A Special Visit from Our Lady
October is a month dedicated to our Lady, and in a special way to praying the Rosary. On October 7 the Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (the topic of this week's episode of CCM Connect!). To kick off the month of October, CCM will be hosting a special pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima from Oct 4-11.
Our former pastor, Fr. Casey Coleman, brought this statue back from a pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal. Parishioners from St. Mary's sign up to have the statue in their homes for a week, during which time they pray for Mary's intercession for their needs. Many blessings have come from this devotion, and we are excited to have the statue in our CCM chapel this coming week.
The statue will be with us for Mass at Hillside Grind this Sunday. We will conclude Mass with a Marian hymn and then process with the statue from Hillside Grind to our campus ministry chapel, praying the Rosary as we go. We will conclude with another hymn to Mary once we are in the chapel. Anyone who wishes is invited to join us in this procession.
During the week, starting Sunday evening, one of our student leaders, Gene, will be praying Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer from the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary at 8:00 am and 8:00 pm respectively each day. The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin is an abbreviated form of the Liturgy of the Hours that is more Marian in character. Gene has offered to teach anyone who wishes to join him in this devotion. And of course we encourage everyone to spend time in the chapel this week, inviting Mary to offer your needs and intentions to her Son.
Guard Against Anxiety
Many of us struggle with anxiety, whether from things happening in our personal lives or things we see happening in the world today. In this Sunday's second reading from Philippians, St. Paul offers sound spiritual advice for how to "guard our mind and heart" from anxiety, which is the subject of our scripture reflection for this week.
Change in Location for Mass next Sunday, Oct 11
On the weekend of Oct 9-11 I will be away accompanying a dozen of our students on a leadership retreat. As a good number of our regular Mass attendees will be away, including many who assist with setting up at Hillside Grind, we will be offering Mass in the chapel on Sunday, Oct 10. This change is for this Sunday only. We should be able to accommodate the anticipated number of people, but we also encourage people to attend one of the morning Masses at St. Mary's at either 8:30 or 11:30 am. We'll be back at Hillside Grind on Sunday, Oct. 17 and for the remainder of the semester.
In Christ,
