Trinity Sunday
Our 2015 May Crowning.
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Daily Sermons
May 25 – Bp. Dolan – In Memory of Me
May 26 – Fr. Lehtoranta – Little Lambs and Monster Carlanco
May 27 – Fr. Lehtoranta – The Three Axes
May 28 – Bp. Dolan – You Can Do It!
May 29 – Bp. Dolan – A Joyful Saint of Sorrow
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✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
The Holy Ghost, given abundantly at Pentecost, leads us today to the contemplation of the Most Blessed Trinity. His gift of Understanding enables us to penetrate more and more this infinite mystery, regardless of our age or station of life. But if only we would stay and pray, and ponder and ask and read and think. This is what Our Lady asks us to do as she gives us the Rosary, and the precious gift of the Five First Saturdays, isn’t it? With everything else going on this week, still it would be nice to see some faithful, perhaps mothers with their children, at Mass this Saturday, this First Saturday.
Yesterday and today we are celebrating High School graduations for four very special young people, so much a part of the life of our Church since their youth, almost raised at St. Gertrude we might say, and who have already give back so much, even as they have equally received so much. We pray their ties to their church will grow only deeper as they and we mark this milestone. Congratulations!
This past Monday we kept the feast of Devotion in the Pentecost Octave with High Mass, but also marked Memorial Day with special prayers for all the war dead, and our own dear deceased. This third day of Pentecost found us a little bedraggled, and with quite a bit of work to do on a “free day,” but still we all managed the Memorial Day barbecue, thanks to steaks from the Makis and all of the fixins, grilled unto perfection by Fr. McKenna, with the happy addition of scallions, a nice side dish with the steak.
The cats weren’t invited, but were quite content as they celebrated earlier in the day with a little catnip, and by afternoon were exhausted and lay napping, as only cats can, little balls of shedding fur on the carpet.
The other morning Caravaggio came in briefly to inform me of his progress in preparing my birthday present, a baby bunny whom he was slowly slaying outdoors. My knowledge of cat is only slightly superior to my Yiddish, so at first I did not understand the communication, until the urgency of its tone indicated bunny business. My worm prone prowler was happily prevented from performing his own feline praegustatio,* and the carcass being dispatched I returned to my reading, gratified at the gift. It’s the thought that counts.
Fr. Thielen was invited (to the barbecue, not the baby bunny), and we were delighted he was able to join us. It was good to see him again for a little sociable meal and get caught up on the news. Father does a tremendous amount of good in a quiet way, picking up the pieces after the last kerfuffle a few years ago. He takes care of the souls who are left in two little chapels, in Columbus and Urbana, and in many visits to the sick all over the place. Especially gratifying was his story of the gradual conversion of a home alone family, an old name in the traditional tales of the Tristate. More work remains to be done in recuperating confused or perhaps scandalized souls. Do keep this intention too in your patient prayers. But how patient Our Lord is with us!
Fr. McGuire and I were able to do a good work on the quiet holiday afternoon. Young father Alex Fulton is dying, and had never been confirmed. God blessed us with a good time for our visit, as our confirmand was up and alert, and able devoutly to receive the Sacrament. Its circumstances reminded me of the first Pentecost, as we were in a Jewish nursing home. One poor old lady was even speaking in tongues, babbling away to nobody in particular. Yiddish, Fr. McGuire says. Everybody looked quite Jewish, but all were polite, even to a bishop in cassock who did not hide his pectoral cross, as Bergoglio always does. We had the little ceremony in a sitting area outside of Alex’s room, and one resident, surfing the halls on his walker, attended with much curiosity but due respect, but only after being assured by Alex’s wife Katie that it was neither a wedding nor a funeral. “Good,” he remarked, “because nobody told me!” After the bishop, a Bengal of some note also came to visit Alex, later in the week. Our patient was reported to be feeling quite a bit better, but we don’t know if it was the bishop or the Bengal. I’m thinking the Holy Ghost.
Fr. Nkamuke, who celebrated his name day this past Wednesday, has written of his gratitude for your support. It seems Nigeria has come to a standstill, and gas is very difficult to obtain. He is happy to be well out of the busy and expensive city of Lagos at the moment. Father has the convenient set up of a little apartment or rented house for each of his missions, so he always has a place for Mass and to stay. He is currently in Portharcourt, along with Abraham, and they’re doing classes.
Eldon’s Lamb’s Ears (Fr. McGuire was wondering why they felt so smooth. I explained about the name. Go ahead and have a touch.), have never looked better, delicate purple blossoms on stately spikes, ornamenting our Mary Garden in front of the school, by the statue of Our Lady Help of Christians. Some kind soul cleaned it out this spring, for which I am grateful. Visit our outdoor shrines some time, why don’t you? Beautiful May has exacted its toll from allergy sufferers, including Fr. Cekada, Katie, and myself. It leaves one very tired, and just when there is so much to do! Still, it has been a beautiful spring.
Blessed June to you, and blessed be His Most Sacred Heart. Renew your family altar and consecration to the Sacred Heart in your family. Soon many of you will be traveling, for now it is Summer. Safe roads to you all. Remember your daily Hail Mary to St. Christopher for this intention.
Help us to adore a little this week, Thursday through Saturday morning?
–Bp. Dolan
* The “Praegustatio” ceremony is a curious relec of earlier days, but does seem at times to have some sense to it, even now. As a percaution against anyone poisoning the prelate, the second MC consumes an unconsecrated host before the offertory. This host has touched the chalice inside and out, as well as the bishop’s host and paten. The deacon then pours some wine and water from the Mass cruets into a little vessel. Fortescue says that Katie or Darlene should drink this, but we give it to the second MC. Should he survive, the Mass continues. I think it is safe to say that we are the last prace in Christendom to observe this rubric, otherwise fallen into obsolescence.