Pictures of St. Anthony's during Holy Week

I decided to take pictures of the church during Holy week, mainly Palm Sunday and the Triduum. Our decorations for lent are what you see for Palm Sunday, just take away any thing red or that is a plant. Maybe next year as long as I have permission from my pastor and vicar, maybe I'll take more pictures during the actual services. Most of these shots were taking in my rather quick, let me get the picture and run type attitude. Our church is always decorated wonderfully no matter the season, and Frank puts an awful lot of work and thought into it. It's a large post, feel free to click on the pictures to see the larger image. It amused me to no end that I managed to find 5 pictures from each service to put up here, as that is all I was allowed to upload at once.

Some shots of St. Anthony's on Palm Sunday.









Shots from St. Anthony's on Holy Thursday. Since it was during Adoration that I was taking the pictures I took them without the flash so as to not disturb anyone. The second picture is of the altar stripped, it struck how beautiful our altar is without anything on it. I doubt the picture will do it justice. The forth picture is our Garden of Gethsemane and is always beautifully set up. The last picture was from where I sat during Adoration, pretty much the last pew of the church, and I don't know but my eyes kept going over to the cross vs. the tabernacle that was in front of me.








Shots of St. Anthony's on Good Friday. I took the pictures without a flash as so to not disturb anyone. The last picture was the set up for our Tenebrae service.







Some shots of St. Anthony's at Easter. The last picture is the altar in the gym. We have an overflow Mass at 12:15 this way the church crowd isn't out the door at teh 12pm Mass.

Good Friday 2009

Fr. Martin gave our temporary vicar Fr. Marek the Good Friday service. Fr. Marek gave a very nice homily, but I don't remember it. All that means is that it didn't touch me the way other homilies have and part of that is the Polish accent Fr. Marek has. In the 2 months that Fr. Marek has been at the parish we have been truly blessed to have him and Good Friday reminded me of this.

Fr. Marek is ordained at most 5 years, he was born and raised in Poland so the traditional Catholic shows. He says Mass with the utmost reverence and care. I happened to find out that he could chant when he chanted some of the prayers on Palm Sunday. In my mind since he can chant it made him the logical choice for Good Friday. Hearing Fr. Marek chant the general intercessions brought me back to the days when my family would go to the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion at our parish in the Bronx. Fr. Dervin would always do the chanting at our parish in the Bronx so it brought back some good memories.

It was nice to have the Good Friday service done simply with no extras attached to it, it helped one to focus on what really happened on Good Friday. Fr. Marek's chanting is what touched me that day, because it has been nearly 16 years since I've heard it done correctly if at all. By extras I mean our former pastor, Fr. George, and our cantor Cindy singing the intersessions or whatever they used to do. It was nice to have the simple traditional old school style service.

Our parish has been blessed to have Fr. Marek for these past few weeks, and I understand it is up to Fr. Martin whether or not Fr. Marek stays. If he stays he stays, if he goes he goes, but I'm glad I was able to meet him and get to know him. It's nice to see a young priest who is so traditional.

Holy Thursday 2009

My former pastor, Fr. George, and my current pastor, Fr. Martin, seem to be similarly minded when it comes to the Triduum. They each hand different parts of it to the vicars at the parish, both gave Fr. Brian the Mass of the Lord's Supper, Fr. George last year, and Fr. Martin this year. Much like last year Fr. Brian did not disappoint.

I have always liked Fr. Brian, and he just keeps getting better and better, I said many times I love him, and I truly do. Fr. Brian aka FB is one of the "later vocations" as in he was ordained at age 40 vs. age 25. He speaks simply and sincerely and doesn't hold back, he tells you to get your ass to Mass, not in those words but that's what he means,and he will say point blank this is what it's about, Mass is important.

It's been a few days since the homily so here's hoping the homily pointers I left myself will jog my memory. Fr. Brian started his homily by reminding us that Holy Week calls us to be holy, and that it allows us to ask what makes us holy, how can I be holy, why am I Catholic, what makes me Catholic, and how can I be Catholic. Each question can be easily answered by the Eucharist, and that's what Fr. Brian told us. He mentioned how do I stay Catholic, considering that we became Catholic at our Baptism, and I all I could think of was my Top Ten Reasons to STAY Roman Catholic t-shirt. I kept thinking is he going to mention my shirt, but he didn't he just answered all the questions with The Eucharist is what makes us Catholic and we need to live the Eucharist.

How does one live the Eucharist he asked or how does one be Catholic; by doing more than just showing up. Fr. Brian came right out and said how about you send a letter over to Fr. Jenkins at Notre Dame and tell him it's wrong to have a person speak at a Catholic college who think abortion is right. It goes against what we stand for. Fr. Brian put it much better, but the smile that came on my face as soon as he said send a letter to Fr. Jenkins had to be seen by him. If it would have been appropriate to stand up and cheer for a homily I think I would have. But Fr. Brian didn't just stop there he went on to tell us to defend marriage, true marriage between a man and a woman, and to defend traditional family life.

As I said last year the passion with which he speaks is amazing, and it's heartfelt. Fr. Brian went on the give examples of the priesthood and how our former pastor Fr. George gave of himself in many ways, most notably by giving a kidney to his sister Jeanine (who was at Mass that night with us vs. being at her brother's new parish, and by saying yes to the bishop. "It broke his heart to have to leave this parish, but he said yes like he has done throughout his priesthood." Without missing a beat Fr. Brian pointed out that Fr. Martin did the same thing by saying yes to the bishop and accepting the position at St. Anthony's. After 27 years Fr. Martin left his parish family and came to us, Fr. Brian of course added his humor into it by saying, he does have to live me with now and that's not easy.

Typical of Fr. Brian he does what the rubrics calls for, he preached on the Eucharist and the priesthood. He pointed out that each of the deacons have taken their own ministries up, be it baptismal prep, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick or welcoming people into Church and how they too are living their vocations.

Mass continued as normal for Holy Thursday. Fr. Brian likes things simple as he has pointed out to us, so that is how the washing of the feet happened. 12 people came forward after the 12 chairs were placed for them, Fr. Brian took of his chasuble and stole got down on his knees and washed feet. I don't remember if it was during his homily or if I read it somewhere, but I think it was during Fr. Brian's homily, where we were reminded that the King of Kings, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity got down on His knees and washed dirty smelly feet and we are called to Christ to others, we may not have to wash feet, but we need to be Christ to others. It was during Fr. Brian's homily that I heard it because I can hear him saying it.

It was a beautiful start to the Triduum, and I am truly blessed and quite happy to have such wonderful priests at my parish and in my life.

Happy Easter

An Interesting Conversation

As I type the title of this blog I have the voice of the "polish priest" from my parish in my head. Fr. Marek came as a temporary vicar while we awaited the arrival of our new pastor. Msgr. Martin McDonnell came to be our pastor this past Thursday, the feast of St. Joseph. Fr. Martin, is off the boat Irish as in was born and raised in Ireland, in the county next to the one my mom is from, which means dad's county isn't too far away either. Oh the "million dollar" question is how long will Fr. Marek be with us. So far he's still here, and it's honestly strange to have 3 priests in the parish again. There were originally 3 priests at the parish when my parents and I moved in and shortly after that just two which is what we have had for a while now. Fr. Martin said the 12:05pm Mass on Monday and Tuesday, and I was beginning to wondering of Fr. Marek was still around, well he is, he said the 12:05pm Mass on Wednesday. He was greatly amused that Mary, myself, was reading on the feast of Mary. He gave a very short homily, with his accent and sitting in the first pew of the church, it was hard to understand it fully. For some reason our microphone system causes hearing issues, well more being able to understand the speaker fully issues, in the first 5 pews.

Anyway, I was walking out after Mass and Fr. Marek stopped to say hi and then asked about the retreat (our Women's Cornerstone retreat was over the weekend) how it went, how team is picked. Then he asked what I studied, and I said I was a religious studies major at Seton Hall and that I was thinking of going back either for theology, nursing, or taking a campus ministry position. Somehow the topic of me taking over youth ministry at the parish came up, I pointed out that our youth minister, Jen, is quite capable and does a good job. The topic of young adult ministry came up as well and I said Fr. George, our former pastor knew that was my soap box issues, I said I'd talk to the new pastor once he got settled instead of bombarding him with the issue right now. We continued on with how I was a part of the youth ministry program under Fr. Geno who is now in charge of Evangelization for the Diocese. The main point of that conversation was that Fr. Geno might know his stuff, which he does, but how with the letters STD (from Rome) after his name his statements hold more clout. I mentioned that I run into that all the time by not having my Masters degree. I was told to go study and get the letters after my name and that I should get young adult ministry started at my parish.

The rest of the conversation involved Fr. Marek asking me "who's the young strapping man that sits next to you at Mass?" I said oh that's Jerry, we do youth ministry together. Fr. Marek responded with, "oh just youth ministry, nothing more." I said no, Jerry's a junior at Seton Hall and has a girlfriend. Fr. Marek very quickly offered a "we'll have to get rid of her." I said no, I like her, she can stay. I nearly added that there is a young man closer to my age that I like, but I didn't. I went out to my car and texted Jerry because that story was just too funny.

However Fr. Marek's comments got me thinking, and my drive out to Harrisburg almost 2 weeks ago, a nearly 6 hour drive total will get you thinking, especially when you usually take that drive with your friend and discuss your life with her. It got me thinking of do I ask Fr. Martin to create a position for Confirmation and Young Adult Ministry or do I just let Confirmation fall under religious education. Our youth minister is currently the confirmation director as well, but she's a week away from having her first child, so I'm pretty sure she's only coming back for youth ministry next year. If I could somehow manage a way to get the Confirmation director position, added in with young adult ministry and well pro-life ministry, it could warrant a "full-time" salary with benefits, and maybe the diocese could pay for my Masters degree. My only issue is how do I ask my parish to pay me.

I always come up with great scenarios and then just let it bypass me or settle or something else. The more I try to get away from ministry the more I get pulled into it. After the retreat, and then having 8th graders ask me questions about the Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson's version) and being able to answer then without missing a beat and just having the other "teachers" stare at me reminded that I do know what I'm doing. I just hate having to use a damn textbook to teach it. I don't want to settle for a DRE position, I'd kill the majority of the parents out there for not giving a damn about being Catholic. I don't blame the kids, it's hard to when Mom and Dad don't do crap to show them how to be Catholic. I have 8th graders who hardly know the traditional prayers of the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be.

I hate when I get into this mood and don't know what to do with it. I'm reminded of how I wish to take the vocations stories of the priests that affected my life and put it into a book similar to Called by Name: The Inspiring Stories of 12 Men Who Became Catholic Priests by Dr. Christine Anne Mugridge, Jerry Usher.

I've been told I have a gift of writing. Fr. Brian heard my talk on the retreat and the first thing he said to me was "Catechism and personal stories, wow!" I've been giving retreat talks since I was in college, well high school, so it's almost second nature for me. I know it's a gift, I just wish I could use it more than I am.

Oh well I'm off to bed as I am going to visit my friend and her family in Albany today, about time my goddaughter got a visit from me.

Notre Dame part 2

God Bless these organizations and the students involved in them. Some of the student organizations at Notre Dame have issued their own statement in regards to Obama being picked as commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient.

I only skimmed the letter, but what stuck out the most for me was this section.

"Additionally, Fr. Jenkins has placed some of his students in a moral dilemma as to whether they should attend their own graduation. Many pro-life seniors, along with their families, are conflicted about whether to participate in the commencement ceremony. The lack of concern for these devoted sons and daughters of Notre Dame, who love this University and the Catholic principles on which it was built, is shameful."

As someone who fought with Seton Hall Administration for certain things, I know the place these students are in. For me to have to decided to not go to my own graduation would suck. I had my graduations from Seton Hall. I watched my friends receive their diplomas without me, while I walked the next year. I often took no notice as to whom the speaker was for the year. I was simply there for my handshake as we didn't even get our "piece of paper" at our ceremony. However I did not have to make the decision to not attend my graduation. I know if I was a student at Notre Dame that I would be one of those students not attending their own graduation. That's totally unfair for the families who sent their child to Notre Dame for a good education. Really who's the graduation for if not for the students.

Oh well, at least this is finally in the main stream media and who knows what will come from it. Maybe Obama will say "you know it's probably better if I don't come" but I don't see that happening.

Oh well I am off to finish crocheting a blanket for Baby Matthew.

Notre Dame

The past week I've been busy with Cornerstone and other things, so I'm just catching up on reading some blogs. Apparently Notre Dame had decided to toss all of it's Catholic identity out the door and have Obama as their commencement speaker this year.
Here is the link to sign the petition to stop this insanity. Go sign it and pass it along, the numbers are growing quite quickly.

In case the link doesn't work, cut and paste this:
http://www.notredamescandal.com/SignthePetitiontoFrJenkins/tabid/454/Default.aspx

Discernment

Discernment is normally a word associated with vocations and trying to figure out what one's vocation. Interestingly enough I did just e-mail the Vocations Offices of the Archdiocese of New York, the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Paterson for info for work. I'm planning on making my last large group session for Confirmation on Vocations. The kids want me to talk about Heaven, God, and abortion. All three topics and work themselves into vocations and I'll find a way to do it. The title I'm planning on is CCD is over, what now! Expanding on the idea that Confirmation is not CCD graduation that it is a sacrament and an important one. So many of the students are so misinformed when it comes to abortion, and the faith that there is no way I can completely undo the damage of the past 8 years of their lives, I can attempt to correct it and I have, but it's not enough in my opinion.

I am in the process of leaving paid Church ministry as almost every time I have worked for a church, I've been disappointed with whom I am working with. So often I find myself as the lone conservative or traditionalist on the staff and I'm tired of it. I'm looking at nursing schools which amuses me as look at the Bishops threatening to close Catholic hospitals should FOCA pass and because I started at Seton Hall as a nursing major. I know I've probably blogged about this before, but it's what is on my mind at the moment.

Oh well, the child I babysit needs help getting dressed. I'll be back later after I've done my CCD plans for tonight.

Cornerstone "09

So later on this month is the Women's Cornerstone Retreat at my parish and I've been asked to give one of the talks. I have no problem with the retreat or being asked to give a talk. I think a retreat now matter how "good" or "bad" can affect your life. What I don't get is the phone call asking for me to cut my talk down. I get that my talk is a little long, but I was never given a time limit or hell even a topic until a few weeks before I was to give my practice talk. I'm used to having my talk from the beginning of being on team, not just being told, "tell your story." I don't get the petty comments of how this is our retreat and blah blah blah.

I love the ladies of the parish, but seriously if you want it to be a good retreat allow me to help fix it. I've run many retreats and yes I am biased, but I've seen retreats work and I've seen retreats fail. I'm fully aware that my theology knowledge way beyond those that are on the retreat with me, but that doesn't mean we can't up the God knowledge.

Oh well, maybe I just need some food and caffeine. Back to "work" I go.

Lent- how am I doing- week one

So far so good, I guess. I missed saying the Rosary on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so I just said a full one on Tuesday. I didn't get to Mass on Saturday, but that's to be expected as it hard to find a parish that Mass at anytime other than 7am on a Saturday. I have yet to use my phone for the internet and games. I actually deleted the games from my phone, hopefully this will save me some money on the cell phone bill.

I easily could have fallen into the Sunday doesn't count and used my phone for the internet while I was at the Archdiocese of Newark's Youth Fest, but I opted to not use it, and I'm glad I did.

As for less procrastination, I'm working on it, but it's not as good as I thought it would be.

Ovbiously I went to Mass on Sunday and since I had a snow day on Monday I went to St. Anthony's at 12:05pm on Monday and Tuesday. Which leaves me wonder where I want to go this evening. Either Queen of Peace or Immaculate Conception as they have a 5:30pm Mass, it will all depend on what time I leave my babysitting job. If it's at 5 or later I'll just skip Mass and go to the Holy Hour at St. Anthony's tonight.

Not to bad. I type this as I babysit so it may not be too coherent as I'm tying to make sure the 3 year old doesn't steal my cell phone which is sitting on my lap, and I have to pay attention to all the commericals he said "I want that" to.

More to come later