Rosary Sunday
St. Michael, Protect Our Church.
Photo captured by Fr. McGuire earlier this summer.
_________________________________________
Daily Sermons
September 28 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Wenceslaus and Love of Prayer
September 29 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Michael and the Vampire
September 30 – Fr. Lehtoranta – St. Jerome and Temptations
October 1 – Fr. Lehtoranta – Beginning of Holy Rosary Month
October 2 – Fr. McGuire – The Guardian Angels
_________________________________________
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Blessed Rosary Sunday! This beloved observance is one of our great feats at St. Gertrude the Great, as for the whole Church, which finds such comfort and knows such strength in the Holy Rosary. Thanks to all who have come to celebrate with the Confraternity today. Special mention to the members who have organized all of this year’s festivities from roses to breakfast rolls.
I wish I could be with you today, but am visiting a new church (for me) which is observing their patronal feast today in Argentina, near the city of Mendoza. Fr. Ariel Damin’s chapel is too small to hold all the faithful so he rents a hall for Sunday Mass to accommodate the 300 some souls in his congregation. Today there will be Confirmations after Mass. I am spending the week visiting two priests there, Missionaries of the Most Holy Rosary, before returning here Friday evening. It takes just about two days of travel to get to this exotic location. I will be passing through Santiago, Chile, and over the Andes. The seasons are reversed there, and their Spring is heading into Summer, although the temperatures are about the same.
Our other new “affiliated” church is also dedicated to the Most Holy ROsary, under Fr. Arnoldo Villegas in Tijuana, Mexico. But I mustn’t forget one of the oldest true Catholic chapels in our land, Our Lady of the Rosary in Opelousas, Louisianna, which was founded forty years ago last month, and is still hanging on. Congratulations, dear Cajun Catholics!
Back at the ranch here in West Chester, Brendan and Freddy have been doing some outdoor painting and sealing, and so far it’s quiet on the raccoon front. Gino put new LED bulbs in church, so if it seems brighter, it is, and just in time for winter. The grounds are looking great. We are waiting hopefully for the Fall rains to restore our green before Winter’s white dominates again the landscape.
Michaelmas saw its Solemn Mass after all, thus fittingly honoring the Prince of Angels. This was due to a surprise visit from Fr. Saavedra of Detroit who is hosting his mother from Mexico. I gave them both the full tour–it’s a big place, full of holy statues and shrines, isn’t it? Mrs. Saavedra is with her priest son until November, and it was nice to see them both again.
How nice it was to bless to many children last week for Angel Sunday. God bless their parents and grandparents! If we lament our missing, or hit and miss, families, it is because each child is precious to Our Lord and to us. Keep them all in your prayers.
But how edifying it is to speak to one older person after another on Sunday, who struggle and strain and even take risks to make it to Mass. Vertigo, Parkinson’s, back and leg pain, surgeries, unsteadiness on their feet..it seems that nothing keeps them away from their beloved Mass. What a beautiful gift they give our young folk and families! May they group up, and one day old, the same way!
Pray the Rosary. Say it during the day, and at night with your spouse and children. You can’t survive life, or marriage, without it, and it leads to eternal life.
God bless you.
–Bp. Dolan