St. Luke, Ev

Fr. Cekada’s Corner

Bishop Dolan asked me to fill in while he is away.

You’ll notice the absence of Bishop Dolan’s coat-of-arms. Many years ago, when I was researching a design for his coat of-arms, I asked one expert, just for fun, what kind of coat-of-arms a Cekada would have. He said that, since the name was Slovenian (from the former Yugoslavia) and since the only reason people from that part of the Austrian empire were made noblemen was for killing Turks, the crest would prominently display the severed head of a Turk.

Read into that whatever you want!

This Sunday, Bishop Dolan is Rennes, France, where he is visiting the church of Father Giles Roger, conferring the sacrament of confirmation, and ordaining to the subdiaconate Br. William Hecquard. The bishop returns tomorrow.

This past week we offered the funeral Mass for Nadine Henry, a great devotee of our Mother of Good Counsel. She and her husband moved here nearly two years ago in order to become part of our parish. Please keep her in your prayers.

Also, please pray for the repose of the soul of Ted Zapp, the father of Fr. Thomas Zapp.

As you will have noticed, we have installed the major portion of our new rood screen. The term “rood” is an old English word, and refers to the crucifix (“rood”) that generally surmounts the screen.

There is nothing more symbolically anti-Novus Ordo than a rood screen. It symbolizes the sacred and other-worldly character of the Mass, the separation between heaven and earth, the distinction between priest and layman, and the Mass as the forecourt and foretaste of the glories of the world to come. Novus Ordo churches are designed to level the distinction between priest and people, the altar and the nave, sacred and secular, and to make everything in the rite absolutely visible to all the people, because in modernist theology, it is the “assembly” which celebrates the Mass. It is to demonstrate that we reject these heresies that we have always had a rood screen in St. Gertrude’s.

Nevertheless, we designed the new screen to make the altar and the statues at least a bit more visible. In addition to the crucifix, the beam across the top will be decorated with a set of Gothic symbols. (I purchased these symbols about thirty years ago from a church woodcarving firm that was going out of business, and I’ve been saving them for something special like this.)

The new screen resolves two other issues as well. (1) It gives us a more easily accessible place for locating the sanctuary lighting. Changing light bulbs under the current arrangement involved the nerve-wracking adventure of getting a one-ton lift up a ramp into the sanctuary. (2) The new screen also provides a permanent and discreet place for installing cameras for our internet simulcasts.

Make your plans now to visit church several times during our upcoming Forty Hours’ Devotion!
— Fr. Cekada