One of our creative catechists made a very eye-catching visual of this truth by taping paths all over her classroom. She demonstrated that even though all the vocational choices are distinct and have certain overlaps, they all move toward the same goal of eternal life in heaven. What a great introduction to last month’s topic! I’ll bet the kids in that classroom were hooked from the moment they peeked in the door.
Whether you are a seasoned Family Formation DRE or priest, a potential Core Group member, or are considering implementing Family Formation in your parish, please join us for this mini retreat on Monday, March 5. You will go away refreshed, renewed, inspired, and equipped!
Please RSVP to Deb: 763-757-1148 or deb@churchofsaintpaul.com by Monday, February 27.
Do you want to see the young Catholic Church ALIVE?
Join NET Ministries and over 1,000 young people on the first Saturday of every month for Lifeline Mass. With contemporary music, energetic crowds, and powerful presentations, Lifeline (in its 17th year) is focused on giving 8-12th graders in the Minnesota area the chance to experience the beauty of Mass with their peers.
Lifeline consists of:
• Praise and worship
• Mass
• Speakers
• Concerts
• Break-out sessions
• Men’s and women’s sessions
• Eucharistic Adoration
All Lifeline Programs take place at the NET Center at 110 Crusader Avenue W., West St. Paul, MN 55118. Doors open at 5:30pm and the event begins at 6:00pm.
February 4, 2012
6:00-9:30pm
Does God want me to become a priest or sister? How do I know if I have the gifts and abilities it takes? How do I know if I am holy enough? How do I know that I will be happy and fulfilled? If you are asking yourself these questions, don’t miss this event. With us will be Archbishop John Nienstedt. Also on the team are Fr. Troy Przybilla from the Archdiocesan Vocations Office, Religious Sisters, Religious Brothers and seminarians from Saint Paul Seminary and Saint John Vianney.
On a personal note, our family has attended NET Masses quite a few times, even bringing our younger kids along with those in the recommended age range. It’s an energetic experience and hearing Archbishop Neinstedt and Father Pryzbilla speak is sure to be a powerful presentation on the joy of religious life! Get there early – it’s always packed!
Many thanks to one of our distance DRE’s for sharing the great idea she’ll be using with her catechists for the February lesson on the Sacrament of the Sick:
This month’s Family Formation lesson calls for each catechist to have a small vial of Holy Oil and to bless each student with that oil. We are going to adapt this a bit and instead have a small “field trip” to see the Ambry where our holy oils are kept here at St. Patrick’s. You may do this at any point in your lesson but it would seem to fit in best on pg. 5 for K-3 (right before “Act it Out!”) and on pg. 6 for grades 4-5 (right after “Anointing with Oil”).
Tell your students that you are going to see where we keep the blessed oils here at St. Patrick’s and remind them that Jesus is in the Tabernacle so we need to be extra respectful in the Church.
Bring everyone to the Church and genuflect.
Walk them over to the Ambry and show them the blessed oils. As a Catechist, you may open the door and take them out to help the children to smell each oil but please do not let the children touch the oils or their containers. Remind the children that it is not common for the laity to remove the oils from the Ambry but that this is a special moment of instruction.
Help them to see that each bottle is etched with some letters. These signify which oil is in this vessel.
OI is the Oil of the Infirm (“Oleum Infirmorum”) which is used during the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. You may bring this down for the children to smell. Does it smell familiar? This is olive oil.
SC is the Sacred Chrism (“Sacrum Chrism”) and is “used in Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, as well as blessing tower bells and baptismal water and for consecrating churches, altars, chalices, and patens” (The Catholic Source Book, pg. 319). Allow the children to smell this as well. Does it smell different that the Oil of the Infirm? That is because balsam oil has been added to it, giving it a sweet and pleasant smell. This alludes to “Saint Paul’s “odor of life” or “aroma of holiness” metaphor in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16” (Ibid).
OS is the Holy Oil or “Olea Sancta”, sometimes called the Oil of the Saints or the “Oleum Catechumenorum” referring to the Oil of the Catechumens. It is “used during the prayer of exorcism and anointing when a catechumen (one seeking membership in the Catholic Church) is initiated, whence the name” (Ibid). The children may notice that this smells exactly like the Oil of the Infirm, it is also Olive Oil.
Please remember to genuflect when your class leaves the Church.
Here is some more information on Holy Oils:
Holy Oils are Sacramentals blessed by a bishop. There are three kinds: oil of catechumens, holy chrism, and oil of the sick. The first and third are pure olive oil. Chrism has in the oil a mixture of balm or balsam. In 1970, the Congregation for Divine Worship declared that, if necessary, the holy oils may be from any plant and not only from olives. (This was because some places did not have ready access to olive oil.) The holy oils are symbols of spiritual nourishment and the light of grace. They are used in the public administration of baptism, confirmation, and anointing of the sick. The blessing of the holy oils normally takes place on Holy Thursday by a bishop at a cathedral church. After distribution locally they are kept in locked boxes in the ambry. Unused oils, a year later, are burned in the sanctuary lamp (or may be buried in the ground). From http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=33967
There are three kinds of sacred oils, all of which signify the work of the Holy Spirit and symbolize it in that oil “serves to sweeten, to strengthen, to render supple” (Catholic Encyclopedia). The three holy oils are:
· The Oil of Catechumens (“Oleum Catechumenorum” or “Oleum Sanctum”) used in Baptism along with water, in the consecration of churches, in the blessing of Altars, in the ordination of priests, and, sometimes, in the crowning of Catholic kings and queens.
· The Holy Chrism (“Sanctum Chrisma”) or “Oil of Gladness,” which is olive oil mixed with a small amount of balm or balsam. It is used in Confirmation, Baptism, in the consecration of a Bishop, the consecration of a various things such as churches, chalices, patens, and bells.
· The Oil of the Sick (“Oleum Infirmorum”), which is used in Unction
The blessing of oils is performed by the Bishop of each diocese on Holy Thursday in the diocese’s cathedral during a “Chrism Mass.” The oils are kept in metal or glass bottles called “chrismatories,” “chrismals,” or “ampullae.” These vessels are then stored in a cabinet called an “ambry,” which is usually fixed to the wall of the sanctuary. Priests also have a portable “oilstock” which has a section for each of the three holy oils.
From http://fisheaters.com/holyoils.html
Church of Saint Paul families, have you “met” your seminarian yet? During the January classroom meeting, each of your children received a card with the photo and name of a seminarian from our diocese. We highly encourage you to pray for that man as often as possible and to establish a relationship with him in some way. Of course, the best way is to pray for him, but you may also want to send a simple note of encouragement, mail cookies, or send some other small item that a college student might like.
Before you do any of that though, you might want to check out his profile on the archdiocesan vocation site. Each seminarian has a page with information about his background, discernment process, family, likes and dislikes, etc. It’s interesting to learn more about them and it’s a great way to get to know the seminarian your student adopted.
Question: What are the only three things God doesn’t know?
Answer: What the Jesuits teach, what the Dominicans preach and how many orders of Franciscans there are!
If you can relate to this old joke about sorting through the often confusing differences between hundreds of religious communities, you might want to spend some time with this site recommended in our January classroom lessons. You’ll find basic general information and lots of details and links to specific religious orders.
Three brief notes:
Why not use today’s school holiday to spend a little time with the Saints? The CD in this month’s Home Lesson packet has the stories of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Saint John Neumann, Saint Paul Miki, and Saint Bernadette. We suggest you start your day by staying in your pajamas, having a cup of cocoa and listening to these great stories!
Parents should respect and encourage their children’s vocations. They should remember and teach that the first calling of the Christian is to follow Jesus.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2253
Do you know how sad it is when you are talking to a young man about becoming a priest, and we’ll start chatting, and you see there is an interest there, and he has his wits about him, and the know-how and the enthusiasm and the sincerity, and then you’ll say to him, “How can I follow through? Can I give you a call?” And sometimes — it will break your heart — he’ll say, “Don’t call the house, because mom and dad will be upset if they hear I am thinking about becoming a priest.”
There is what you might call the negative side of the family. I happen to think there might be a benevolent explanation for that, and that moms and dads deep down only want their kids to be happy, and they think that priests are unhappy. And if they think that priests are crabs, they don’t want their sons to be that. So that’s why I always say to priests, “We’ve got to be men of joy, or else what parent is going to want his or her son to be a priest?”
I think that is changing, and we’ve got a positive influence. When the family beams, when the family encourages, when the family fosters. You often see me write or speak about a “culture of vocations.” What I mean by a culture of vocations is that when our young people grow up in a culture that encourages you to do God’s will and that affirms one in his desire to be a priest, you are going to get priests. I grew up in such a culture. I said to my teachers in grade school, “I think I want to be a priest,” and they beamed and did everything possible to encourage me. My parish priest would. My folks would. My neighbors would. The parish would. I can remember as a kid — I must have been 9 or 10 years old — getting a haircut, and the barber said, “Hey shrimp, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I said, “I want to be a priest.” And he wasn’t even a Catholic, but he said, “Hey, isn’t that great?” Now that is the culture of vocations that we need in the Church.
For awhile, I am afraid, we had a culture that discouraged vocations. And sometimes families were a part of that. I am always amazed, when I have the ordination of a priest, of how many times that becomes the occasion of bringing a family back to the faith, because they had drifted. And sometimes, today in the Church, we have young men ordained who are neo-converts. They may have been raised Catholics in a less than enthusiastic way, drifted from the faith, usually in high school and college, and then maybe embraced the faith in a newfound way in their early 20s, from where came a vocation. The family, in the meantime, is sort of left in the dust, sometimes not opposed to it, but just blasé about it. And very often, when I am getting to know seminarians, they will say, “My family is a little upset about this,” or “My family doesn’t know what to make of this,” or “My family keeps trying to get me to change my mind.” But very often the ordination will be an occasion of family unity and the family will come back to the practice of the faith and be radiant in their son’s choice, especially when they see a culture of vocations in the seminary; when they see their son happy; when they see good men around him who share his values and a sense of that call. That’s a miracle there.
Give your kids advance warning to pay special attention at this weekend’s Mass. Hearing the Old Testament reading will be the perfect introduction to your Home Lesson on the Call of Samuel, and you can quiz older kids on the connection between the Old and New Testament readings. (Sounds fun, right?)
Also, you can be prepared to dive right in by having your costumes and scripts ready to go ahead of time!
Matt Brounstein
Sue Klejeski
Molly Koop