Bulletin Board with News and Events

 On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we will celebrate three Masses at Holy Name Cathedral – 8:00am, 10:00am, and 12:10pm. Note that there will be neither a 6:00am nor a 7:00am Mass, our usual schedule for a civic holiday. Note, too, that Thanksgiving is one of the very rare days on which we have no 5:15pm Mass. The Cathedral will close shortly after the midday Mass; and the office will close at 1:00pm. Thanksgiving is a familiar Catholic stance. Thanksgiving is the foundation of the Eucharist. On this civic holiday that seems so comfortably religious, be sure to pray by giving thanks. Don’t compare yourself to someone else. Don’t dare hint that you deserve anything classified as a blessing. Blessings are free. They are gifts. So also are God’s loving presence and our conversion in the Spirit. That’s what Christians call Grace. Give thanks for being able to spin away from sin and toward the gospel. I will look for you at Mass on Thanksgiving.

 On Tuesday, November 20 at 7:30pm, worshippers from Holy Name Cathedral, the Fourth Presbyterian Church, and Congregation Sinai will gather here at the Cathedral for an interfaith Thanksgiving-week Prayer. You are invited. The prayers will reflect our common understanding of Thanksgiving not only as a civic milepost, but also as a reflection of God’s call to us as Americans. Music will be provided by Fourth Church; Rabbi Evan Moffic will preach. Please join us Tuesday at Holy Name.

Father Mike Boland, President and CEO of Catholic Charities and a resident priest at Holy Name Cathedral, told me some great news. Several Cathedral parishioners recently were appointed to the Catholic Charities Board of Advisors. Timothy Whiting and Clifford Yuknis were appointed for the first time. Re-appointed were Cathedral faithfuls Flora Boemi, Maryjeanne Burke, Mary Cahillane, William Conaghan, Robert & Patricia Cronin, Maria Daley, Ronald Laurent, Joseph Meehan, Sandra Olson, William Simpson, Michael Toolis, and George Vrechek. Their stewardship is valued by Holy Name Cathedral and by Catholic Charities.

Three priests discussed how they remembered finding themselves on the path to the priesthood. Fr. #1 recalled an early childhood assignment given by the religious Sister who taught his Catholic School class. The assignment was to draw what you wanted to be when you grew up. The priest’s dad was a janitor. Wouldn’t it be great to grow up to be a coal truck driver like the fellows who dealt with his dad? You could get as dirty as you wanted to get, and no one would yell at you. So the boy grabbed the dark colors and began his work of art. Then he noticed Sister standing over him, shaking her head. He turned the page over and began to draw a policeman. Again, Sister shook her head. He asked for another paper and tried drawing a priest. Sister smiled. Fr. #2 traced the roots of his vocation to another religious Sister, his 7^th grade teacher, wondering why the young man was not an Altar Boy. “My older brother’s an Altar Boy.” Sister pointed out that such a truth did not disqualify him. So he learned to be an Altar Boy. Thirteen years later, he was a priest. Fr. #3 almost cannot remember not wanting to a priest. Certainly, he was saying so out loud at age six. Of course he also wanted to be a horse jockey, a hockey goalie, an astronaut, and a bus driver. Priest, however, endured. The reasons that priesthood fascinated him at age six changed by age 13 and his admissions test at the high school seminary; they changed again in college, again in grad school, and certainly by ordination. In the last thirty years, the reasons have changed often, almost always making the vocation clearer. I’m still certain Christ wants me to be a priest. Fr. #3 is me. (Frs. 1 & 2 are Cathedral priests, too; I’ll let them reveal their identities.)

One of the priests I have met along my way died 11 years ago this weekend. He joyfully taught me in a college class on James Joyce, certainly a hero of his. He and I first met when he was watching over the entrance test I took to get into the high school seminary. He told the boys to take out their pencils. All I had was a pen. He let me borrow a pencil. Years later, when he was Rector/Principal of Quigley North and invited me to join his faculty, I would add to the story of the borrowed pencil by claiming that he offered it to me only if I agreed to teach on his faculty if he ever became Rector. “I looked at the guy and concluded, ‘He’ll never get a job like that.  I’m safe. Give me the pencil.’” Seriously, he taught me one of the many and varied leadership styles I have observed in my priesthood (his faculty called him “Caesar”; he liked the nickname); he taught me to love being a leader; he taught me to be proud of those whom I have helped to advance professionally; and he taught me to be proud of being a priest. From 1975-1979, he lived in the very room in which I am typing this sentence. Please say a prayer for the late Father Don “Caesar” Cusack, the fellow who let me borrow a pencil and become a priest.

The present Holy Name Cathedral was dedicated on November 21, 1875 - 130 years ago Wednesday. When this Holy Name Cathedral opened in 1875, Ulysses S. Grant was President of the United States; barbed wire had just been invented; Mark Twain was one year away from publishing Tom Sawyer; Robert Frost and Carl Jung were born; Hans Christian Anderson and President Andrew Johnson died; the Chicago city limits went as far north as Diversey, south to 79^th Street, west to Crawford (now Pulaski), and east to Lake Michigan about four blocks closer than today; the exclusion of blacks from juries was federally prohibited that year, although a similar desegregation of schools was defeated; the unforgettable Harvey Doolittle Colvin was the Mayor of Chicago; John Lourie Beveridge was the Governor of Illinois; Blessed Pius IX was Pope; Thomas Foley was Chicago’s first American-born bishop; Father John McMullen, the future bishop of Davenport, was the pastor; there was no bridge at the Chicago River and Pine Street (Michigan Avenue), but there was a big one across the river at Rush; the Chicago White Stockings, predecessors of the Cubs, were one year old in that year before the National League was formed; the invention of the telephone also was a year away; there were 37 States (Colorado, the Dakotas, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska & Hawaii were waiting for a star on the flag); and our present parish Church was one of Chicago’s tallest buildings. Mass was celebrated in the Cathedral on that dedication day in 1875. Mass will be offered here on Wednesday. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Some things remain the same. 

Fr. Dan Mayall