Easter IV
It’s almost time for the St. Gertrude the Great Girls’ Camp! Girls ages 5-16+ are welcome to join us on July 6, 7, and 8th for three days of fun and spiritual activities. We will be joined by three sisters of St. Thomas Aquinas for days filled with camp favorites such as archery, scrap-booking and of course, the popular Ice Cream Social.
This year we’ll also be adding new activities such as candy making, a canoe trip (age appropriate), overnight camping (age appropriate too!) and bonfire, as well as an elegant Little Girls’ Tea Party. Come join the fun!
Please call the office for further details and to register. The cost of this camp is funded by the donations of our generous sponsors.
Bishop’s Corner
Without moving from our humid rainy Spring, we have passed in a few days time from hazy hot August, back to cool March. What has become of the sweet days of May? The Knockout Roses don’t seem to mind the wet, so let us gather them and adorn Mary’s May altars, not forgetting the unfading roses of our rosaries. Make a little garden of your family altar for Our Lady, and there you will find again the fresh sweet promise of Spring.
Last Wednesday morning, the last of St. Joseph’s days this May, was brightened by our grade schoolers going about, ladder in hand, and crowning each statue of Our Lady in our church accompanied by the lilting refrain of the hymn “ O Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today”. As you can imagine, this is quite a job, as we honor the Mother of God, at St. Gertrude under many titles. This sweet devotion of our students sprung up spontaneously a few years ago with Miss Patton’s class, and is now yet another cherished custom at our church.
Today we honor a patroness of wives, mothers, and impossible causes, St. Rita of Cascia. Her statue came to us from Louisville a number of years ago, and is the first on the Epistle side of the sanctuary. Salute her lovingly as the “Stigmatic of the Crown of Thorns, who despises no one, and neglects no one,” and ask for her help by praying a Pater in honor of the Crown of Thorns.
Back to Mary. We honor her as Help of Christians on Tuesday. This is the title of our main statue of Our Lady which is over her altar, now richly decorated for May. Here our children gather each school day at its close, to sing hymns, pray her litany, and hear a short sermon.
Our missioner Fr. McGuire is with us today, as I have gone off to confirm. Fr. Cekada is freshly back from the seminary, and reports a good teaching week, and really beautiful weather.
Nature seems to be reclaiming us. Not only is the grass so thick and high and green, but God’s creatures are multiplying. Senex has been gathered to his fathers, but the ground hog clan lives on in Phanuel and Anna and little Filia Phanuel. The cats were supposed to drive them off, but Caravaggio and Puccini are maintaining a prudent distance. Filia Phanuel was hissing at Puccini the other day. We also have a deer family nearby, and the doe was out at dusk, and pretty bold as well. They always go for the bird seed anymore, or choice flowers.
Gino and James McMahon are repairing the cloister’s ceiling, and other damage of the winter storms. For a change, our insurance is covering this nice work.
May Mary cover you and yours with her motherly mantle this May, and always!
–Bishop Dolan