Alessandro Serenelli

Although Alessandro was only 19 years old, he had become addicted to pornography. Wanting to live out his fantasies he attempted to molest an 11 year old girl. As she yelled out, "No Alessandro, it is a sin..." he became enraged and stabbed her 14 times. Although she made it to a hospital and received Communion as Viaticum, she died.

Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Although he was aware that Maria, the girl, had forgiven him on her deathbed (even saying she wanted to be in heaven with him) he did not feel remorse. Then he had a dream -- which was surprising in and of itself because Alessandro did not typically dream.

In this vivid dream, the prison walls and bars fells away as his cell became a sunlit garden. full of flowers. He was surprised to see a peasant girl dressed in white since they wear dark colors. Then he realized it was Maria. She was walking among the flowers, smiling and not as all fearful. He wanted to leave but couldn't. Maria picked white lilies and handed them to him saying, "Alessandro, take them!"

One by one he accpted the 14 lilies. As he took them, each lily transformed into a flaming light. There was one lily for each of the times he had stabbed her. Then Maria smilingly said, "Alessandro, as I have promised, your soul shall someday reach me in heaven."

The dream changed him. For the first time he understood the light of God's grace and mercy. From that time on, he looked to reform his life.

Because of his good behavior, he got out of prison after 27 years. For a time he wandered as a farmhand, but them he became a brother in a Capuchin monastery.

Finally, 31 years after the trial, he went to visit Assunta Goretti, Maria's mother. Begging Assunta's forgiveness, she placed her hands on his head, caressed his face and gently said, "Alessandro, Marietta forgave you, Christ has forgiven you, and why should I not also forgive. I forgive you, of course, my son! Why have I not seen you sooner?"

The next morning Assunta, with head held high and tears falling, took Alessandro by the hand and led him to Mass. Side by side they took communion. From that day on he was welcomed into the Goetti family as "Uncle Alessandro."

Assunta and Alessandro were also side by side when St. Maria Goretti was cannonized.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Anniversary!

Deacon Eldon Lauber works with many engaged couples in their Marriage Preparation. When he talks with couples he can bring the experience of 50 year of marriage as he and Judy celebrated that milestone last week.

Happy Anniversary!

Fireworks

You can get your fireworks from the Shepherds on 84th Street.

 Don't forget your 10% off coupon from the bulletin!

They're still piling fireworks out for you to enjoy.

 

 You can even get your height in fireworks!

Get your $1 raffle ticket to win $500 worth of fireworks.

The drawing is Sunday.

The Chalices

Each priest typically uses their own chalice at Mass. Priests typically receive their chalices as gifts. The chalice Fr. Vogel uses for Sunday liturgies is a gift from Fr. Leo Kreikemeier who had once been a priest in Howells and died in 2007. It had first been a gift to Fr. Kreikemeier before his first Mass in 1943 and was  given in honor of his grandmother.

Inscribed on the outside of the chalice are the words, "Hic Est Enim Calix Sanguinis Mei." Fr. Vogel explained that this is the Latin phrase in Mass when the priest quotes Jesus saying, "This is the chalice of My Blood."

Fr. Vogel's parents had the chalice refurbished including new plates.

 

Fr. Vogel has another chalice for weekday Masses.

This chalice Fr. Vogel uses during the week is a gift from the Knights of Columbus in Norfolk. Fr. Vogel's godfather is one of the Knights there. Not only is Fr. Vogel a 4th degree Knight, but was once a Squire.

Boys of Summer

So before two of the Crusader Coach Pitch teams played their final game, what did they do?

Then it was game time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We can hardly wait 'til next year.

Happy Anniversary Pope Benedict!

Today is the 60th anniversary of the priestly ordination of Pope Benedict XVI. To celebrate, the Vatican has suggested the gift of one hour of Eucharistic Adoration praying for priests and vocations. We are suggesting you do that sometime between today and Friday. Friday is a day of prayer for priests. Our Teen Faith are leading an Hour of Power tonight at 9 p.m. to celebrate this milestone.

The Body and Blood of Christ

One of our parishioners, Shannon Zurcher, is a FOCUS missionary who has been serving at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The following was written by Deb Happ who will be a Junior next year.

“Isn’t that cool?! We are all really connected in the Eucharist!” I paused, absorbing the statement that I had just heard. Then Shannon spoke again, “No matter where we go we will be connected, because we are one in the Body of Christ, the Eucharist.” I began to nod slowly until wham, it hit me and everything clicked; it changed the way I saw everything. “Wow so if we are all in Jesus because He brings us into Himself, and if Jesus is within every single one of us, in our heart… then yeah, we are connected! But then in the Eucharist, this spiritual connection becomes physical, and literally we are one in the Eucharist because we are all receiving the same Body of Christ at communion!”

Deb & Shannon at the UIC
Newman Center

This conversation happened during one of our discipleships this year. We were talking about a new identity in Christ and how every choice we make and everything we do has an impact on the whole world. I didn’t understand it until Shannon explained that it is because we are all connected through the Eucharist. My mind blew in a so many ways that day as my thoughts about what it means to be Catholic expanded. The power of the Eucharist… the Body of Christ… for the first time in my life I felt so happy and blessed to be Catholic as I began to understand the true idea of our global human family through this profound epiphany of what the Eucharist really is.

 

What do you give the Pope?

The day Fr. Damian and Matt Lauer were at Pope Benedict's Wednesday audience, Matt gave the pope the crystal cat pictured above. In Vatican City you can walk for miles looking at gifts popes have received. So if you're giving the pope a gift, what do you give?

Part of the reason we ask the question is because the pope celebrates the 60th year of his priesthood on Wednesday. If you don't know what to give him, there is a suggestion:

In honor of his anniversary, the Vatican Congregation for Clergy suggested Catholic clergy and faithful be invited to participate in Eucharistic Adoration with the intention of praying for the sanctification of the clergy and for the gift of new and holy priestly vocations.

At St. Columbkille we suggest you stop by the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and spend one hour in prayer between Wednesday (his anniversary) and Friday (the World Day of Prayer for Priests.) Our parish youth will lead the Hour of Power Wednesday at 9 p.m., so you could come then.

Inspired by St. John the Baptist

Michael York as John the Baptist

In the 8th century a deacon named Paolo, upon having to sing the exultet on the Easter vigil, found himself hoarse. He prayed to St. John the Baptist and his voice recovered. Thus he wrote a special hymn for St. John the Baptist

This hymn was so widely enjoyed that it was added to the Divine Office as the antiphon for the psalms of the day celebrating the birth of St. John, which is still celebrated as a solemnity on June 24th. The hymn, because of its length, was divided to make up the antiphons for the Evening Prayer on the night before, the vigil prayer during the night and then the Morning Prayer the day of the solemnity. The Latin of the Evening Prayer, i.e. the beginning of the hymn, reads:

Ut queant laxis resonare fibris mira gestorum famuli tuorum, solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes

“So that your servants may, with loosened voices, resound the wonders of your deeds, clean the guilt from our stained lips, O Saint John.”

Now in the early 11th century a monk named Guido d’Arezzo found that the hymn fit perfectly for his desire to find a system of solimization. That is, he could use the syllables from the hymn, known so well at the time, as a way of teaching the basic scale of C. Thus:

UT queant laxis REsonare fibris MIra gestorum FAmuli tuorum, SOlve polluti LAbii reatum, Sancte Iohannes

The UT was changed later to DO to remove a syllable that started with an open vowel sound, and was assumed to refer to Domine “Lord,” though the text is actually addressed to St. John. Also, SI was added later from the Sancte Iohannes for the missing note in the scale, but that too was later changed from SI to our now familiar TI. Some suspect this was because of anti-Catholic sentiments.

Thus we have the DO – RE – MI – FA – SO – LA – TI as the simple scale, which is still used as a teaching method in many parts of the world. It should be noted, too, that these come from Gregorian Chant which is the musical tradition that provided humanity with a system for writing music. Few realize that Gregorian Chant is the most influential musical tradition in the history of humanity, regardless if you’re Christian or not. With over a thousand years of use, it was also the longest musical tradition. It is just such a shame that so few Catholics are familiar with it at all or – worse – associate with it a “darkened” age. But don’t get me started on that.

This is a portion from Omar F. A. Gutierrez's March 21, 2011 blog entry

 "What We Can Learn From The Divine Office,

 or Why Culture Matters."

His blog is Regnum Novum.