Happy 34th Sunday, Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe! This is the last Sunday of the Church year. We begin a new Church year with Advent next week. This week we also will celebrate Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.
Recently, I have received several questions regarding different aspects of receiving the Eucharist at Mass, from the communion fast, to posture, to the number of times allowed in a day. So let's get to it!
Concluding our series on prayer and the Mass, let's look at the practice of offering a Prayer of Thanksgiving after Mass has concluded. I will pull heavily from an article entitled The Quiet the Speaks - Thanksgiving after Mass by Fr. Boniface Hicks. He does an incredible job covering this topic, why would I try and improve something that already exists?
After looking at ways for us to focus at Mass, let's now examine ways that we may participate at Mass. The Second Vatican Council, in its document Sacrosanctum Concilium, used a pair of words that were a large part of what we call the Liturgical Movement that took place throughout the 20th century. Now we don’t have a ton of time to examine that movement within the Church, but what we do need to know is that it greatly shaped the reform of the Liturgy. These words are actuoso participatio.
This week, as it seems that this is a good point to continue a series, we will be looking at how to focus at Mass. I often hear that people struggle to focus, daydream, and get distracted at Mass. That's ok! We are only human, and we should do the past we can; even I get distracted at Mass!
At the same time, what are we doing to avoid distractions and daydreaming? Are we fighting against this? Or is it everytime that we come to Mass we intentionally drift off and daydream as we don’t really want to be here?
This week, after last week's article on the need to prepare well for Mass, let's look at some ways we can prepare for Mass.
Show up early. If you are able, showing up early is the best thing to do. Sometimes we have kids that dictate our schedule and that it is perfectly fine. If you have the ability, it is great to show up 10-15 minutes before Mass. This time before Mass is not a time to read the bulletin, but rather to talk to God.
Hello, POP faithful. In this bulletin you will find our parish annual financial report. Our fiscal year runs July 1 - June 30 each year. I thought I’d add some of my commentary to the numbers.
First, there is so much for which to be grateful. Our offertory for the last year was about $2.5M. Thank you so much for your generosity. This really reflects your love of God, the Catholic faith, and Prince of Peace. Our offertory also increased about 3% this past year, thank you!!!
Recently I have received some questions about what we should be doing before Mass.
After the Pope’s most recent comments on the American election, I believe that it is an appropriate time for us to approach the topic of voting in the upcoming election. I have also received several emails in regards to this topic, so I have decided to address them here in this Ask Fr. Andrew forum.
Thank you to everyone who has sent in questions so far! There are many great ones that I have received that I hope to answer going forward.