Holy Thursday Thanks 2012

This evening's liturgy was an amazing experience. There was a record number of parishioners and guests actively participating.

Thank you all for taking your holy Catholic faith seriously. It struck me tonight how truly catholic, yes catholic with a small "c," our liturgies are. The variety of liturgical roles reflects our gifts and talents as a community of faith. That is what is supposed to happen as Church!

So let's get specific with our thanks...

Thanks be to God for calling us together tonight and for sending His Son in history and in the Eucharist!

Our special thanks to those who served in various roles tonight.

Thanks to all who joined us in prayer, in song, and in adoration tonight. You are truly what we celebrated tonight - the Body of Christ!

Thanks also to our four priests, led tonight by Msgr. Fran who often speaks of his special love for this day in the liturgical calendar.

Ruth Scheda did her usual excellent job as our lector. Ruth is recuperating well from her recent injuries and she is back serving our parish as if nothing happened. Thanks Ruth!

Glenn and our choir added to tonight's solemnity with beautiful music. They selected a great mix of new and old favorites. Diane Battaglia was our inspiring and talented cantor and psalmist tonight. She always helps us pray well through song because her love for Christ is contagious.

Our thanks to the ushers who had many extra duties tonight coordinating the foot washers and hand washing all this in addition to their usual duties.

Thanks to Ben and Jesse, tonight's acolytes. They did a marvelous job with the incense, the procession and foot washing. Ben was one of the brave souls who had their feet washed tonight. Thanks to all of you!

Also a word of thanks to the RCIA Elect who processed in with us and presented the sacred oils to the congregation. All three of them- Stacy, Jason and Maria- will be baptized at the Easter Vigil this Saturday.

Thank you all for making this the best Holy Thursday at St. Benedict's ever!

Easter Vigil - getting ready

The Easter Vigil liturgy is so rich and exciting.  It is the culmination of the Church's liturgical year, of Holy Week, and of months of preparation for our RCIA Elect and Candidates.  It is the Church's "big day" because it is the earliest celebration of Jesus' resurrection. 

Those who will be baptized at the Vigil are living signs to us of the dying and rising of Jesus because they die to their old selves and are buried in the waters of baptism and then rise (resurrect) - born again of water and the Spirit - new creations in Christ. They are then anointed with Chrism (Confirmation).  It is thus that they, like us, are properly called "Christians" - anointed ones. They then join us around the Lord's Table for their First Eucharist. You can now see why the three sacraments of initiation - baptism, confirmation and eucharist - are received at the Easter Vigil. This year we have one adult baptism, five confirmations and two first eucharist receptions.

There is a lot of preparation for this big night.  Months of RCIA sessions, weeks of musical practice by Glen, our choirs and cantors; scheduling of lectors, altar servers, ushers, and Eucharistic ministers, time spent decorating the church, and getting liturgical briefings from our Pastor, Fr. Joe, who will be presiding at this great liturgy. All of us have our parts to play in this great evening of worship. That is a metaphor for the Church and our parish - all of us have our part to play.

This is not a liturgy to attend "accidentally;" it is for serious Catholics (and serious visitors) who want to experience the depth of the Church's liturgy.  Are you serious about your Faith?  This might be the year to step it up and worship with us at the Easter Vigil.  It doesn't get any bigger than this night.  If you're ready, join us Saturday at 8:30 pm.  I hope to see you there. We gather outside in front of the church for the blessing of the fire. If you have questions about the Easter Vigil, either now or after you attend, please contact me deaconhynes@gmail.com.

Looking back this week

The homily this weekend was a tough one. Moral homilies are rare today and they are always difficult to preach, and I suspect, to hear. In fact I wish I didn't have to preach them at all, but I know they must be preached when the Gospel and/or Liturgy of the Word takes me there in prayer. Many parishioners pointed out that, painful as they may be for some people to hear, some things need to be said. It's so hard to voice Christ and His Church's moral teaching in a culture that simply doesn't recognize sin as problem. For many Jesus is just a nice guy, not a teacher. It's hard to be a disciple (a student) of Christ anymore; we all want to teach Him and the Church instead! It was a Lenten penance for me to preach this last homily. Thank you for your prayer.

Reaching Out!

Praised Be Jesus Christ!

What are your dreams for St. Benedict's Church? I ask myself this question often.

I hope this blog will help us realize that it is our turn to spread the Gospel to our friends, family and neighbors. It's our turn to be living Gospels for the world to read. Wherever we are on our faith journey, we can take the next step and grow spiritually. Paradoxically, we grow spiritually by sharing the Good News. That's because we become more like Jesus when we do that.