Easter V
“The Collected Writings of Fr. Anthony Cekada” — Now available in our online store.
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Mother’s Day is necessarily a happy one, but still it’s nice to express the wish. After all, by God’s goodness we have two, our own dear mother and the Blessed Mother. So, I wish you all a happy Mother’s Day, with shining smiles and even sunshine to make your day bright.
Last week I ran into Ronnie the grass cutting man in the parking lot, and the next day the fire alarm people. Both greeted me with “Are you the new Father?” “No, I’m the old Father,” I responded. Then it occurred to me that they always did business with Fr. Cekada, and presumed I was his replacement. But of course nobody could replace Fr. Cekada. He did take care of so many jobs and responsibilities, quietly and devotedly for many years. We’re managing to carry on in his absence with the help of devoted souls, and doubtless with the prayers of this great priest. But we do miss him, even as we pray that eternal rest be his.
I hope our younger grade school boys got in on the fire alarm excitement on Thursday. For your convenience, the fire alarm is designed to go off from time to time (as some people do) “just because.” There must have been some miscommunication, because even though the experts were at the switch, the firemen arrived, in the full glory of truck and ladder, any little boy’s delight. I wanted to be a fireman—briefly—when I was five, before I settled on being a priest.
The cupboard was bare this past week, and Fr. Lehtoranta was asking around for a meal or two. Well, we ate very well… Many thanks for generous cooks. Monday’s first Mass is offered for you.
We are well into May, and the impressive, stately May Altar in church calls all of us to Mary’s throne. How regal she is, but still St. Therese reminds us “She is more Mother than Queen.” A little May altar at home will remind you of your daily duties to Our Lady. Always with love…
This is the week of processions, five altogether. May Crowning is followed Monday through Wednesday with the Lesser Litanies. Ascension Thursday’s Holy Day (remember Mass!) is crowned with the first of our Fatima Rosary Processions for Peace, for it is the 13th of the month. These “extra” prayers, public and at least a little penitential, avert the punishments we deserve, and draw down blessings instead. Participation in at least some of them is a kind of social duty. The opposite of “social distancing,” these prayers place a saving distance between society’s sin and Heaven’s chastisements.
Many people have died after receiving the experimental genetic injection; more in the four months of its initial rollout than in fifteen years’ worth of regular vaccinations. “People who haven’t been sick all year are willing to get sick from a shot to feel protected from something that hasn’t made them sick all year…”
We had another lovely wedding last Saturday, with some of the CMRI clergy in attendance. The groom was from Fr. Le’s Wheelersburg, Ohio chapel, and the bride from Fr. McGuire’s Holy Face mission in Effingham, Illinois.
Pray for †Janet Clementi, who died on Friday. She was one of the earliest to relocate from the East to Ohio for the Mass. She made many sacrifices to do so, and Our Lord blessed her devotion with even more crosses. Most of her fellow Catholics abandoned her, save for a few good friends and the Fathers at St. Gertrude the Great. She was locked away all during the Scamdemic until last month. Fr. McGuire saw her only once, and then again for Last Rites. May the reward of her Faith and many sacrifices be great.
I send a blessing home with you today, and enclose you all in Our Lady’s Heart.
– Bishop Dolan