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Father Bob Barron is the quarterback of the Mundelein Seminary faculty. His talent as a preacher, a teacher, a radio personality, an author, and a serious scholar is famous. Last year, Father Barron eloquently preached as popular a Lenten Mission as we ever have enjoyed at Holy Name Cathedral. Now, the Cathedral has the opportunity to welcome our friend Father Barron back to Holy Name for a talk promoting his latest DVD release – SEVEN DEADLY SINS, SEVEN LIVELY VIRTUES. He will be in our auditorium Tuesday, December 4, at 7:00pm. What is the price of admission? Nothing. What’s the value of the presentation? Everything. I am grateful to the parishioners who were able to arrange for this Advent event. I hope you will not miss such a great opportunity. Meet Father Bob Barron Tuesday at 7:00pm in the Cathedral Auditorium. I’ll be there, and I’ll be looking for you. (Check out Father Barron’s web page – www.wordonfire.org.) Next weekend after Communion, a second collection basket will be passed for the Retirement Fund for Religious, established by American Catholics in the 1980s to care for Sisters, Priests, and Brothers in religious communities, the great majority of whom are in their later years. Consider the facts…74 is the average age of retirement from compensated ministry for women and men religious…19,521 religious are at institutes that have less than 20% of the amount projected for costs of living and health care in retirement…5,452 religious need skilled nursing care…$49,850 is the average annual cost of skilled nursing care for a religious (U.S. total population average annual cost is $65,985)…37,870 religious, mostly women, are now past age 70…many religious work beyond retirement age in ministries to help support their elders in the religious order and eventually “retire” only in the sense that the pay check stops, continuing to work as volunteer, model Christians. The collection for Retired Religious is important. It tries to make up for two mistakes – that which did not foresee the severe drop off in number of active religious and that which did not plan for retirement. For more information, check the web – www.retiredreligious.org. Please, open your heart in that second collection next week. The retired Brothers, Sisters and Priests who staffed hospitals, organized nursing homes, ran orphanages, administered high schools, and taught us in grade school depend on us. Be kind. “In anticipation that she was to bear the Son of God, Mary was preserved from the time of her conception from Original Sin. We call this the Immaculate Conception. No sin would touch her, so that she would be a fitting and worthy vessel of the Son of God. The Immaculate Conception does not refer to the virginal conception and birth of Christ, but rather to Mary’s being conceived without inheriting Original Sin. In the course of time, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception became more precisely enunciated, as its truth – long supported by the popular devotion of the faithful was better understood by deepening theological inquiry. In 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed this dogma infallibly: that is, in his role as supreme teacher of the Church, he declared that this doctrine is divinely revealed and must be accepted with faith by the entire Church” (United States Catholic Catechism for Adults). The Holy Day is celebrated annually on December 8.
December 8 is next Saturday. There will be four Holy Day Masses at the Cathedral. The first Mass will be the Vigil at 5:15pm on Friday, December 7. On Saturday the 8th, in addition to the two regularly scheduled daytime Masses (8:00am & 12:10pm), there will be an extra Mass at 9:30am. “How about the 5:15pm on Saturday? Can’t I cover both the Immaculate Conception and my Sunday obligation in one shot?” No; it does not work that way. The prayers and readings for the evening Masses next Saturday will be those of the 2nd Sunday of Advent. Give the Blessed Mother the honor she deserves. Come to Mass commemorating the Immaculate Conception at 5:15pm Friday; or at 8:00, 9:30am, or 12:10pm on Saturday. I have 9:30am Mass next Sunday; I will have to make Pancakes my lunch! The Parish Life Commission will be the hosts. Our neighbors at GRILLERS (Wabash & Pearson) will be the chefs. Anyone who comes to Mass is invited. 9:00am -12:30pm next Sunday is the time; the Parish Center is the place. Pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, coffee, & juice are on the menu. $7.50 is the price. Try to beat that anywhere in the neighborhood! I will look for you next Sunday for breakfast… and/or lunch! “Father Mayall, I heard a rumor that we are not going to have a parish Penance service with individual confessions this Advent?” That’s right; we are not scheduling a parish Penance service this year. However, we are taking part in a Deanery Penance service on Tuesday, December 18, at 7:00pm at St. Michael’s Church in Old Town (1633 N. Cleveland Avenue). Our Deanery (neighborhood Catholic Churches) noticed a problem last Lent when several Churches scheduled their Penance services for the same night. A place like Holy Name with 10 priests had little trouble finding confessors to hear the confessions. However, some of the smaller parishes, with simultaneously scheduled confessions, had trouble getting the ears to hear the confessions. Therefore, Deanery II-D committed its parishes this season (and probably Lent, too) to a Deanery night of Penance with confessions included. That night will be the Tuesday before Christmas, December 18. We will pray at St. Michael’s at 7:00pm. Please join me, the Cathedral priests, and the deanery priests Dec. 18 at St. Michael. In addition, confessions are heard throughout Advent at the Cathedral on Mondays, Tuesdays, & Fridays in the Reconciliation Room on the lower level beginning at 5:00pm until all are heard; on Saturdays from 3:00-5:00pm in the Reconciliation Room; and on Saturdays from the conclusion of the 5:15pm Mass until 7:15pm in the accessible confessional on the north (left) side of the Cathedral itself. Go to confession in Advent. Get cleaned up for Christmas! The children in the Cathedral’s Religious Education Program for those not enrolled in a Catholic School, the Program that regularly convenes for Kindergarten through 8th graders on Sunday mornings between 9:30-10:30am, will participate in an Advent Penance service with individual confessions this Sunday. They are ready for Jesus! Fr. Dan Mayall |
