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Cathedral of St. Patrick Young Adults Rosary Walk 2009
for Young Adults in their 20s and 30s

Join young adults for six Rosary Walks this summer through Central Park. We will all meet at the fountain in Grand Army Plaza opposite the Plaza Hotel (5th Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets,) no later than 6:30 P.M., and then head into the park for our walk of prayer. The dates are June 9th and 23rd, July 7th and 21st, and August 4th and 18th. Rain dates will be next Wednesday after the scheduled dates.

For more information email this address or visit www.cspya.org.

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We must choose someone who was with us
all the time that the Lord Jesus lived among us;
he will take his place with us
in giving witness to the Lord’s resurrection, alleluia.

Today we celebrate the feast of the successor of the traitor Judas, an unenviable role in the Church if ever there was one.  But not given to superstition, Matthias assumed his office with courage and complete confidence in the grace it communicated to him and to the world.

St. Augustine would later articulate the truth we see witnessed in Matthias’s succession to Judas’s place among the Twelve.  The Church’s apostolic office, possessed by bishops and priests, functions and conveys its grace apart from the moral quality of its specific holder.  Of course, all clergy, like all Christians, should strive for perfection.  This is a demand of Baptism, which is further specified for priests by Holy Orders.  But the Church is not deprived of the priestly, prophetic, and kingly grace of Christ when those ordained to serve this grace fall into sin.  For example, Judas’s apostolic office was not obliterated by his treason.  Another took his place.  Because they are rooted in Christ’s priestly power itself, apostolic teaching remains true and the sacraments remain efficacious every time they are preached and celebrated, albeit sometimes unworthily by sinful ministers.  This is good news.  Christ remains ever active in his Church, even through those who also need his grace.  Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory popularizes this doctrine within our own historical context.

History has not preserved much of Matthias’s life, but click here, here, and here for summaries of his biography and legend.

Father,
you called Saint Matthias to share in the mission of the apostles.
By the help of his prayers
may we receive with joy the love you share with us
and be counted among those you have chosen.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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