Father Castor’s Weblog (here there be homilies)

Welcome to my homepage! I maintain this website with my own time and resources (although donations are gratefully accepted!) as a means of communication with parishioners, friends and family. The material on this website (and linked-to from this website) has NOT been reviewed or endorsed by the Bishop of Rapid City or any other church official. In my writing, preaching and teaching, I always strive to be obedient to my bishop, and to remain faithful to the teachings of Christ, the authentic Magisterium of His holy Catholic Church, and the dogmatic statements of the Holy See. Nevertheless, all opinions expressed herein are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any other person within the Catholic Church, the Diocese of Rapid City or any parish or organization to which I am, or have been, affiliated.  

 

Having gotten the disclaimers out of the way, enjoy your visit!

--Fr. Timothy Castor

 

Mysterium Fidei

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever." (St. John 6:35, 53-58)

 

Since Christ himself has declared the bread to be his body, who can have any further doubt? Since he himself has said quite categorically, This is my blood, who would dare to question it and say that it is not his blood? . . . You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the Body and the Blood of Christ. You know also how David referred to this long ago when he sang: Bread gives strength to mans heart and makes his face shine with the oil of gladness. Strengthen your heart, then, by receiving this bread as spiritual bread, and bring joy to the face of your soul.

—The Jerusalem Mystagogy of St. Cyril (c. 313-386)

 

Who is Father Castor?

The Rev. Timothy W. Castor, born 1961, is a priest of the Diocese of Rapid City, and Associate Pastor for Spearfish and Belle Fourche. A brief curriculum vitae follows:

 

After graduating from Central Bucks High School West in Doylestown, Pa., I took a year off and worked in a factory. Then I entered Philadelphia College of Bible in Langhorne, Pa. where I earned a B.S. in Bible. I did my Junior year in Israel. After college, I worked for the American Missionary Fellowship in Villanova, Pa. In 1986, however, I was received into the Roman Catholic Church and had to leave my job with the (Protestant) AMF. For the next three years I worked in public relations and banking, in and around Philadelphia. In 1989, I entered St. Mary's Monastery, a small Benedictine community in Petersham, Mass. I was there for a total of five years, six months of which were spent at our motherhouse, Pluscarden Abbey, a 13th Century monastery in Scotland. Part way through my monastic career, I left for about a year, during which I did volunteer missionary work in Thailand for four months. Shortly before my temporary vows expired in 1995, I left the monastery, having discerned that this was not my calling. Next, I went to South Dakota where I entered the priestly formation program for the Diocese of Rapid City.

 

In May of 2001, I graduated from Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. with the M. Div. degree. On June 8, 2001, I had the great joy of being ordained to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ by his Excellency, Bishop Blase Cupich here in Rapid City.

 

My first assignment as a priest was to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help where I served as Parochial Vicar for three years. Next, I served for one year as Associate Pastor for the nine Catholic parishes of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation. Following this, I served as Administrator and Pastor of the parishes of St. Martin of Tours, Murdo; St. Anthony of Padua, Draper; and Christ the King, Presho.

 

In June of 2009, I was transferred to Spearfish, SD where I now serve as Parochial Vicar (Associate Pastor) for the parishes of St. Joseph in Spearfish and St. Paul in Belle Fourche.

 

Check out these links!

Here's some favorite links (I do not endorse everything on these links, nor do I receive remuneration from any commercial sites):

 

The Tablet - England's premiere Catholic weekly. Updated every Friday. Usually, a good source of Church news, but, as an abbot I knew once said, "The Tablet's alright, as long as they keep off religion."

 

L'Osservatore Romano - English weekly edition of the official Vatican newspaper. Online version is updated every Wednesday and includes several front page articles from the current print edition.

 

Ave Maria Singles - This is an outstanding site dedicated to helping single Catholics who are serious about their faith find a life partner in Holy Matrimony. Highly recommended! 

 

Pax House - A great source for traditional liturgical goods (vestments, vessels, statuary, etc.). I purchased my Mass vestments from this company, and they are stunningly beautiful.

 

The Chair of Unity Octave - Before there was a "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity", there was the "Chair of Unity Octave" -- a much more robust and realistic form of prayer for authentic Christian unity (the "chair" is a reference to the Chair of Saint Peter at Rome). This page is copied from a leaflet originally printed by the Friars of the Atonement, Graymoor, NY. Please note that this is no longer authorized for use as public prayer and is offered here as a historical reference.

 

Novena of Mercy (Original Version) - The Divine Mercy Novena begins on Good Friday and ends on Mercy Sunday (the Second Sunday of Easter). As a historical reference, I offer the original version of the Novena in English translation. This is somewhat rare and difficult to find. The text here is scanned from photocopies of an old brochure published before this devotion was given approval by Church authority. It is distinguished from the current version by its traditional usages (Thee, Thou and Thy, for example) and by language which might be called "politically incorrect". Those who appreciate traditional prayers might enjoy using this version. But please note: these devotions are not authorized for public prayer. (This file is in Portable Document Format and requires Adobe Reader, already instaled on most systems.)

 

The Spirit of the Liturgy by Romano Guardini (translated by Ada Lane) - This was written by the great German theologian and philosopher around 1930, and contains some wonderful insights from an era of liturgical sanity. A plain text version of this treatise is available on the EWTN site. This is the text version cleaned up and formatted in HTML.

 

Ceremonial for Lay People - I prepared this guide for young people and those who are new to the Catholic Faith. It's a quick and basic overview of all the gestures and ceremony required for the Faithful to participate fully in the Eucharistic Liturgy. I didn't make these up! They're all from official and contemporary Church documents.

 

Guide to attitudes, postures and gestures at Mass - An outline of liturgical instruction given at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

 

Notes on the Apocalypse - Here are class notes for the four-part series on Revelation (Apocalypse) given in July 2002 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

 

Sequence Analysis - A useful outline from New Testament Reading Guide: The Book of the Apocalypse, Fr. William G. Heidt, O.S.B.

Class 1 - Introduction and Background

Class 2 - The Lord's Messages to the Seven Churches

Class 3 - Revelation 4-22

Class 4 - The End of the World in Catholic Teaching - plus: a bibliography of recommended reading

 

Notes for Family Program: Pentecost and Confirmation - Here is the outline of my presentation on November 2, 2003.

 

Saint Augustine's teaching on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit - This is the text to which I referred in my presentation.

 

Notes for Family Program: The Most Holy Eucharist - Here is my presentation given on January 11, 2004.

 

HOMILIES

Sometimes folks have expressed an interest in obtaining copies of my homilies. I hope you will find them helpful. If there is any good here -- thanks be to God!

 

You can find my homilies in my weblog. Use the calendar in the sidebar to navigate to the day on which the homily you desire should be posted (this is still in development, so, as of April 1, 2005, the archive is quite incomplete).

 

The Homily Archive - Read and listen to homilies preached in previous years.

 

Photos

Here you will find links to thumbnail pages. To see the original photo, click on the thumbnail. The originals are rather large, so be patient downloading them!

 

Family Photos - Group photos taken at our last complete family gathering on August 8, 2004 at 291 Creek Road. (Please note: The full size photos are over 2 MB each. Be patient when downloading.)

 

Snapshots from the Wedding Reception of Abbey & Jake - Some photos and a few movies of THE society event of the season!

 

Walt Disney World, September 2009 - Photos (and movies) of my last trip to the World. This time with Msgr. Michael Woster.

 

Gregorian Chant

Jubilate Deo - An ongoing project to scan and record all the music found in the Vatican publication subtitled: A collection of the simpler Gregorian Chants which the People of God should learn in conformity with Vatican II's "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy" Updated 7/3/03

 

Here are some Gregorian Chants I've recorded as an aid to learning. These are definitely not studio quality!

 

 

 

 

This site is © Copyright Rev. Timothy W. Castor 2001-2008, All Rights Reserved.

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Last update:

Thursday, 06-Mar-2008 21:41:17 MST

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