Celebrate the End of Construction!

In celebration of the end of construction and to thank you for your support, we invite you to join us

6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

on the Feast of St. Columbkille

Sunday, June 9th, 2013

on the church courtyard

We will provide food, beverages and free elevator rides to thank you for making Source and Summit a success.

The Social Level will be used if it snows (or rains.)

Okay - Yeah - we still need a railing by the SouthEast

entrance and tile needs to be put by the Social Level

elevator entrance - but we're almost there!

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.

Fr Damian's Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of Fr. Damian's ordination. Long-time parishioners may remember one of Fr. Damian's classmates, Fr. Pat Henry, who who was an associate here as our current church was built.

Let's get to the heart of the matter

Let's get to the heart of the Gospel, the heart of of the Church, the heart of God. Let's get to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

This week we give special honor to Jesus' Sacred Heart. Devotion to His Sacred Heart is not about focusing on some particular aspect of Christ. The Sacred Heart is central to Him, it is the core of His being.

"In the Heart of Jesus, the center of Christianity is set before us," Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, wrote in 1981. "It expresses everything, all that is genuinely new and revolutionary in the New Covenant. This Heart calls to our heart."

Out of God's great love, the Heart we adore has been pierced, opened up for us.

"In the pierced heart of the Crucified, God's own heart is opened up; here we see who God is and what He is like," Cardinal Ratzinger said. "Heaven is no longer locked up. God has stepped out of His hiddenness. That is why St. John sums up both the meaning of the Cross and the nature of the new worship of God in the mysterious promise made through the prophet Zechariah. (cf. 12:10) 'They shall look on him whom they have pierced.' (Jn 19.37)."

"The call to be an adorer and an apostle of the Sacred Heart is addressed to every Christian," wrote Father Mark D. Kirby. "The apostle is, in essence, the bearer of a word, one sent forth and entrusted with a message. The message that the apostle carries into the world is the one he has learned by looking long with the eyes of adoration at the pierced Heart of the Crucified."

Our Lord did more than teach us how to pray. He became our prayer.

"It is through the Sacred Heart that the Blood of Christ speaks 'more graciously than the blood of Abel' (Heb 12:24)," Father Kirby wrote.

The author went on:

"At the core of devotion to the Sacred Heart is a passing-over into the prayer of Christ to the Father, a long apprenticeship to silence by which we begin to let the Heart of Christ speak in us and for us to the Father.

"The mystics of the Sacred Heart, in particular St. Gertrude and St. Mechthilde, speak of offering the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the Father. This means allowing the Sacred Heart to speak for us, to pray in us, to pray through us, taking comfort in what Scripture says, 'that we have not a High Priest Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One Who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.' (Heb 4:15).

"This suggests a simple way of praying, one accessible to all: 'Lord Jesus, I come to be silent in Your presence, trusting that Your Heart will speak for me, knowing that all I could ever want to say, that all I would ever need to say, is spoken eternally to the Father by Your Sacred Heart.'

"In this way, everything that prayer can or should express — adoration, praise, thanksgiving, supplication and reparation — finds its most perfect expression. Devotion to the Sacred Heart, thus understood, is a manifestation in the Church of the Holy Spirit, 'helping us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought.' (Rom 8:26). The Sacred Heart is, in the life of the Church, the organ by which 'the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.' (Rom 8:27)."

What a great gift we have in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, torn open for us on the cross and always interceding for us!

"The Sacred Heart is the Heart of God laid bare for man. . . . It is a human Heart lifted high on the Cross. . . . It is the Heart of the Church open to all who seek, to all who thirst, to every lost sheep waiting to be found and carried home. . . The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the full and irrevocable message of the Father to us. It is everything we ever could or should need to say to the Father. It is all we have to say to one another and to the world."

- Father Mark D. Kirby

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.

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!

Fr Vogel's Anniversary

Congratulations to Fr. Vogel and his classmates

 who were ordained on this day in 2011!

Mass of Thanksgiving

Sunday afternoon was Fr John Norman's Mass of Thanksgiving.

Fr Norman had asked Deacon Matt Capadano to be the Deacon of the Altar for this Mass before either of them had any idea that Deacon Capadano would be assigned to us for the summer.

 Fr. Paul Hoesing, Director of Vocations, was the homilist.

 

 

He seemed pleased.

We were delighted!

Summer Formation Has Begun!

Our summer session of Religious Formation began today. Each year more and more families choose to bring their children to Religious Formation for two weeks during the summer instead of once a week during the academic year.

Students gathered in the courtyard by classes

before quietly entering the church.

In the church Mrs. Thome spoke about how your relationship with God might be symbolized by one of your hands while the other hand could represent the other aspects of your everyday life. She explained that these two weeks of Religious Formation are about bringing those hands together, like a hand folded in prayer.

Students went to their classes where they got

 to know one another and begin learning.

During the day there were also

opportunities for snacks and play.

Father John Norman

As the priests and seminarians processed out of the Mass ordaining John Norman a priest, they waited in the mist around the steps of St. Cecilia Cathedral to welcome Father John Norman.

Archbishop Lucas immediately

 asked for Fr. Norman's blessing.

Friends and Family headed over for a reception.

There a line formed to receive

blessings from Fr. John Norman.