golden milestone

Our little church parish has been a parish for 50 years.  Before that, it was a mission church.  I've only been there for about 8 of those years, but I love it!  I've heard our church called "The Little Cathedral in the Ghetto" by someone who loves it as much as I do.  We laugh at that, but it is quite beautiful - I am not biased - and the area where we are located has declined over the years.  Decades ago, a nice quiet neighborhood.  Now, not so much.

Our pastor has repeatedly said that our parish has been "the oasis in the desert of his life".  I do think that he is happy where he is at.  Beautiful things bloom in the desert, he said.

Our parish is a nice mixture of people.  The parking lot is bordered by apartments housing the elderly and handicapped, and the neighborhood has aged, so there are a lot of senior people there.  There is also a school associated with the parish, so there are some families with children there.  That's why I am there...because my kids went to the associated school.  There are white people and there are black people and they worship in harmony from the same pews.  People that tell you "hello" when they see you at the grocery store or in the car-rider line at school.   A family feel.  A lot of people are on fixed incomes; not alot of money is spent on extravagance.

It is a small parish, as parishes go.  Our current pastor has additional duties with the diocese.  Our previous pastor was also pastor of another small parish.  There are not 85 committees or opportunities for ministry in the church bulletin, but I suppose if you want to be involved, there is a place for you.  I've found one.  There is an altar society and altar servers.  Ushers and lectors and ministers of Holy Communion.  Religious education for the kids and Bible studies scattered throughout the year for the adults.  RCIA.  Choir.  Our little choir is awesome and the music at every Mass is heavenly.  People sing.

So....our celebration.  There is a beauty in simplicity, and I think it's fair to say that our pastor is very much tuned in to that beauty.  As nearly as I can tell, this event was planned by the Ladies' Altar Society.  There was not a lot of anticipation and hype.

The church was decorated simply.  Some gold ribbon bows on the front pews and a beautiful red poinsettia in a gold pot on either side of the [gold] tabernacle.  Very simple, but elegant.

That's a picture of our beautiful sanctuary.  It's a picture of a picture that was in the commemorative booklet that we received.   (which is why the quality is so-so)

Our pastor celebrated Mass on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.  I was at the Saturday evening Mass, and he spoke simply and from the heart about our parish and what we are called to be.  There was quiet applause at the end of his homily, as he wished us Happy Anniversary.

Our Bishop was there for our second Sunday morning Mass. There were musicians with stringed instruments in the choir loft.  Quite lovely.

After Mass, there was gumbo in the church hall.  A band.  Standing room only.  Gumbo isn't the easiest thing to eat standing up.  There was a lot of effort put into the decorating by the "Ladies".  We had real table clothes and utensils wrapped in gold and white napkins.  There was a guest book to sign and a booklet with details of our parish's history.  More desserts than any one could possibly eat.  I said "no" to the desserts until they were cleaning up and kept asking if I wanted some cake to take home..."for the boys".  I have a hunk of cake in my freezer, as I type. 

The second pastor of the parish was at Mass and the gumbo.  He is in his 90's now.  Towards the end, the seminarian - now priest - who had been at our parish about 4 years ago showed up.  He was a great guy; my boys enjoyed serving with him because he carried on a conversation with them.  It was really good to see him again. 

My boys and some other Boy Scouts provided clean up services. 

All in all, a good day.  Happy Anniversary!

winnowing

Today was a golden day at our parish!  We celebrated 50 years as a parish!!  I've only been a part of it for about 8, but I love my little community.  More details about that celebration in another post, perhaps. 

The Bishop celebrated Mass today.  He is so personable; he speaks our language.  The homily ranged here and there - about what we do as a church parish, etc, but he also tied it in to today's Gospel.  He gave us a lesson in wheat harvesting, explaining that when the wheat grains are picked off of the wheat stalk, a lot of trash ends up in the pile of wheat.  That's where the winnowing fan comes in.  One person picks up a shovelful of wheat and tosses it in the air, while another fans.  The fan blows the trash away, leaving the wheat. 

Are we in need of winnowing?  Where is the winnowing room?  He pointed to the back of the church where the confessional is - where we bring our lives to Jesus, and He blows away the trash, leaving just the good.  As we wait for Jesus, as we prepare our lives to be more open to Him, let us take advantage of the opportunities that we have.  Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!

Side note:  We attended Mass celebrated by the Bishop two days in a row.  Yesterday, he was at the Boy Scout retreat that my guys attended.  One of them remarked that he is going to think we're stalking him.

sunday snippets

R'Ann at This That and the Other Thing hosts a weekly meme for Catholic bloggers to share posts of interest from the preceeding week.  Check it out.  Join us.

It was a busy week at my house.  Back to school after a week off for Black Friday Thanksgiving.  Not much made it to the blog, though.

Two short (relatively speaking) posts.  Quick reads.

Meetings .... you might discern from the title...it's about meetings.  Too many of them.

Lost....because I don't understand what it is about men and directions...

Hope you enjoy.

lost

So I get a phone call from the dear man I'm married to.  Never mind that it's late, and I'm about 5 minutes away from crawling into bed.  He is a truck driver by trade and tonight he's in the great state of Alabama.  He calls because he has the feeling that he is being led in the wrong direction by his GPS, and wants me to look on mapquest.

So I do, and after several rounds of  "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW", I am finally able to locate where he appears to be headed and where he is supposed to be going.

So I confirm, that if he is headed north to Point A, and he wants to end up at Point B, he is really not going the right direction.  So what does he tell me?  He'll just keep following his GPS, and he'll call me back in 30 minutes if he's still lost.  $%^&  (So I'm trying to stay awake, and figure.... I haven't blogged in a few days...)

We can probably draw a spiritual parallel to that pretty easily.  God, I'm not sure I'm going the right way.  Can you send me a sign, give me an idea, tell me what to do?......... Thanks God, but never mind, I'm just going to keep doing whatever it is that I'm doing.  Somebody's telling me it's the right way.   I'll call you again if I REALLY need You.

Do you think God just shakes His head sometimes?

In other news - congrats to my brother-in-law.  He is the head coach of a local high school football team, and they are headed to the state championship.  His team now knows a little something about overcoming adversity, since they had to forfeit four games during the regular season for playing an ineligible player (who lied about his age - falsified documents, etc.)

meetings

I sometimes wonder if anyone has ever died from too many meetings.  Sometimes I feel like I might.  I don't know why it takes so many meetings to teach children.  Oh - never mind.... we don't really TEACH any more.  That's so last century.

Yesterday I had a meeting during school to decide who was going to monitor the interventions that needed to be done for a child, and how often.  This meeting lasted 45 minutes and had 7 people present at it.  It was about 40 minutes too long.  Today I had a meeting before school.  It wasn't too bad as meetings go.  Then I had a department meeting during my planning time at school.  It went about 30 minutes into my last block class.  A lot of it was a re-hash of yesterday's meeting.  At some point, I just had to ask, "Are we finished here?" 

Tomorrow during my planning time is an IEP meeting.  One of my co-workers is conducting the meeting, but she asked if I would like to attend, and I told her I'd show up for moral support.   Tomorrow after school, we have an hour-long faculty meeting. 

I think Friday is meeting-free.  Monday we have a meeting during our planning time so someone can help us  with the finer points of progress monitoring. 

I wonder who the patron saint of meetings is?

Oh - and there is no Mass at my parish tomorrow morning.  Our priest has a meeting...

sunday snippets

A Catholic Carnival...

R'Ann at This That and the Other Thing hosts a weekly meme for Catholic bloggers to highlight some (or all?) of their posts from the week.

She invited me a long time ago - last summer, perhaps - but I was still figuring out the whole blog thing, and I didn't want to have a post with the same name every week.  Lame, huh?

Anyway - a week off of school.  Time to think.  Time to blog.  Time.

What of my blog would be of interest to other Catholic bloggers this week?

happy new year - a post about the beginning of the new liturgical year and the meaning of advent

superheroes and kings - a reflection about kids that grow up too fast and penances from the confessional and thoughts from the adoration chapel

eat pray love - mostly pictures from the Blessed Fr. Seelos Shrine in New Orleans (gorgeous)

Hope you enjoy!

happy new year!

My friend says she makes Thanksgiving resolutions, since she doesn't keep the New Year's variety.  What she probably doesn't realize, (and what I didn't think of while we were talking), is that a New Year starts this evening - a new liturgical year in the Catholic Church.

This year starts with us waiting in "patient hope and joyful anticipation" for the coming of Jesus - God is with us - Emmanuel.  Patient hope and joyful anticipation, my pastor says, like the people camped outside of Best Buy on Thursday evening - waiting for the doors to open on Friday!

Jesus is already with us.  We know that.  He is with us in His Word, in the sacraments of the Church - especially the Eucharist.  He is with us in the people around us, with us in prayer.  So it's not as if we are waiting for him to be "more" with us.  We already have it all, so to speak.

Perhaps, it is about us being more open to His presence with us.  Maybe that is why the purple vestments have reappeared again, after endless days of them during Lent.  While the rest of the world is busy seeing how many Christmas trees can be put up and how many presents can be waiting under the tree on Christmas morning, we are called to slow down and reflect, to look within -  and see how we might be more open to His presence in our lives.

I think the final question of the homily was, "How bad do you really want to be with Jesus?"  And my immediate mental answer was, "more than anything."  But I didn't really have to reflect that long to see that my answer and the reality in my life are two different things.  I want to be with Jesus....as long as I don't have to take too much time away from the things I want to do to pray.  I want to be with Jesus.... as long as He doesn't ask anything too hard.  I want to be with Jesus...as long as He fits into my schedule.  I want to be with Jesus as long as I don't have to .....

So it seems like it would be a great time to start over with some Thanksgiving/Advent resolutions.  The Advent wreath (which Father blessed and lit tonight) works perfectly into the scheme of things.  A little more light each week.

Come, Lord Jesus, bring light into my life to illuminate the dark corners.  Let me be more open to Your presence in my life.