Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Blessings to you all! Hard to believe we are approaching the 5^th Sunday of Easter! Just a heads up that there will be First Communions at different Masses throughout the rest of the Easter Season. Most of the time we have four or fewer, but two of our Masses have larger groups. This Sunday, our 8 am Mass will have eight first communicants. And on May 5, the 11am Mass will have 17 first communicants. I thought you’d want to know.

Why not just one big First Communion Mass separate from a Sunday Mass, like some other Catholic Churches do? We are trying to hold up to important values to reinforce our understanding of faith, Mass and the Church. 

First, every time you hear me say Sunday Mass is a little Easter…, it means Sunday is a really big deal. No other Mass fulfills a Sunday obligation. Sunday is the community day, and those coming to First Communion are coming to Sunday, coming to Easter, coming to Communion.

And why not just one big group? We also believe that parents, as the first and best teachers of the faith to their kids, have the responsibility to know when their kids are ready, and the responsibility to choose when they would like to celebrate. 

Pay attention when at a Baptism to when we ask parents, godparents and community – “will you help this child come to faith?” This is not just a ritual meant to be a simple ceremony, but a sacramental ritual that says Christ is really doing something right here in our midst. A Church not celebrating Baptism, First Eucharist, and even Confirmation and other sacraments with the whole community is deprived of their call to live their faith and realize we are all connected in Christ.

Speaking of living fully the faith. This Saturday night (4/27) at 7pm we will be celebrating the Spirit of Hecker Awards in the Commons. This year’s recipient at Old St. Mary’s is Cleofe Garcia. She has been serving faith and serving in faith since before the parish moved from Van Buren and Wabash. You are welcome to join us for this Social event and see her receive her reward. But it is not just a local event. Paulist’s across the country will be awarding other hard-working promoters of the faith from coast to coast. Starting at 7:30pm we will join the live feed across the country, meet the other awardees and present Cleo to them all. See the link in the description below.

Next month, May 5 weekend we will celebrate Fr. PJ’s 50^th Anniversary to priesthood with receptions after our weekend Masses. Later in May, Dan Macalinao, CSP and Chris Lawton, CSP, who both served here as students, will be ordained Paulist Priests. We plan to have both back to celebrate Masses of Thanksgiving this summer.

And, of course, there is always more coming. Check out this list of Old St. Mary’s events!

See you soon!

Fr. Brad

This year, Old St. Mary's will honor Cleofe Garcia with the Spirit of Hecker Award for our parish. The celebration will begin after the 5 PM Mass.

Cleo is one of the stalwarts of Old St. Mary’s Parish who has always helped with ministry at Old St. Mary’s when we were at Van Buren and Wabash, as well as here. She helped with the transition and encouraged all parishioners to be involved in the parish. Join us in the Commons on Saturday, April 27 after Mass.

Congratulations Cleo!

See below for the broadcast of the Spirit of Hecker Awards taking place around the country that begins at 7:30 PM CDT.

After Mass

Saturday, May 4th

We will be recognizing Fr. Patrick Johnson’s

50 years in the priesthood.

Come help us honor him and acknowledge his service as a priest.

Can’t make Saturday, no worries, we’ll still be celebrating on

Sunday after the Masses.

We will celebrate First Communions at the following Masses during the month of May. Please pray for our First Communicants.

• On the first weekend of the month May 4/5, we will take up special collection for our neighboring parish St. James.

• On the weekend of May 11/12, we will have the annual Catholic Charities Mother's Day special collection.

Fr. Chris Lawton will say Masses of Thanksgiving at Old St. Mary's

on June 9 at 8 AM and 11 AM.

Fr. Dan Macalinao will say a Mass of Thanksgiving at Old St. Mary's

sometime in July.

During the month of May, we celebrate

the ordination anniversaries of the

Paulist Fathers serving at

Old St. Mary’s Church.

Father Patrick Johnson, CSP 

May 4, 1974 – 50 years ordained

Father Brad Schoeberle, CSP

May 27, 2000 – 24 years ordained

In a joint effort, the OSM parish-school will collect diapers to be distributed throughout the Chicagoland area. Ms Peggy Johnson at Catholic Charities is overseeing the service project.

If you want to volunteer to pack diapers for distribution to families, please contact at pjohnson@catholiccharities.net. 

Diaper Drop-off will be at the school and the Parish Commons. 

Open Gym Dates During May

For those of your who participate in the Parish/School and Adult Open Gym, please take note of the following:

• May 12 - only half of the gym will be available for use.

• May 19 - There will be NO Parish/School Open Gym. Adult Open Gym can take place, but again only half of the gym will be available for use.

• May 26 - There is NO Open Gym for children or adults.

• June 2 - This will be the last scheduled Open Gym. We will break for the summer. Watch the bulletin and newsletter for when Open Gym will resume in the fall.