pattern and we rethink our priorities…
The type of retreat doesn’t matter all that much. It could be a completely solitary silent retreat or a big busy ACTS retreat. It could be theologically dense or spiritually simple. Certainly the content matters, but for most of us modern people, the first value of the retreat is the jarring effect of being “de-patterned.”
Many of the great spiritual masters recommended that retreatants should start their retreat by sleeping as much as possible… It’s prescient for us as we’re a culture that doesn’t get enough sleep and that doesn’t get even close to enough quiet in our days.
Many of the great psychological researchers and theorists of the past hundred years have echoed the ideas of the great spiritual masters like Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila. They, too, call for sleep, quiet, and honest interior reflection.
You don’t necessarily have to go on retreat to take time for yourself and to look within and to up your prayer and spiritual efforts. But getting away from the normal routine for a while is more valuable than most of us realize. It’s not just a vacation… It’s an opportunity to engage some of our human faculties that get suppressed in our modern world.
Honestly, that’s the best side effect of a daily prayer life! Those few moments of prayer which jar us out of the patterns of noise and busyness can be healing and can become the best part of our day if we let them!
For the past year, I’ve been very actively pursuing a hobby of weight lifting. I’m fairly sure at this point that Purgatory may be just one long set of low-bar squats... My coach tells me over and over: we’re just trying to get your muscles to work in the way they were designed to work. If you hold the bar correctly and put your knees, hips, and feet at the right angle, everything will just work… In many ways, a retreat is about activating the natural spiritual, emotional, and mental mechanisms that exist in every one of us, but which become atrophied by the noise and busyness of our modern lives…
Mass Intentions for the Coming Week
- Sat 5:30p In memory of deceased members of the Regan Family (Carroll, Poche & Bill, & Bitsy)
- Sun 9:30a Pro Populo for the Living & Deceased Members of our Parish
- Mon-Thu No Mass (Fr Ryan on Retreat)
- Fri 5:30p In memory of Lee Rome/LeBeau
- Sat 5:30p In memory of Thomas and Delia Trichell and for the healing for Tommy Trichell/B Hayes.
- Sun 9:30a Populo for the Living Deceased Members of our Parish
ALTAR CANDLES this week are burning for the special intentions of Margo Corulla
Assistants at Holy Mass
| Date | Servers | Lectors | EMHCs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10/21 5:30p | None Scheduled | L Bullard | A Keene |
| 10/22 9:30a | MaryKatherine & Courtland | D Ellerbee | None Scheduled |
| 10/28 5:30p | None Scheduled | A Farlow | N Ermst |
| 10/29 9:30a | Cooper and Maura | C Guizerix | None Scheduled |
| 11/4 5:30p | None Scheduled | MA Gilfoil | A Keene |
| 11/5 9:30a | Kathleen and Evelyn | Jamie Howington | None Scheduled |
Upcoming Events
- Confessions every Friday & Saturday from 5p until Mass and on Sunday from 9a until Mass
- Sunday Catechism with Coffee and Donuts after Mass unless otherwise indicated
- Wednesday Morning Catechism about 9:30 a.m in Church and on Facebook and YouTube
Pastoral Council meeting monthly on the third Wednesday at 6p
October 22 Sunday Catechism following the 9:30 a. m. Mass.
- Nov 19 Potluck Brunch for Fourth Quarter Social following Sunday Mass
- Nov 19 Angel Tree will begin with choosing Angels to be honored
For Your Information:
ROSARY GROUP… a group of parishioners is meeting on Monday at 5:30 p.m. to pray the Rosary. Everyone is invited to join the group. If you need additional information, please contact the Coordinator, Louise Magoun, at 318-341-2403.
PILGRIMAGE!... Fr Ryan is leading a Pilgrimage to Assisi and Rome in Italy in September of 2024. More information is available at HolyTravels.org/FrHumphriesItaly . Please pass the word around!
FORMED.ORG… FORMED has an entire page of weekly featured videos that are worth checking out at https://watch.formed.org/this-week-on-formed. Remember to sign in using our parish’s zip code (71282) at http://signup.formed.org
POTLUCK BRUNCH …. to celebrate Thanksgiving and begin the Advent and Christmas season will be held on Sunday, November 19, following the Sunday Mass. Please mark your calendars and plan to join in this faith family activity. The Fourth Quarter (Oct, Nov, Dec) Social Committee consists of Skeeter and Blanche Wilks, and Louise Magoun as chairpersons with other committee members being Leslye Ellerbee, Jerry Ezell, Susan and Johnny Gilfoil, Sherry Lynn and Timmy Harris, Michael Lancaster, Billy and Ginny Marsh, William and Sharyn Marsh, Hannah McCartney, Sug Regan, Skipper and Christy Guizerix
ANGEL TREE,,, Our annual Angel Tree is getting ready to kick off at the beginning of Advent. Many, many thanks to Mrs. Dana Dukes for heading up the project. If anyone knows of families who may be in need, please let Fr. Ryan or Dana know as soon as possible.
Stewardship Each year at tax time, we conscientiously give “to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.” Does my stewardship indicate that I am as faithful about giving “to God what belongs to God"
Our Return to the Lord
| Weekly Budget FY 2022-23 | $ 2,111 |
| September Budget | $ 8,444 |
| September income | $ 6,442 |
| September Expenses | $ 11,006 |
| October Budget | $ 10,555 |
| October 17 Collection | $ 1,687 |
| October Income To Date | $ 4,963 |
Let us Rejoice in the Lord!
Happy Birthday Tori Kivett (Oct 25), Mariza Paz (Oct 26), Elizabeth Naya (Oct 28)
Happy Anniversary Courtney and Billy Nadeau (Oct 24)
In Our Daily Prayers…
Please let us know of anyone who is ill or hospitalized and would like to receive a visit from Father. Also, help us keep our prayer list up to date by advising us of those who should be added or removed.
Our Pope Francis; Bishop Robert Marshall, and our Diocesan leaders, our President, Governor, Mayor and national, state and local elected representatives
Our parishioners who are sick, shut-in, or otherwise in need of our prayers: Connie and Dan Copes, Elizabeth Crothers, Leslye Ellerbee, Susan and Johnny Gilfoil, Margaret and Pat Gilfoil, Terry Farlow Hall, C.W. and Alyce Keene, Bill Kennedy, Hannah Wood McCarty, Ed Mills, Terry and Susie Murphy, Bobby Reynolds, Sue & Mike Rome
Those under full-time care: Frances Kennedy, Carol Dunning, Keith Capdepon
Our friends and relatives who need our prayers: Lee Adams (Smith), Ashley Alexander (Regan), Graham Allen (S Gilfoil), Kathryn Wood Allsopp (D Wood), Pam Amacker (Gilfoil), James Arceneaux (Book), Marie Farlow Bellard, Tommy Bickham (C Copes), Chris Breard (Gilfoil), Willetta and Mac Cagnolatti, Sarah Cannon (Gilfoil), Fran Castile (Keene), Jeannie and Donald Collins, Jami Cook (Wilks), Bobbe and Gene Cox, Marla Evans Cummings, Susan Ward Daigle (Gilfoil & Keene), Don Deweese, Carol Dipert (Rome), Mac Donaldson (Ellerbee), Joe Farlow, Mike Farlow, Patty Farlow, Monique Florence, Judy Fortenberry, April Franklin (Wilks), Thom Gilfoil, Wyly Gilfoil (Gilfoil), Charlotte Green, Rita Hargrave, Arlice Evans Headley, Evie Hilburn (Lancaster), Charles Howington, Will Irby (P Gilfoil), Dee Jones (Keene), LaLa Lopez (Hernandez), Caroline Marcello (Watts), Michelle McGuire(Gilfoil), Kiely McKellar (S Gilfoil), Mona Martin (MA Gilfoil), Cindy Mathieu (Wilks), Boyce Miller, John Neill, Caryn Oliver, Wayne Pitre (Gilfoil), Bailey, Scott and Tiffney Rome, Dianne W. Roper (Murphy), Janie Saxon (Lancaster), George and Ann Shepherd, Debbie Kedrick Sims, Tommy Trichell, LeeAnn Rome Tranchina (Rome), Mary Claire Warner and her parents , MaryBeth and Steve
Our collegiates: Aidan Collins, Preston Collins, Callie Ezell, Lilly Falgout, Jag Gilfoil, Chris Hall (USMC), Nick Hall, Bruen Johnson, Matilda Johnson, Caroline Marsh, Emmy Lu Marsh, Blake Sullivan, Carter Sullivan, Walker Sullivan, Marsh Wood
PRAYERS FOR OUR FARMERS! O God, Source and Giver of all things, Who manifests Your infinite majesty, power and goodness in the earth about us, we giveYou honor and glory. For the sun and rain, for the manifold fruits of our fields,for the increase of our herds and flocks we thank You. For the enrichment of our souls with divine grace, we are grateful. Supreme Lord of the harvest, graciously accept us and the fruits of our toil, in union with Christ Your Son, as atonement for our sins, for the growth of Your Church, for peace and charity in our homes, for salvation to all. Amen.
