Pastor's Development; First Friday; Saint Blase- Father Kevin Louis's Bulletin Column - January 28, 2007
Through the wonders of our electronic age, I am typing these words from my hotel room in Phoenix, Arizona (although by the time you are reading them I will already be in Brownsville, Texas, with Monsignor Diaz!). Phoenix sure has changed since the last time I was here 30 years ago! Then it was a city of less than 800,000 people and now it is the fifth largest metropolitan area in our country. And, of course, while I have been here it has been the coldest weather they have had in nearly 20 years! It has been at freezing each night and the hotel has been forced to rent portable heaters to warm up the public areas of the hotel as the heating system is woefully inadequate. It is funny to hear people talk of how bitter cold it is!
After a week of intense work (our text was more than 500 pages long!), the 34 participants in the Pastors National Development Congress – including myself! – graduated today. We began each day with Mass and had presentations through mid-afternoon. They even had us listening to lectures during lunch! It was an outstanding course parish development and I come away with many ideas that will serve us well at Saint Peter. Beyond the things learned in the classroom I always enjoy these sorts of gatherings of priests from around the country insofar as it provides the opportunity to meet new people and share stories about parish life from various parts of the nation. Attending the course are priests from as far East as Philadelphia, as far South as Florida, as far West as California, and as far North as Minnesota. The circumstances of the parishes served by these priests are as varied as their geographical location. One priest is pastor of a parish of more than 8,000 households (that is NOT a typo!) while another serves three small parishes in rural Minnesota. One priest in eastern Wisconsin is beginning the process of closing two urban parishes and combining them into a third while another is building a new multi-million dollar church, parish center, and elementary school. One priest has just been assigned to a parish with a debt of more than 3 million dollars while another has more than 4 million dollars in the bank. In spite of all these striking differences, we all experienced a profound unity in our sharing in the priesthood of Jesus Christ and our service to His people. It has been particularly enjoyable for me to be in Phoenix insofar as two of the participants in the course studied with me at Saint John Vianney Seminary on the campus of the University of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the 1980s. What is more, the current Bishop of Phoenix, Thomas Olmsted, was a source of great consolation to me during my time at the Pontifical North American College seminary in Rome, Italy, as he was in residence there offering excellent counsel to us seminarians. Bishop Olmsted is also the one who – while he was Rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum seminary in Columbus, Ohio – requested that I be released from service in our Diocese to become a faculty member there. Finally, being in Phoenix gave me the opportunity to catch up with a number of my former seminary students who are now priests serving in the Diocese of Tucson which is just south of Phoenix.
This Friday is the First Friday of the month in honor of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. As usual, the Blessed Sacrament is exposed following the 8:00 am Mass until Benediction at 5:00 pm. Please take time to stop by church to spend some time in prayer before our Eucharistic Lord. There are two Masses that day (8:00 am and 5:15 pm) which is also the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Saint Luke tells us that “when the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,’ and to offer the sacrifice of ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,’ in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord” (2:22-24). According to most ancient custom – previous to the fourth century – we will have a blessing of candles. A symbolic number of candles to be used at Mass for 2007 will be blessed along with additional candles that will be available for your purchase.
Another ancient custom in the Church is the blessing of throats given on the Feast of Saint Blase. He was the bishop of Sebaste in Armenia and during one of the periods of persecution of Christians, he was condemned to death and beheaded (316 AD). You are invited to receive this special blessing which will be given at the conclusion of the 8:00 am Saturday Mass and all three Masses of the Lord’s Day (Saturday 4:00 pm and Sunday 8:00 and 10:00 am): “Through the intercession of Saint Blase, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.”
Saint Peter, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
Father Kevin Louis
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