Novena to Mary's Immaculate Heart

The month of August is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart.

Novena to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Immaculate Heart of Mary, full of love for God and mankind, and of compassion for sinners, I consecrate myself entirely to you. I entrust to you the salvation of my soul. May my heart be ever united with yours, so that I may hate sin, love God and my neighbor, and reach eternal life together with those whom I love.

Mediatrix of All Graces and Mother of Mercy, remember the infinite treasure which your Divine Son has merited by His suffering and which he has confided to you for us, your children. Filled with confidence in your motherly heart, and for the sake of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, obtain for me the favor I ask: [Mention your request here].

Dearest Mother, if what I ask for should not be according to God's will, pray that I may receive that which will be of greater benefit to my soul. May I experience the kindness of your intercession with Jesus during life and at the hour of my death? Amen.

They missed one

St. Patrick's was missed in this 'litany' of Diocese of Rochester church closings. And next year, Immaculate Heart of Mary may be a Salvation Army gymnasium. One down, how many more to go in All Saints Parish?

Conundrum

Does it make sense to "enthusiastically build-up the Kingdom of God" by selling/destroying churches?

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

Hail Mary, full of grace...

A Parish Guarantee?

As some of you may know, there are at least two offers to buy Immaculate Heart of Mary. The For Sale sign in front of IHM is graphic evidence of parish leadership's desire to divest themselves of yet another tabernacle. They want to push Him out of His house. They want to sell His house and divide it amongst themselves. Nothing new.

In a chance encounter with Alice, the parish's cemetery bookkeeper, we have been assured that IHM will not be sold. She claimed that the Salvation Army had put in a low-ball offer that had been rejected. Old news, she said. But what she didn't say, or perhaps didn't know, is that the Salvation Army is prepared to pay more and is actively pursuing final funding approval from their organizational hierarchy. It is only a matter of time.

But according to Alice, even though the For Sale sign is prominently displayed, IHM is not in danger of being sold! She can guarantee it, she said. Since we are led to believe that deacons can lead parishes, why shouldn't we also believe that a bookkeeper can make definitive decisions about church property?

According to Alice, we are troublemakers who apparently don't attend Mass regularly and are not involved in the parish. She adamantly refused to admit that the For Sale sign in front of IHM meant that it would be sold if an acceptable offer came in

She also said that she understood the issue was already in Rome. Really? She knows that for sure?

Not to be logical, but if the church ISN'T for sale, why is there a BIG FAT FOR SALE SIGN in the front yard, just to the side of a statue of Mary our Mother? According to Alice, it just hasn't been removed yet.

Yeah. Guess that meeting between the real estate agent and Captain John and Deacon Dean never happened, either. Nothing to see here. Move on, folks. Go back to sleep.

Building Immaculate Heart of Mary

While St. Vincent de Paul parish was still holding Mass in St. Vincent School, the call came to help build Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. St. Vincent parishioners, who had saved and saved to build St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church, gave $40,000 from their own building fund to help build IHM. I wonder how much St. Mary's gave. And what about St. Patrick's? How much did parishioners give?

And now parish leadership will not take down that BIG FAT FOR SALE SIGN. The youth group has expended funds on fixing up Rogers Hall, but for what? If a sale goes through, it will have been for naught. Another Catholic church in the Corning/Painted Post community will be gone.

Sounds like a plan...

Pray for Fr. Fred's mother

Fr. Fred's mother has died. Please pray for the repose of her soul and for her family. Also, Fr. Fred will be traveling home, please pray that he has a safe journey there and back.

Miracles do happen

Read about it here.

Requiem for IHM?

As buyers in our community vie for Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church, comes this post about the beauty of Catholic churches from The Anchoress. IHM is a sweet and simple church, one in keeping with the spiritual beauty of Mary's Immaculate Heart, I dare to think.

There are several links to the need for beauty, for rich and poor alike. When you take away the tabernacle, when you destroy and sell Catholic churches for temporal gain, you are saying in no uncertain terms that the here and now is more important than the eternal. It's unpopular to mention the eternal nature of existence, but if you make the present of more importance than the eternal...in the end you may....lose.

UPDATE: A poem by G. K. Chesterton that speaks to 'only' losing one's soul:

Fantasia

by G.K. Chesterton

 The happy men that lose their heads
They find their heads in heaven
As cherub heads with cherub wings,
And cherub haloes even:
Out of the infinite evening lands
Along the sunset sea,
Leaving the purple fields behind,
The cherub wings beat down the wind
Back to the groping body and blind
As the bird back to the tree.

Whether the plumes be passion-red
For him that truly dies
By headsmen’s blade or battle-axe,
Or blue like butterflies,
For him that lost it in a lane
In April’s fits and starts,
His folly is forgiven then:
But higher, and far beyond our ken,
Is the healing of the unhappy men,
The men that lost their hearts.

Is there not pardon for the brave
And broad release above,
Who lost their heads for liberty
Or lost their hearts for love?
Or is the wise man wise indeed
Whom larger thoughts keep whole?
Who sees life equal like a chart,
Made strong to play the saner part,
And keep his head and keep his heart,
And only lose his soul. (H/t to Why I Am Catholic)

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

Bishop Sheen...talking to us

"Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it. It does penance for the sins of others, but it is not broadminded about sin. Real love involves real hatred: whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the sellers from the temples has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth." -- Bishop Fulton Sheen (H/t Barnhardt.biz)

Independence Day

The story of our national anthem. (H/t to The Last Refuge).

Piggy-backing on building churches

Here's a series of videos (premiering at Fr. Barron's site Word on Fire) that explains the importance of church architecture as an extension of Catholic theology. The videos give an overview of the new book by Denis McNamara. The book is pricey, but the videos are free. Number one below:

When do you build a church?

Course the trend is to tear down churches nowadays, but do you ever wonder how the decision is made to build a Catholic church?

In the case of Immaculate Heart of Mary, when the population of Catholics grew to between 140-150 in Painted Post, it was deemed necessary to build a church.

Just food for thought.