From the Pastor: The Parish Mission Starts This Week Bulletin article September 29 Saint Francis’ feast day (October 4) is coming up this week and you all know what that means. No, I wasn’t thinking about the Blessing of the Animals, though that is always a big part of his feast day. I meant the Parish Mission. What? You don’t remember that the Parish Mission is always at this time? OK, I’ll cut you some slack. Your memory isn’t necessarily all too bad, it’s just that we only started this new tradition last year. You see, the annual Diocesan Priest Convocation is always the first full week of October. All of the parish Priests are convoked, or called together, by the Bishop for a week of spiritual talks, educational talks and priestly fraternity. It is always difficult for Priests who do not have the assistance of associates or snowbird Priests or religious order Priests who can take over the Masses and emergency calls during that week to attend the Convocation. Where there are multiple Priests at the parish each can take turns celebrating daily Mass and funeral Masses and taking sick calls so that each only misses a couple of the talks and events. But when the Priest is by himself, by the time he completes his daily “duties” he has missed so much as to make him wonder whether it is worth it to commute back and forth, often several times a day. The Bishop’s solution to this problem is to simply tell us to cancel all daily Masses for the week. That lack of Mass is supposed to teach you all a lesson about praying for more vocations. I think it rather teaches the lesson that attending Mass as often as possible is not really worthwhile and certainly not essential. To me, and this is just “opinion” so don’t think I am disagreeing with the Bishop in matters of Church doctrine, this reinforces the caricature of the parish as a business rather than as a Church. Monetary collections are only taken up on Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation Masses so all of the daily Masses are, from a business standpoint, a drain of resources. They cost money (bread, wine, electricity, wear and tear on the building, etc.) and give nothing in return. So, a good Pastor, ahem, I mean a good businessman, will gladly cancel weekday Masses whenever he can. In fact, if he downplays the importance of daily Mass well enough he might even be able to then cancel them throughout the whole year. Not only would he be a good steward of the people’s money but he would be able to sleep in every day. Not a bad deal! The problem with that, of course, is that the Catholic Church (and local Parish) is not a business. Mass is not a line item on a budget. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not an “expense” but rather an “income” of inestimable value. Without the Mass there is no Salvation. Those who understand this naturally try to attend Mass not only when they are obligated (so as to give God the bare minimum of worship) but whenever they can. Like the postman, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds (nor these Faithful from being at the foot of the Cross with the Lord at his Holy Sacrifice). Heaven and Earth touch, centuries of time converge and our entire reason for existing (to know, love and serve God in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the next) is brought to fruition at each and every Mass. So that Mass can be celebrated every day during the Convocation without your pastor missing most of the talks, last year it was decided to hold the Parish Mission during Convocation Week. Also, since the feast of St. Francis nearly always falls during the Convocation (this year is an exception), our Franciscan Sisters usually get “gypped” out of their big feast day celebrations. Having a Franciscan Priest conduct the Mission solves that problem as well. He is able to introduce Franciscan spiritual traditions such as Thursday night’s “Transitus” to the parish. So come and join the Mission. Bring your family and friends. Pray and worship, learn and grow holy. And don’t worry, there will be daily Mass! With prayers for your holiness, Fr. Edwin PS go to saopcc to find the retreat schedule. There may even be a Latin High Mass Friday evening at 8:00. The priest leading the mission is trying to get permission from his superiors to celebrate it for us. He belongs to the only group in the entire world which has been told by the Vatican that none of their priests can celebrate the TLM without express permission!
Posted on: Sat, 28 Sep 2013 20:13:15 +0000
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