The Cornerstone
-- a tri-quarterly parish newsletter
Easter 2000
Volume Three, Issue I
News from Around the Parish
OSM Pregnancy Care
Center
Thanks to the fruitful efforts of parishioners Darren
Renner and Barbara Rose, Old St. Mary’s will soon be
opening a Pregnancy Care Center in the lower level of the
school building. Renovation is now underway. The center
is being operated as a satellite of Pregnancy Center
West. We will offer free pregnancy tests, information,
counseling, Christian charity, and the Word of God to all
who come to us for help. Please pray for the success of
this badly needed new center, which will serve the women
of downtown and Over the Rhine. Pray for many souls and
lives to be saved by our work. It has been found in
abortion statistics that many times a woman would not
have aborted her baby if only one person had shown true
love toward her. If you are interested in helping with
this project as a counselor or auxiliary volunteer
contact Darren Renner at 451-2740.
Forty Hours Devotion
On May 4-7 Old St. Mary’s will be holding its annual
Forty Hours Devotion. This devotion was revived at the
parish last year. It was a great success! Forty Hours is
a devotion in which prayer is made for forty hours before
the exposed Blessed Sacrament. A "Mass of
Exposition" will be sung at the beginning, and at
the end of the period of forty hours, final Benediction
will be accompanied by a procession of the Blessed
Sacrament and by the chanting of the litanies of the
saints. A reception will follow.
Jubilee Eucharistic
week
Pope John Paul II reminded us in his exhortation on the
Holy Eucharist that "adoration of Christ in this
sacrament of love must find expression in various forms
of eucharistic devotion: personal prayer before the
Blessed Sacrament, Hours of Adoration, periods of
exposition—short, prolonged, and
annual—eucharistic benediction, eucharistic
processions, eucharistic congresses" (Dominicae
Cenae).
During this Jubilee year,
in addition to our regular Eucharistic Adoration
Schedule, Old St. Mary’s will be having an 8-Day
Eucharistic Week, from Holy Trinity Sunday, June 18
through Corpus Christi Sunday, June 25. Daily adoration
throughout the week will complement our weekly Mass,
Lauds and Vespers schedule. The Eucharistic week will end
with an All-Parish Mass at 11:00 a.m. on Corpus Christi.
Meet, eat, pray and
learn on Thursdays
At 6:00 p.m. each Thursday, parishioners come together
for a "pot-luck" supper in Father Felten Hall.
This is an excellent time to get acquainted with members
of the Old St. Mary’s community. All are welcome.
Pot-luck is followed by Holy Hour in the church at 7:00
p.m. and Catechism instruction at 8:00 p.m. in the school
building. Why not spend your Thursday evenings at Old St.
Mary’s—food, community, prayer and education!
Sanctuary restoration
The scaffolding that has been dominating our sanctuary
for the past three months is due to be disassembled by
Palm Sunday. It will give way to a beautifully restored
sanctuary. One of the premiere highlights of the
restoration work, skillfully completed by the Wiebold Art
Conservation Lab, is the cleaning of the spandrel murals
(above the St. Joseph and St. Ann shrines). Another
notable highlight is that the high altar and side shrines
were returned to their former "marblized" look,
and accented with fresh gold leaf. We pray that our
sanctuary restoration will reflect our own spiritual
restoration in this year of the Great Jubilee.
Pro-life prayer and
fasting pledge
More than 100 parishioners and friends of the parish have
made an extraordinary pledge this year. They have
committed themselves to pray and fast on Friday each
week. On the fast days they follow the traditional Lenten
fast by eating no more than one full meal and by
abstaining from meat. They will be "fasting for
Life."
"Jesus himself has
shown us by his own example that prayer and fasting are
the most effective weapons against the forces of evil
(cf. Mt 4:1-11). As he taught his disciples, some demons
cannot be driven out except in this way. Let us therefore
discover anew the humility and the courage to pray and
fast so that power from on high will break down the walls
of lies and deceit" (Pope John Paul’s The
Gospel of Life, no 100).
Lenten Parish Mission
From March 19-23, Father Christopher Henderson conducted
our Lenten Parish Mission. A member of the Fathers of
Mercy, Fr. Henderson encouraged and challenged Old St.
Mary’s to make a stronger, deeper personal
commitment to Christ and His Church. He spoke on the
reality of personal sin and the need for personal
repentance, the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the power of prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the
Catholic Church. Thank you Father Henderson for an
inspiring Parish Mission.
Keystone uncovered
Some may have noticed by now: the original decorative
"keystone" for Old St. Mary’s was recently
uncovered in the attic of the rectory. After taking a
dust rag to it, a few strong men of the parish
transported the 700-pound gilded stone to its present
display stand behind the Our Lady of Sorrows shrine near
the west entrance of the church. The keystone is the
topmost stone of an arch. The keystone is thought to have
been replaced during the renovation of 1892.
Adoremus hymnals
Due to the kind generosity of a parishioner, Old St.
Mary’s now owns a full set of the newly released
"Adoremus Hymnal." The new red hymnals were
composed by the Church Music Association of America. The
hymnals not only include some of the most well-known
traditional Catholic hymns (including many of them in
Latin), but also the Order of the Mass in English and in
Latin.
Pilgrimage trip
St. John’s Men’s Society will be making a
Jubilee pilgrimage to beautiful Mercer County, Ohio, the
northern-most point of the Archdiocese. The Society will
visit the Jubilee churches there, including the National
Marian Shrine of the Holy Relics at Maria Stein.
Jubilee church
Archbishop Pilarczyk has designated Old St. Mary’s
as one of seven Jubilee pilgrimage churches in
Cincinnati. On May 21 the church will be open to pilgrims
from 2-6 p.m. Pilgrims wishing to receive the gift of the
Jubilee indulgence granted by Pope John Paul II should:
go to confession, receive the Eucharist, and spend time
at Old St. Mary’s in pious meditation, concluding
with the Our Father, the profession of faith, and the
Hail Mary.
Welcome Brian Chipps
Old St. Mary’s welcomes Brian Chipps to the parish
and the Church. Brian will be received into full
communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil
Mass here at Old St. Mary’s. Please keep Brian in
your prayers throughout the coming Easter season.
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Copyright © 2000-2006 Old St. Mary's
Church. All rights reserved.
Revised:
January 29, 2006
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Questions and comments
should be directed to the E-Mail address below.
oldstmarys@oldstmarys.org
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