Father Castor's Homepage

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 the Bishop of Rapid City or any other official of the Catholic Church.

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)

The Rev. Timothy W. Castor, born 1961, is a priest of the Diocese of Rapid City, assigned as Pastor for the parishes of Christ the King, Presho; St. Martin of Tours, Murdo and St. Anthony of Padua, Draper. 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 applied to study for the priesthood 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. I am happy now to be serving Christ's faithful in the "I-90 Catholic Communities" of Murdo, Draper and Presho.

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.

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.

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).

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.)

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!

You can help Father maintain his website (it's not cheap) by sending a donation via PayPal -- it's secure, easy and much appreciated! Unfortunately, the IRS considers this a personal gift, so it's not tax-deductible. But all gifts will be acknowledged and gratefully accepted. God bless you!

Father Castor’s Weblog

HOMILIES

Photos

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