Bulletins
January 10, 2016
Download the Bulletin as a PDFWhew!
We made it through the holy days and are finally back to normal. Guests are great. It is wonderful to see them come and it is wonderful to see them leave. Before we settle too comfortably into our peace and quiet permit me a few words about guests as well as peace quiet at Mass.
The occasional chirp from a baby is a welcome sign of a family’s and the parish’s vitality. Inflicting on the congregation predictable sounds of discontent caused by wetness or hungriness should usually be able to be averted. Babies are full of surprises, though. The cry room and restrooms offer some relief. I am looking into adding more cry room space and dampening the sound in the vestibule. The vestibule is also always a far better place for conversations than the pews. Rivaling that from our littlest ones, another source of prayer-disturbing noise is the chatter and loud whispering that precedes Holy Mass. Let’s all try to make the Church a real sanctuary of prayer.
Every year at Christmas and Easter we are besieged by guests. Some are out-of-town visitors who are churchgoers. Some are neighbors who are occasional churchgoers. Some are just visitors. Every year there are a few who decide to come back to practicing the Faith and a sacramental life. On any given Sunday, that person may be sitting next to you. A smile and/or a whispered “Good morning” or “God bless you” would always be perfectly appropriate. If ten people look over, then chances are that it wasn’t a whisper but I am sure that the sentiment will have been much appreciated.
God bless you!
Fr. Christopher J. Pollard
P.S. You will notice saints listed among the Mass Intentions that may look unfamiliar. Yes. That is St. Malachy as in the prophet of the Old Testament. He is not St. Malachy the Archbishop of Armagh whose feast is November 3. We will continue to list in bold italics all the saints who are on the obligatory liturgical calendar of the Ordinary Roman Rite, which is what you see on your 12-month parish calendar sponsored by John Nugent & Sons. In addition, just for the fun of it, we may list in regular italics saints that are in the Roman Martyrology (the Church’s official list of saints) but not the Universal Calendar (the Church’s official schedule for mentioning saints at Holy Mass and in the Divine Office). On any given day there are a dozen saints whose feast days are observed, even if their memorials are not mentioned in our prayers at the altar. If you would like to see the lost of all the saints as of the beginning of the twentieth century, visit bit.ly/RomanMartyrology_English. The site is useful even if it mistakenly lists a number of saints as having been removed from the Roman Marytrology in 1969 even though they were only delisted from the Universal Calendar. They are still saints. They just do not rank high enough to displace other liturgical observances.
