Church of the
Annunciation

May 30, 2023

Dear Friends in Christ:

At the end of the 5 PM Sunday Mass on Pentecost (05/28/23), I extinguished the flame of the Easter Candle signifying the end of the Easter season and the return to Ordinary Time. “Ordinary” is the time between the two great liturgical seasons of Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter. Liturgically, “ordinary” has a sense of  the special “routine” or “ordering” of the Church Year around Sunday Eucharist that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the culmination of God’s creation. 

Monday (05/29/2023) following Pentecost was the feast of the “Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.” It is a recent feast promulgated by Pope Francis on February 11, 2018. On the Monday after Pentecost “we honor Mary as her Son’s first disciple. With a mother’s love, she was a presence of wisdom and grace for the nascent church, from the moment she walked down from the hill of the cross on Good Friday to the dawning of Pentecost. With Mary we are the church of the Risen Jesus: the church where we are each other’s daughters and sons, where we are each other’s mothers and fathers. To be ‘church’ is to stand at the cross with Mary and the people we love most in the world; with every broken and struggling and grieving family; with the sick and the dying and with those who care for them; with the mentally ill, the addicted, and the abused; with those who are marginalized and rejected because of their race, gender, their nationality.” (Deacon Jay Cormier, Give Us This Day, 6/2022, p. 77) 

The first two Sundays when we return to “Ordinary Time” are not sequential or numbered but thematic:  “Most Holy Trinity” on June 3-4 and “Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ,” commonly known as “Corpus Christi” on June 10-11. “Most Holy Trinity” is an ancient feast going back to the ninth century. It has the distinction of being a church doctrine rather than an event in sacred history. We express the mystery of the Blessed Trinity when we make the sign of the cross, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.” We believe in the oneness or unity of God and in the relationship or trinity of Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is a mystery. “Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ” is a mystery too but more tangible. At the last supper Jesus takes bread and wine and says, “This my body.” “This is my blood.” There is a custom on the feast of Corpus Christi to process into the neighborhood around the church with the Blessed Sacrament. It visually expresses the deep mystery of the Eucharist as the very life of Christ we receive in Holy Communion and the Christ within us that we must bring into the world. 

Magnificat, Buffalo Chapter Gentle Woman, Mother of Mercy, is meeting on Saturday June 10^th, at the M Hotel (formerly Millennium on Walden Ave), 9:00 AM – 12:10 PM, guest speaker is Bishop Mike Fisher. For information and registration, call Chris Holden (716) 759-8135.  

Holy Name Society is hosting a Chicken Barbeque on Sunday June 11^th, 12 noon until sold out, $15 includes chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, vegetables, drink and dessert, sit down and take out. 

Circle your calendar for our annual Summer Picnic August 18-19-20, 2023. Fish Fry on Friday Evening, Famous Chowder on Saturday and Sunday, Pork Chop Dinner on Saturday, Chicken BBQ on Sunday and the Food Court serving all three days. Enjoy Live Music with Classic Car Show and Envy's Mixtape Band on Friday, Nerds Gone Wild on Saturday, and Polka Mass and Polka Music with Buffalo Touch on Sunday.  Theme Baskets, Grand Raffle, Booths, Games of Chance and Children’s Tent. Enjoy and volunteer. 

Fr. Gene Ulrich