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St. Brendan's Catholic Church
245 Dory Passage Clearwater, FL 33767 (727) 443-5485 | Fax: (727) 442-5896 Upcoming events; (Follow us on Twitter (stbrendanCWB) or Facebook for current information!)
June 21, 5 p.m. - Navigator Meeting July 5, 9:30 a.m. - Cancer Support Group July 11, 6:30 p.m. - Book Club The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani July 18, 12 noon - CCW Summer Potluck 2017 SPIRIT FM CATHOLIC WOMEN’S CONFERENCE Join women from throughout the Diocese of St. Petersburg on Saturday, September 23rd for a day of friendship, faith, laughs and renewal at the 2017 Spirit FM Catholic Women’s Conference. Speakers include: Jennifer Fulwiler, Patricia Livingston , Fr. Gary Welsh and Big, Big House morning show host, Abby. The day features Mass, Reconciliation, Adoration, breakfast, lunch, wonderful vendors/shopping and of course the famous conference swag bag! Tickets are $45 in advance and sell out quickly, so plan early! For more information and to register visit: myspiritfm.com/WomensConference. Vendor and Sponsorship opportunities are still available. |
Mass Times:
Saturday: 4:30 p.m. Sunday: 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. CIRCLE OF PRAYER
You are invited to join our Circle of Prayer every Wednesday, 12:00 Noon in Classroom B. Our purpose is to gather as the Angelus calls us to prayer. We meet as a group to pray with an open heart. Lend a Hand Ministry
There are many families in need in our community. Please take one of our “Lend aHand” bags at the entrances to the Church, and return the bag with your donations of non-perishable food items to Msgr. Mulligan Hall. Most needed items are: rice, canned meats, canned/jar spaghetti sauce, pasta, peanut butter and soup. The food will be distributed through RCS Food Bank, St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen, Thorn Ministries and Clearwater Homeless Emergency Project. Thank you for your continued support to those in need in our community.
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Welcome to St. Brendan's Catholic Church located in lovely Clearwater, FL.
We hope you find spiritual refreshment and a faith home here in our community. We are a vibrant, active parish focused on growing in our relationship with Jesus Christ and helping others know the love and mercy of our Savior. New to Clearwater or St. Brendan's? Please pick up a new parishioner registration form at the entrances to the church or from our parish office. We look forward to getting to know you. Community is a gift - relationships create a connection and spiritual nourishment through unity in the Body of Christ. We need your contribution of unique gifts and talents to help us grow and live as disciples of Christ. Are you a visitor or seasonal resident? We welcome and strongly encourage your participation in every facet of parish life: faith formation, ministries, and social activities. We can benefit from your prayers, talents, and charisms as well. Explore this website and get to know the thriving community of St. Brendan's. May the peace of Christ be with you, whether this is a visit or relocation to our beaches and parish. |
Homily of His Holiness Pope Francis
Solemnity of Pentecost 4 June 2017 Today concludes the Easter season, the fifty days that, from Jesus’ resurrection to Pentecost, are marked in a particular way by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is in fact the Easter Gift par excellence. He is the Creator Spirit, who constantly brings about new things. Today’s readings show us two of those new things. In the first reading, the Spirit makes of the disciples a new people; in the Gospel, he creates in the disciples a new heart. A new people. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came down from heaven, in the form of “divided tongues, as of fire… [that] rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages” (Acts 2:3-4). This is how the word of God describes the working of the Spirit: first he rests on each and then brings all of them together in fellowship. To each he gives a gift, and then gathers them all into unity. In other words, the same Spirit creates diversity and unity, and in this way forms a new, diverse and unified people: the universal Church. First, in a way both creative and unexpected, he generates diversity, for in every age he causes new and varied charisms to blossom. Then he brings about unity: he joins together, gathers and restores harmony: “By his presence and his activity, the Spirit draws into unity spirits that are distinct and separate among themselves” (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, Commentary on the Gospel of John, XI, 11). He does so in a way that effects true union, according to God’s will, a union that is not uniformity, but unity in difference. For this to happen, we need to avoid two recurrent temptations. The first temptation seeks diversity without unity. This happens when we want to separate, when we take sides and form parties, when we adopt rigid and airtight positions, when we become locked into our own ideas and ways of doing things, perhaps even thinking that we are better than others, or always in the right. When this happens, we choose the part over the whole, belonging to this or that group before belonging to the Church. We become avid supporters for one side, rather than brothers and sisters in the one Spirit. We become Christians of the “right” or the “left”, before being on the side of Jesus, unbending guardians of the past or the avant-garde of the future before being humble and grateful children of the Church. The result is diversity without unity. The opposite temptation is that of seeking unity without diversity. Here, unity becomes uniformity, where everyone has to do everything together and in the same way, always thinking alike. Unity ends up being homogeneity and no longer freedom. But, as Saint Paul says, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17). So the prayer we make to the Holy Spirit is for the grace to receive his unity, a glance that, leaving personal preferences aside, embraces and loves his Church, our Church. It is to accept responsibility for unity among all, to wipe out the gossip that sows the darnel of discord and the poison of envy, since to be men and women of the Church means being men and women of communion. It is also to ask for a heart that feels that the Church is our Mother and our home, an open and welcoming home where the manifold joy of the Holy Spirit is shared. Now we come to the second new thing brought by the Spirit: a new heart. When the risen Jesus first appears to his disciples, he says to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them” (Jn 20:22-23). Jesus does not condemn them for having denied and abandoned him during his passion, but instead grants them the spirit of forgiveness. The Spirit is the first gift of the risen Lord, and is given above all for the forgiveness of sins. Here we see the beginning of the Church, the glue that holds us together, the cement that binds the bricks of the house: forgiveness. Because forgiveness is gift to the highest degree; it is the greatest love of all. It preserves unity despite everything, prevents collapse, and consolidates and strengthens. Forgiveness sets our hearts free and enables us to start afresh. Forgiveness gives hope; without forgiveness, the Church is not built up. The spirit of forgiveness resolves everything in harmony, and leads us to reject every other way: the way of hasty judgement, the cul-de-sac of closing every door, the one-way street criticizing others. Instead, the Spirit bids us take the two-way street of forgiveness received and given, of divine mercy that becomes love of neighbour, of charity as “the sole criterion by which everything must be done or not done, changed or not changed” (ISAAC OF STELLA, Or. 31). Let us ask for the grace to make more beautiful the countenance of our Mother the Church, letting ourselves be renewed by forgiveness and self-correction. Only then will we be able to correct others in charity. The Holy Spirit is the fire of love burning in the Church and in our hearts, even though we often cover him with the ash of our sins. Let us ask him: “Spirit of God, Lord, who dwell in my heart and in the heart of the Church, guiding and shaping her in diversity, come! Like water, we need you to live. Come down upon us anew, teach us unity, renew our hearts and teach us to love as you love us, to forgive as you forgive us. Amen”. |
