From the Pastor: Christmas Ends Next Sunday, Candlemas
When does the Christmas Season end? Many people seem to think that Christmas is already over on December 26. Others assume that the Season extends until January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, since the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” would take us to that date. But once I became a priest I “knew” that the Baptism of the Lord, a movable feast, ends the Christmas Season, for that is what the liturgical calendar said. But then I started using the older liturgical calendar and new, ancient insights were presented. It shows the Season of Christmas continuing for 40 days rather than for a meager few hours or days. It can be a strange season, in that the vestment colors, rather than remaining white for the whole season, change quite often. Martyrs’ feasts are kept in red. Epiphany is white, but beginning the Second Sunday after Epiphany the Sunday color becomes green. And, during the years when Septuagesima overlaps Christmas, we even see violet vestments on Sundays! But none of that detracts from the celebration of Our Lord’s Birth. True God coming among us as also True Man is, after all, of absolute importance for our Salvation. Man sinned and so man must make amends. But from the very first sin against God, Who is infinitely deserving of love and obedience from His creatures, man owed Him infinite reparation, something of which finite man was incapable. It seemed as if all hope of repaying such a debt was lost until the Incarnation. By taking on our human nature without losing anything of His Divinity, Jesus, fully God and fully human, set the stage for man’s sin against the infinite love of God to be justly repaid. He, and He alone among men, could offer an infinite, perfect sacrifice of human passion and death, a perfect act of love. Pity the poor heretics who deny either the humanity of Jesus—for without His humanity, man did not make the necessary restitution owed—or the Divinity of Jesus—for if He was just a “great, holy, wise man” but not also God, He was unable to make a perfect sacrifice, substituting for it instead just a relatively pathetic “great” one. In the words of that often-quoted (by me) Dom Gueranguer, “The custom of celebrating the Solemnity of our Saviour’s Nativity by a feast or commemoration of forty days’ duration is founded on the holy Gospel itself; for it tells us that the Blessed Virgin Mary, after spending forty days in the contemplation of the Divine Fruit of her glorious Maternity, went to the Temple, there to fulfil, in most perfect humility, the ceremonies which the Law demanded of the daughters of Israel, when they became mothers. The Feast of Mary’s Purification is, therefore, part of that of Jesus’ Birth; and the custom of keeping this holy and glorious period of forty days as one continued Festival has every appearance of being a very ancient one, at least in the Roman Church.” Ahh, Tradition! He traces this now-changed and almost lost tradition all the way back to Mary’s Purification. How did anyone dare to shorten such a treasured season after two thousand years of its celebration? Oh, the hubris of man! But that’s enough history for today. Now for some practical instructions. The Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary is also called “Candlemas” due to the long-held tradition of blessing candles before the principal Mass of that day. A long, multiple-prayer blessing is said over the candles and then the people should all proceed from their parish to another neighboring chapel or church where the Mass of the Purification would be held. We used to bless candles in the rectory chapel and have Mass there, so small were we 9 years ago! Perhaps by the second or third year (my memory fails) the daily Mass crowd became so large that we had to move the blessing outdoors near the chapel and process from there to the main church for Mass. Each year more and more people come bringing more and more candles, and it has become a logistical hardship (not quite nightmare status!) to get the people’s candles into place for the blessing before it is time to begin. This year, since the candle blessing falls on a Sunday and we expect 10 times the number of people attending compared to a weekday Candlemas Mass, we will not have a congregational procession. I am rather asking you to bring your candles to the parking lot side of the church and place them under the shade of the large oak tree there. Clearly mark your boxes, bags, trunks, carts, wheelbarrows, and other candle containers with your name so that you can claim your own blessed candles after Mass concludes. I plan, weather cooperating, to bless all of the candles in that area in place of the Asperges sprinkling rite prior to the 10:30 Mass. I will do so from the side doorway while the congregation remains in the pews. The only procession will be the short one done by the altar boys and priests from that door back to the sanctuary. I cannot stress enough that it will be necessary for you to arrive with your candles much earlier than you think is necessary. People really do bring multiple boxes loaded with heavy candles and need to carry, haul, drag, or pull them into place, probably blocking traffic as they do so. It may take a lot longer than normal just to get to a parking spot. A word of warning: I will only bless those candles that are in place before we begin. It is a long blessing and will not be repeated until the same feast day next year! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Thank You!
Last weekend we celebrated our Parish Feast Day and I give thanks to Almighty God for the wonderful weather He sent us! Some years it has been too hot, other years, too cold. One year it was wet. This year it was just about as perfect as an early January Sunday afternoon could be. The ancient boiler had been cranked up before the 7:30 am Mass to take the chill out of the air and then turned off once Mass started. Everyone was warm and toasty. Later, some group of frozen people convinced the sacristan to start it back up again before the 10:30 Mass, complaining that they weren’t penguins. I sweated the whole time I was celebrating the Mass, the ushers in the back opened the doors because they said it was sweltering back there, too, and when I gave my homily I saw some people fanning themselves and still others wearing parkas and scarves as if they were sitting on an iceberg. Yet when we made it outside for the banquet after Mass, I didn’t hear a single complaint about it being the wrong temperature. The gelato cart had longer lines than we had anticipated, indicating that it wasn’t too cold. Nobody got a sunburn while waiting for a scoop of that deliciousness, nor did the gelato melt before it could be eaten, indicating that it wasn’t too hot, either. Yes, we had Goldilocks weather: it was just right. Thank You, Lord! I also wish to thank the Epiphany Council of Catholic Women (ECCW) for putting it all together. The amount of planning, wheeling and dealing, purchasing, calling, writing, begging, and other labors of love they put into it again this year paid off. We have all been blessed by the hard work and dedication of the ladies in the guild. Thank you! I believe that there will be a separate article somewhere in this bulletin thanking many of the people who worked so hard at the festival so I will refrain from naming them individually or by group with one exception. I want to thank all of the parishioners who encouraged us to put it on again this year and who showed up to make it a joyful experience. After all, having the best workers in the world doesn’t make for a good festival if nobody wants it or shows up to enjoy it! For those of you who were so unfortunate as to be out of town or otherwise indisposed and couldn’t attend our celebration, Let me try to paint you a word picture of what marvels you missed. To begin with, we had most of our seating outdoors this year but those who wished to have a little shelter from the incredible weather could choose to sit at tables inside the social hall or in the classrooms. A dozen or so tents were set up to provide shade and, fortunately, were not necessary as rain shelters. Waiters and waitresses passed through the crowds with plates of Beluga caviar, Wagyu Beef tartare, Foie Gras Torchon, and Oysters Rockefeller. The Orchestra played in the background while the people sipped complimentary glasses of Dom Perignon. For the main meal there was a choice of a 32 ounce Tomahawk Ribeye steak, jumbo stone crab claws, or piles of kielbasa and pierogies. No, wait, that is the menu for next year. Sorry about that. My mistake. Getting back to reality, though, let me share with you how an old church bulletin described our very first Epiphany Festival (01/06/2016) after I became the pastor. ...The parish feast day, as I mentioned, fell on a Wednesday. We had a low Mass at 9:00 am which was attended by 20 people. That’s not too bad a turnout for a daily Mass in a place where the average travel time is approximately 45 minutes each way! But the big celebration at 6:00 pm was the real test, and a test that was passed with flying colors. Sixty eight families showed up for the High Mass and potluck which followed. Think about that for just a moment. Having a Mass start at 6:00 pm on a weeknight makes it difficult for everybody (except the priest!). Those who got off work at 5:00 had to battle rush hour traffic. The Sung Mass lasts about an hour and a half, so those who have trouble driving at night knew they would need assistance getting home. Those with children in school knew that they would be dealing with hungry kids who would be losing a night of homework and study time. Everybody had to plan a potluck meal (which might, of necessity, mean a trip to the Publix deli between the workplace and the church, as there would be no way of cooking!). The schola members had to get to church early enough to get settled and rehearsed before Mass. The altar boys (and their families) had to be there early to get everything set up. And, far from insignificantly, people had to spend the day getting everything beautified in the social hall to make the grand ball truly grand! Yet more than 60 families showed up for a non-obligatory weeknight Mass! Normally we count people rather than families but this time the family count was easier to get accurately. For after Mass I handed out to each family an Epiphany home blessing kit consisting of a paper explaining how to do the Epiphany home blessing, a piece of blessed chalk to mark the door lintel with 20+C+M+B+16 and, of course, exorcised and blessed Holy Water (with exorcised and blessed Holy Salt dissolved in it).... We have come a long way since then! Ad Multos Annos! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: New Year’s Resolutions
New Year’s Resolutions are generally pretty standard self-improvement lists people put together for themselves. Some who make such lists are serious about making several positive changes in their life, while others have no real resolve to change but make the list anyway, just because it is traditional to do so. Because I belong to that first group and have resolutely resoluted resolutions for 6 decades I have finally achieved perfection in my life. So, with nothing left to improve and, hence, no list of my own to write, I decided to look at what the poor slobs who still need such things have listed. Google, of course, led me to a huge cache of online New Year’s Resolutions from the best of sources, namely, whichever media company paid for the top spots in the search results. These lists, rather than being from real people who make the list for their own benefit, are written by Karen-journalists who love telling other people what they need to put right in their pathetic lives. The top suggested resolution from obnoxiously highfalutin taxpayer-supported National Public Radio (npr.org) was (and I am not making this up): “This year, I want to... Try something fun—Get my first tattoo.” Seriously? This is what our tax dollars are used for? I suppose it could have been worse. After all, NPR is militantly leftist so the first thing on their list could have been, “Try something fun--Get my first abortion; or, Chemically castrate my 4 year old boy and call him Suzie; or, Swoon over the man who shot a CEO.” Anyway, reading that single first resolution was enough to make me turn away from the search engine and come up with my own list. Not a list of things to better myself but, following NPR’s witless lead, I came up with a list of bad resolutions for others to do. Please don’t try any of these yourself but feel free to share them with any lefties in your circle of acquaintances. They will probably already have done most of them, so you don’t have to worry about leading them astray.
Anyway, that’s quite enough Resolutions. Seven is a good number to end on. Arguably, the first one might have been two too many! May your authentic New Year’s Resolutions be much more sensible and help you achieve great holiness, good health, and true happiness this year. With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka From the Pastor: Epiphany Eve Blessing of Holy Water and More!
At 2:00 pm on Epiphany Eve—January 5, (today if you are reading this during the Sunday homily)--we will have the traditional Exorcism and Blessing of the Holy Water. If you brought your own salt and 5-gallon water jugs filled with water, we will bless those as well. If you brought smaller water containers with you, you can fill them up from either of the two 125-gallon containers we will bless specifically for this purpose. If, on the other hand, you completely forgot about this being the Big Blessing Day, don’t fret, for we expect to have Epiphany Holy Water left over and you can get some later. It will be available only until we run out. Last year, for the first time, we still had water available all week long, including the following Sunday. Several people had asked, “Don’t you exorcize and bless salt and water every week? What is different about this salt and water, then?” The answer to the first question is, yes, because we use a lot of Holy Water around here! I make Holy Water every week for the parish, for parishioners, and for others who just come by to get some “real” stuff. The “new,” post-conciliar blessed water, is often just “made” by a priest or deacon making up words of blessing, or, worse, using the non-blessing blessing from the “new” Book of Blessings. The “new rite” “Holy Water” does not use salt, does not exorcize the water, does not ask that God sanctify the water, does not ask for demons and other evils to be driven away, does not do much of anything except ask that those sprinkled be “refreshed” and “renewed.” Heck, the priest doesn’t even make a single sign of the cross over the water as he prays this ridiculous prayer! Our “regular” Holy Water, on the other hand, requires that the priest first exorcize salt and then bless it. Then he exorcizes water and blesses it. Then he says a prayer as he pours the salt into the water. Finally, he offers yet another prayer, each prayer building on the others and asking that the water and salt will be sanctified, that it will drive away all sorts of evil spirits and physical evils, bring blessing to things and people, and even that it protect, nourish, and heal those who would use it. The power of the “old rite” Holy Water is apparent when compared to the “new rite” “holy water.” Still, this powerful “old rite” Holy Water pales in comparison to the “old rite” Epiphany Holy Water! For exclusively on this one day, the choir chants beautiful hymns, psalms, and prayers. The priest adds additional exorcisms preceding the “regular” exorcisms and blessings. He even chants all of his prayers (recto tono, or in a single tone, probably because priests generally won’t be able to chant as well as the choir!). It will take just about an hour (instead of the usual 4 minutes) to complete this solemn blessing, giving some idea of how much more effort and ritual goes into making this a special offering to God. The more we faithfully and solemnly exert ourselves in such rituals, the more generously He bestows graces! Our parish feast day, Epiphany, January 6, is the day following Epiphany Eve, not that you needed it spelled out. We will celebrate Masses of Epiphany of Our Lord that morning at the regular times of 6:30 and 8:00 followed, if anyone has brought in the following items, by the special Epiphany Blessings of chalk, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The chalk will be used to mark the door lintels of the church, rectory, and, of course, your homes. Because we are not a parish where everyone lives within walking distance of the church, I will not be able to visit your houses to bless them. But we will once again give out a sheet of prayers asking God’s blessing upon your home and those who live there. Pray the prayers, mark the doors with the blessed Epiphany chalk (20 + C + M + B + 25), sprinkle the house and family with Epiphany Holy Water, and you should be protected for another year! Please note that I will not be blessing other items that morning, so please don’t bring other articles. Next Sunday, January 12, we will celebrate the External Solemnity of Epiphany. That day, instead of the normal Sunday Mass, we will celebrate the Mass of January 6 as an “External Solemnity,” which the 1962 liturgical books allow for several big feasts during the year, including parish feast days. We will have our annual luncheon following the 10:30 Mass for those who reserved tickets in advance. For those who forgot or who waited beyond the last moment to see if anything better showed up on their social calendar, I am sorry to say that, since caterers need a headcount to prepare the right amount of food (and to charge us properly for their services), we cannot accommodate those without tickets. For those of you who plan ahead a few weeks, February 2 brings us the blessing of candles on Candlemas Day. Monday, February 3, brings us the Feast of St. Blaise, at whose Masses we bless throats plus bread, wine, water, and fruit to be used for the relief of throat ailments. Due to my misreading of the prayer of blessing in the past, I have sometimes encouraged you to bring in candles for blessings on that day, but I need to rectify that with the reminder that the only candles blessed that day are those to be used for the throat blessing. So be sure to bring in your candles for the blessing on the Second! With prayers for your holiness, Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka |
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