Dear Easter People Alleluia is your Song!
It all began with an explosive, mind boggling revelation: "IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD AND THE WORD IS GOD"! Everything follows from this revealed truth. God the Intelligence. God the All Knowing. God the WILLING. God is LOVE. What created and kept in creation is an intelligent decision willfully made in love.
We who are made in the image of God are reasoning creatures who can will to know the truth and choose to believe it, accept it and trust it. God gave us the capacity to love Him, our neighbor and ourselves. We can choose to be human in the likeness of God.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the pattern, the modeling of how to be human here on Earth and for all eternity. Jesus is not only the Way but the only way the human achieves full maturity. Because of the way God formed the human with intelligence, with the power to will and to love, the ability to be human is applicable to all of us regardless of ethnic origin or faith practice or home base. A son and daughter of God is a sister and brother of Jesus whether we know it or not! Each human has the same abilities to be and behave as the child of God.
So, what is the catch? What is the one thing that makes God's creation work? The TRUTH! Why we have a brain, a soul, a will, the ability to love, all of it is to know the Truth, believe the Truth, will the Truth, and do the Truth which is Love. Jesus named Himself, the Truth because his Way of living is the surest way to Life. The Lie destroys life, persons and nations. Jesus lives to die no more. That's the Truth. We are created to be the same.
Happy Easter!
Rev. Joseph Protano, St. Andrew Catholic Church
ABOUT OUR PARISH
Welcome to our Parish! Saint Andrew Roman Catholic Church strives to be a welcoming parish, actively and joyfully celebrating our Catholic faith.
If you are new to our parish, please introduce yourself to one of the greeters at Mass so we can make you aware of all the great things happening on Block Island. Together, we are moving forward in a spirit of faith and radical hospitality.
Please take a moment to learn more about our parish history on Block Island below. There are many opportunities to share your talents, click here for a list of our active ministries and governance.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Joseph Protano, Pastor
Saint Andrew
We celebrate the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle on November 30th. Saint Andrew St. Andrew, also known as Andrew the Apostle, was a Christian Apostle and the older brother to St. Peter.
According to the New Testament, Andrew was born in the village of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee during the early first century. Much like his younger brother, Simon Peter, Andrew was also a fisherman. Andrew's very name means strong and he was known for having good social skills.
In the Gospel of Matthew, it is said Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and saw Andrew and Simon Peter fishing. It is then he asked the two to become disciples and "fishers of men."
In the Gospel of Luke, Andrew is not initially named. It describes Jesus using a boat, believed to be solely Simon's, to preach to the multitudes and catch a large amount of fish on a night that originally was dry.
Later, in Luke 5:7, it mentions Simon was not the only fisherman on the boat, but it is not until Luke 6:14 that there is talk of Andrew being Simon Peter's brother.
However, the Gospel of John tells a separate story, stating Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. When Jesus walked by one day, John the Baptist stated, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" It is then that Andrew and another made the decision to follow Jesus.
Little else is said about Andrew in the Gospels, but it is believed Andrew was one of the closer disciples to Jesus. It was he who told Jesus about the boy with the loaves and fishes, according to John 6:8. When Philip wanted to speak to Jesus about Greeks seeking him, he spoke to Andrew first. Andrew was also present at the last supper.
Per Christian tradition, Andrew went on to preach the Good News around the shores of the Black Sea and throughout what is now Greece and Turkey. Andrew was martyred by crucifixion in Patras. He was bound, rather than nailed, to a cross, as is described in the Acts of Andrew. He was crucified on a cross form known as "crux decussata," which is an X-shaped cross or a "saltire." Today this is commonly referred to as "St. Andrew's Cross." It is believed Andrew requested to be crucified this way, because he deemed himself "unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross as Jesus."
Andrew's remains were originally preserved at Patras. However, some believe St. Regulus, who was a monk at Patras, received a vision telling him to hide some of Andrew's bones. Shortly after Regulus' dream, many of Andrew's relics were transferred to Constantinople by order of Roman emperor Constantius II around 357. Regulus later received orders in a second dream telling him to take the bones "to the ends of the earth." He was to build a shrine for them wherever he shipwrecked. He landed on the coat of Fife, Scotland.
In September 1964, Pope Paul VI had all of St. Andrew's relics that ended up in Vatican City sent back to Patras. Now, many of Andrew's relics and the cross on which he was martyred are kept in the Church of St. Andrew in Patras.
St. Andrew is venerated in Georgia as the first preacher of Christianity in that territory and in Cyprus for having struck the rocks creating a gush of healing waters upon landing on the shore.
His saltire cross is featured on the flag of Scotland and is represented in much of his iconography. He is commonly portrayed as an old man with long white hair and a beard, often holding the Gospel book or a scroll.
St. Andrew is the patron saint of fishermen and singers.