Pentecost VI
Last Sunday’s sermon: Catholics Count by Bp. Dolan
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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!
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✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Alert readers will note a change in today’s bulletin. The ads are gone from the back page, and the text starts on the cover page. We are now printing the bulletin ourselves. Dee Printing has done this job for many years, but we are a very small parish in comparison to the Novus Ordo, and probably more trouble than we’re worth. As we continue with what has become a very important part of our St. Gertrude apostolate, we are grateful to them for all of their kind patience and assistance. Thank you for reading the bulletin, passing it on to others, and supporting it each Sunday by your regular offering.
We had an excellent evening for St. John the Baptist on Monday. Heaven even crowned this beautiful night with a break in the weather. The rains gave way to a cool breeze as we enjoyed our delicious sauerkraut and brats in the cloister. (Our other “brats” were out playing after a quick supper, or visiting indoors. It’s nice to see the children having a good time together.) We were happy to see some guests with us, including “the twins” from Milwaukee (Delores and Loretta), and Bob Poggel, old and dear friends. New friends were met and made as well around the blessed fire. Fr. Cekada entertained us with a “new and improved” version of a Kipling story, replete with tongue twisters and amusing accents. A firebreathing, eyebrow-singeing Fr. McKenna juggled and breathed the blessed fire, much to our amazement and wonder.
The Rosary enabled us all to remember the sacred character of this holy night watch, and pray together before we dispersed, a real family Rosary. It was a wonderful moment, all too rare, for really the Rosary belongs everywhere. Oops! We almost forgot the marshmallow roast, a beloved campfire tradition, to be sure. Well, they were produced and roasted. Brendan prefers the charred black version, gooey on the inside, while Tim holds for the patient browning of the entire marshmallow. “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!”
Soon it was time to go home and go to bed. The “shortest night of the year” was underway, with all of heaven’s blessings. As I was going down the hill from the rectory to check on things at church, a beautiful sight caught my eye: the red moon (Fr. McKenna will tell you why) and the red glowing embers of the blessed fire. Red for the fire of God’s love, the Holy Ghost, for His Sacred Heart, burning with love for us.
But the joys of this life are passing. I turned the hose on for Fr. Cekada and he doused the fire, even as the handsome rubicund moon modestly slipped behind the clouds, leaving us a quiet memory of a great evening.
Last week’s quiet Sunday Mass and Monday’s equally silent Solemn Mass were soberly impressive, weren’t they? We had no organist “to make a joyful noise unto the Lord” and so everything took on not a sad, but a sacred and solemn silence, even our splendidly resounding chants and hymns. Aren’t you glad we’re not in the Novus Ordo with its “happy clappy” worship of man?
Fr. Cekada and Bishop Sanborn did a Restoration Radio show the other day on Bergoglio’s first hundred days (what will it take to wake people up?) and several modern moral questions. Immorality meanwhile seems to be pumped out of Washington, DC at an alarming rate, doesn’t it? Of course, these laws have been a long time coming. Years or decades or even centuries of revolt against God and His Church are reaping their logical consequences. I spoke about this subject myself on a Restoration Radio show for Independence Day.
Many speculate that Obama will begin persecuting the churches that oppose his tyranny, the dictatorship of godlessness. Perhaps it’s time for the godly to watch and pray, to study and spread the truth? Perhaps more will come to the Mass of Mary Immaculate on Independence Day or the All Night Adoration on First Friday? Probably not. We Americans have time for politics and parties, but prayer is strictly rationed to Sunday’s obligation, if then. We tend not to react until the flames of this certainly unhallowed fire are singeing not only our eyebrows but our toes. Remember 9/11, and how soon it passed?
May the Holy Ghost kindle some of His blessed fire in your heart and head and home. Saints Peter and Paul, defend us! May Mary Immaculate save our country and keep you in her care!
–Bishop Dolan