From the Pastor
It's time for FESCO Back to School!
Each year, the parishioners of OLG get together to stuff backpacks with essential school supplies for the children at the FESCO (Family Emergency Shelter Coalition) in Hayward. These children need items such as rulers, marking pens, scissors, glue, binder paper, pencil boxes. Pick up a bookmark located at the entrances to the church with a complete list of items needed. Your donations can be brought to the church on Sundays or to the parish office during the week. All items are needed by August 19th. We also need volunteers to sort supplies on August 19th as well as assemble the backpacks on August 21st. If you are available to help call Colleen Lindberg at the parish office: 510-537-0806. God Bless everyone for making this important ministry happen every year!!
Déjà vu all over again !
A year ago I wrote this, and a year later I sense the need to do so again: “While I would not want to dwell on the subject, I do find it necessary to remind people once again about your dress and demeanor in church. As one who can’t help but notice the activity at the back of the church (maybe that’s why the priests used to face the altar ???), I feel compelled to invite people to try their best to arrive at church on time. We have a constant stream of people who arrive 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes into the mass (and some even later). This is a clear interruption to the assembly and their attentiveness to the mass. In consideration of our parishioners and ministers, I simply ask that you try a little harder to arrive in a timely fashion. And, again, I ask you please to remember where you are heading and what you are doing when you come to mass – and that your attire be respectful of our gathering and of your fellow parishioners. Lastly, if it is absolutely necessary for you to leave right after communion, please have the courtesy to use the Somerset Avenue exits. Thank you for your consideration of others in these matters.”
Before You Said Amen
During
the eucharistic prayer at Mass, what were you thinking about? What was
on your mind from the moment the presider invited everyone to: “Lift up
your hearts!” until you
sang the “Amen” before
the Our Father? We
Catholics say:
This is the most holy time.
But what does “holy” mean here, and how do you spend that holy time?
Most of
us would admit that we tend to wander off a bit at this time on Sunday.
Yes, we sing the “Holy Holy” pretty well, perhaps, with a strong
“Hosanna in the highest!” But sometimes we don’t focus back in
until it’s time for the Our Father. Where did we go?
We’re pretty good at getting on board for the song that
begins the liturgy, and sometimes very good at giving full attention to
at least one of the readings and maybe the homily. But if someone were
to tap you on the shoulder
during the Our Father and say: All right, where were you the last
five minutes? How would
you answer this
question?
This is not to ask: What did the priest just do? (We know that!) The crucial
question is: After I said “yes” to the invitation to lift up my heart,
after we all said “yes” to that, what happened to those hearts? Did they
stay “lifted up”?
Come at it this way. What happens in your life,
happens with some regularity, that grabs and holds your whole
attention—and grabs and hold you? That’s what is asked when we are told
to lift up our hearts. We are asked not simply to be quite and attention
(that can happen at a good movie or concert).
For us as baptized
people, we are asked to lift up and give to God our whole selves,
engaged with all these other selves, around this altar. What’s it like
to be totally involved in some deed even for a few minutes? Next time,
can you enter into
the eucharistic
prayer in this way?
Copyright © 2001
Archdiocese of Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1800 North
Hermitage Avenue, Chicago IL 60622‑1101; www.ltp.org. Text by Gabe Huck.
Art by Luba Lukova. All rights reserved. Used with permission.