St. John - Russellville

Good Sunday to everyone!
This morning I attended the 10 am Mass at St. John in Russellville which is about 1.5 hours west of Little Rock.

St. John is in an area that has experienced rapid growth.  There's the newer church which is bigger and almost overflowing today and the old church which has been turned into a Blessed Sacrament Chapel.  I'm not sure which St. John the parish is named after.  In the Blessed Sacrament Chapel you have the Crucifixion with Mary and St. John and in the narthex of the new Church you have a statue of St. John the Baptist.

Today starts National Catholic Schools Week.  Catholic schools are supposed to be more than an alternative to public schools.  It's a place where kids can learn and live their Faith.  Support your Catholic school, even if it means buying candy, cookies, popcorn, raffle tickets, etc etc.  In honor of National Catholic Schools Week, the choir was made up of kids from the school.  They were accompanied by a piano and did a lovely job.
Music:
Opening:  Enter the Journey
Offertory:  The Cry of the Poor
Communion:  Only This I Want and a 2nd song "Bread of Life, Cup of Love..."
Closing:  They'll Know We are Christians

Father's mini-homily:
Catholic Schools Week...Pray that we reach our goals with the school (I hope staying open is on the list).  St. Paul challenges us.  Do not cause division; be united.  We are the Body of Christ.  There was division in the early Church.  Allegiance to different apostles.  Christ was not divided.

Father is not a native speaker of English and has a rather strong accent.  I'm guessing this has caused problems as his homily was handed out before Mass.  (I didn't have any problems really, then again, I was taught physics by non-native speakers and I'm living in the South...where they all speak different y'all know what I mean?)  He did go off script some and you'll be able to tell when.

This is the background to the First Reading which will help us to understand it better.  Isaiah is speaking about the hope of deliverance of Israel's northern territories, Zebulun and Naphtali, which were conquered and settled by the Assyrians in 733 B. C.  The Prophet speaks in hope about the rise to power of King Hezekiah, a new ruler, who will try to restore the boundaries of Israel to match that of King David's time.  Th yoke, pole and rod, as we heard in the reading, are symbols of Assyrian oppression, the "day of Midian" refers to a battle that the Israelites won through God's power.  (cf Judges 7:15)  It is clear to us now that all people, not only the Jews, walked in darkness, but now through Jesus, the Light of the World, all people can know God intimately and experience the joy and peace of eternal life.  We also know the promises were not fulfilled.  They were only fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

In the Second Reading Paul addressed the question of factionalism that exists in the Corinthian community.  His remedy is clearly stated:  have no divisions and be united.  The Christian life is based on the message of the Cross, which they heard when Paul preached the Gospel to them.  That message led them to baptism.  In baptism, they are made members of the one body of Christ and become brothers and sisters to one another.  This is why divisions and factions are so scandalous to Paul; they reveal spiritual immaturity and threaten the spread of the Gospel.  The key thing for Paul is preaching the Gospel, because it is hearing the Gospel that people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  The cross teaches us true wisdom and provides the example par excellence for serving one another.  In every community this problem arises.  It has a bad effect when we can't spread the Gospel.  In 1054 (drop the filoque!) and the Protestant Reformation we were divided.  We can't bear true witness.  We can come close but we will always be divided.  The moral applications and implications is what has us divided.  This division can happen here at St. John.  Social media makes it worse.  Twitter, we go around tweeting like little birds about unimportant things.  Facebook, put it out there first and gossip.  (So you're telling me all those priests and that Pope guy...I should just unfriend them?) They destroy community (It can...I'm amazed at how fast I've been unfriended sometimes but I'm also amazed at the community as well)  Respect ways of Jesus.  Do not cause division.  Baptism makes us united.  Christ is the head, we are the members.  Be united.  Love one another.  We are to be fishers of men.  Not to be served, but to serve.  We must follow Jesus.  We must be united.

In the Gospel, Matthew compares the arrival of Jesus on the scene to the coming of a great light to a people who had been living in deep darkness.  He saw Jesus as fulfilling the great prophecy of Isaiah: "The people that lived in darkness have seen a great light; on those who dwell in the land and the shadow of death a light has dawned."  (the people in darkness, have seen a great light..Let us build the city of God...oops sorry) Jesus described his mission in similar terms when He said:  "I am the Light of the World." (...may our light shine before that they may come to worship with us and give glory...ooops...).

Brothers and sisters (pump up the volume...), History is littered with examples of teachers who brought darkness into the world through their teachings (name names please...Margaret Sanger?  anyone else?)  The teaching of Jesus was truly a source to all who accepted Him, even to those who oppose him.  He is the light of the world.  He said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Thus He rejected the darkness of revenge, and brought the light of forgiveness and reconciliation.  This is very important in every family and community.  In the parable of the Good Samaritan, He rejected the darkness of neglect and indifference and urged people to care for one another.  In His teaching on authority He rejected the darkness of domination and oppression and urged those in positions of leadership not to lord it over the people, but to server them in gentleness and humility.  Leaders tell our members instead of showing leadership.  He rules by oppressing.  (I'm not sure who he's referring too)  We talk about the prime minister (Father must be from a former Commonwealth) means first servant.  Ministers are to serve (which is why we don't have in the US government system...)  You write letters to them and they ignore you (Good to see that's the same the world over)  This is not in the Light of the Lord.  (I'm pretty sure the Light of the Lord is being hidden under a bushel basket in DC...).  But it was above all through His deeds and encounters with people that His luminous goodness manifested itself.  How many people came to Him in darkness and went away bathed in light.  The examples of such encounters abound in the Gospels.  In Matthew there is the tax collector and then there is Zaccihus.  He pays back 4x, this is the Light of Christ.  That is our challenge.  The Light should change us and not just be lip service.  Fed by water, fed by the light, we must radiate that light (this little light of mine... I seem to be in a musical mood...)

By rising from the dead He scattered the darkness of death, and promised all who follow Him that they will never walk in darkness but will always have the light of life.  How dark the world would have remained if the Light of Christ had never shone!  And yet through Jesus brought God's Light into the world, not everybody welcomed it.  Sadly, some refused His light and opted to remain in darkness.  This is why He began His preaching with a call to repentance: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  To repent means to acknowledge our darkness and to open ourselves to the light.  For those who accepted Him, Jesus truly becomes the light of their lives, the light of the world.

We still walk in the bright light Jesus brought into our world.  By living in it, we became a source of light to others, a lamp for their steps and a light for their paths.  That is the challenge of being a disciple.  Those who have received the light must radiate that light.  They must infect others (a-choo)  You must be a source of love, compassion, and a source of healing.  Not a source of gossip and not a source of division.  When you do these things you cause division.  Praise the Lord!  Alleluia!  (It's over?  noooo)

Do not believe Twitter!  (Uhm did you know the Pope tweets....)  Do not believe Facebook!  Believe only what you hear in the Gospel.  Praise the Lord!  Alleluia!  (It ended at 10:38...and Mass started at 10...and he read the long from of the Gospel.  I'm guessing this was 20 minutes at least).

On with the rest of Mass.  Father used the Apostles Creed.  The kids came up and gave money at the offertory.  Father used Eucharistic Prayer II and there were bells.

There was the Liturgy of Announcements, the Liturgy of Thanking Everyone, and a former student came up and talked.

We must preserve our Catholic Schools!  (Indeed!  and they must be authentically Catholic...)

Father forgot the closing prayer but he did thank us for our patience.  It's the family Mass you see and stuff just happens.  Mass ended at 11:26.

Pictures:

St. John

Blessed Sacrament Chapel is in the foreground.

Blessed Sacrament Chapel

St. John the Baptist (I think..he's got a shell and no clothes..but a dog?)

View From the Back Pew!

Station VIII

Chunky glass!  You're back!  How I've missed you!  How I've missed playing guess what the window is!

Baptism!

Building the City of God?

The Tower of Babel?

Time in Egypt?

St. Joseph?

St. Isidore!

It's a farmer.  

There's probably a Bible story about a farmer (or 100s...)

Annunciation (?), Nativity, Crucifixion

What an odd combination.

Christ the King (?), Wedding at Cana, Calming the Sea or Preaching from the Boat

How are these connected?

Holy Spirit, Pentecost, The story were Jesus fills the nets.

What is the connection?

I get how the first two are connected...not sure how the fish fit in.

Feeding the Multitude (we seem to be short some fish), 10 Commandments, The Goblet of Fire...

Not sure how these are connected..

Link:
St. John - Russellville

St. John Imperial

Good Afternoon!

I attended the 10 am Mass at St. John which is in Imperial.  The Church building is slightly over a year old.  I think the windows are from the old church.  (Update:  I have been informed that the windows are from a church that closed in the city.  I was told Holy Infant...but there is no Holy Infant.  Maybe Holy Family?) The building itself is square and sparse.

The choir is in the front on the right as well as the organ.
Music:
Entrance:  Jesus, the Bread of Life
Offertory:  Seek Ye First
Communion:  One Love Released; Seed, Scattered and Sown
Recessional:  Now Thank We All Our God

Father wore a green chasuble trimmed in Kente cloth.  Let's just say that it was unexpected given the demographic makeup of the people in the pews.

Father was a big fan of mini homilies.  There was one before the Penitential Rite about the Readings.  There was one at the petitions, asking God to touch the hearts of those who thought coming to Mass today was a great burden and those that are thinking next week will be a burden.  The Liturgy of Announcements was long.

The Mass featured a Children's Liturgy of the Word, complete with special blessing for the kids.  Then at the end of Mass there was another special blessing for God's littlest workers.

Homily:
Father went on a vacation with his priest friends last week.  Naturally, when priests get together they talk about the food they had in the seminary.  Father remembered one worker who told them that if they didn't eat it for dinner they would have it for breakfast.  The two inch hot dogs.  Those could have been breakfast sausages.  All the grumbling we did reminds me of the First Reading.  The Israelites were grumbling.  They asked God to free them from slavery.  He did that.  The Israelites wanted to go back to slavery because they at least had food.  God was like Why don't you trust Me?  We all have a complaining spirit inside.  We need a spirit of gratitude like Jesus.  Grumbling begets more grumbling.  Stewardship is coming up.  We need your time, talent and treasure.  It is less than God does for us.  People who want things but don't volunteer to make those things happen.  Those who have a grumble with the Church need to look at the beginning of today's Gospel.  Judas distributed the loaves and fishes.  Peter, who suffered from foot in mouth disease, and John and James, who were so full of themselves and the rest of the clowns all distributed food.  The Church hasn't changed since then.  We come up to work.  We are in training.  Manna is a joke.  The joke is on the Israelites. (Refers to his mini homily about manna meaning:  What is this stuff?)  Lord what is Your Food.  What is Your Bread of Life?  What do you want me to gather from life's desert.  You can't give zero.  Doesn't the Bread of Life make you hungry to give more?  Once you do this little work, God will do work in you.  That is the message of this table.  The Lord is showering us with gifts.  Next week the financial reports will be announced.  Please don't skip Mass.  (He went on about this at various points, even going so far as to pray for it.  I'm guessing it is bad news.)

Father used one of these Eucharistic Prayers I think.  There were bells at the Consecration.

Pictures:

 

Link:
Website of St. John Imperial

St. John the Apostle - Bismarck

Today is the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.  Since I've already been to all the St. John the Baptists in the Archdiocese, I did the next best thing and headed to St. John the Apostle in Bismarck.  I attended the 8 am Mass.

The church was modern, built in 1975.  It was rather sparse on the inside.

The music was sung a capella.
Opening:  We Are the Light of the World
Offertory:  One Bread, One Body
Closing:  They'll Know We Are Christians
After Mass one of the parishoners turned around and said I have a lovely singing voice....

Homily:
Back when I was a teenager, I served Mass.  There were 5 priests at the parish and you could tell which one was serving Mass by the chalice that had been set out.  I pondered chalices a great deal as a seminarian.  It was like when teenage girls look at engagement rings and are like maybe some day (more proof I'm not a typical girl).  It was the same with us looking at chalices, maybe some day.   I remember one chalice had a quote from St. John the Baptist around the cup.  He must increase and I must decrease.  This summarizes the life of a Christian.  Jesus must increase and everything else must decrease.  We want Jesus to increase in our lives.  The king in St. John the Baptist's time did not want to give space to religion.  John speaks to the truth and gets beheaded.  John's greatest virtue is fortitude. We have much to learn from him.  The Bishops have called for a Fortnight for Freedom to pray for religious freedom.  Picked this fortnight because of the different saints' days during the two weeks.  St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More were beheaded for speaking the Truth.  Sts Peter and Paul were martyred for the Truth.  (3 out of 4 were beheaded) They were men for all seasons.  The most cherished and most important is religious freedom (wouldn't it be freedom of speech?)  It is the foundation of freedom.  All freedoms are fragile if conscience is not free.  Refuse to obey an unjust law such as the HHS mandate, which concerns abortion and not just conception or feeding undocumented people.  We don't feed people because they are documented or undocumented; we feed them because they are hungry.  We may be called like John the Baptist.  It is a gift from God, an inalienable right.  We insist on speaking the truth.  I will play Archbishop Carlson's speech to the state legislature after Mass (anyone have a link to it?  It's the one he said he won't pay and he'll go to jail...)  We may be called to sacrifice.

Father used Eucharistic Prayer II and there were bells at the Consecration.


Pictures:

 

Link:
Website of St. John the Apostle - Bismarck

Snowy Cross

St. John, Apostle and Evangelist - St. Louis, MO

Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!

Jake and I are back in St. Louis!  Since December is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, I had planned to visit churches named Immaculate Conception.  However, with Jake being sick and all that plan has fallen apart.  Because of the time and location, I visited St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, which is located in downtown St. Louis across from City Hall and the Post Office.  Mass was at 12:10 pm.  It was pretty full given it was weekday.  Many of the attendees were nearby office workers and city employees, which would account for the mass exodus after Communion as many had to get back to work.

There was an organ in the choir loft.
The music for the day was Marian-themed:
Opening:  Immaculate Mary
Offertory:  Organ musics
Communion:  I Sing A Maid
Closing:  Hail Holy Queen

St. John is a very old church that underwent a renovation in the 1960s for its 100th anniversary. The windows are newer but many of the decorations seem original.  I noticed a bishop's arms on the ceiling and am know engaged in a quest to figure out who's they were.

The homily was about how Mary is all that we hope to be and aspire to.  She is the dawn of our salvation.  We are glory bound through Mary.

Eucharistic Prayer II was used and there were bells at the Consecration.

Father wore a chasuble that was off white with blue trim and a zipper (about 10 inches) in the front.

The parishioners were very friendly as well.

Pictures:

St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

You can see it surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings

Celtic Cross outside

On the bottom of the Celtic Cross

I wonder when this cross was placed, as Archbishop Glennon later became

Cardinal Glennon.

I have a suspicion this is one of the older windows as it doesn't

match the style of the other windows.

It features an eagle in the center, which often

is used to symbolize St. John.

View From the Back Pew!

The painting is a reproduction of The Transfiguration by Raphael.

Where the plant is on the altar, under the cross in the pavilion like structure

is where the Monstrance goes for Adoration.

St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

Jesus calling St. John to be an Apostle.

Relic of the Cross?

This was on the big crucifix on the back wall.

Links:

St. John, Apostle and Evangelist website

Pictures from Rome of the West:  Today and Christmas 2006 (the Baptismal Font is from St. Boniface, which was closed in 2005.  That's the font used to baptize your favorite heathen!)