Each year on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, children in Rome gather with their families in St. Peter’s Square for Benedizione dei Bambinelli, bringing with them the Christ Child figurine from their family’s home crèche. At the noon Angelus, the Pope blesses the children, their families, and the figurines they have brought. On the Third Sunday of Advent we will unite our hearts to the Holy Father’s and the children and families gathered with him and bless our own Bambinelli. Bring your Christ Child figurine to be blessed during Mass that day.
Immaculate Conception and Advent II in 2018
In 2018, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception falls on a Saturday. This is a holy day of obligation for the Ordinariate communities in the United States. Since it is the patronal feast of the United States, is not abrogated when it falls on a Saturday. Catholics have two obligations to fulfill on this weekend -- the holy day and Sunday. Using the chart below, one blue obligation and one violet obligation must each be fulfilled separately. Both obligations can be fulfilled on Saturday, just not both at the same Mass, and only in the times indicated.
The Saturday evening celebration should be the Mass of the Second Sunday of Advent, according to the Table of Precedence. For the Saturday evening Mass, either obligation can be fulfilled, regardless of the liturgical celebration.
Holy Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception will be offered at St. Mary's at the following times:
6.00PM Friday, 7 December (Roman Missal)
9.00AM Saturday, 8 December (Divine Worship), with the Rite of Reception into Full Communion of the Carlson Family, the Sacrament of Confirmation, and First Communions. Girls are invited to wear white dresses and bring flowers for Mary to this Mass. See this post for more information.
Marian Feast Days at Corpus Christi
At Mass for the Immaculate Conception on Saturday, 8 December, the girls of the parish are invited to process in with flowers for Mary. Girls should wear white dresses and bring flowers. They will gather in the back of the church before Mass to take part in the Procession and also in the Angelus at the end of Mass. If anyone is able to sew simple light blue sashes for the girls to wear to honor Mary on this and other Marian feast days, we are looking for a volunteer! Contact Erin (email) to participate or volunteer.
Advent Ember Days 2018
Advent Ember Days in 2018
Wednesday, 5 December
Friday, 7 December
Ember Days are brief periods of prayer and abstinence during each of the four seasons of the year. Ember Friday in Advent is to be kept as an obligatory day of abstinence from meat by members of the Ordinariate. Saturday, 8 December is not an Ember Day this year because of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Learn all about the Advent Ember Days.
All Saints Day and All Souls Day Mass Schedule Announced
image: All Saints by Fra Angelico
All Saints Day, Thursday, 1 November 2018
Holy Day of Obligation
Holy Mass:
8.00AM Divine Worship
6.00PM Roman Missal
All Souls Day, Friday, 2 November 2018
Holy Mass:
12.00PM Roman Missal
6.00PM Divine Worship
To add names of the faithfully departed for whose repose the All Souls Day Masses will be offered, submit them here or call the St Mary church office at 843.722.7696.
Hurricane Michael Updates
This information is up to date as of 5.16PM on 9 October 2018:
Wednesday School for October 10 has been cancelled due to Hurricane Michael.
A note from Fr Allen:
WEDNESDAY SCHOOL CANCELLED!
Due to expected adverse weather and flooding conditions conditions associated with hurricane Michael, Wednesday School is cancelled this week. We will be back on track next Wednesday.
Please keep those in the Florida panhandle in your prayers.
Stay home and stay safe!
Fr. Allen
Letter from Fr. Allen announcing Day of Penance, Wednesday School
+JMJ+
Dear Friends,
I had a wonderful weekend away with my son Henry at Alpine Camp, scene of many happy childhood memories for me. I missed being with you on Sunday, but you may appreciate knowing that I offered Mass at 4.45 in the morning because I forgot I was in the Central time zone!
Please give your attention to two items:
Wednesday School
The school year is back under way, and it is time for us to begin again with our Wednesday School programs. These will begin with our Safe Environment meeting for parents on Wednesday, September 12, at 5.30PM in the church. There will also be a program for children that night while parents have an opportunity to review the safe environment materials and talk briefly with me about the issues concerning the safety of our children in the Church. The children's program will not be a safe environment/"Teaching Touching Safety" program, but rather a quick and fun Catechesis of the Good Shepherd introduction with our director, Scarlett Crawford. Parents will be given the safe environment children's materials - when and how and in what terms to communicate this information to children is left to the discretion of parents who, after all, know their own children best. Having said that, the parents' meeting is mandatory in order to enroll children in our Catechesis program; if you are unable to attend on Wednesday, September 12, and would like your child(ren) to participate in Catechesis, please let me know so that we may arrange a make-up date. Our first classes, for children and adults, will be the following Wednesday, September 19th, with family supper at 5.30PM and class beginning at 6PM. Everyone goes home by 7PM. See more - including a link for registration - [here]!
A Day of Penance
Last week, we heard from Bishop Lopes regarding these latest terrible revelations of the scandal of abuse in the Church (scandal which has intensified even in the last week). Bishop Lopes invited us to offer the fall Ember Friday (September 21) as a day of penance for the renewal of the Church and healing of victims of abuse. To that end, I invite you to join me in a Holy Hour of prayer and penance in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament on that day, from 7 - 8PM. (For understanding the Ember Days in general, see here.)
I have been asked why we ought to do penance for the sins of others - a good and fair question. Briefly:
Because the Church is, as St Paul teaches us, one Body, though it has many members. We are not all, of course, personally guilty of these crimes, but we all are, in a sense, implicated. St Francis began in just this way; he never intended to found a religious order, but rather to be a penitent, offering his own self-chosen poverty, with all of its hunger, want, and suffering, in reparation for the sins of all against God's love. So also we are doing penance for the sins of those deacons, priests, bishops, and others in the Church against children and the vulnerable.
Because penance intensifies our prayer. This is why fasting and prayer are so closely associated. By fasting we are, as it were, "putting our money where our mouth is" and demonstrating (and so also fostering) the urgency of our desire and the depth of our sorrow - going without, or voluntarily bearing some cross, in order to gain some good thing or end. As we hear from the prophet Joel at the beginning each Lent: "Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God; and cry to the Lord."
Finally, because it is what Jesus did for us, and "we are," as again St. Paul teaches, "ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." By this penance, we seek to make reparation not only for our own sins, but for the sins of others in the Church.
This Ember Friday falls on the Feast of St. Matthew, and so is not a day of mandatory abstinence, but I invite you to join me in fasting and abstaining from meat that day, and then join me in prayer before our Lord, present in the Blessed Sacrament, that God may forgive our sins, heal his Church, and comfort and restore those who have been prayed upon.
God bless you,
Fr Allen
