Dear Parishioners,

Our new statue of Mary and the child Jesus has been in the church for two weeks now and the reception of this original piece of art, by our parishioners, has been overwhelmingly favorable. Like all fine art, this image of the Mother of God keeps revealing its beauty and spiritual significance the more one ponders it. I believe this is how one comes to appreciate art of any genre or medium, by standing back from it and viewing it with a contemplative eye over a period of time.

I have spent several hours at various times of the day in prayerful contemplation before this statue. I continually discover new features of its craftsmanship as well as new dimensions of its meaning. I share some of these below.

Dear Parishioners,

On Sunday, June 11, the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (traditionally called Corpus Christi), St. Joan of Arc launched the second year of our Eucharistic Revival – a national initiative called for by our US Bishops. This second year will focus on parish communities and how they might deepen their knowledge and love of the Eucharistic mystery.

To inaugurate this year, we celebrated a festive liturgy at 9:30am on Sunday that was followed by a procession with the Blessed Sacrament around the entire parameters of our parish campus. Despite the cool temperature, challenging winds and annoying rainfall, approximately 200 hundred parishioners walked in this procession and gave public witness to their belief in Christ’s presence in the Eucharistic food.

Dear Parishioners,

Today the church celebrates the great solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, more popularly referred to as Corpus Christi. This feast emerged in the 13th century after a Belgian nun, Juliana of Liege had a vision. In her vision, Juliana saw a disc-like image that resembled the full moon. A portion of the disc was darkened. She however, interpreted the disc to represent the church’s official Liturgical Year, and the darkened portion to represent a feast that was absent. Juliana maintained that the absent feast was one that focused solely on the Holy Eucharist. Although the annual celebration of Holy Thursday has the Eucharist and the Last Supper as its focus, she felt that Good Friday and Easter Sunday overshadowed this focus and so convinced Pope Urban IV to inaugurate the feast of Corpus Christi.

In last week’s bulletin article, as well as my Sunday homily, I announced the new addition to our church which will be a shrine to the Mother of God and the saints. You see in the photograph here the finished statue along with the unique vigil light stand that the artist is calling “The Burning Bush.” While there are many traditional features of this image of Mary, e.g., Mary seated as a source of wisdom holding Jesus, her son, that are also some creative features, e.g., Jesus’s hand extended in welcome and also the medium from which the statue is created. i.e., corten steel.

When our parish church was designed and constructed in 1976, there was a great deal of excitement as well as uncertainty as to the future of church architecture. Much of this was generated by the Liturgical Reforms of the Second Vatican Council that were attempting to respond to the needs and concerns of the modern world. After centuries of ceremonial rigidity and architectural uniformity, there was an eagerness to embrace new artistic styles as these affected ritual language, places of worship, sacred music and other forms of visual expressions of faith.

This year we will ordain five new priests for the Diocese of Joliet.   While this quantity is outstanding, so is their quality.  These five men are young, intelligent, faith filled, pastoral and enthusiastic, and they all strive for holiness.  They easily could have followed one of many good and exciting career paths offered by the world.  Counterculturally, they heard the call of the Lord and responded by choosing to follow the call to the vocation of ordained priesthood.

Dear Parishioners, Pilgrims, Visitors, and Faith Seekers,

As many of you are aware, the English translation of the Order of Reconciliation, aka the Sacrament of Confession, has recently been revised by the Holy See. This revision came as a result of the Vatican’s desire to ensure that all liturgical translations are aligned, as closely as possible, with the official Latin text. This monumental effort to retranslate all our liturgical texts began with the Roman Missal in 2011 and has continued with all the other sacramental rites including Reconciliation.

Dear Parishioners, Pilgrims, Visitors and Faith Seekers,

We have begun the Fifty Days of Eastertide, or what the Church Fathers referred to as “The Queen of Seasons.” It is so called because of his spiritually royal character that has, at its core, the belief that Jesus of Nazareth, once crucified, has been raised from the dead. No other religion (that I know of) has ever made such claim. If one has, I doubt that it has sustained it for 2000 years.

Dear Parishioners, Pilgrims, Guests and all those whose curiosity has led them to check out our parish bulletin:

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

For the 44 days of Lent, the church has been immersed in this penitential season with its traditional threefold disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Besides fasting from food, drink, and other amenities or habits, the church’s liturgy has fasted from the use of the word “Alleluia.”

Introduction

I am happy to introduce, to our parish, Mrs. Tricia DiChristofano who was recently as our Communication/Marketing Director. Tricia is a resident of Manhattan, IL where she lives with her husband and three grown children. She has worked in the Diocese of Joliet for seven years in a position similar to the one for which we have hired her. She has also served as a catechist for 10 years. Tricia’s most recent places of employment were at St. Mary Nativity and Holy Cross parishes in Joliet.

It is a common practice to give a gift made of silver for a 25th anniversary and something of gold for a 50th.  However, I was wondering, what do you give for a 10th anniversary? After some research, there seems to be some consensus that either tin or aluminum is meant to commemorate a decade. Perhaps these metals make an appropriate gift since they are known for their strength and resilience. 

Did you know…

…that in the early church, if Christians went to confession, it was only once in their lifetime and only  for three specific sins?

…that the regular confession of one’s sins to a priest was adopted from Irish monasticism?

…that in the Middle Ages, Christians could be publicly excommunicated from the church in a formal ceremony?