Pentecost XXVI
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
May the blessings of these Forty Hours be with you every hour of every day of your life! “I was sick or in prison and you visited me.” Did you? You have been to Mass, certainly, and Holy Communion, probably. But did you visit our Lord, Who is sick with love for you, and self-imprisoned in the tabernacle just for you? He is waiting for you.
Make your Forty Hours visit today. Come back. Spend some time. Just chat or sit silently, tell your beads or read some beautiful prayers. But visit Him! You may gain a Plenary Indulgence by so doing, reciting your six Paters, Aves and Glorias, with Confession and Communion within a week, and all affection for sin banished from your soul. Visit Him; He will do that much and so much more for you!
Our priests of late have been visiting not only the sick and shut-in, but also prisoners. So far, due to regulations and red tape or outright impossibility, they have not been able to bring the Blessed Sacrament for Holy Communion, but the personal visit, the time spent and concern shown, as well as the prayers, all count for so much. Pray for our prisoners too.
Well, Fr. Larrabee was sprung from his almond grove last week to pay us a little visit out here in the Ohio Valley. It was wonderful to see him here again, and to hear about his good work assisting Fr. Zapp’s well developed apostolate in Martinez and Modesto, California.
Similarly, it was good to visit with the Brooksville Fathers, Fr. Selway, Fr. Desposito and Fr. Fliess at the recent ordination, as well as the two priests from Michigan, Fr. Ahern and Fr. Saavedra. These visits remind me – and should do the same for thee – of how many we priests are, and increasing each year (be encouraged), doing the same work with the same unchanged Catholic Faith and Mass, throughout the world. When you make your visit today, be sure to thank Our Lord, and to lift up His priests in grateful prayer.
Of course, we are all so grateful for our new priest, Fr. Bede Nkamuke, who visits us this weekend for one of his first Solemn High Masses, and to give us his priestly blessing. Already we feel close to this new Alter Christus, and his homeland, the site of his future apostolic labors in Africa.
Two of the directors of Restoration Radio favored us with a visit after the ordination. Stephen Heiner, the founder, spent several days with us, planning next year’s expanded season of shows, which will include an increased number of our priests, and many popular topics. Each day the importance of this new apostolate increases, and more souls are reached, solaced, informed, and instructed. The fields, and radio waves, are white for the harvest. Tune in, and support Restoration Radio.
Speaking of visits, be sure to visit our SGGResources.org page, and Fr. Cekada’s interesting Quidlibet offerings. His last two, about marriage prospects (see today’s bulletin supplement) and the tradition of organ playing, are particularly interesting. Another fine aspect of life at St. Gertrude.
The McFathers and the Crown Victoria, somewhat the worse for wear, finally limped back home late Tuesday night. It was quite the adventure, but God’s will sometimes prolongs a visit. I’m sure the Fathers and faithful in Florida enjoyed it.
Finally, we had a good size group, at least 30 souls, to visit Gate of Heaven Cemetery and pray the Rosary last Sunday afternoon for the Poor Souls. The weather was cold but sunny, perfect for our prayer peregrinations among the graves. But how bare a modern cemetery with its sunken markers seems in comparison with the splendid old Catholic cemeteries, whose statues and symbols and stones speak of our Catholic Faith and of the hope and comfort it affords.
As we prayed the 15 decades for all the Poor Souls, we visited †Sr. Gerard’s grave, as well as those of †Albert Kinnett (ten years in December), †Cheryl Maki, †Stella Simpson, and †Eileen Bartels. May they, and all of our dear dead, rest in peace.
Martinmas usually brings us a last bit of Summer, but last week Winter came and gave us a playful bite, as a cat would. All was white for a day, and cold but not too, for the coming attractions. Actually, it was Winter on its good behavior, as the roads were not too bad, and this visitor did not overstay its welcome. I have the feeling St. Martin’s Summer may visit us yet.
God visit your home and family with His loving presence this week!
– Bishop Dolan