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?

Dear Parishioners,

Repentance is a notion we hear a great deal of during the season of Lent. While it is certainly true that repentance is one of the great hallmarks of this penitential period of the church year, it is more accurate to claim that it as a hallmark of the entire Christian life. The opening words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark are; This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. (Mark 1:15) The Greek word for repent is metanoia, and is derived from two words from the same language – meta (after, with, above) and nous (mind).

Dear Parishioners,

This week, February 22nd, is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. For 46 days, we will be immersed in a season that was originally designed to prepare people for Baptism at Easter, a season which, over time, became a penitential period for all the baptized so that they might celebrate Easter with a renewed heart. Today, Lent can have a variety of meaning and purposes, depending upon individuals. What seems to be a consistent characteristic of the Lenten season is that during these weeks, Christians adopt various prayers, practices and ritual customs that are unique to this time of year hoping to change something in their lives.

Dear Parishioners,

On April 25, 2022 the Vatican Congregation of Divine Worship and the Disciple of the Sacraments, which is the body of cardinals and bishops responsible for the translation and implementation of all liturgical rites, approved a new translation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. You may recall that, for several years now the church has been revising all our liturgical texts so that they would be in closer conformity to the official Latin texts from which they are translated. The actual textual changes in the “new” Rite of Penance, now called “The Order of Penance,” are minimal.

I recently decided to learn to cook. As I sit at the feet of various YouTube cooking masters, I notice how much of cooking is adding ingredients that don’t provide any more nourishment, like herbs and other seasonings. But man! They make all the difference because they make the meal delightful to eat and share. Jesus calls his disciples “salt of the world.” No one eats just salt. So, Christians are not meant to replace or do away with the world. They are meant to be agents of preservation and glorification.