St. Cletus

Good Evening all.

This morning I attended the 10 am Mass at St. Cletus in St. Charles.  I was going to attended the Noon LifeTeen Mass but I had a headache...

St. Cletus was built around 1967 and is in a modern style.  The stained glass is chunky and abstract.

The music was accompanied by a choir and a piano.
Opening:  Glory and Praise to Our God
Offertory:  Rain Down
Communion:  O Sacrament Most Holy and Change Our Hearts (it's like a show tune...at Mass..)
Communion Meditation:  Follow You Jesus (don't actually know the name...but that line was repeated a great deal.)
Closing:  Blest Be the Lord
Mass Setting:  Mass of Renewal

There was a Children's Liturgy of the Word at this Mass.  They had a little homily about how Jesus speaks to us.  The kids came back with fish necklaces.

The homily started off talking about how we are now in Ordinary Time but that Christmas still lingers, as can be seen by the poinsettias around a statue.  Father then related a dream Mary had that she told to Joseph.  There was a birthday party for our son.  There were decorations and a tree.  There were gifts and they gave gifts to each other but not to our son. They did not mention our son.  But they did not know him.  Our son would have been intruding if he had gone to the party (not if he had an invite).  He was not wanted at his own celebration.  How terrible if this dream had been real.  Mary had the strangest feeling Jesus would have been intruding.  How willing am I to let Jesus in my life?  In our offices, our politics, our sexuality (huh?), our computers, etc.  This week's Gospel is similar to last week's.  Jesus invites James, John and Andrew to fishers of men.  If I had been one of the men at the boat, how would I have responded?  Would I have said I will or would I have said I'll think about it.  Do we invite Jesus into our bank accounts, our computers, our offices, our sexuality?   What are we saying?  When you go to the dentist and have x-rays you wear a lead blanket to keep from being penetrated.  We wear a spiritual blanket to keep God and God's Grace out.  Jesus wants to penetrate us (ok.  I admit it.  I'm 12.  I snickered in the back.  I had to shove my fist in my mouth I started giggling. So many inappropriate comments...) Our habits make that shield.  God can't penetrate us.  Jesus still invites us.  Father then talked about St. John Gabriel (or here) who was martyred in China.  He read a prayer written by him.

After the homily, there was a commissioning of some kind of ministers.  I missed what Father said.  They had over 50+ hours of training.  There were some vows taken by the ministers.  Apparently they are Stephen Ministers.  I'm not sure what this... Then we all said some vows.  (If the song Lord You Give the Great Commission appeared I was so out of there...)  Then we nazi saluted blessed them and clapped.  And then skipped the Nicene Creed.  But we added the Catholics Come Home prayer from the Archdiocese.

Father used Eucharistic Prayer III and there were no bells.

Pictures:

St. Cletus

View From the Back Pew!

St. Cletus

Relic of St. Cletus

Mary and the Child Jesus

I'm not even going to say anything.

Station

It looks like they have installed the New Stations. 

The first station was the Last Supper.

Links:
Website of St. Cletus

St. Angela Merici - Florissant

Hello!

This morning (1/15) I headed to 9:30 am at St. Angela Merici.  I had trouble finding the Church as either the address given by the Archdiocese or the GPS was confused.  I had the right road, just half a mile off.

St. Angela Merici is a modern church in a fan shape that is 50 years old (The parish is starting to celebrate the 50th anniversary this month!).  The interior is slightly plain.  There aren't any traditional widows.  Along the top of the nave is a strip of stained glass with symbols.

There is no separate area for the choir, although the organ is an alcove in the back.  The choir sits in the back and is quite large.  Today the music was accompanied by a violin and a flute (which was really loud)
Music:
Before Mass there was a song.
Opening:  Here I Am Lord
Offertory:  Psalm 40:  Here I Am
Communion:  Behold the Lamb
Communion Meditation:  Jesus Lamb of God, Bearer of Our Sins
Closing:  All the Ends of the Earth

Father was incredibly reverent.  The full Penitential Act was used.  Eucharistic Prayer III and bells were also present.

So Mass is moving along and I'm typing something on the iPad about the music.  The lady next to me leans over to me and says that's inappropriate for Mass.  I show her the iPad and say I'm taking notes not playing games.  She's like it is still inappropriate.  I proceed to tell her that coming late for Mass is also inappropriate behavior (There were lots of people late for Mass and she was one of them).   I'm also going out on a limb and saying calling someone out during the First Reading is also inappropriate.  She proceeded to shoot me dirty looks all through Mass.

Father's homily was nice but on the long side.
Our experience of faith is difficult to communicate to others.  We assume others have the same faith experience as us.  It is hard to be comfortable in our Faith and not judge others.  Our experience of faith may become stagnant.  When we are young, we learn proper Christian behavior and then model such behavior (by pointing out the bad behavior in others no doubt).  When a crisis happens, we don't know how to deal with it with our Faith, especially if we are just going through the motions.  We let other mediate our Faith.  We rely on the Faith of others.  We go through the motions and never break free of limited sense of Faith.  What is lacking in our Faith?  How do we go grow up in Faith?  In the First Reading, Samuel deals with this.  Christ asks us to be childlike, not a child, but have a relationship with our Father; we are His children.  We need to be more mature in our Faith.  What will happen when we respond to the unknown?  We all have to respond to God's call.  What we learned as a child is not sufficient.  Religion isn't just responding to the world around us (bet someone saw the latest youtube making the rounds....) but is about a real relationship with the person of God.  That framework we learned carries us through life.  But sometimes we never respond "Speak O Lord, Your Servant is Listening"  We have examples in our Tradition to responding to God's call:  marriage and Holy Orders (guess single people don't count....as usual.)  Leap into the unknown to respond.  If we respond God gives us grace to live our vocation.  We respond not just once, but continually.  There are lots of vocations in the Church:  religious life, consecrated single life, every day is an answer to God's call.  God will not call us in the night like He called Samuel (why won't He?)  God's call comes from the teaching authority of the Church.  It is not an overbearing call but an enlightening one.  It helps us understand what God is calling us to do.  It supports us so that we can respond more deeply and be open to the Voice of the Lord.  In the Gospel we see the Apostles being called.  Others lead us to Christ, but we have to actively follow.  It changes our identity.  Meditate on it in our hearts.  Deepening of our Faith where ever we are not judging each other.  If we stop and listen to the Lord, He becomes a person to us, not just rules.  Father then told a story involving the Archbishop.  FYI:  legal stationary gets his attention.

At the end of every Mass, the parish is adding a Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for Pro-Life causes.

Pictures:

St. Angela Merici

St. Angela Merici

View From the Back Pew

Station

Link:
Website of St. Angela Merici

St. Andrew Kim

Happy Feast of Epiphany!

This morning (1/8), I attended 10:30 am Mass at St. Andrew Kim, the Korean parish.  Mass was all in Korean.  I only recognized 1 song, the opening song, We Three Kings.

Before Mass, there were prayers.  I think they were saying the Rosary.

At the Offering, everyone processed up to the front to donate.  When the people said "And With Your Spirit", the bowed.  At the Sign of Peace, everyone bowed.

There was a woman who was kind enough to share her missal so I could follow along.

Pictures:

St. Andrew Kim 

Mary

View From the Back Pew

Nativity

St. Patrick

The Church used to be St. Patrick.

That statue is St. Patrick

The Beautitudes

I leave you to figure out which is which

Links:
Information from the Archdiocese

Incarnate Word

Happy New Year!

I hope we all remembered the plenary indulgences for the last and first days of the year.  I did. :)

I attended the 12 am Mass for January 1, the Feast of Mary, Mother of God at Incarnate Word in Chesterfield.  Bishop Herman celebrated Mass.  Before Mass, there was Benediction, Rosary and Adoration.

The music was accompanied by a piano.
Opening:  Song of Mary
Offertory:  What Child is This
Communion:  Magnificat, God's Family (winner of the cheesiest song award)
Closing:  Sing of Mary

Homily:
On this first day of the year, we celebrate the Feast of the Mother of God.  Early Church called Mary, Theotokos, Mother of God.  Jesus on the Cross says to John, behold your mother, to Mary he says behold your son.  It is right to ask the intercession of Mary.  We need those blessings.  In the first reading, Moses and Aaron could not imagine the Father living in our midst and dying on the Cross for our salvation.  St. Paul mentions how we were born under the law so that we may be adopted under the law.  We become God's adopted children.  We are God's beloved children.  The love comes to fruition in the Crib.  Mary was piecing things together.  Why would God do this?  How marvelous is His love and compassion for us.  At the circumcision, Simeon said a sword would pierce Mary's heart.  Mary did not understand but treasured these words in her heart.  She pieced it together and it came together for her on the Cross.  The events have begun to make sense.  The Passion was to save us from sin.  Our world needs a mother.  The world needs to know its Redeemer if it is to be saved.  Atheists hate Christians.  If Christians are right, they have to change and they don't want to.  At the miracle at Cana, Mary tells the servants to do whatever He tells you.  Live the Gospel joyfully.  Be a light unto other.  At her apparitions, Mary asked us to stop offending God.  For my prayers to be effective, they must change me to effect other people.

The Bishop used Eucharistic Prayer III and there were no bells.

Pictures

View From the Back Pew

Annunciation

Mother and Child

Nativity

Pentecost

Risen Jesus

Station VIII

Links:
Website of Incarnate Word
Pictures from Rome of the West

Nativities from St. Anthony of Padua (pt 2)