Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Ash Wednesday starts early...

Starting last year, I began having a 6:15 am Mass on Ash Wednesday. The origin of the idea was my desire to have Mass periodically for the hardy souls who show up each morning at that hour for a communion service. Given that the folks who come for that early communion service are on their way to work, Mass must be quick.

It may be I'm not skilled in the art of a "quick" Mass because as it was, with no homily, Mass took about 25 minutes. But we had a nice crowd of about 25 at that early hour, not bad considering it is something new. We'll have many more later, especially at 7 pm.

After having my morning "collation"--i.e., on a day of fasting, one has but a single full meal, but one can have two "collations" (snacks) that together do not equal a full meal--of coffee and a bagel (I had a coupon for a free one) from Tim Hortons, I'm thinking about my homily for Sunday, which is my usual Wednesday morning ritual, but which has fallen into desuetude lately.

Later, we'll have extra time for confessions--from 5-6:30 (or longer if needed), prior to Mass at 7 pm. Then while our retired priest has the evening Mass, I'll be having our Bible study, beginning the Gospel of John. We meet in the Caserta Center next to St. Boniface Church every Wednesday evening.

We did have Mass planned for the schoolchildren at 9:15 am; however, school is delayed two hours, meaning they can't come to Mass at that hour. So we're going to have the younger children come to 12:10 pm Mass--which happens at St. Boniface, where their classes are--and we'll have a prayer service this afternoon for the older children, who attend classes at St. Mary, at which they can receive ashes.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm jealous. I wish we had a Tim Hortons here.

Fr. Larry Gearhart said...

Hmmm. Desuetude. I haven't heard that word in a while.

We've had a couple of scheduling woes at St. Michael's and Immaculate Conception in Champaign Co., as well. I had one couple from a neighboring parish show up an hour early. I gave them ashes.

Even Vice President Biden wanted ashes, and that, even though his Catholic moral observance has fallen into desuetude.

Fr. Larry Gearhart said...

By the way, Martin. Have you colored your blog purple for Lent?

Fr Martin Fox said...

Father Gearhart:

Yes, I found "desuetude" lying about in the closet of my mind, and thought it was due for use.

Yes, I did color my blog purple for Lent. Actually, the gold color it had before was a leftover from Christmas--I never changed it back to green.

Fr. Larry Gearhart said...

So, are you saying your use of the term had fallen into desuetude, and you were only trying to revive it?

Fr Martin Fox said...

(Chuckle...)

Yes, I hope my vocabularial fecundity merits a modicum of approbation from you?