Category: Fr. Abraham’s Weekly Column

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

Our parishioners doing the “Fall Into Faith” Bible sharing sessions are having a greater understanding of the Word of God while experiencing true fellowship with one another. Some of them asked me a question about the Synod on Synodality. Many of us may or may not be aware that the Synodal process has been going on for the past three years and that it concluded last month – on October 26 in Rome.

Pope Francis is very passionate about restoring the church as the people of God. He wants the church to be a communion and not a corporation. So he initiated one of the most consultative processes in Church history, when he called for the Synodal journey in 2021, asking all the Catholics around the world to send their input to him through their respective dioceses, to be discussed in the assembly of delegates in Rome. Instead of the usual gathering of bishops, he included lay people in the synod for the first time with voting rights. Some critics of the synod (including priests, bishops and cardinals) did not agree with the pope’s vision as they accused him of democratizing or protestantising the Catholic Church which they claim must always be hierarchical. But Pope Francis aimed to balance traditional Church teaching with contemporary pastoral needs while promoting greater inclusivity and transparency in Church governance.

The 52 page Final Document, approved by 355 synod members in attendance, outlines substantial proposals for Church renewal, organized into five main sections and calls for five forms of conversion: spiritual, relational, procedural, institutional, and missionary. The document contains the following main proposals (condensed by Pierre-Alain Giffard):

Study Areas for Groups: The Synod encourages specialized groups to delve deeper into ten critical areas, such as the relationship between Eastern and Latin Churches, supporting the poor, and adapting mission efforts to the digital world, to better align Church life with modern challenges and synodal ideals.

Transparency and Accountability: The proposal emphasizes that transparency in Church governance, especially through public reports and audits, can help build trust and ensure the Church is responsibly managing resources, while also upholding values of inclusion and equality, such as balanced gender representation in decision-making bodies.

Empowering Episcopal Conferences: By strengthening the role of Episcopal Conferences, the Church can allow for more locally responsive doctrinal and pastoral care that respects cultural diversity, while still preserving the unity and integrity of the Catholic faith worldwide.

Inclusivity for People with Disabilities: This proposal suggests an Ecclesial Observatory on Disability, aiming to foster active involvement of individuals with disabilities, ensuring their unique contributions enrich Church life and outreach.

Strengthening Family and Marital Support: Recognizing families as vital contributors to the Church’s mission, this proposal advocates for networks that support families in pastoral roles, allowing them to actively participate in evangelization and service within their communities.

Promotion of Synodal Decision-Making: Encouraging synodal processes at all levels aims to make decision-making more inclusive and reflective of the broader Church community, fostering shared discernment and updating canon law to clearly define consultative and decision-making roles.

If these wonderful proposals are implemented, the Church will move from being a corporation to a communion of the people of God.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

This is Veterans Day weekend – an occasion to remind ourselves of the importance to honor all those who have risked life, limb and mind for our country. We bring all of these heroes and heroines in prayer to God at all the Masses this weekend. We also thank and pray for all the law enforcement officials who live and work tirelessly to keep us safe.

At our 10 am Mass today we honor St. Martin De Porres who is the patron of our Parish St. Martin De Porres Society. Martin was born in Lima, Peru. At fifteen he began his long relationship with the Dominican Order and later took his vows as a brother. His painful childhood taught him compassion and generosity. As a Dominican he doctored Lima’s sick. While surgery was primitive in his day, he had a vast knowledge of herbal medicines. In addition to his free services as a doctor, he distributed thousands of dollars worth of food and clothing to the poor each week. He founded an orphanage for abandoned children and staffed it with the best teachers, nurses and guardians he could hire. On the hills near Lima, he planted fruit orchards for the poor. He is also remembered for his love of animals. Pope John XXIII remarked at Martin’s canonization on May 6, 1962, that Martin excused the faults of others and forgave the bitterest injuries. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly comforting the sick and providing food, clothing and medicine for the poor.

This week there are a number of interesting saints In the liturgical calendar:
St. Martin of Tours (Monday), St. Josaphat (Tuesday), St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Wednesday), St. Albert the Great (Friday), and St. Margaret of Scotland & St. Gertrude (Saturday). Among these, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini – the first US citizen to be canonized – is of special importance to us. Many of us may have visited the Cabrini Shrine in Manhattan and seen her partially incorrupt body under glass.

Earlier this year, the movie ‘Cabrini’ was in theaters nationwide. For those of us who watched, it was a beautiful experience to know more about her life and legacy. Born in 1850, Cabrini nearly drowned as a child, her lungs were damaged, and she was rejected by several religious orders on the basis of ill health. Ultimately, she founded her own Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and added Xavier to her name, after the Jesuit saint Francis Xavier. Since her early childhood in Italy, Frances had wanted to be a missionary in China but, at the urging of Pope Leo XIII, Frances went west instead of east. She traveled with six sisters to New York City to work with the thousands of Italian immigrants living there.

She found disappointment and difficulties with every step. When she arrived in New York, the house intended to be her first orphanage in the United States was not available. The archbishop advised her to return to Italy. But Frances, truly a valiant woman, departed from the archbishop’s residence all the more determined to establish that orphanage. And she did. In 35 years, Frances Xavier Cabrini founded 67 institutions dedicated to caring for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick. She was canonized in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.

This daring woman’s determination to follow God’s will in her life with such dedication and compassion for the sick and poor is truly remarkable and inspirational.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

This weekend and for the whole of November, we fondly remember all our near and dear departed ones. Some of the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament, like the Acts of Paul and Thecla and the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity (both written during the second century), refer to the Christian practice of praying for the dead. Praying for the deceased members of the family as part of their family night prayers was also an ancient practice of oriental Christians. The early Fathers of the Church encouraged this practice which they believed had been inherited from the Apostles. Tertullian (A.D. 160-240) wrote about the anniversary Masses for the dead, advising widows to pray for their husbands. St. Augustine remarked that he used to pray for his deceased mother, remembering her request: “When I die, bury me anywhere you like, but remember to pray for me at the altar” (Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 13, 35-37).

What is a Mass intention? Offering a Mass for our departed family members is an age-old and venerable custom. This is why we have Mass intentions announced at every Mass.  A Mass intention may be requested for: a deceased loved one, a living person who is sick or suffering, a living person who is celebrating a birthday, anniversary or other special moment in their life, in thanksgiving to God for His blessings, in thanksgiving for a favor received through the intercession of a Saint, or for a prayer intention (so long as the intention does not contradict Church teaching). We announce these intentions at every Mass here at St. Matthias.

Opening our 2025 Book of Mass Intentions: In our parish there are many requests for scheduling Mass intentions. Our 2025 Book of Mass Intentions will be opened on Monday, November 11, 2024, 8:30 AM in the Parish Office. There have been increasing requests for additional Mass intentions during unforeseen special occasions such as death, month’s mind, etc., Last year, considering these, I had allowed additional intentions with the existing intention for the Mass.  In such cases, we will be accepting only one additional intention, which will be announced in the Universal Prayers (Prayers of the Faithful). It may not appear in the bulletin. Please know that, as per the laws of the Church, stipend/offering for these additional Mass intentions will be sent to the Mission Office of our Diocese or to missionary priests overseas.

So, is stipend the cost of a Mass? It is very important for us to know that the stipend is NOT the cost of a Mass. In fact, the Code of Canon Law uses the word “offering,” not “stipend” – to highlight that this is a suggested amount of offering. To require payment would be wrong, and in fact the code specifies that priests should “celebrate Mass for the intention of the Christian faithful, especially the needy, even if they have not received an offering” (945.2).  In my 40-plus years of priesthood, many people have asked me, “How much does a Mass cost?” I always answered that there is no cost or fee because the graces flowing from Mass are of infinite value. I further clarified that there is a suggested offering, but if that’s unaffordable, you can donate something less or nothing at all, and the Mass will still be offered for the intention you desire. More details will be in next Sunday’s bulletin.

Let us make this traditional prayer ours: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

In a few days, we enter some very important events in the church’s calendar.

All Saints Day is this Friday (November 1), a Holy Day of Obligation. We have three Masses that day: 8 am, 12:10 pm and 7:30 pm, so that we can attend any Mass at our convenience. The Bible reminds us that the number of those saved are “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” (Revelation 7:9). This includes the canonized saints whose number keeps on increasing. Pope Francis canonized 14 new saints just last Sunday (October 20). They are:

  • Manuel Ruiz López and Seven Companions of the Order of Friars Minor, and Francis Mooti and Raphael Massabki, lay faithful, martyrs.
  • Joseph Allamano, priest, Founder of the Institutes of Men Missionaries of the Consolata and Women Missionaries of the Consolata.
  • Marie-Léonie Paradis (born Virginia Alodie), Foundress of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.
  • Elena Guerra, Foundress of the Congregation of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, known as the “Sisters of Saint Zita.”
  • Carlo Acutis, the modern teen web designer who had special devotion to the Eucharist.

Among the newly canonized saints is St. Giuseppe Allamano (1851–1926), an Italian diocesan priest who founded the Consolata Missionary Priests and Sisters. Allamano, though he spent his entire life in Italy, left a global legacy by training missionaries who carried the Gospel to remote corners of Africa, Asia, and South America. We, here at St. Matthias, have a special connection to the Consolata Missionaries as the Consolata priests have been a great help to us for many years and still continue to be whenever they are available to minister to us. In the name of us all, I congratulate them for this great honor of their founder’s canonization.

All Souls Day is on Saturday (November 2). Though not a Holy Day of Obligation, we will have a Holy Mass at 8 am. A separate Mass to commemorate all those who passed away this year will be held on Sunday evening (November 3) at 5:30 pm.

We know that November is dedicated to the departed souls. At all the Masses this weekend, we are remembering in prayer all our dearly departed ones.  Explaining the true concept of Purgatory as an “existential state” and not a place, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote that it is “the fringe of heaven, a state where heaven’s eternal light has a refining effect on the “holy souls” (not ‘poor souls’), who are held in the arms of Divine Mercy.” 

The doctrine of “Communion of saints” that we profess every Sunday is a happy reminder to us of all those who are gone to God. Pope Francis calls it a “spiritual connection that exists between those who continue their pilgrimage on earth and those who have passed the threshold of death into eternity.” So let us happily depend on their intercessions for us even as we remember them with gratitude in our prayers especially during the Holy Eucharist. This is one reason why we give a ‘Mass Card’ to those who are grieving the loss of a family member or arrange for Masses to be offered on the anniversary of our dear departed ones.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

Today is World Mission Sunday, organized by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. It is a day set aside for Catholics worldwide to reflect on our own baptism, when we received the gift of faith, and recommit ourselves to the Church’s missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice.

Pope Francis explains the theme of this year’s World Mission Sunday in these words: “The theme I have chosen for this year’s World Mission Day is taken from the Gospel parable of the wedding banquet (cf. Mt 22:1-14). After the guests refused his invitation, the king, the main character in the story, tells his servants: “Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find” (v. 9). Reflecting on this key passage in the context of the parable and of Jesus’ own life, we can discern several important aspects of evangelization. These appear particularly timely for all of us, as missionary disciples of Christ, during this final stage of the synodal journey that, in the words of its motto, “Communion, Participation, Mission”, seeks to refocus the Church on her primary task, which is the preaching of the Gospel in today’s world.”

Pope Saint John Paul II has also spoken of the Propagation of the Faith’s General Fund of support: “The offerings that will be collected [on World Mission Sunday] are destined for a common fund of solidarity distributed, in the Pope’s name, by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith among the missions and missionaries of the entire world.”

I have shared with you my own life as a missionary in the State of Nagaland, in the remote north-eastern part of India for many years. Every year the needs of the Catholic Church in the Missions grow. The missionaries – priests, religious men and women, lay men and women missionaries – continue to give themselves in many countries, especially in the remote areas where poor people live. Our own parishioner, Sr. Mary Vertucci, a Maryknoll missionary, is a prime example of such a committed missionary who is working tirelessly for the good of the poor girls through the Emusoi Center in Tanzania which we support as a parish.

Many adult conversions are taking place in the missions, new dioceses are formed, new seminaries are opened because of the growing number of young men hearing Christ’s call to follow Him as priests, areas devastated by war or natural disaster are rebuilt, and other areas, long suppressed, are opening up to hear the message of Christ and His Church. That is why the involvement and commitment of Catholics from around the world is so urgently needed. Offerings from Catholics in the United States, on World Mission Sunday and throughout the year, are combined with offerings to the Propagation of the Faith worldwide.

Please read, in today’s bulletin or on our parish website, the letter of our Bishop James Checchio, explaining the importance of this Day. And let us not forget that we can and need to be missionaries to our own people right here. One very easy way to do that is to practice the theme that Pope Francis has set: “Go and invite” others to the Banquet of the Lord. Why not give a simple invitation to our family members or friends to worship with us?

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

After reading about the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in my column last Sunday, a couple of you told me that you were curious to read about the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham which was something unheard of. Yes, that was true for almost all of us in the pilgrimage. We never heard of this shrine that is very famous in the UK. It was established around 1061 when Richeldis de Faverches, a holy woman, prayed that she might undertake some special work in honor of Our Lady. Richeldis was not a visionary like the children in Lourdes and Fatima. She was a woman of faith, she pondered, meditated, and prayed. In answer to her prayer, the Virgin Mary led her in spirit to Nazareth, showed her the House of the Annunciation where the Angel greeted Mary, and asked her to build a replica in Walsingham as a perpetual memorial of the Annunciation. This Holy House was built and a religious community took charge of the foundation.

Walsingham became a shrine, a place of pilgrimage and miracles. Many kings made pilgrimages there. This included Henry VIII, but after his break with the Church he turned against anything Catholic. In 1538, the Reformation caused the shrine property to be handed over to the King’s Commissioners and the famous statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was taken away to London to be burnt and the shrine was destroyed. Walsingham ceased to be a public place of pilgrimage. Devotion was necessarily kept in secret until after Catholic Emancipation (1829) when public expressions of the Catholic Faith were allowed once more. In 1897, by rescript of Pope Leo XIII, the sanctuary of Our Lady of Walsingham was restored, with the building of a Holy House as the Lady Chapel of the Catholic Church of the Annunciation, at King’s Lynn.

We were able to visit and pray in the “Slipper Chapel” where the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham is enthroned. (It is called “Slipper Chapel” because pilgrims would remove their shoes and travel the final mile – called the “Holy Mile” – to Walsingham with penitentially unshod feet.) The statue is of course a modern one but has been modelled as closely as possible on the medieval statue. Our Lady is depicted in traditional style seated on a simple chair of state with the Child Jesus on her knee. She wears a Saxon crown in token of her ancient queen-ship and carries the lily of purity.

The devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham received a further mark of papal approval during the visit to Britain of Pope Saint John Paul II in 1982. As Our Lady guided Richeldis to make a Nazareth in England, every chapel and shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham is a particular, local Nazareth, an encounter with the joy of the Incarnation in that special place. This shrine has inspired the formation of one of the new forms of consecrated life, recognized by the Church. They call themselves “The Community of Our Lady of Walsingham.” It is an Ecclesial Family of men and women who consecrate their life to Jesus through Mary. They work for the coming of God’s Kingdom by enabling people to live in the joy and freedom of Mary’s Fiat. As a Marian community they are praying and working for the re-evangelization of England and the western world, taking that popular verse from Matthew 6:10 as their guide: ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

Last Sunday I wrote about October as the Respect Life month. It is also the month of the Most Holy Rosary. This is primarily because the liturgical feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is celebrated on October 7. Mary is said to have appeared to St. Dominic in 1206 after he had been praying and doing severe penances because of his lack of success in combating the Albigensian heresy. Mary praised him for his valiant fight against the heretics and then gave him the Rosary as a mighty weapon, explained its uses and efficacy, and told him to preach it to others.

Recently I had the privilege of joining about 50 Catholics from various parishes, including ours, to go on a pilgrimage to Ireland, Scotland and the UK. Among the many shrines, basilicas, castles, ancient monuments and museums we visited, two Marian shrines stood out for me: the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in Ireland and the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in the UK.

The Story of Knock in East Mayo began on the 21st August 1879 when Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist appeared at the south gable of Knock Parish Church. Many men and women, whose ages ranged from five years to seventy-five, witnessed what they claimed was an apparition of Our Lady, St Joseph, and St John the Evangelist at the south gable end of the local small parish church. Behind them and a little to the left of St John was a plain altar. On the altar was a cross and a lamb (a traditional image of Jesus, as reflected in the religious phrase The Lamb of God) with adoring angels.

The guide explained to us that there was no message given by Mary. She just stood there in front of the altar and lamb with her hands folded. But in her silence she said so much. Like any child knows, a mother’s silence is powerful. Our Lady of Knock does the same thing; she does not say a word because our focus is not meant to be on her, our focus is meant to be on what is behind her: the lamb (symbol of Jesus) and the altar. Mary’s whole life and mission is to bring us closer to her son.

This tells us that the Rosary is not so much about Mary as it is about her Son Jesus. Rosary is Christo-centric! Her only desire and command all is: “Do what he tells you” (John 2:5) We need to open the gospels to understand what he tells us. The FALL INTO FAITH small faith sharing groups are the best opportunity for us to understand His Word better (see page 4). As you hear the witness stories of those who have benefitted from these groups, I urge you to consider signing up for this wonderful experience. It is not a long-term commitment – just six times during this Fall season.

The resource we are using is paid for by the parish for the participants, We need to know how many will participate in this faith-enhancing opportunity as we are contracting with a Catholic publishing company. If you are part of an already existing group, kindly let your group leader know if you intent to do it this time – I hope you will. If you are a first-timer, please contact Debbie Schurko, our DRE, at dschurko@stmatthias.net How I wish more of you will utilize this beautiful chance to grow more into His Word!

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

This Tuesday we enter October, the Respect Life Month. We are a pro-life Church. This past Thursday (9/26/24) was the March for Life in Trenton, by thousands of young and old, giving peaceful, prayerful witness to the sanctity of human life. We know the Biblical teaching that life is a gift from God, and, hence, we respect it from womb to tomb. But, where in the Bible do we see explicit support for this?

The term “with child” (in reference to pregnant women) occurs 26 times in the Bible. The term “with fetus” never occurs. The Bible never uses anything less than human terms to describe the unborn (Exodus 21:22Ǧ23). In Luke (1:36 and 41), we are told that Elizabeth conceived a “son” and that the “babe” leaped in her womb. God does not say that a “fetus” leaped in her womb! Elizabeth greets Mary (in her early pregnancy) as “my Lord’s mother.” If God allows a child to be conceived, then God obviously has a plan for unborn children (Jer. 1:5; Lk. 1:13Ǧ17; Gen. 4:25; Jud. 13:3Ǧ5), and so to abort an unborn child is to stop a plan of God: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you… Psalm 139: 13: You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! Thus, based on the word of God, the Church teaches that an unborn child, from the moment of its conception in his or her mother’s womb, is precious because he or she carries an immortal soul.

We, here at St. Matthias, have been always supporting Sr. Mary Vertucci and her ministry to the poor girls in Tanzania. We have listened to her touching stories of many girls who have been helped to reach successful careers because of their experience at the Emusoi Center. We have supported Emusoi Center for long with our prayers and financial support. As we enter the Respect Life month, we have a special second collection next Sunday (October 6). We wish to be participating in promoting the fullness of life that Sr. Mary Vertucci and other missionaries are doing.

Such Biblical insights and action plans are important. What about biblical understanding to be grounded in God’s message for taking care of other aspects of our life? The best way is the small groups that we are starting soon. Pope St. John Paul II said, “Small Christian Communities are a tremendous source of bringing more life into our life and into a Parish.” We have rightly titled this season of Bible sharing as “Fall Into Faith.” Time and again we have heard the testimonies of those who were and still are in small groups. Why not be enriched the same way? For sign up information, please see page 4 of our bulletin, or call Debbie Schurko, our Director of Religious Education in the parish office.

October begins with the feast of Little Therese of Child Jesus – the very popular saint of simplicity, teaching us that we can be holy by doing the smallest acts with love. One of her many inspiring quotes that touched me is: “I learned from experience that joy does not reside in the things around us, but in the very depths of the soul, that one can have it in the gloom of a dungeon as well as in the palace of a king.” May we all experience that joy, no matter what!

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal.

 

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

A Message From Fr. Lancelot

Dear Friends,

In his book “True Self, False Self,” Basil Pennington presents us with one of the greatest tasks of our lives: coming to a true knowledge of ourselves. While we often define ourselves by our achievements or the successes of our families, it is far more difficult to understand our true selves—who we are at the core, beyond the superficial layers of identity.

Throughout literature, we find characters wrestling with their identity,

    1. Shakespeare’s Hamlet laments:

                 “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties… and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

    1. In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Estella admits:

                 “I am what you have made me.”

    1. Elizabeth Gilbert, in her memoir Eat, Pray, Love, describes her personal crisis:

“I don’t know how to be here. I don’t know how to live in this world anymore.” This is a striking confession of her disorientation, as she embarks on a journey to reconnect with herself, realizing that she has lost touch with who she truly is.

This past weekend’s Gospel also challenges us to reflect on our knowledge of Jesus, which is intrinsically linked to our self-awareness. Jesus was often misunderstood—even by His closest followers. When Philip asked to see the Father, Jesus responded:

“Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?” (John 14:9).

Jesus’ Confrontation of Our False Self:

Jesus continually confronts us, urging us to move beyond the false self—the self that is preoccupied with personal gain, security, and social image. His teachings challenge our assumptions about life and force us to confront deeper truths:

Self-Centeredness:

Jesus challenges us to break free from a life centered on self interest. The false self-thrives on selfish ambition, but Jesus calls us to love others, sacrifice, and live for a higher purpose.

A Personal Reflection:

As I reflect on these lessons, I am confronted by the reality that, while there are many tasks to accomplish during our time on earth, one of the most essential is to come to know both God and ourselves. Personally, I would be deeply saddened to reach the end of my life only to realize that I had lived more for myself and my needs than in my relationship with God. To miss this opportunity for deeper connection and true self-awareness would be a great loss.

St. Augustine’s “Late have I loved you, O Lord, late have I loved you. You were within me, but I was outside.”

 

Fr. Lance

 

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted on by Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

What do you think of the new screen in our church? Thank you to those of you who approached me or Fr. Lancelot, and shared your joyful approval and positive feedbacks about it – far from the doubts and concerns some had before seeing it. It was a labor of love – extended over four years of deliberations, fundraising, planning, checking with other parishes with similar media projects, choosing a company that would give us the best service, and spending so many hours in meetings, consultations, revisions, re-scheduling,  and so on and so forth. Thanks be to God that it has already made a big difference in the participation of the congregation to pray and sing – as many of you commented – due to the clarity of the letters on the screen which can be seen from all angles as well as all the way back. The livestream of the Mass has excellent clarity of the video and sound for those who are watching online. This is an asset for the parish not only for enhancing our liturgy but also for faith formation, sacramental prep and other events.

In the contest of enhancing our liturgical experience, I wish to share with you that Joan Seamon, our music director, and I have been getting some letters about our music. The good news is that these letters were not concerned about the quality of music or singing during Mass. They were appreciative of our music ministers and the quality of their singing. The concern was regarding the desire to have some quiet time to pray in the church before the Mass.

The rehearsal before Mass is a common practice in many parishes – though where the rehearsal takes place varies. But, the unique situation of our church is that the position of the choir is directly facing the congregation which is perfectly fine during Mass. Yet, during the rehearsal, the choir is, as one put it, “in your face”, making it very distracting for people who want to pray. During rehearsal, it is only human and natural to have some small talk, fun, laughter, etc, all of which are watched by the congregation and it is not surprising that those who want to concentrate in prayer/meditation/silence are unable to do so.

More letters began to come in the recent months from parishioners as well as visitors (some anonymous, few with names) – all of which I have shared with Joan Seamon. Some parishioners talked to me in person on this matter. Some wanted me to send the choir back to the loft – which I flatly refused stating that it would not happen during my pastorate. That was one of the reasons I spoke at all the four Masses of one weekend last month (and two Masses previous to that) about why we are a Eucharistic community where the people are surrounding the altar and sanctuary, and that I was not interested in changing the layout of our church. I also discussed these matters with all our deacons and Fr. Lancelot.

After all these months of prayerful reflection, consultations, and listening, my own discernment is that the desire for some quiet time in the church before Mass is not only genuine but is also required by the Church. The General Instruction for the Roman Missal says that there should be a quiet opportunity in the church for the faithful to prepare prayerfully for the Holy Mass (GIRM, no. 45). We have to admit humbly that we have not been practicing this in our church. Considering all these, I have asked Joan to create that time of sacred silence by not having the practice in the church from now on. I understand it will bring some unhappiness and inconvenience. But such sacrifice by a few is for the greater good of our larger community. We are very proud and grateful that we have the best church music in our diocese and beyond. Thank you Joan and all the Music Ministers.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal