Fr. Bob's Corner

“Catholic churches in Italy are installing automatic holy water dispensers to help reduce the risk of spreading swine flu,” BBC Television reports in a short video broadcast. Father Pierre Angelo Mota comments that"It has been a bit of a novelty. People initially were a bit shocked by this technological innovation but then they welcomed it with great enthusiasm and joy. The members of this parish have got used to it," he added.

Churchgoer Marta Caimmi agreed.

"It’s great," she said. "Thanks to this we are not worried about catching swine flu. It is the right thing for the times."

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I was reviewing the links on the parish website (bvmparish.com) when an article on John Allen’s widget caught my eye. The title read: “In Brazil, one catholic mass you will never forget.” Intrigued, I clicked for the full article which described in great detail a Mass celebrated in an old factory by a Padre Marcelo Rossi. After reading the article, I googled the the good Padre and confirmed that he was a household name across Brazil with super-star status and rock star events. And, indeed, every age group(male and female) was responding, as the article stated.

I’m posting some links on Padre Rossi so that you can see what is happening in Brazil. I suspect you will have mixed reactions as did the readers of John Allen’s article which I post here for you to read also. Here is one video of many that you can view to sense the flavor, and here is another link to several videos. If you want more just google. Before you watch anything, I suggest you read about John Allen’s experience.

This evening there will be a communal celebration of the Sacrament of the Sick with Mass at St. Mary’s at 7:30pm. I came across this video on this very special sacrament and include the link here for those of you that are interested in understanding this sacrament a bit better: Link

Advent is the glorious season for memory and imagination. The kind of vivid imagination that enlivened our childhood. Parents and Grandparents have a wonderful opportunity to re-enter this mysterious and wondrous time again, by helping their young children explore God’s activities throughout history: Creation, Adam and Eve, Moses, King David, and all those biblical stories and events that prepare for the Birth of Jesus.

Telling stories to our kids not only helps them come to know about God, but gives us an opportunity to appreciate the wondrous ways in which God’s presence was made known to others throughout salvation history. Knowing God in this way gives us patience and hope in the present. It opens us up from just the here and the now, and allows us to appreciate the God that is always with us, but we tend to forget in the hectic rush of day to day living.

So, find a cozy nook, get a little book with lots of pictures that tells the stories of the bible. You might even want to read the bible a little to help you really experience each story. Then find some quiet time to tell and explore these stories with your children, grand-children, nieces or nephews. Let your imagination really go. Get into the telling, and make each event come alive once again.

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I read a book by Cardinal Ratzinger two years ago, and I feel it gives a real insight into the present Pope, and the direction he would like our modern liturgy to go in. Here is a good article on the book

Pope Benedict and the Liturgy – Catholic Online

As the Benedict XVI processed into the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on Wednesday evening for evening prayer, he wore an ermine trimmed half-cape. Why does he want to dress like this, I wondered? Isn’t this the Pope that reminds us that liturgy should de-focus the person, and draw us into the worship of a God we cannot see? Yet, here he was definitely drawing my attention to his attire, and thus the man.

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Easter this year is: Sunday March 23 As you may know;
Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).

This “dating of Easter” is based on the lunar ca lendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar
.
Here are a couple of things you might be interested in

Based on the above, Easter can actually only be one (1) day earlier – March 22, but that is pretty rare.

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever s ee the rest of our lives!

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Lent Is Not Just About You and Me, or

The Here and the Now,

It Is About Our Eternal Destiny!

Lent is a time to take a serious look at our relationship with God. It is a time to train ourselves to more earnestly seek God through reflection, prayer, and sacrifice. Some miss the whole point of lent by turning it into a time of self-improvement or self-realization, rather than a time to deepen our union with God. It is not just about now, but eternity. Example: We fast not to lose weight, but to become less attached to the things of this mortal world, and to more fully enter into the mystery of God’s love for us and God’s ways.

This year lent is early. It begins this Wednesday, February 6^th, (Ash Wednesday), a day on which Catholics cut back on their food (fasting), and abstain from meat (abstinence). It is a day on which we anoint our selves with ashes, and remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Ash Wednesday is a day to really give thanks that dust is not the end.

As Christians, we know, in faith, that the dust of death is really a beginning. During lent we remember that we have been saved from death’s terrible fate by Jesus, the Son of God. Lent is a time to appreciate God’s love for us, and to deepen our union with the God who created us, became one of us, and died for us.

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Lent Is Not Just About You and Me, or
The Here and the Now,
It Is About Our Eternal Destiny!

Lent is a time to take a serious look at one’s relationship with God. It is a time to train ourselves to more earnestly seek God through reflection, prayer, and sacrifice. Some miss the whole point of lent by turning it into a time of self-improvement or self-realization, missing the whole point of lent which is union with God. It is not just about now, but eternity. Example: We fast not to lose weight, but to become less attached to the things of this mortal world, and to more fully enter into the mystery of God’s love for us and God’s ways.
This year lent is early. It begins this Wednesday, February 6th, (Ash Wednesday), a day on which Catholics cut back on their food (fasting), and abstain from meat (abstinence). It is a day on which we anoint our selves with ashes, and remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Ash Wednesday is a day to really give thanks that dust is not the end.
As Christians, we know, in faith, that the dust of death is really a beginning. During lent we remember that we have been saved from death’s terrible fate by Jesus, the Son of God. Lent is a time to appreciate God’s love for us, and to deepen our union to the God who created us, became one of us, and died for us.
Let us pray for each other as we journey through lent together, and join our own sufferings to the Cross of Christ for the world’s salvation.

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It is hard to appreciate or visualize the vibrancy of the Catholic Church in Africa. This little youtube video speaks a thousand words about what is happening in terms of conversions, vocations, liturgy, age of congregations, etc.. I believe it was taken in the Sudan, and it illustrates the dynamism of the faith, and causes one to wonder how this will impact the universal church. The faith is definitely young and alive in this part of Africa as portrayed in the video – it is indeed a thousand words.