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Thirty-First Sunday of the Year
30 October 2011
Dear Friends in Christ,
A few items for your attention:
1. Tuesday of this week is the Solemnity of All Saints, a holy day of obligation, and there will be three Masses (7 am, 12 noon, and 7 pm). Wednesday of this week is the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed or All Souls Day, and there will be two Masses in English (7 am and 12 noon) and one Mass in Spanish (7 pm).
2. Throughout the month of November a Book of Remembrance will be available on a stand at the entrance to the Lady Chapel. Please stop there sometime during November to write the names of your beloved dead and to read the names already recorded there by your brothers and sisters in Christ. Praying for the dead is a spiritual work of mercy and reminds us that we are all bound together in Christ in such a way that not even death separates us from Christ or each other. You are welcome also to write on the All Souls envelope the names of those beloved dead you would like remembered on All Souls Day and in all our Masses during November and then to put that envelope in any collection.
3. The Wednesday afternoon Holy Hour and Confessions, RCIA, and the Program of Catholic Studies all take place this week at their normal time. In the PCS we will be watching the fourth of ten episodes in the new documentary series called “Catholicism.” After viewing the third part ten days ago, one man in the class called it one of the most transcendent and enlightening experiences of his life. This program is not simple television; it is evangelization. All are welcome to join us on Thursday at 6.30 pm in McGrady Hall in the church undercroft.
4. The Diocese of Charleston is divided into five deaneries or administrative districts to allow for the local coordination of the work of the priests and parishes in each deanery. St. Mary’s is in the Piedmont Deanery which is still comprised of the twelve counties of the Upstate that were the original territory of this parish when we were established in 1852. For the past decade, Monsignor Steve Brovey served as dean of the Piedmont Deanery, but his service ended upon his transfer in August to our cathedral church in Charleston. Bishop Guglielmone has asked me to serve as the new dean of the Piedmont Deanery, and that is why you see the initials V.F. after my name on the bulletin cover. These are taken from the formal canonical title of the dean, Vicar Forane — meaning a vicar of the bishop who works outside of the chancery or out in the field, the meaning of the Latin vicarius foraneus.
Father Newman