29th Sunday of the Year
17 October 2004
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
Cooler evenings and shorter days remind us of changing seasons and the passage of time-facts of human life which are marked by several different calendars. The solar calendar of 12 months keeps track of our orbit around the sun, and the lunar calendar charts the waxing and waning of the moon in her progress around the earth. The academic calendar governs the labors of students and teachers, and the fiscal calendar drives the work of governments and tells us when to pay our taxes. But for Christians, the most important record of time is the liturgical calendar.
The liturgical year opens with the First Sunday of Advent and closes with the great Solemnity of Christ the King, and the liturgical seasons unfold for us the drama of salvation history: Advent and Christmastide, Lent and Eastertide, Epiphany and Pentecost. And throughout the other Sundays of the year runs the Tempus per Annum, the "ordinary" time marked by green vestments which speak of life and growth. To this basic calendar are added the great feasts of Mary and the other saints, and the year is set off by times of special devotion: May and October are given to the Mother of God, and November is a time to pray for the dead. And within this glorious structure of sanctified time we keep every Friday as a day of penance in remembrance of Christ’s passion and death and every Sunday of the year as a celebration of the Lord’ Resurrection, a little Easter which is a day holy to the Lord.
This year the Solemnity of All Saints falls on a Monday, and it is therefore not a holy day of obligation this year. There will be two Masses for All Saints: 8:30 am for the school, and 12 noon for the parish. All Souls falls on a Tuesday, and there will be only one Mass at 12 noon. I will be on pilgrimage in Italy on those days and will offer Mass there for your intentions.
One other event to mark in your calendars now: Next February 28th, March 1st and 2nd, we will have a Lenten Retreat for the entire parish family. The conferences will be given by Mr. Dwight Longnecker, noted author and lecturer and good friend of St. Mary’s Church, and we will begin each evening with a choral celebration of Vespers. Please put those dates in your personal calendars now, and watch for more information in the coming weeks.
Father Newman