Sunday w/in the Octave of the Sacred Heart
It’s almost time! The St. Gertrude the Great Girls’ Camp is almost here! Join us on July 10th, 11th and 12th for three fun-filled days. We’ll do crafts, sports, go on a hayride, cook, have a clueless scavenger hunt, spend time with two Sisters of St. Thomas Aquinas and have a great time! Camp is open to girls 4 and up! If you have any questions or want to let us know your daughter is coming, please contact Donna at: donnaalice540@msn.com. We’d love to see you there!
_________________________
Congratulations to our 2013 Eighth-Grade graduates.
Our newly detailed and refurbished altar.
Outdoor Benediction
Congratulations to our 2013 First Communicants.
_________________________
Recent daily sermons:
May 29, 2013: St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi by Bp. Dolan
May 30, 2013: Beauty (Feast of Corpus Christi) by Fr. McKenna
May 31, 2013: Friday w/in the Octave of Corpus Christi by Bp. Dolan
June 3, 2013: Monday w/in the Octave of Corpus Christi by Fr. Lehtoranta
June 4, 2013: St. Francis Caracciolo by Bp. Dolan
_________________________
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Last Sunday’s dry, cool and sunny skies took us all by surprise. Beaten down by weeks of bad weather (but spared others’ tornadoes) I only thought to say a little prayer for good weather early on Sunday morning. No one thought to clean the grotto, and Katie had already started a little altar in our charming new cloisters, which Mark and Brendan did remember to clean on Saturday.
But suddenly, as with a well-coordinated ceremony or a well-sung Mass, everything came together quickly and beautifully, just the way Katie decorated the Lourdes Grotto for our reposoir and outdoor Benediction. The above words describe our splendid Solemnity of Corpus Christi Mass before the Blessed Sacrament Exposed, and the solemn First Communions, twelve for the apostles, which were its high point.
The church was full, as we welcomed proud relatives and friends for the First Communions. It seemed that everyone did something. The children cast rose petals. The Rosary Confraternity was represented. Four men proudly carried the canopy. The people processed. The bells rung. The Masters of Ceremony mastered the ceremony. We all marched through our new cloister, chants echoing in its open spaces. A final Benediction reluctantly dismissed the multitudes, as it was time for the 11:30. Adoration continued. Time for a group photo, and then the next sermon. Fr. Lehtoranta did the quiet, essential work of confessor over in the corner, behind the scenes, and a brave Fr. McKenna (he is our groundhog and skunk hunter, after all) assisted me at the altar and grotto, and did not fall into the water.
Our fine June days are continuing as I compose this Corner, as we meet daily at the altar to sing the Mass of Corpus Christi and receive Our Lord’s Benediction while He receives our adoration. Rare, blessed, beautiful days.
On Sunday I asked for prayers to find Doris Jeanne Campbell. Susan Brown, who lives in Muncie, Indiana and used to come to St. Gertrude, saw the appeal, and immediately went to Indianapolis to track her down. On Monday she sent a little report with Doris Jeanne’s address. I am so grateful for this quickly answered prayer, this deed of charity.
Grateful thoughts go this morning as well to our persevering principal and teachers at our little school, as we proudly graduate four eighth-graders whose excellent training and formation belie their young years. Such good is done by our school! Join us in proudly supporting it, as do our parents and students. The students enjoyed an end of year outing at the Newport Aquarium last Thursday, thanks to a generous benefactor.
The seminary school we support in Florida is in its last weeks. Fr. Cekada is visiting Most Holy Trinity Seminary for his final teaching tour of the school year. He is a busy man, moving from finances to theology to music over the course of a week. The other day he edified me with a quote from his favorite poet, T.S. Eliott: “The lot of man is ceaseless labour, or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder…” How true!
Our renvoi for the summer: stay busy even in rest. Do good and be good. Leave if you must, and come back not enervated and compromised, but rested and refreshed. Take Jesus and Mary with you. Pray and read daily. Remember you are a tabernacle. Long for your next Holy Communion. Be an apostle in some way, be it only by your modesty, your smile and promised prayers.
Fr. Lehtoranta leaves tomorrow for a long delayed home visit to what is almost the “land of the midnight sun.” We wish him a good trip to Finland and pray for apostolic possibilities in Scandinavia. Father will go to visit our celebrated and international newlyweds, Hervé and Cecilia, to bring them Holy Mass this month.
Let us keep together, in loving gratitude for another year at St. Gertrude the Great, this month of the Sacred Heart. Don’t let the Friday evening Sacred Heart devotions die out. We lost our one congregant for Vespers, and are modestly advertising for one – just one – as a replacement.
May you all find your place in the loving Heart of our Saviour.
–Bishop Dolan