Pentecost Sunday
This week’s bonus sermon: The Sacrament of Soldiers
—————-
The following weekday Masses will be webcast this week: (This is not an exhaustive list of Masses. Click “Download the Bulletin” for additional Mass times.)
Mon: 5:45 PM
Tue: 9:00 AM
Wed: 9:00 AM
Thu: 11:20 AM
Fri: 5:45 PM
Sat: 7:30 AM
—————-
Click the photo above for a slideshow from our 2011 Holy Week ceremonies.
—————–
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
The halls of St. Gertrude the Great were certainly alive with activity this past week after our beautiful and moving Graduation Sunday. Sunday’s Mass was beautifully sung, and many faithful and visitors stayed for the generous reception which honored our two high school graduates. We wish them well!
Monday saw the younger children report for the last week of school, still singing the Veni Creator daily for the Pentecost Novena. Tuesday our school children, under Miss Patton’s direction, surprised us with an end of the year entertainment, a delightful presentation of everything from a puppet play to song and dance and brief instrumental offerings. How sweet our children are, joining talent with innocence. We were all charmed and grateful for this unexpected gift. Although the school year ended Wednesday, our First Communicants returned Thursday, to make a day of Recollection along with two of the Sunday Catechism students, in preparation especially for Saturday’s Confirmation.
On Friday a number of volunteers joined us to prepare for one of those “fixed hours of public prayer” to which St. Peter urged us last Sunday, Saturday’s fasting Vigil of Pentecost, with its lessons and Blessing of this coming year’s Baptismal Water, the First Mass of Pentecost, and Confirmation.
Now today we come to Pentecost, culmination and high point of the Church’s liturgical year. Congratulations to the new Soldiers of Christ. Children, “be prudent and watch in prayers” as you prepare for your First Holy Communion.
Eldon and his helpers are finishing the Spring planting projects, delayed by the weeks of rain. (But let us pray for timely rains this summer.) Gino and James are installing the granite siding on the sacristy addition which you see as you drive up Rialto Road. Our sacristans have provided three beautiful shrines in our church for the month of the Sacred Heart, our chief devotion (that’s saying something!) at St. Gertrude the Great. Thus, regardless of where you kneel to pray in our church, you will be reminded to make some return to love Incarnate, the Sacred Heart of God’s Son, for the “shoreless ocean” of His love for us.
On Tuesday we begin our “Summer Novena” which will combine two other beloved devotions, the Tuesday Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and the Thirteen Tuesdays of St. Anthony of Padua. This brief novena service will follow the Tuesday Masses this summer, and enable us to continue a beloved tradition of powerful prayer by joining a weekday Mass with just a few extra prayers.
St. Anthony gives way to the Holy Ghost tomorrow, and is happy to do so as we sing the third Mass of Pentecost on Monday. After Mass, we intrepid soldiers of Jesus and Mary meet for our Fatima Rosary Procession for Peace, at 7:15 PM in West Chester.
Caravaggio is looking forward to the Blessing of Animals next week on Tuesday evening, June 21st. Of late some over-protective bird-parent has been dive bombing the cat as he walks along humbly, head down, mystified by the attacks and just minding his feline business. His meekness is an inspiration to me, but so is the great parental zeal of the bird. If Bill Bendel were with us still, I would ask him about it. Passing cats and birds charm us, but still we miss our dear old friends, taken too soon by Sister Death: Bill, and Bernie Brueggemann and Ernie, gone now to a well deserved reward. Rest in Peace!
Some summer rest is surely on your docket, but mark this Monday and all the summer Tuesdays, won’t you?
Honor the Sacred Heart at home these days of June. Remember His rich promise of peace for our families.
God Bless you,
–Bishop Dolan