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From Fr. Fran:
A big thank you to our Social Activities Committee for a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day dinner last Saturday night. About 100 parishioners celebrated the holiday together with good cheer and a bit of blarney mixed in! Thanks also to those who baked goodies and Irish Bread for the occasion. Have you bought your ticket for our next event yet? The “Spring Fling” is just around the corner.
This weekend our Confirmation candidates are experiencing their annual retreat. These young men and women will be with us at this week’s 4:00 p.m. Mass and we will have an opportunity to pray over them as they continue their journey towards the sacrament.
Next weekend we celebrate the beginning of Holy Week with Palm Sunday. At the 10:00 a.m. Mass we will have the solemn blessing of palms and procession around the church to commemorate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Please join us a few minutes before 10:00 a.m. at the front doors of the church where palm will be distributed and our procession will begin. If the weather is poor we will gather in the church hall.
While the main procession for Palm Sunday will be at the 10:00 a.m. Mass we will also be blessing the palms at the beginning of the 4:00 p.m. Mass on Saturday. We ask that everyone gather, with palm in hand in the back section of the church for this rite where the palms will be blessed and we will all process from the back into the front section of the church.
A few weeks ago our Finance Council presented you with our Annual Financial Report and representatives spoke at the masses. As you know, our finances are very tight. On the revenue side, weekly donations as well as the Grand Annual Collection have not hit expectations. As for expenses, we are trying very hard to live within our means. We need your help to keep us financially stable.
To keep the staffing and the quality of ministry where we want it to be we must increase our weekly revenue. Every ministry that flourishes at St. Matthias is dependant upon your donations. Every penny we receive to pay staff and bills comes from your generosity. If you are able, please assist us in the work of our parish family by increasing your weekly donation. If you haven’t given to the Grand Annual Collection there is still time. The life of our parish depends on your generosity.
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From Fr. Fran:
After the altar, ambo (the place where the scriptures are proclaimed) and the baptismal font, one of the most important symbols in our church building is the Paschal Candle. This candle symbolizes Christ among us as the one who lights and guides our way.
The church calls us to have a new candle each year. The dedication of the candle and its first lighting is what begins the Easter Vigil at dusk on the night we celebrate Christ’s resurrection. We gather outside the church in darkness. The new Easter fire is lit. From that fire the Paschal Candle takes its first flame. Then the candle is placed at the head of the procession to guide us into the darkened church as the light that pierces the darkness. Soon all gathered take the light from that candle, spread it around, and the church becomes bright from the glow of the new light passed from one person to the next.
The candle is then placed in its stand where it will be a beacon throughout the coming year. The candle is also given the honor of incense and, during the great sung prayer of praise called the Exsultet, we ask God to accept and bless it. The Paschal Candle continues to be lit throughout the Easter season and then again throughout the year at baptisms, funerals and other occasions.
Since the Paschal Candle is such a central figure in our life together as a parish it is fitting that it should be of the highest quality and of a size that clearly portrays its importance and dignity. We purchase our Paschal Candle each year from the Marklin Candle Company of Vermont, recognized throughout the country for the high quality of their craftsmanship and design.
Once again this year we are inviting parishioners to donate towards the cost of our beautiful Paschal Candle. If you would like to contribute, perhaps in the name of a loved one, please let me know or give a call to our parish office.
Did you know that around 30 dedicated parishioners have been busy meeting and preparing for our parish celebration of the Triduum (Holy Thursday – Easter Sunday)? Many parishes have perhaps 5 or 6 folks at the most who do all the prep work for Triduum. This year our parish team has expanded to include parishioners of all ages and levels of participation in our parish community. Their enthusiasm and communal spirit will lead us all to a wonderful celebration of Holy Week, Triduum and the Easter season. Please keep them in your prayers as they make their final preparations and please plan to join in the most sacred days of the year!
This is quite the busy time of the year! Our 2nd graders have just experienced their retreat and joined in the Sacrament of Penance for the first time. A couple of weeks before their own retreat, our Confirmation students hosted a wonderful Lenten Simple Supper in support of the parishes we are assisting in Louisiana. Our Social Activities Committee has revived our parish celebration of St. Patrick and so many are busy preparing our second annual Spring Fling. Lots of great events are going on! The highlight of course will be the celebration of the Easter Triduum. Next Sunday after the 10 AM Mass I will be hosting an hour long presentation exploring what the Easter Triduum is all about. We will be looking at such rituals as the washing of the feet, veneration of the cross, and the service of light at the Easter Vigil. I invite all parishioners to join me next Sunday after the 10 AM Mass to learn a bit more about the wonderful and powerful rituals we will be celebrating
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From Fr. Fran:
The Archdiocese of Boston requires that all clergy, parish staff members, and volunteers 17 years of age and over who minister to / have the potential for unmonitored access to children, youth, elderly or the disabled undergo an annual Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) check. At St. Matthias, as in many other parishes, we are requiring that all volunteers participate in this CORI check in order to provide the safest environment possible for our parishioners.
The CORI database is driven by name and date of birth. Since many people share the same name and birth date it isn’t uncommon for a person with no criminal record to receive a CORI of a person with a record if the name and date of birth are the same. In order to safeguard against this error, CORI procedures include information specific to each individual as well as a photo ID check. The CORI forms will be personally collected by our parish coordinators and sent to the archdiocesan delegate who in turn sends them to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. All information is strictly confidential. Although some may see this as a bit of a burden or have privacy issues concerning CORI information, this is an important tool in insuring a safe and secure environment.
Those of you on our ministry lists will be receiving a letter with a CORI form during the next few days. If you occasionally volunteer for ministry (helping with the collection when needed, participating in ad hoc set up/take down for parish events) we would request that you too fill out a CORI form. The forms will be collected after the Masses over the next two weekends.
Thank you for your cooperation with this process. Thank you for the time and talent you share with our parish so willingly. With so many demands upon our schedules your choice to serve in ministry is all the more appreciated. If you have any questions do not hesitate to speak with me or any member of the staff.
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From Fr. Fran
Have you heard? They found Jesus’ tomb along with that of his mother Mary, his presumed wife, Mary Magdalene, and his son. This has all been documented by the director of the epic movie Titanic, James Cameron, who is doing the circuit of talk shows to promote his new documentary. He records how the tomb was unearthed in the 1980’s with its contents examined by archeologists and forensic scientists. So, is this the find that will shake up the Christian world?
I remember in seminary, in a class called Christology, we explored Christ’s identity through scripture, tradition and revelation. After discussing theories of what the resurrection actually could have been like (remember there were no eyewitnesses to the event) one of my classmates asked our professor: “Does this mean we could actually find the body?” His answer implied that anything was possible because the essence of resurrection is beyond our comprehension.
Maybe that’s a good way to look at the current controversy over the discovery unearthed just outside of Jerusalem. Our faith in Christ is based on so much more than the mere physical. Our creator transcends space and time and form. Jesus’ role as Son and Savior is caught up in that mystery of God. The revelation of God which has come to us through the gospels and the Tradition tells us that God’s love for us is so great that, in the person of Christ, God took on our flesh and blood, our hopes and dreams, our tears and laughter and died so to open for us the way to heaven. That’s way beyond anything we can comprehend (or deserve!)
In the Mass of the Rite of Christian Burial we hear that Christ will “raise our mortal bodies and make them like his own in glory.” The prayer goes on: “On that day we shall see you, our God, as you are. We shall become like you and praise you forever through Christ our Lord…” That is our hope, our heavenly goal and home – to one day live with Christ in his glory. So what then will we look like on that day? What will happen to the bones we’ve carried around during our time on earth? Well, that’s all part of the great mystery of the resurrection! Hope to see you there. |
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From Fr. Fran:
Last week I mentioned how Lent began as a time of intense preparation for the catechumens and then was adopted by all the faithful. Maybe it would be good to talk a bit about who the “catechumens” are and why they are so important to the growth of the Church throughout the centuries.
Catechumens are simply those adults (and children over the age of seven) who, after a period of discernment, believe God is calling them to become Catholic Christians. These are folks who were not baptized into any religious tradition or come from another faith background such as Judaism. In a different time these folks would be known as potential “converts”.
At some point in the beginning stages of their journey toward baptism they experience a Rite of Welcoming and “officially” begin their journey as catechumens. This journey usually takes them through a few years of getting to know the scriptures, rituals and theology of the church. They celebrate with the community on Sundays but do not participate in the entire Mass. They listen to the Liturgy of the Word and are then “dismissed” from Mass, not to go home but to go with their sponsors and catechists to break open the Word of God which they have just experienced. Also they participate in the day to day life of the parish as we all do and usually gather again during the week for a faith formation session.
Each year on the First Sunday in Lent, those catechumens in the last months before their baptism move into an intense period of preparation. They are sent forth from their individual parishes to their local cathedral where the local bishop presides over their Rite of Election. At this ceremony there is a powerful moment when the bishop calls each one forward and they are asked to write their names in the diocesan Book of the Elect. No longer catechumens but “the elect” they spend the next six weeks preparing for their baptism which will occur at the Easter Vigil.
At Mass during those weeks the Elect experience three important rites during a weekly Sunday Mass. These are called the Scrutinies. The gospels on these three Sundays are always three powerful healing and conversion stories from St. John’s Gospel, namely, The Samaritan Woman at the Well, The Man Born Blind, and the raising of Lazarus. Each of the Scrutinies contains prayers that correspond to the conversion and healing proclaimed in the gospels.
The Elect then share in the liturgies of the Easter Triduum and are baptized at the Easter Vigil. If you have ever witnessed this moment you know how powerful and moving it is! It is amazing to think that throughout the world on this most holy night thousands of people are becoming Catholic Christians through water and chrism and the power of the Holy Spirit all witnessed by thousands of parish communities.
After their baptism and throughout the Easter season the newly baptized, now called “neophytes” have a special place of honor in the assembly. They continue to meet with their catechists to reflect on all that has happened to them.
Also during the Easter Season, those who have been baptized into other Christian denominations and desire to become Catholics come forward after their period of discernment and receive the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist. Since they already have been baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, the Catholic community doesn’t re-baptize them. (Our Catholic Tradition recognizes baptism by any Christian denomination that uses the Trinitarian formula.)
There is yet another group of folks who have a special celebration during the Easter Season. These are baptized Catholics who as adults have yet to complete their Catholic initiation with the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist. They too have been prayerfully discerning God’s call and have prepared to be fully initiated into the Church.
In our parish this year we will celebrate with Hilary Kushi who will be confirmed and share in the Eucharist for the first time at a Mass during the Easter Season. Our prayers are with her and her family as she moves toward this important moment in her faith journey.
So there you have it. Gone are the days when a “convert” came to the rectory on a Saturday afternoon and was baptized only months or weeks from their initial inquiry into the Catholic faith. As you can see the road toward Baptism is a gradual one of prayer, study, community, and conversion. It is an incredible journey and we continue to share in it long after our own Baptism. Just like the catechumens and candidates we are always in need of conversion. There is always more God wants to show us. May we walk closely this Lent with all those throughout the Catholic world who will come to know Christ this Easter Season in the Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.
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From Fr. Fran:
The Paschal season Begins!
OK. So what is the “Paschal Season” you may say? No, it’s not the time between the end of the Patriot’s season and the first pitch at Fenway Park. It’s the time of the liturgical year in which we celebrate the core of our faith together. The Paschal season actually consists of three seasons or in theatrical terms, three acts. In baseball terms (remember spring training is about to begin!) there is the warm-up, Lent – the pitch – Triduum and the home run – the Easter Season.
Lent , the season leading up to Easter, originated as a period of intense preparation for the catechumens as they readied themselves to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. After generations of seeing how these folks deepened their relationship to God and the Church during the weeks leading up to Easter, the Church called all the faithful to the same intense preparation creating what we know as Lent. Eventually this season was stretched out to the symbolic number of 40 days and nights. (Remember that Jesus was alone in the desert for 40 days and the Israelites traveled in the desert for 40 years.) What better way to mark the feast of Easter than to prepare for it than with this period of renewal, self examination and recommitment to Baptism!
For the math majors among us you might notice that the time from Ash Wednesday until Holy Thursday, when Lent ends, is actually more than forty days. At various points in the history of the church the days between Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday of Lent were not seen as Lent proper. They were the preparation days for the season of preparation. Go figure! The beginning of Lent was seen as the First Sunday in Lent. At other times the days from Ash Wednesday to the First Sunday in Lent were considered part of the forty days of Lent but the Sundays were not! Sunday was considered such a joyous day in the Church that, for a time, Sunday rest included a break from the rigors of the Lenten disciplines. Any penitential acts, such as those traditionally practiced in Lent, (as well as kneeling) were prohibited on Sunday as it was seen as a weekly Easter. So, are you confused as to when Lent starts? Let’s say that on Ash Wednesday the church begins the journey toward Easter regardless of the math!
The primary focus in Lent is on baptism. Surprised? Most of us grew up thinking the primary focus of Lent was on fasting, prayer, and good works. These are still an integral part of Lent but they are means to an end. Lent is all about our readiness to renew our baptismal promises at Easter. Lent is about assessing how well we are living out our baptismal call to love and serve the Lord. A focus on fasting, prayer and works of charity truly helps us to center our lives and get in touch with the things we need to do in order to walk more closely in Jesus’ footsteps. Lent is really more about giving than about giving up something. The giving up of something is great if it helps us to change our habits and lives not just for Lent but for good.
As we move to the last days of Lent we enter into Holy Week. Palm Sunday begins the week with a celebration that has two distinct movements to it. First there is the commemoration of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem with palms waving and supporters cheering. Then there is the solemn proclamation of
the passion which moves us into deep reflection for the week to come. On Tuesday of Holy Week the Holy Oils used in each parish throughout the archdiocese will be blessed in a Mass presided over by Cardinal Sean at the Cathedral. At the beginning of Mass on Holy Thursday these Holy Oils will be presented to the parish as the Triduum begins.
Lent quietly ends on Holy Thursday afternoon. We then celebrate the second act of the Paschal Season; in fact it is the central act of the entire liturgical year. We celebrate the Easter Triduum. The word Triduum simply means “three”. So, we are celebrating the Easter “three days”. These three days are counted in the ancient way of beginning a day at dusk rather than at midnight as we do now. The Easter Triduum is considered one celebration played out over 3 days, a three act play if you will. On the first day of the Easter Triduum, dusk Thursday until dusk Friday, we experience the first two acts of this three act celebration. We gather twice on this first day, once on Holy Thursday evening with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper and then again during the daylight hours of that same day (now Friday) for the liturgy of the Lord’s Passion and the Veneration of the Cross. You may remember that the Good Friday service was always at 3:00 p.m. on Good Friday and is still encouraged to be so. (This would give us our two acts on the first day of the Triduum.) In recent years there has been the permission to have the service in the evening so more working folks can participate.
From dusk Friday until dusk Saturday, (the second day of the Triduum) we have one of the most unique days in our liturgical calendar. This is a day without sacraments. We rest with Jesus in the tomb in anticipation of the resurrection. Then we begin the great Easter Vigil after dark at the beginning of the third day (dusk Saturday to dusk Sunday).
You may wonder why the Easter Vigil begins so late, not at dusk but at nightfall (about an hour after dusk). This is because the liturgy calls us to gather in total darkness to participate in the church being reborn. We start with the Easter fire, from which the Christ candle or Paschal candle is lighted. Then we enter the darkened church and spread that light around. Christ, our light, is piercing the darkness. We hear some of the greatest stories from the Scriptures, we often witness the baptism of adults or children and we renew our own baptismal promises as we celebrate the first Mass of Easter.
The Triduum continues on Easter Sunday with the festive Masses of the Resurrection of the Lord. The Triduum ends with many places celebrating Evening Prayer as the sun goes down on day three of the Triduum.
Then comes the great 50 days of Easter. That’s act three. It’s the home run if you will. It’s the crowd glorying in this incredible happening of Christ rising from the dead. We run the bases during this fifty day season as we baptize, confirm, and welcome youngsters to the Eucharistic table for the first time. It’s all about new life and the renewal of our baptismal commitments.
Whew! I’m exhausted just writing about what’s coming up. I hope each of you will plan now to celebrate this great Paschal Season at St. Matthias through the many prayer, liturgical, social and outreach opportunities that are described elsewhere in this week’s bulletin. Together may this great time bring us to deeper faith and a stronger commitment to love and serve the Lord.
OK. So what is the “Paschal Season” you may say? No, it’s not the time between the end of the Patriot’s season and the first pitch at Fenway Park. It’s the time of the liturgical year in which we celebrate the core of our faith together. The Paschal season actually consists of three seasons or in theatrical terms, three acts. In baseball terms (remember spring training is about to begin!) there is the warm-up, – the pitch – and the home run – the . , the season leading up to Easter, originated as a period of intense preparation for the catechumens as they readied themselves to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. After generations of seeing how these folks deepened their relationship to God and the Church during the weeks leading up to Easter, the Church called the faithful to the same intense preparation creating what we know as Lent. Eventually this season was stretched out to the symbolic number of 40 days and nights. (Remember that Jesus was alone in the desert for 40 days and the Israelites traveled in the desert for 40 years.) What better way to mark the feast of Easter than to prepare for it than with this period of renewal, self examination and recommitment to Baptism! For the math majors among us you might notice that the time from Ash Wednesday until Holy Thursday, when Lent ends, is actually more than forty days. At various points in the history of the church the days between Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday of Lent were seen as Lent proper. They were the preparation days for the season of preparation. Go figure! The beginning of Lent was seen as the First Sunday in Lent. At other times the days from Ash Wednesday to the First Sunday in Lent considered part of the forty days of Lent but the Sundays were not! Sunday was considered such a joyous day in the Church that, for a time, Sunday rest included a break from the rigors of the Lenten disciplines. Any penitential acts, such as those traditionally practiced in Lent, (as well as kneeling) were prohibited on Sunday as it was seen as a weekly Easter. So, are you confused as to when Lent starts? Let’s say that on Ash Wednesday the church begins the journey toward Easter regardless of the math! . Surprised? Most of us grew up thinking the primary focus of Lent was on fasting, prayer, and good works. These are still an integral part of Lent but they are to an end. Lent is all about our readiness to renew our baptismal promises at Easter. Lent is about assessing how well we are living out our baptismal call to love and serve the Lord. A focus on fasting, prayer and works of charity truly helps us to center our lives and get in touch with the things we need to do in order to walk more closely in Jesus’ footsteps. Lent is really more about than about something. The giving up of something is great if it helps us to change our habits and lives not just for Lent but for good. As we move to the last days of Lent we enter into Holy Week. begins the week with a celebration that has two distinct movements to it. First there is the commemoration of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem with palms waving and supporters cheering. Then there is the solemn proclamation of the passion which moves us into deep reflection for the week to come. On Tuesday of Holy Week the Holy Oils used in each parish throughout the archdiocese will be blessed in a Mass presided over by Cardinal Sean at the Cathedral. At the beginning of Mass on Holy Thursday these Holy Oils will be presented to the parish as the Triduum begins. Lent quietly ends on Holy Thursday afternoon. We then celebrate the second act of the Paschal Season; in fact it is the central act of the entire liturgical year. We celebrate the . The word Triduum simply means “three”. So, we are celebrating the Easter “three days”. These three days are counted in the ancient way of beginning a day at dusk rather than at midnight as we do now. The Easter Triduum is considered celebration played out over 3 days, a three act play if you will. On the first day of the Easter Triduum, dusk Thursday until dusk Friday, we experience the first two acts of this three act celebration. We gather on this first day, once on Holy Thursday evening with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper and then again during the daylight hours of that same day (now Friday) for the liturgy of the Lord’s Passion and the Veneration of the Cross. You may remember that the Good Friday service was always at 3:00 p.m. on Good Friday and is still encouraged to be so. (This would give us our two acts on the first day of the Triduum.) In recent years there has been the permission to have the service in the evening so more working folks can participate. From dusk Friday until dusk Saturday, (the second day of the Triduum) we have one of the most unique days in our liturgical calendar. This is a day without sacraments. We rest with Jesus in the tomb in anticipation of the resurrection. Then we begin the great Easter Vigil after dark at the beginning of the third day (dusk Saturday to dusk Sunday). You may wonder why the Easter Vigil begins so late, not at dusk but at nightfall (about an hour after dusk). This is because the liturgy calls us to gather in total darkness to participate in the church being reborn. We start with the Easter fire, from which the Christ candle or Paschal candle is lighted. Then we enter the darkened church and spread that light around. Christ, our light, is piercing the darkness. We hear some of the greatest stories from the Scriptures, we often witness the baptism of adults or children and we renew our own baptismal promises as we celebrate the first Mass of Easter. The Triduum continues on Easter Sunday with the festive Masses of the Resurrection of the Lord. The Triduum ends with many places celebrating Evening Prayer as the sun goes down on day three of the Triduum. Then comes the . That’s act three. It’s the home run if you will. It’s the crowd glorying in this incredible happening of Christ rising from the dead. We run the bases during this fifty day season as we baptize, confirm, and welcome youngsters to the Eucharistic table for the first time. It’s all about new life and the renewal of our baptismal commitments. Whew! I’m exhausted just writing about what’s coming up. I hope each of you will plan now to celebrate this great Paschal Season at St. Matthias through the many prayer, liturgical, social and outreach opportunities that are described elsewhere in this week’s bulletin. Together may this great time bring us to deeper faith and a stronger commitment to love and serve the Lord. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 30 March 2007 )
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From Fr Fran
This week I will be visiting friends in Chicago and working on a couple of music projects at GIA Publications there. Hopefully, within the coming months I will be finishing up compositions that will become part of a new collection and recording of liturgical music. Many of the songs will have first seen the light of day at masses here at St. Matthias parish.
People always ask composers what their inspiration is and how one writes a song. For me, as a composer of liturgical music, my inspiration is our celebration of the liturgy, its musical needs and possibilities. Also, as a priest-composer my inspiration comes from the many wonderful and challenging experiences I have in ministry.
People often think that a composer just sits around and waits for inspiration to hit and boom! A song is born. Ah, would that it could be so simple! It is on the rare occasion that a composition comes flowing out like that. But when a composition does come, whether through blood, sweat and tears or through pure inspiration, most composers humbly admit that it may have been written by their hand but it originated from a different place. Often composers say that the music flows through them. Those composers of faith would say that this is a gift from God. When this happens it is a wonderful and humbling experience.
Recently I attended the eastern regional conference of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians in Stamford, Connecticut. While hanging out with some of my composer colleagues during the conference it was clear to me that conveying an expression of God’s love, compassion, forgiveness and justice is truly at the heart of the work of so many liturgical composers. Like the composers of church music in early New England, many of today’s liturgical composers work full time within the church whether as music directors, pastoral associates or priests. This certainly informs and inspires their compositions because they come forth from lived experience. Take any composition in our hymnal that was written within the last 40 years or so and you will most likely find behind it a composer who has struggled within his or her own life to come to deepening faith through crisis, joy and most of all music.
I write about my composer colleagues today because they are oftentimes the “unsung” heroes of the liturgical movement, always striving through music to give more authentic witnesses to the gospel. Surely not every composition that makes its way into a hymnal is a gem; however each composer, at least in my experience, crafts their music from a deep sense of discipleship.
While we liturgical composers put all this work into our songs we need you in the Assembly to make them come alive! After all, as Oscar Hammerstein once wrote in a lyric: “a song is no song ‘til you sing it”.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 10 July 2006 )
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From Fr Fran
How could anyone ever again trust anything that the Archdiocese of Boston says or does? That was my initial feeling two weeks ago when the sexual harassment case against the head of the archdiocesan hospital system was brought to light in the Boston papers. My heart sank with that “here we go again” feeling which has seemingly permeated our church for the past four years. In candid conversations I have heard people’s outrage and disbelief that, after all we have been through, those in authority seem not to have learned the lessons of the scandals. Others have commented on the consistently bad advice that Cardinal O’Malley seems to be getting. Still others were not at all surprised with the initial handling of the matter. They have just come to assume and expect that matters will be mishandled at the highest levels in the archdiocese.
This is enough to make you want to give up on the church or at the very least, to stop giving financial support to the institution as many, many Catholics have done. There is a long road ahead for the archdiocese to gain back the trust of parishioners who are still so wounded from the scandal and reconfiguration. There does seem to be a sign of hope in the drama which played itself out in the health care system. Within a week’s time better decisions were made and full disclosure of details led to a swift conclusion to a difficult situation. However, it will most likely be those first flawed decisions that people will remember.
So what are we to make of the Archdiocese of Boston on this Pentecost Sunday? Will the wounds of the scandal ever heal? Will the anger and bitterness over reconfiguration ever give way to a return to the embrace of parish life? Recently Pope Benedict wrestled with similar yet even more profound questions as he visited the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. In reference to the terror and death inflicted at the camps he questioned God saying: “Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this? Then he spoke words that speak not only to the mystery of the allowance by God of atrocities of war but to the presence of every injustice allowed to have life.
“We cannot peer into God’s mysterious plan – we see only piecemeal, and we would be wrong to set ourselves up as judges of God and history. Then we would not be defending man, but only contributing to his downfall. No – when all is said and done, we must continue to cry out humbly yet insistently to God: Rouse yourself! Do not forget mankind, your creature!”
In our corner of the world when we shake our heads and wonder about what is happening within our church we too cry out to God and await an answer that will make some sense of it all. On this feast of Pentecost with greater intensity than ever let us cry out to the Holy Spirit to come and heal the wounds, calm the anger, ease the grieving and help us to trust that Christ is leading his church to wholenness, to true discipleship and to an Easter that will never end.
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From Fr Fran 
