This week we celebrate the great Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, the patroness of our cathedral and our diocese. A late-summer and mid-week Holy Day of Obligation often gets overlooked. It is a sad reality, and one that reflects some of the casual approach to religious observance in the post-modern world. In order to assist the ability to attend Mass on holy days, I have included Mass on the vigil of the Holy Day (5:00 p.m.) and on the evening of the Holy Day (7:00 p.m.) in addition to the daily 9:00 a.m. Mass. Hopefully this makes it a little easier to be able to attend Mass here for the feast.
One of the issues that the pastoral council will be considering is the Mass times. All of the Masses here are well-attended and the times seem to be convenient, but I think investigating and researching Mass times is still a good thing. With two priests in the parish the number of Masses on a weekend is not at all burdensome. On those times when one of us is away, there are still enough priests around to assist us.
Last weekend we had Father Michael Wallack celebrate the 11:00 a.m. Mass. He is the secretary to Bishop O’Connell and as such does not have a regular weekend Mass assignment. Often he is traveling to a parish with the bishop on a Sunday, so this makes it difficult for him to make such a commitment. We had a special Mass in the afternoon for the Feast of the Transfiguration because it is the feast of Father JM’s home state in the Philippines. Many Filipino nationals from his area attended the Mass on Sunday afternoon. It was a really nice afternoon and reception afterwards. I invited Father Wallack to celebrate Mass so that neither Fr. JM nor I had to celebrate three Masses on Sunday and to provide Father Wallack the opportunity to celebrate a Mass on Sunday.
As Father JM will be going home to the Philippines for the month of September, Father Wallack will be here for two Masses on the first three Sundays of the month. Before being named as the bishop’s secretary last Fall, Father Wallack was pastor of Holy Innocents Parish in Neptune. We are happy to have him with us. Father Wallack is also the diocesan director of vocations. We certainly need priests and so I encourage all of you to both pray for vocations and also to support and encourage young men in your life and our community to prayerfully consider the priestly vocation.
I hope you are all enjoying some beach time and some quality relaxation with friends and family along the way. It is important to escape once in a while, even if only for a day trip here and there. In that line, a couple of weeks ago Father JM and I went to Philadelphia for a day trip as we wanted to visit the new Museum of the American Revolution. For you history buffs and for those of you looking for something educational to do with your children or grandchildren, I think we would both highly recommend the museum. Of course, there are always other fun things to do in Philly as well. We did manage to have cheesesteaks at our favorite spot in the city (it is a good thing that we both prefer the same cheesesteak shop in Philly!) Philadelphia is also a good place to visit for a religious pilgrimage with some beautiful shrines and churches in the city. We also visited Old St. Joseph’s Church, which is a short walk from the museum, which is also the oldest parish church in the city (1733). It is a beautiful church and certainly worth the visit.