Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ,
His Church, and All People
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Blessed Candlemas!
Candlemas Day falls on a Sunday this year. Liturgically this is the Presentation of the Lord (or historically known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary). But it is a day that the Church wants us to focus on light, since Christ is proclaimed as a light to the nations. This day is also the unofficial end of the Christmas season, so if you’ve kept up some Christmas decorations this long, that’s fine! Hence our church sanctuary still has some remnants of Christmas decor.
Since February 2 is on a Sunday, each of the three weekend Masses will include the blessing of candles. We will bless all the liturgical candles to be used at the parish, and parishioners are welcome to bring candles to be blessed. If so, simply bring them and keep them with you during Mass.
CANDLE PROCESSION AT 10:30
The church does call for a procession to be done if possible. So, for the 10:30 Mass, we will invite those who are able, to start in the Parish Activity Center (PAC) where we will first bless candles, then each person (if able) will carry a lighted taper as we process to the church to begin Mass. If weather is not too bad, we will walk outside, but we can also walk through the school hallway if temperature is too cold. Here too, people may bring candles to be blessed.
Blessing of Throats
Monday, February 3 is the Feast of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr. I will bless throats at the 8:30 am morning Mass only.
St Paul Novena
Continual conversion requires prayer. As we have encouraged the past couple years, we have a St. Paul Novena written particularly for our parish. Our novena ends today but there is nothing wrong with continuing to pray it throughout the year. Pamphlets with the novena are available in the Narthex. Thank you to Hallie Wolff for prayerfully writing this novena for us.
Old Chapel Door Panels
Since the old chapel doors have been replaced a generous parishioner has been restoring the old ones. We can no longer use them as functional doors, so I propose the following:
The restored panels of the old doors will be separated and configured to echo the journey of
St. Paul (as that is what the panels depict.)
They will be hung in the church on the back NE diagonal wall.
This will require moving the metal depiction of Paul’s journey to the PAC (it’s original home I believe), where it will be hung above the interior entrance doors.
This is what I propose. Please share with me your thoughts through emailing the parish. Also, our Faith Formation session on February 16 will include a time for anyone to share their thoughts on this proposal. Having heard from parishioners on this change we can then proceed with the proposal or discern another option.
Sincerely in Christ and Happy Feast Day!
Fr. Pfr