Saint Cecilia - The Pilot · 2019-08-09 · The Saint Cecilia Social and Racial Justice Ministry...

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Saint Cecilia P A R I S H Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 11 August 2019 The Assumption of the Virgin Ambrogio Bergognone (c. 1510)

Transcript of Saint Cecilia - The Pilot · 2019-08-09 · The Saint Cecilia Social and Racial Justice Ministry...

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Saint CeciliaP A R I S H

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time11 August 2019

The Assumption of the VirginAmbrogio Bergognone (c. 1510)

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SAINT CECILIA PARISH

MINISTERS OF THE LITURGY

Saturday, August 10 | 5:00 p.m.Rev. Peter Grover, OMV, celebrantEve Nagler, lectors

Sunday, August 11 | 8:00 a.m.Rev. Peter Gyves, SJ, celebrantBob Mann, lector

Sunday, August 11 | 9:30 a.m.Rev. John Unni, celebrantKaren McMenamy, Maggie Loh, and Christopher Loh, lectors

Sunday, August 11 | 11:15 a.m.Rev. John Unni, celebrantSarra Pelssar, Erin Young, and James Paradis, lectors

OUR COMMUNITY NEWS

SPECIAL INTENTIONS

Sunday, August 11 | 8:00 p.m.John and Angelina Machado, Memorial

Sunday, August 11 | 9:30 p.m.Ann Sheehan, First Anniversary

Sunday, August 11 | 9:30 p.m.Howard Johnson, Memorial

Sunday, August 11 | 11:15 a.m.Diane Wirtz, 4th Anniversary

TODAY'S READINGS

Wisdom 18:6-9Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19Luke 12:32-48

NEXT SUNDAY'S READINGS

Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10Hebrews 12:1-4Luke 12:49-53

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative Multicultural FestivalThe DSNI's 31st Annual Multicultural Festival will take place next Saturday, August 17, from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. This celebration of cultures, food, and talent from the Dudley neighborhood and beyond will take place at Mary Hannon Park, 613 Dudley Streeet, Dorchester.

LITURGY OF THE HOURS Please join us for Evening Prayer & Morning Prayer

Tuesday, July 16 at 6:30 p.m. Memorial of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Monday, July 22 at 6:30 p.m. Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene

Monday, July 29 at 6:30 p.m.

Memorial of Saint Martha

Wednesday, July 31 at 6:30 p.m. Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Tuesday, August 6 at 6:30 p.m.

Feast of the Transfiguration

Thursday, August 8 at 6:30 p.m. Memorial of Saint Dominic

Monday, August 12 at 6:30 p.m.

Memorial of St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Wednesday, August 14 at 6:30 p.m. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Tuesday, August 20 at 6:30 p.m.

Memorial of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Thursday, August 22 at 6:30 p.m. Memorial of the Queenship of Mary

Tuesday, August 27 at 6:30 p.m.

Memorial of Saint Monica

Thursday, August 29 at 6:30 p.m. Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist

“The liturgy of the hours, like other liturgical services, is not a private matter but belongs to the whole Body of the Church, whose life it both expresses and affects.

“Hence, when the people are invited to the liturgy of the hours and come together in unity of heart and voice, they show forth the Church in its celebration of the mystery of Christ.”

General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours

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SAINT CECILIA PARISH

Prayers & Occasions

Our SickPlease pray for all our sick and for those who are in need of our prayer, especially Mary Pickering, Stephanie Brown, Kim Villanueva, Francisco and Valentin Castro Goudovitch, Bill Croke, Helene Schabes, Mary Jane Kinne, Steven Clark, Patricia Finn, Mary Sue Cappoza, Marc Pelletier, Ashlyn Couture, Diego Cruz, Matt Dwyer, Jim Burke, and Samuel Lockwald.

Welcome to Saint Cecilia ParishWe are pleased to welcome the following new members of our parish who have recently registered: Katie Lazuk of Brighton, Martin Connors of Boston, Bridget and Neil Mo-ses of Boston, Marta and Matthew O'Grady of New York, the Hill-Greene Family of Brookline, and Maria Sayson of Boston. If you have not previously registered with the par-ish, there are forms in the narthex for this purpose or you can register online at www.stceciliaboston.org

Weddings at Saint CeciliaCongratulations to Sarah Bolt and Christopher Evans, and to Sarah Naoshy and Ayaan Israni who were married here on August 3. May God bless the happy couples as they start this next phase of their lives together.

Farewell, Ashley!This week we say goodbye to our summer intern, Ashley Gioioso, who has worked with John Glynn over the past two months to serve our high school and college ministries, and even joined in on our Young Neighbors trip to DC! Ashley has been a gift to our office and we pray for God's blessing on her as she begins her senior year at Assumption College. We'll miss you, Ashley!

Assumption Day — Mass and Evening PrayerThursday, August 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation. Mass will be celebrated on Thursday at 8:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wewill also pray Evening Prayer on the Eve of the Assumption(Wednesday) at 6:30.

"It is imperative that no one…indulge in a merely individualistic morality. The best

way to fulfill one’s obligations of justice and love is to contribute to the common good according to one’s means and the needs of

others, and also to promote and help public and private organizations devoted to

bettering the conditions of life."

– Gaudium et Spes (“The Church in the Modern World”), Vatican II, 1965 #30

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SAINT CECILIA PARISH

Summer Inn the City

Wednesday, August 14 | Society of Arts & Crafts | 100 Pier 4 Boulevard in Boston’s Seaport | 6 – 9 p.m. | $60/person

Looking for a way to celebrate summer and support a great cause? Bring your friends and coworkers and join us at Sum-mer Inn the City, Pine Street Inn's annual summer event. They’ll have delicious food, refreshing drinks, fun people and great entertainment – all in support of the mission to end homelessness. Tickets are limited, please contact Mark Lippolt at [email protected].

CATHOLIC CHARITIES' FOOD PANTRY

THE HAITIAN MULTI-SERVICE CENTER

Did you know that August is the month when most food pantries and groups that feed the homeless experience the greatest demand for their services? It isn't around the Christmas holidays: it's August. Most summer school meals programs end in early August and families can suddenly find themselves with three or four additional mouths to feed at breakfast and lunch. Also, August is the month when family budgets are stretched to purchase back-to-school supplies and clothes.

Given the current state of the economy for the working poor, our friends at Catholic Charities expect to see many more hungry families looking for assistance at their food pantry this month. We at Saint Cecilia Parish would like to help them meet this increase in demand. Please consider bring-ing the following items to the food baskets in the back of the church: peanut butter, tuna fish, canned chicken breast, cooking oil, Cheerios or corn flakes, cooking oil, white flour spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, and tomato sauce.

SAVE THE DATE: Pine Street Inn

Thursday, September 26 | 6:00 p.m. | The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street

As part of their 50th anniversary, Pine Street Inn is hosting a special event with their friends and supporters to cele-brate the accomplishments of their community and rededi-cate the agency to a future without homelessness. Tickets, which are not yet on sale, will be $500 per person.

Our next coffee

hospitality Pop–Up

Come to the glass entrance and enjoy your Haley House favorites, a cup of Equal Exchange coffee, and fellowship with other parishioners at our upcoming Coffee Hour Pop-Up — next Sunday, August 18, following the 9:30 and 11:15 liturgies.

Social and Racial Justice

Ministry Upcoming Events

“The word “solidarity” is a little worn and at times poorly understood, but it refers to something more than a few sporadic acts of generosity. It presumes the creation of a new mindset which thinks in terms of community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few.”

— Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium

Monthly MeetingSunday, August 11| Following the 11:15 Mass St. Francis GardenThe Saint Cecilia Social and Racial Justice Ministry meets once every month following the 11:15 liturgy. Join us to-day, August 11, in the St. Francis Garden (or near the gar-den door in the event of inclement weather) to help us plan activities for the fall! Contact [email protected] for more information.

Massachusetts Jobs with Justice and Boston Tech Workers for Justice general business meetingThursday, August 15 | 6:30-8:00 p.m.Mass. Jobs with Justice, 375 Centre Streeet, Jamaica PlainJoin this open meeting to learn how you can get involved in current projects related to workplace equity & inclusion, getting tech out of ICE, and building technology for social justice movement organizations. Please send us a message ahead of time if you plan to come: www.massjwj.net/con-tact-us.

You can sign up to receive updates from the SRJM ministry at http://eepurl.com/dKw-gw. Follow us on Facebook (search for St. Cecilia’s Social and Racial Justice Ministry) to get news about up-coming events. Are you interested in getting more involved with planning actions? Whether you want to join our Steering Com-mittee or have a particular event you want to collaborate with us on, please email [email protected].

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WELCOMING THE STRANGER

For the past two years, our parish has provided ongoing support to Catholic Charities’ Refugee and Immigration Services, heeding Pope Francis’ words, “With regard to mi-grants, displaced persons and refugees, a common com-mitment is needed, one focused on offering them a digni-fied welcome.” At this point in time, the parish has offered to provide refugee families with supermarket gift cards so that they will have food while their applications for politi-cal asylum are processed. If you would like to purchase gift cards to Market Basket specifically—and no more than $25 per card—please feel free to drop them in the offertory basket. You can also contribute by check, noting “Refugee Families” in the memo line of your check made payable to “Saint Cecilia Parish."

Adult Faith

Formation Events

FAITH FORMATION EVENTS AT SAINT CECILIA OFTEN APPEAR ON PAGES 4—7

SUMMER EVENTS AT BC SCHOOL

OF THEOLOGY AND MINISTRY ON-

LINE COURSES

For further details or to register for these events, please check the STM Online: Crossroads website: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/stm/sites/crossroads.html

Call to ConscienceAug 7 - Aug 27 | 3-Week Online Course | Registration Required| $25.00

SACRED THREADS

For further details on this event, please check their website:http://www.sacredthreadscenter.org/events/

The Time Is Now: A Call to Uncommon CourageA Conversation with Joan ChittisterSaturday, September 21 | 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. Fontbonne Academy, 930 Brook Road, Milton, MA Registration Required | $25.00 per ticket

A REQUEST FROM

CATHOLIC CHARITIES

Celebrating its 100th anniversary, Sunset Point Camp has provided a dream vacation at the seashore to over 40,000 low-income, at-risk children aged 6-13 from Greater Bos-ton without regard for their race, nationality, or religious affiliation. Nearly 450 city-based boys and girls travel to Hull each summer for a one or two-week overnight camp experience letting them enjoy the fresh air, learn new tal-ents, receive academic summer support and simply have fun.

Sunset Point Camp is operated by our friends at Catho-lic Charities. They have mentioned to us that they always need donations of sunscreen for the kids at the camp. So the next time you're at CVS or Walgreen's or your lo-cal supermarket, please consider picking up an extra tube of sunscreen and dropping it in the plastic bin identified for this purpose in the narthex. We have been told the higher the SPF number, the better. The Camp also needs kids' flipflops for boys and girls age 6 to 12. Next weekend is the last chance to bring in donations for the Camp.

Rainbow Ministry

Upcoming Events

LGBTQ Catholics Unite Monthly MeetingSunday, August 25| 1:00 p.m. | Rear Upper Room at St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine at the corner of Boylston and Ipswich Streets

LGBTQ Catholics Unite provides an opportunity for LGBTQ Catholics and friends to gather and discuss openly relevant topics, scripture, and current events. This month, Mark Lippolt will facilitate a discussion on "Year in Review and in View." Please join us to share your thoughts about this past year's monthly meetings and identify future topics. We will also be providing updates on our relationships with the Rainbow Ministry's non-profit partner agencies and up-coming events/opportunities. LGBTQ Catholics need a fo-rum in which to share faith experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. Our hope is that people will feel supported, heard, and spiritually nourished. Coffee and donuts will be served. All are welcome!

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“Mary,” Jesus said to her. When she heard him call her name, she responded, “Rabbouni!” Teacher.

“Go to my brothers,” he said, delivering a direct commission to announce the “good news.”

“I have seen the Lord,” she told the disciples.

In our parish in Northern California, lay women began to preach the good news during the Sunday liturgy in 1996. The practice emerged from within the faith community. Several women had approached our pastor and spoke of the devas-tating lack of women’s spiritual wisdom and leadership in the church for 2,000 years. We asked: Couldn’t women, who feel called and are prepared, give a homily—a teaching that ex-pands on the message of the Scripture readings and invites listeners to a change of mind and heart?

“I wondered if anyone would ever ask,” he said.

Like Mary of Magdala, women who gave homilies had expe-rienced a deep call and felt commissioned to share the good news. We had discerned both with our spiritual directors and pastor. All of us who were lay preachers had studied theology at the university level—some had earned a masters of divinity degree. Some were or had been members of a religious order or had special knowledge of a particular pastoral issue within our parish community. We had demonstrated an expertise or experience of the lay faithful, as required by Canon Law (No. 766).

Members of the congregation told us they were eager to hear our words. One parishioner said to me: “Hearing a Catholic woman reflect on the Word during Sunday’s liturgy is a break-through experience for women and for men. It strengthens us as the body of Christ.” We felt that the Church, local and universal, recognized in us the gifts bestowed on us by the Spirit—the fresh perspectives we contributed to the commu-nity—just as the early Christian church had recognized wom-en’s leadership.

Each time one of us preached, the pastor who had first invit-ed us wrote a two-page, single-spaced letter to whomever had spoken, warmly commenting on the delivered homily. Once a year, the parish priests invited us lay preachers to dinner at the rectory, where together we discussed what went well and what we might do better. We women felt enmeshed in the prophetic leadership of the parish.

Parishioners might say, as the townspeople of Samaria did 2,000 years ago, “We believed in Him on the strength of the woman’s testimony” (Jn 4:3).

In 2001, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in accordance with No. 766 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, declared that “preaching by the lay faithful may not take place within the Celebration of the Eucharist at the moment re-served for the homily.” Nevertheless, the conference recog-nized the right of each bishop to permit the practice of lay preaching in his own diocese, though not during the time tra-ditionally set aside for the homily.

Our bishop and our parish priests, years earlier, had recog-nized the gift of lay preaching. Nobody expected that the clock might be turned back. But in 2009, restrictions began to be put in place. A new bishop in our diocese mandated that the priest celebrant must read the Gospel at Mass and he alone give a short homily. Lay people could then offer a “reflection,” sharing our thoughts. But we could not give a homily.

The congregation was stunned. Yet this was an order, and we lay preachers had no choice but to obey. In 2013, another new bishop arrived, and we lay people were told we could no longer give even a “reflection.” The crushing ban has spread to many U.S. dioceses.

A friend of mine in Wisconsin who had preached monthly at her parish for over 20 years wrote to me in “great sadness and disappointment.” She shared with me the letter she was sending to Bishop Rembert Weakland, a former archbishop of Milwaukee (1977-2002). She began by thanking the bishop

I’m a Catholic woman who was allowed to preach at Mass—until it was banned

By JEAN MOLESKY-POZ

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for “opening the door” years ago by allowing lay ministers to be trained and formed to preach through the diocese’s preach-ing institute. She knew she had brought the Gospel to life in the hearts and minds of many who heard her.

The clerical decision to ban lay people from preaching af-fects women in a particular way. Women are not allowed to be deacons, deemed unworthy of holy orders. Only in the last century have we been admitted to study theology at Catholic universities. In the movements begun by the Second Vatican Council calling for a greater place for the laity at every level of church life, women have seen new opportunities to share our gifts in the church, and lay preaching was one important way to do that. Of the 13 lay preachers in our parish, 12 were women.

In the past months, I have asked others in our parish whether they believed the ban on lay women delivering a homily af-fected their feelings about their place in the Catholic Church. Most said that they carry within themselves a sense of loss, of dislocation. Some women said they felt anger, others disap-pointment and discouragement.

I found myself in grief, as though a loved one had died. As mourners are often counseled to do, I realized I had to name and claim the loss to heal and go forward. We who preached had a particular gift to offer to the church, which our faith community recognized and affirmed. An institutional decision rejected the giving of gifts.

Catholic women are seeking community, are worshipping and sharing their faith in new ways. While remaining Catholic, one woman I know now also participates in an Episcopal parish where she says she finds more inclusive language in worship. Another, who is lesbian, joined a Methodist church where she said she felt more welcomed in her sexual orientation. Some visit Protestant parishes where women preach. I have met Catholic women who have left the church to serve as ministers in Methodist and Unitarian congregations or as Episcopalian and Presbyterian priests.

Some Catholic women cannot find a home.

What kind of church are American women looking forward to in this 21st century? My friend Kristi, a lay associate of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, answers for many of us: “a beloved community.”

Kristi supports low-wage workers and immigrants who are fighting for justice and dignity in the workplace by helping them to organize for unions, health care and a living wage. “I am doing what I am doing in the world because of my Catho-

lic faith,” she said.

Yet Kristi feels she no longer has a place in the Church. “I had just been invited into lay preaching when the bishop stopped it in our parish,” she told me. “Days later, I dreamt I was being gagged, a black cloth covering my mouth, silenced, powerless.”

“At this point,” she said, “this church is not a healthy place for my soul.”

At a recent lecture at Santa Clara University, theologian Eliza-beth Johnson, C.S.J., pointed out that for centuries the Church excluded women’s voices and spiritual wisdom “because of our so-called feminine nature.” But she advocated for “cour-age and hope.”

Today women “do not have the authority of the Church office, but they have the authority of their baptism,” Sister Johnson said. We were given new birth by water and the Holy Spirit. Girls and boys. We have to be deeply prayerful despite the conflict, she said. “You cannot do this alone.” Sister Johnson suggested we form support groups.

In our parish, we have formed a bi-monthly lecture, reflection and discussion series, just for women. Feminist biblical schol-ars examine overlooked stories of women in the Bible and provide skills to reconstruct biblical history in which women were central and active agents. Muslim women dialogue with us on their faith, and undocumented mothers share their sto-ries, as do women ministering to girls who have been sex traf-ficked. We inform one another of needed social actions that reflect Catholic Social Teaching. We make retreats together; we visit monasteries where we search for wisdom for our every-day lives. Wanting to seek and share contemplative intimacy with God, we are forming prayer and spirituality study groups in our homes and apartments. Some women have joined reli-gious communities as lay associates; others are forming new base Christian communities.

Women’s experiences and ways of relating to the mystery of God can be a vital source of spiritual wisdom, can help build up a vibrant and inclusive community and offer collaborative forms of leadership. After all, in each of the four Gospels, Jesus commissions Mary of Magdala—or Mary with other women—to go to the brothers and herald the good news.

~ Jean Molesky-Poz is a lecturer in the graduate program in pastoral ministry at Santa Clara University and the author of Contemporary Maya Spirituality and numerous articles, including “At the Ambo: The Unique Experience of Women Preachers.” She is completing a novel, The Interpreters.

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For some kids, YNIA trips are a simple tick in the box. You look at the pamphlet or listen to your parents tell you about it. A week away from home doing community service mixed in with some seriously accented religion from Father John—just like any other Sunday. Whether you are looking to fulfill service hour requirements or pad your stats for college, it is easy to say, "sure" and take a leap of faith. It's just a week, and you'll make it through even if you hate it.

That is the mentality, I begrudgingly admit, I had my first summer in 2016. I was going to Harlem, I knew no other people on the trip, and as I got on the bus to roll out, I sat alone with both earbuds blasting music. We were paired up with roommates for that trip, and when I discovered I had forgotten a phone charger, my roommate immediately offered to share his. Throughout the week we grew closer, and I had found my light for the week. No, not just the abil-ity to use my phone, but somebody willing to provide for me despite not even knowing me.

As I went on my second and third trips, I couldn't wait to meet new people and go to new work sites. The first trip had been scary, and I had been motivated by the ability to add community service to my resume, but with each new trip I attended, I started looking forward to furthering rela-tionships with the people around me, as well as with God.

In San Diego, the second trip I attended, I was confident going in with a few friends from the previous year and was sure those would be the only people I talked to the entire time. However, YNIA has an uncanny ability of bringing strangers together. By the end of the week, not only were my Instagram followers way up, but I had made numerous friends for life. This only continued with our trip to Ne-braska the following summer. During one of the final nights on the trip, I found myself seated among new friends who had been five complete strangers just days before—and we were sharing deeply personal things. The people on each and every trip were far more than kids I met on my service trip, they were, and are, lights in my life.

This past trip was my final year, and my full four year expe-rience truly culminated. As we discussed the seven prin-ciples of Catholic Social Teaching, with the theme of the week inviting us to be salt and light for others, I realized just how intertwined everything was. Each year, in small ways —from someone lending me his phone charger, to working through breaks in 100 degree heat—people were being the salt and light in my life and in the communities we were helping. Religion is a part of the trip, and Mat-thew's gospel and the message of Catholic Social Teaching seems simple to me—everyone should be treated equal-ly and with dignity. Catholic Social Teaching hammers it home: be the person to make that happen; be good to oth-ers; be in right relationship with one another.

YNIA may be over, but there are endless opportunities to do good, and as I move on, I strive to be salt and light for others.

A Four–Year YNIA Participant Reflects on His Experience

By TROY MARRERO

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The current issue of Our Sunday Visitor, that still point at the whirling universe of church publications, reminds its read-ers that the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is rising like a midsummer moon over the calendar pages. They urge them to celebrate this commemoration of the di-rect assumption of Mary, body and soul, into Heaven. This really happened, the Church is said to teach, as a fulfillment of Mary’s remaining both sinless all her life and a virgin after giving birth to the Savior.

You have to hand it to this traditional newspaper whose pub-lishers include a mild theological disclaimer to the effect that we do not know how this event took place. In short, that it is a Mystery. Their note is both a bow to modern thinking and a credit to the editors who understand that their readers want encouragement in their faith rather than complex theological discourses. These Catholics sit neither on the Far Right nor the Far Left, but occupy the middle pews of the contemporary Church.

This feast has warm associations in many Catholic traditions in which it has accented the wonder and mystery, the sacra-mentality we might say, of midsummer. With an eye on their ripening fields the Irish knew it as Lady’s Day in August and Americans, with an eye on their seaside holidays, found spiri-tual renewal in getting into the water on that day. It is as if such customs recognized that the Mystery of the Feast spoke mysteriously and deeply to believers who were moved by its symbolism rather than its historical character. While Our Sun-day Visitor’s column reassures Catholics that the early Church Fathers held this miraculous happening as true and that the Church has always taught it to the faithful. While “The Church has always taught this” is a powerful argument, it begs the question of the mode and manner as well as the meaning of Mary’s journey to Heaven.

The Assumption invites us to tap into the vein of rich spiri-tual ore that runs just beneath the surface of a teaching that is radically diminished when it is presented literally as if by a reporter breathlessly describing the launch of a space vehicle from Cape Canaveral, “We have lift-off.”

Was it an accident of history or a powerfully symbolic un-derscoring of the relevance of this teaching that Pope Pius XII proclaimed it in 1950 at the very heart of the tumultu-

ous twentieth century? Graham Greene drew on his novelist’s sensitivity to symbol in an essay in then newsstand dominant LIFE magazine. After two World Wars and the Holocaust, among other horrors of the first half of the century, the pope was responding to the world wide need for a reaffirmation of the dignity of the human body and the sacredness of human personality. Greene understood that the real meaning of the Assumption was found not in tightly bound literalism but in the overflow of a Mystery that, as a mother would have it, concerned us as much as her.

While some Protestants pulled back from the declaration as hardly conducive to ecumenical relations, the Swiss psycholo-gist Carl Jung considered it the most important religious dec-laration of the twentieth century. As a master of the myth-ological river that nourished what he termed our “collective unconscious,” Jung grasped the profound and fitting symbol-ism of such a declaration at mid-century.

The world had already turned its attention toward the endless vistas and wonder of space and astronauts would leave boot marks on the moon’s surface a generation later. The Swiss scholar sensed that the Assumption symbolized the mystery of human destiny and the end of the pre-Copernican era at the same time. The Assumption was a mythological and therefore a spiritual symbol of a Mystery in which we are still caught up. There was another numinous layer beyond the celebration of Mary and the confirmation of human dignity.

The Assumption proclaimed the Mystery of the century, the return of Mother Earth to the Heavens and the end, therefore, of the split between Earth and Heaven and all the divisions, such as between flesh and spirit, that flowed from that. It her-alded the unity of the universe and the unity of human per-sonality. That is the richest and perhaps least plumbed aspect of this feast. The wonder is that the Assumption is rich and deep enough a Mystery to accommodate these various levels of understanding all at the same time. Midsummer allows us to savor its Mystery in many ways and to understand how much we lose when we limit our religious understanding only to the concrete literal level.

~Eugene Cullen Kennedy is emeritus professor of psychology at Loyola University, Chicago.

WHAT ARE WE TO ASSUME ABOUT THE ASSUMPTION?

By EUGENE CULLEN KENNEDY

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SAINT CECILIA PARISH

Parish Office & Mailing Address18 Belvidere Street, Boston, MA 02115Hours | Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.Phone | 617 536 4548Fax | 617 536 1781E-mail | [email protected] | www.stceciliaboston.org

Parish StaffRev. John J. Unni, PastorMary Kaye, Pastoral Director of Operations,[email protected] Melaugh, Finance Director,[email protected] Donohoe, Pastoral Associate,[email protected] J. MacDonald, Director of Faith Formation and Parish Visibility, [email protected] Glynn, Director of College and Youth Ministry, [email protected],Jeanne Bruno, Chaplain, Pastoral Associate, Coordinator of Pastoral Outreach,[email protected] Duff, Director of Music, [email protected] Pickering, Events and Facilities Manager, [email protected] Bennett, Communications and Operations Coordinator,[email protected]

Assisting ClergyRev. Peter Grover, OMVRev. Peter Gyves, SJRev. James Shaughnessy, SJ

Schedule for LiturgyWednesday, Thursday, & Friday | 8:00 a.m.Lord’s Day | Sat 5:00 p.m.; Sun 8:00, 9:30, and 11:15 a.m.Holy Days | 8:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

ReconciliationThe sacrament of reconciliation is available by appointment. Please call the Parish Office.

Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA)The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the communal process through which non-baptized men and women become members of the Catholic Church. It is also suitable for those baptized in different faith traditions who are interested in becoming Catholic, or, for those who were baptized Catholic, but have yet to receive the sacraments of Eucharist and confirmation.

Baptism for InfantsInfant baptism is celebrated on the first Sunday of the month. For more information, please contact Mark Donohoe in the Parish Office.

Faith Formation for ChildrenTo register your child for our Faith Formation Program, please contact Scott MacDonald in the Parish Office.

MarriageCouples who wish to prepare for marriage should contact Mark Donohoe in the Parish Office at least six months in advance.

Care of the SickTo arrange for the Sacrament of the Sick, for Holy Communion to be brought to those unable to attend the Sunday celebration, or for Viaticum for the Dying (Holy Communion for those in danger of death), please contact the Parish Office. It is always possible to anoint the sick during regularly scheduled liturgies.

Order of Christian FuneralsThe parish is prepared to celebrate the Vigil (wake) in the church. Please contact the Parish Office for more information.

Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) TeamThe CAP Team is responsible for training all parish staff and volunteers in mandated reporting laws and the Protecting God’s Children program (VIRTUS). They also provide consultation and support to anyone in the parish who has concerns about reporting child abuse and neglect. Please contact Lois Flaherty ([email protected]), Maria Roche ([email protected]), Letitia Howland ([email protected]), or Erin Young ([email protected]) if you have any questions or concerns.

The Archdiocese of Boston has in place a vigorous program to protect children from harm and to educate its ministers and faithful about the nature of abuse, with a goal of increasing knowledge, creating a safe environment for children, and recognizing and reporting potentially dangerous situations. The full text of the policy is also available in the narthex and Parish Office, as well as on our website.

For Those with Celiac DiseaseIf you have celiac disease, please let us know. We have a supply of low-gluten altar bread available for those who cannot tolerate gluten.

Hearing Assistance in ChurchThe church is equipped with an FM listening device. Small receivers are available for anyone who may have trouble hearing the sound system. Simply request a receiver from any one of our greeters before Mass.

Access for the DisabledBoth the church and Parish Pastoral Center are accessible by elevator.

ParkingThere is reduced rate parking for $11.00 at the Hynes Auditorium Garage located on Dalton Street on Sundays until 3:00 p.m. and every evening after 4:00 p.m. Please be sure to ask one of our greeters for a parking validation ticket before leaving the church. There is also reduced rate parking on Sundays only at the Prudential Center South Garage (enter at Huntington Avenue or Dalton Street); up to 4 hours: $14.00, up to 5 hours: $20.00.

Joining Our CommunityWe’re happy that you’re with us! Our community offers a warm, spiritu-al home for a diverse group of Catholics. We come from many neighbor-hoods in and around Boston but also have parishioners from as far afield as Marlborough, Newburyport, and Stow. Please introduce yourself to a staff member, drop in for coffee on Sunday, or fill out a new parishioner form in the narthex.. No matter what your background, please know that you are always welcome at Saint Cecilia.

PARISH RESOURCES

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