Snup's View From the Back Pew: Our Lady of Lourdes

Good Evening! This morning I attended the 10 am Mass in Our Lady of Lourdes in Washington, MO. Yesterday was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, so I thought it would be appropriate.

The Church is relatively new and is in a fan shape.

The music was accompanied by a piano, band and choir and they sat in the front on the left.
The music:
PreMass: All That We Have
Opening: For Your Glory Reigns
Mass Setting: Mass of Christ the Savior
Offertory: Seed, Scattered and Sown
Communion: Only This I Want, Shout to the Lord
Closing: Alleluia! Raise the Gospel

There was a Children's Liturgy with music and a blessing.

The Homily:
We hear about leprosy. It is a very isolated lifestyle. Jesus breaks those barriers. How can we apply this in our lives? There was a U.S. missionary in East Africa. One day a little boy asked her if Jesus was black or white. She didn't know what to say. Jesus lived in a warm climate. Jesus was in between, he was brown. The little boy announced that Jesus belongs to both of us. Jesus bridges gaps of all kinds. He is a bridge between God and humanity. Leprosy was a total separation from life. People thought leprosy came from sin. You'd get it by touching. Imagine how difficult that life was. They were known as the "living dead" (ZOMBIES!!!! in the Bible...cooool) Jesus has this deep love and concern for us. No matter if we have sickness or sin, Jesus is willing to touch us (with latex gloves...oops sorry). He's willing to take on that disease for himself. He takes on our sin and our burden. We don't have that primitive understanding of disease they had in the Bible. We stand in the way of God's healing touch (insert totally inappropriate remark about bad touch here) We have some kind of leprosy of sin. Look at those places. That is where God wants to touch us. Bring us healing acceptance. We have an opportunity in the Eucharist (I thought it was Confession...) We can ask for that healing touch. We need to be infected by that healing, love and acceptance that only Jesus can give (pass the antibiotics) Then we can infect others (hand sanitizer?) Ask ourselves: How do we need to Jesus to infect us? How do we bridge the gap between us and someone else?

At the end of the petition, we prayed a Stewardship Prayer. Father used Eucharistic Prayer II and there were bells. There was a speaker to pitch Christ Renews His Parish for the women's retreat. The big plus: No cooking or cleaning. The men's retreat needs someone to cook them some food however (oh the irony). Father then mentioned that there was a letter from the Archbishop in the bulletin. He then mentioned that there had been a compromise, but that it actually wasn't that much of one.

Pictures: