I could use some good news from readers.
What’s up these days?
I have some good new from Kansas City, KS.
Latin Mass is closer to a new home
Father Justin Nolan [FSSP] and Archbishop Emeritus of Kansas City, Kansas, the Rev. James P. Keleher, went to great heights on a scaffold lift Saturday to perform a blessing on the bell at St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Roman Catholic Church’s new location.
March 6
BRIAN BURNES |The Kansas City Star
The old Latin Catholic Mass has a new home in Johnson County.Almost 200 people braved brisk winds Saturday during a “bell blessing” ceremony at St. Philippine Duchesne Roman Catholic Church, 5035 Rainbow Blvd., in Mission Woods.
[…]
[L]ast July church members bought the Spanish Mission-style church built in the late 1940s by members of the Westwood Lutheran Church.
Much work remains to be done on the church’s interior, and church officials don’t anticipate moving in permanently until this summer. But Saturday’s ceremony marked the completion of exterior work, which included new flashing around the bell tower and a new wooden cross atop it.
The 45-minute ceremony on Saturday was a mixture of traditional and contemporary, with some 20 minutes of psalms in Latin, followed by the James Patrick Keleher, archbishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, ascending with others up to the bell tower in a scissor lift.
“I think we were right at the weight limit,” Keleher said afterward.
[…]
“It’s very easy to retrofit this church for the Catholic liturgy,” added the Rev. Justin Nolan, St. Philippine Duchesne assistant chaplain.
That includes the bell.
The bell blessed Saturday is the same 550-pound bell, manufactured in England, that Westwood Lutheran Church members installed in 1950. But through Saturday’s ceremony, Nolan said, the bell became a sacramental, or sacred object.
[…]
Read the whole thing over there.
In some places parishes are being closed.
Why not try something new in those parishes before closing them?
Loading ...
Hmm – for once when you ask I have good news: just accepted to Notre Dame’s graduate school (in Art History). And – I have the most adorable children God ever created.
This Saturday a good friend of mine will be instituted as an acolyte, the last step before ordination to the permanent diaconate next year. :)
The good news: my “lent battle plan” is being reasonably executed – a plan that involves daily fasting and a lot of prayer. May I ask any who read this to pray for those about to receive the sacrament of Confirmation, and for the catechumens in you parishes? God bless!
P.S.: what are my children doing at the poster Matthew’s place?! (just joking, of course! God bless all children in the world! I had a bunch from around the neighbourhood in my house today, doing some arts and crafts with my older daughter!)
I was in (earthquake-ravaged) Christchurch NZ for a week and was hard-put to find a daily morning Mass, but once I arrived, I discovered that just around the corner from my hotel was an EF Mass at 8:30, offered by a FSSP priest from SoCal. That Mass was displaced from the devastated Basilica, so omnia in bonum, even with the hardwood kneelers.
Good news, big and small:
– Last week, I was able to report I’ve worked my last Sunday on this job. I had a “real” Sunday for the first time in months today, and it was a-maz-ing. I finally feel like I got to slow down and have a real weekend. Properly honoring the Lord’s Day means a great deal as well. With this past week behind me, I’ve also worked my last night on this job.
– I’m still having trouble with insomnia (working weird hours doesn’t help), but between the intercession of St. Jude and a little Benadryl for spring allergies…. ka-THUNK! Good night’s sleep last night.
– I took advantage of Daylight Saving Time, good weather, and not having to work on a Sunday and fired up the grill for the first time this season. Oh, what a little red charcoal grill can do…
Large parish church pretty well jam-packed (especially families with children) this Sunday. It’s good to have to practice some elbow-to-elbow Catholicism once in a while.
Part of good turnout was local Girl Scouts turning out for Mass en masse in observance of the 100th anniversary year of the GSA.
Made it through another busy weekend with hundreds of road miles logged safely. Always grateful for that good news.
Photos from the March 7 Dominican Rite Mass at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in Manhattan.
Good news is that we have a way to find something good to rely on in this very messy world and that this blog renovation is great.
Our parish’s Deacon candidate was installed as an acolyte on Saturday, and the Bishop gave a rockin’ homily on the duties and responsibilities of the office. It included such things as (paraphrased):
“You should be vested as an acolyte whenever it is opportune, and as your Bishop I’m telling you that it is always opportune.”
“Not included in your duties is preaching at mass. That is reserved for ordained Deacons and Priests. Preaching is a violation of Church teaching, and as an act of disobedience to me, could be considered an impediment to ordination.”
He also spoke on how one of the key duties of the acolyte is to improve the ars celebrandi (using that phrase even) of the mass.
My ‘news’ started out badly, but ended happily.
Yesterday, outside the TLM chapel I go to, my car got broken into. Some lowlife smashed one of my side windows, and took two bags from the floor of the backseat: a carryon bag and a knapsack. I had things in them that were from some of my past trips, plus items that my English priest-friend sent me after the Holy Father’s trip to the UK. Also my replica St. Joan of Arc standard.
One of the parishioners told me of the broken window, and I rushed out. He used his cell phone to call the cops. And two officers came in minutes.
There was a set of tracks in the snow on the ground outside, and one of the cops (found out his first name was MICHAEL) followed them to a small lot behind the chapel. And there he found….both bags! They had been rummaged through, but everything was there! Nothing worth stealing from the thief’s point of view!
I was so overjoyed! I got everything back! I gave the officer a big hug and a profuse string of ‘thank yous’! And before he left in his car, I reached in to take his hands and prayed that his holy patron would protect him in his work! (He even told me that he had a tatoo of St. Michael’s name on his arm…but of course, he wouldn’t show it to me!)
Moral of the story: don’t have things of irreplaceable value in your car, unless it’s in the locked trunk. Both bags are now back at my house.
I came back into the chapel just as the priest finished his sermon. And afterwards, outside, I shared the good news with Father and the two seminarians who came with him.
Deo Gratias…..!
There’s no good news for me. But no bad news either. I guess that’s good news.
Today, I was able to speak with the little ones about the horrors of the bombing in Nigeria. The good news is that I can still (for now anyhow) homeschool them. We looked up Nigeria on a map and talked about how fortunate the martyrs are but how we need to pray for their families, survivors, and the world. It’s days like this when I need to be grateful that I get to do this an not sorry for myself that I have to do it!
I might add that it’s really good news to have wonderful, holy priests like Fr. Nolan out there too!
My good news is that yesterday during each of our Sunday school sessions we provided the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders with the opportunity to participate in the Sacrament of Penance. (My even better news is that almost all of them took advantage of it!) There are many in the parish to whom the idea of Confession is still foreign, but praise God, our priests are working hard to change that.
A young man from our parish will be ordained to the transitional diaconate (FSSP) this coming Saturday!
The Chaplain of the local University here in the north of England said his first EF Holy Mass on Saturday (a Missa Cantata with incense, no less!), and I served my first EF Holy Mass at the same Mass. We both need to get better at the Latin, and I need to make my responses a lot, A LOT, quicker, but we’ll keep plugging away at it. A nice, quiet, contemplative Low Mass next, I think!
Beautiful. God willing a new job for my husband to be announced any day – will lead to a move to KC and this will be our parish.
It’s 80 degrees and sunny today.
We have a new flock of golden finch.
Beautiful. God willing a new job for my husband to be announced any day, lead to a move to KC and this will be our parish.
It’s 80 degrees and sunny today.
We have a new flock of golden finch.
I have been a member of the local FSSP Chapel here in NJ (Our Lady of Fatima Chapel) for the past 1.5 yrs. It appears, not official, that we will be moving to a larger church, 400 person capacity from the current 160. Hmmm, the EF may become the status quo in this new geographic location.
Lost in the whole Sandra Fluke political theatre of the absurd, is a VERY encouraging story, namely, why she was there in the first place.
A Congressional Hearing, like a Court proceeding, requires that witnesses be submitted, credentialed, vetted (and negotiated in advance), topics be agreed on and some sketch of what will be said, and all this be submitted in writing 4 days before the Hearing, because the Law requires (as with a court date) that the full agenda together with speakers, division of panels and any speech be published as a Congressional record no later than 3 days in advance.
In this case, the deadline for publication ended up being Monday, Feb 13, close of day (aka 5:00pm). When Monday came around, and Rep. Issa (the Chair) had NO (you read that right, none, nada, zip) witnesses nominated by Democrats, instead of just publishing the agenda, he made courtesy calls to the Democrat members, to see if they had any nominations. He was told they were “working” on it, and were calling the various fake or “progressive” or dependent-on-government Catholic groups (see: Mag. of Nuns) that can usually be relied on to confuse on Catholic issues. At some point in the day, the Democrats verbally told Issa they had invited Barry Lynn, and were going to have someone from (fill in the blanks with the usual). Issa’s staff then started calling: Mr Lynn confirmed that he had been asked and agreed, the “Catholic” organizations……… indicated that there was NO WAY any of them would ever consider sending a witness to argue AGAINST the conscience clause. Every. Single. One. Refused. Catholic Charities even responded to Rep Issa’s inquiry as to whether they would testify with a written, emphatic response, read at the Feb 16 hearing stating that under NO circumstances would they EVER consider challenging the conscience clause, as they have no interest in its abrogation. I believe the title to the letter given was “We stand with our Bishops” .
Happy News indeed.
The whole reason they ended up demanding that an unknown reason-impaired feminist student be put on the speakers list on the day of the hearing was because they just couldn’t find any credible witnesses (except Barry Lynn – who as you may have noticed, is a man.)
….now you know the rest of the story