Recently in Around the Church Category
(How refreshing. Sigh.)
St. Mary's current pastor has decided to axe our annual Christmas midnight mass for no apparent reason. The only thing we can come up with is that he wants us to get used to not getting what we want. Apparently, we're like spoiled children, wanting mass all the time. The nerve of us!
To us, using mass as a cudgel is never a good idea. As is the case in so many other churches, this is one of our most highly attended masses of the entire year, and one of our prime opportunities for evangelism.
So why would a pastor choose to end a many decades long tradition of midnight mass? Fr. Namiotka says it's because no priests are available - he has reserved himself for midnight mass at the parish he repeatedly refers to as "my" parish, Queen of the Angels in Landisville/Minotola. (By contrast, he only refers to us as "St. Mary's in Malaga"...as if we don't know what town we're in.)
In fact, when asked about the lack of midnight mass, Namiotka specifically responded that "no priests are available." However, we inquired with one particular priest who regularly assists with masses and Namiotka had never even asked him if he wanted to say midnight mass. And another priest, who has said many masses at St. Mary's in the past, actually requested to say midnight mass and was told "NO" by Namiotka.
To add insult to injury, a longtime, elderly parishioner of St. Mary's was told by Namiotka that, "The pope is saying midnight mass. You can watch it on tv."* There's a shepherd of souls for us! Ya want mass? Go watch it on tv.
*Extended footnote/follow-up below:
Supposedly, according to Fr. Namiotka in a letter received February 4th, over a month and a half after the incident, he "actually said, 'Not even the Pope is having Midnight Mass this year (in Rome). The Mass is at 10 PM. You can watch the TV to see that this is true.'" He follows up by saying "I did, in fact, celebrate Midnight Mass as I annually do--just not at St. Mary's Malaga." This is precisely our point, and he made it for us. It's a shame that we don't a priest who truly wants to be at St. Mary's.
Further, the EWTN Christmas Mass to which he refers was, in fact, repeatedly billed by EWTN as "Midnight Mass." CLICK HERE here for just one example of this "to see that this is true" and the Vatican's rationale for "moving up" the time. Besides, it was a rude comment to make to an elderly, long-time parishioner.
In our view, either version of what was said is pretty terrible and demonstrates how little he cares for us since allowing another priest to say mass at St. Mary's would have required no effort on his part and would not have cost us anything. If anything, it would have brought the church money and perhaps a few souls would have returned to the Church for Christmas.
We're as "vibrant" as ever, so join us for mass. You'll find a great community of people, all with their feet planted firmly in the ground. Heels dug in, actually.
While I'm not really a "crafty" person and generally avoid projects that appear to be too messy (aside from Save St. Mary's), I threw caution to the wind and decided it would be fun to make an Advent calendar with my 6-year-old. (And yes, he is in his pajamas in the picture. Bad cold that day.)
I thought I'd share it with you because I realized, when trying to figure the best way of making the calendar, that this particular activity would be especially good for a family with two or more school age children. The more children you have, the less the parent has to do ahead of time. The older children can do the more complicated aspects (like looking for appropriate pictures).
I've been saving up some of my Catholic catalogs in
anticipation of some sort of craft project. Last week when I decided it would be a good idea to put together an Advent calendar, I was trying to think of a way that wouldn't require that I do 90% of the work. Not the most attractive way, perhaps, but a simple one. So here's what we did:1. I cut out a whole bunch of small pictures (saints, crosses, nativity scenes, rosaries, icons, a monstrance, etc.). Many of them were incredibly beautiful. I tried to find pictures most appropriate for Advent. I did all this while the kids were in bed, by the way.
2. Next, I grabbed some pink and purple construction paper and glued the pictures to the paper. After the glue was dry, I cut rectangular shapes around the pictures. Then I folded all these rectangles in half so as to make little doors. These first two steps probably took around two hours, but then again, being fairly late, I wasn't going very quickly.
3. The next day, with my son, I put a dab of paste on each little door so as to hold it shut (he didn't want to catch a glimpse of any of the pictures ahead of time). After I put the paste on the door, I would hand each one to him and he would write the dates on them.4. As you can see, we pasted all the little doors to the large piece of paper. (I did put faint lines on the paper so the little doors would be vaguely straight.)
5. At the end I had my son put the words on the calendar and I let him decorate the bottom. The parts we did together probably took about an hour.
As it turned out, we had so many of the little door/pictures left (I cut out too many) that we had enough for a "12 Days of Christmas/Epiphany Calendar" (right). Knowing I had too many, I saved the three wise men pictures, some nativity scenes, and baby Jesus pictures for this.As we open the doors each day the calendar actually looks much more attractive. And who doesn't love the excitement of an Advent calendar? The whole thing, simple as it was to make, has been a huge hit. We plan to make another one next year. He said to me, "Mama, I'm never going to forget this day!" Isn't that funny? Just goes to show, it doesn't always take pain-staking or costly gestures to give your children a sense of satisfaction. Mostly, they just like spending time with their parents.
At the Bazaar, you will findas well as good food, including
- Chinese Auction (donations of new toys/gifts for needy children enters you in the raffle)
- Bake Sale
- Christmas & Gift Items for sale
and, not to be missed,
- Soup
- Meatballs
- Sausage & Pepper Sandwiches
- Pasta in the evening
as well as entertainment
- free lunch with Santa Claus at 12:00 noon

and, for no extra charge, as per the bishop's requirements*
- the Junior Choir and Young Musicians will be appearing between 1:30 and 2:30
See our beautiful church and pay a visit to Jesus while you're there.
- we guarantee a vibrant time
Volunteers are still welcome. Call Marlene at 856-694-3154 if you're interested in helping or would like to RSVP for the lunch with Santa.
See ya there!
*whatever!?!
For your enjoyment here are two pictures. The top one depicts a young Mother Cabrini and the bottom is the shrine in NY. On a personal note, I had the privilege of visiting this shrine. I did not know until I got there that at the shrine, her body lies beneath the altar. My great grandmother considered it a privilege just to mop the school floors on which this great saint walked and there I found myself, so close to her body. Because of our family's devotion to her, she is the namesake of our youngest son. Mother Cabrini, ora pro nobis!



