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

Good Evening!
I have to work on Sunday so I headed out to Mass tonight. I headed out to Our Lady of Victory in Sereno for their 4 pm Vigil Mass.

Our Lady of Victory is at least 100 years old. Their new Church was built in 1997. It's a tasteful modern church. They have a choir loft, which is amazing because those seem to have all but disappeared in churches built after 1960.

Father was really nice and chatty, greeting all of his parishoners before Mass. As usual, I upset some elderly lady by daring to sit in her spot.

The music was accompanied by a piano/electric organ in the choir loft.
Music:
Opening: Alleluia, Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise.
Offertory: Jesus Christ is Risen Today
Mass Setting: Mass of Creation (Gloria was spoken though)
Communion: Gift of Finest Wheat; Amazing Grace
Closing: They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love

The mini-homily was about how it was Good Shepherd Sunday. Father used Penitential Rite A.

Homily:
This week we celebrate the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. In John's Gospel there are 7 I AM statements.
I AM:

Living Water
Bread of Life
Resurrection and the Life
the Vine
Light of the World
Good Shepherd.

(What's the last one?) John's Gospel is so different from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is very theological. In the Old Testament there are many statements about God as I AM. The Gospel of John uses that about Jesus. It is hard to get the imagery of Jesus as a shepherd. Most of us are not familiar with sheep or shepherd. This is cattle country. Sheep are different. (That is good for this city girl to know...). We take comfort from the image somehow. It is very pastoral. We use that word in church a great deal, pastoral. Pastor. Psalm 23. The shepherd goes ahead of his sheep and the sheep follow him. Cattle are all about the herd. You bring sheep together differently (Yes. It's called a border collie. ;) ) It is hard to imagine. I know my sheep and my sheep know my voice. There are different voices that come to us. Some of the voices are very good. There is a country song about hearing voices. The voices of mom and grandma to do good and stay on the straight and narrow. Other voices are not good voices, like TV and the Internet. They draw us away and lead us to be bad. Their message is only to watch out for myself. Different voices pull us in different directions. It can be hard to hear the voice of God. The sheep listen to my voice. It is hard to hear God's voice in society (especially since being a sheep is bad) Try to be of service to one another. Listen to God's voice in our lives.

Father used Eucharistic Prayer II and there were no bells. There was hand-holding at the Our Father.

Pictures: