Understanding the Mass

At our Parish Mission Monday evening, Dr. Edward Sri presented A Biblical Walk through the Mass: Understanding what we Say and Do in the Liturgy. It was based on his book. The clip above is just a portion of what he discussed.

If you want to gain a better understanding of the Mass, the last session of Altaration is Monday, March 21 at 9 a.m. or 7 p.m. in the Steinhausen Center.On April 4th there will be a tour of all the space in the church. On April 11th we will meet in the Steinhausen Center to study the scritpural roots of the Mass.

After Dr. Sri's session Monday night, Fr. Vogel told some parishioners, "Now you know just a smidgen of why I'm a priest and why it's so awesome."

Holy Thursday Images

Palm Sunday

For Palm Sunday everyone was invited to grab a palm and participate in the opening procession.

Fr Vogel's Lesson on Ashes

Each year palms from the previous Palm Sunday are burned to create the ashes for Ash Wednesday. There is an art to it as they need to burn just the right amount of time to be the correct color. As a young associate pastor, Fr Damian learned the hard way that while it might it a nice idea to burn the ashes at Mass to show everyone, they are too hot to use right away.

Since becoming a pastor, Fr Damian has considered it one of his duties to make certain every associate knows how to properly burn ashes before they leave. Earlier this week Fr Vogel got his lesson -- and passed with flying colors.

Looking like Christmas

It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas.

Return of the Homilies

The digital recorder for our sound system had some trouble. We are delighted to let you know that it is repaired and we were able to record the homilies from last weekend. Click here for last weekend's homilies.

Preparing the church

It took a lot of work by a lot of folks to prepare the church for the Triduum and Easter Services. Thank you to all of you!

When is Easter this Year?

Fr. Vogel chanted the Epiphany Proclamation at Masses this weekend:

Celebrating the Immaculate Conception of Mary

Because December 8th fell on a Sunday this year, the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was moved to today. It is still a Holy Day, it just isn't a Holy Day of Obligation and we have the normal, weekday Mass schedule.

When we celebrate the Immaculate Conception on December 8th each year, it is a common mistake to think we are celebrating the Immaculate Conception of Jesus. At Mass on the Immaculate Conception the Gospel is always the Annunciation. Because the Archangel Gabrial appears to Mary to tell her about the child she would have, sometimes people think that is the conception which is called immaculate. But the Immaculate Conception is about the conception that prepared Mary for this moment; the time where she would choose whether or not to participate in God's plan for salvation.

In the Gospel, the angel Gabriel says, "Hail Mary full of Grace." In Greek the word used, κεχαριτωμένη, is a perfect passive participle of χαριτοω meaning "to fill or endow with grace." The tense indicates that Mary was graced from the instant she first existed in her mother's (Anne's) womb (well before Gabriel visited) and ever since. It might be best understood as her being so full of grace that sin can not enter her.

It's Cold Out There

In this weather, be careful coming in and

 out of church as it is very slippery.

"Now Thank We All Our God"

" Now thank we all our God,
With hearts, and hands, and voices
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom His world rejoices
Who, from our mothers' arms,
Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today." 

-- Traditional hymn

While driving this week I noticed that some homes already were lit up with Christmas lights, and  I was kind of sad about that.

I've come to accept that people like to start decorating early, while the weather is still nice. But jumping ahead to Christmas often means glancing over both Thanksgiving and Advent, two times of the year we should savor and enjoy.

I love Thanksgiving and hate to watch it fade as Christmas shopping not only encroaches upon it but completely envelopes it. As a nation we need an occasion to just pause and say thanks. We often forget how blessed we are and tend to take our freedom and prosperity for granted. We need to remember God, the source of all blessings.

I love the 9 a.m. Masses that St. Columbkille offers on holidays like Thanksgiving, Labor Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Apparently others do, too, because the pews seem to get fuller each year. Musicians and other liturgical volunteers give us a full celebration.

The holidays become more meaningful in the context of Mass, especially Thanksgiving. Worshipers praise and thank God and ask for His blessings on themselves, their families and even the dinner bread they bring and will later share at home. They also bring food pantry donations, a way to acknowledge their blessedness by sharing with others.

The entire Mass puts me in the right frame of mind to enjoy all the other good things about Thanksgiving --  including food, family and football.

Inspired by this Year of Faith we will be posting columns like this from Susan Szalewski about exploring and/or deepening our faith. Watch for it on Thursdays and see the Year of Faith Blog here.

All Saints & All Souls Day

Friday we celebrate the feast of All Saints. In the painting above, by Fra Angelico you will notice that each saint in the painting is different, but all are celebrated together.

For this Holy Day you can attend Mass at St. Columbkille Parish on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. or on Friday at 6:20, 8:15 a.m. 12:10, 5:30 or 7:00 p.m.

All Souls' Day

There will be a special all Soul's Day Mass Saturday at 10:00 a.m. to especially remember our parishioners who have passed away in the last year.

What's the deal Saturday Night?

In the hierarchy of liturgical days, All Souls' Day takes precedence over a Sunday in Ordinary Time. Therefore the readings and Propers for All Souls' Day will be followed for the vigil Mass on Saturday, November 2, (5 & 6:30 p.m) even though it satisfies the Sunday obligation. In other words, the reading Saturday evening will be the ones used for All Souls' Day even though it "counts" as a Sunday Mass.

Call him Director Fr. Vogel

Fr. Vogel has written, produced and directed a video to help servers know what to do during Mass. Here it is:

St Columbkille's Feast Day

Statue of St. Columbkille

The Feast day for St. Columbkille is not on the United States Calendar so we typically do not celebrate it. It is on the calendar in Scotland and Ireland. But people in Scotland and Ireland will not celebrate it this year because it falls on a Sunday and the Sunday celebration takes precedence over this and most feasts.

But this year, as we celebrate the end of construction, Archbishop Lucas has given us a dispensation to celebrate the Feast of St. Columbkille Sunday. This weekend we wil use the prayers from the liturgy for St. Columbkille -- and may be the only parish in the world to do so on Sunday. At some Masses the priest may use the solemn blessing attributed to St. Columbkille. Here it is:

May the Lord be a sure path beneath your feet,
a bright light before you,
a kindly shepherd behind you:
this day, this night and always.

And may the blessing of almighty God,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
come down on you and remain with you for ever.
Amen.

Training New Servers

Last night Fr Vogel was training new servers. He got them in albs and walked them through a hands on chance to see everything a server does in a daily Mass.

It's great to see so many of our youth anxious to serve!