August 2004
August 29,2004
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the weekend of March 6/7, 1994 I preached my first homily at Our Lady Parish. In that homily I mentioned something that I told you I would mention again at the last Mass I celebrated at OLHC. Do you remember what I said? (The answer will be revealed later in this letter!)
This may be the “summer of our discontent” but it has also been
a busy summer for many parishioners and I will be always grateful for their
generous dedication.
•I’m grateful to the Transition Team members from both parishes
who have been meeting weekly all summer. Their task is not an easy one, much
less a pleasant summertime activity.
•I’m grateful to the Finance Councils of our two parishes who
are working double duty in preparing to make a recommendation for finances
for the new (still-yet-to-be-named!) parish in our town.
•I’m grateful to the Events Committee folks who have begun planning events to mark the closing of our parish - another difficult and sensitive task but a critical one as we face the next two months.
•I’m grateful to the team who have worked all summer to prepare for our Vacation Bible School which begins this Monday morning. The environs of OLHC will be dressed as Lava Lava Island - watch out for the volcano!
•I’m grateful to those who volunteered to prepare our post-10:30 Mass coffee-and-donuts, providing some much needed time for fellowship - and tasty treats, too.
•And I’m grateful to our parish staff who have the triple duty of working with the Transition Team, preparing for the closing of the parish, and planning ahead for the inauguration of Generations of Faith in the new parish.
Next week I hope that we will include in our bulletin a calendar for the next two months, culminating in the liturgies of the final weekend on October 23 and 24. Anticipating that many may have a desire to attend “the last Mass” at OLHC at 11:30 on October 24, I ask you to seriously consider attending Mass on that weekend at the time you usually come. Our plan is for each liturgy on that weekend to equal the others in beauty and solemnity. Our music ministers are prepared to offer their services at all four Masses on these two days. If everyone plans to come to the 11:30, the crowds will make our Christmas Eve crunch look roomy! Less important than everyone being at the 11:30 on that Sunday is for everyone to have an opportunity that weekend to worship as prayerfully, reverently and comfortably as possible. Your planning to come at your “usual” Mass time will be a gift to all our other parishioners.
In my first homily at OLHC I reminded everyone of how a priest kisses the
altar at the beginning and end of every celebration of Mass. I mentioned that
in my ministry I had served at altars at St. Ann Church in Wollaston; at the
Morrissey Manor Chapel at Notre Dame; at St. Ann University Parish in Boston;
and at St. Joseph Parish in Medway. I told you how often those altars flash
through my mind and heart as I kiss the altar at Mass and that when I left
Our Lady Parish, its altar would be added to my heart’s list. I’ll
be bidding farewell to our altar two years earlier than I had anticipated
and I invite you to join me in kissing it. We will have a small ramp to accommodate
everyone’s passage up the step to the sanctuary. At each
Mass on our last weekend, everyone will be invited to come forward and to
kiss our altar goodbye as we process out of our beloved church. In next week’s
bulletin we will give you a calendar of other moments to mark the closing
of our parish and opportunities to lift up the prayer and ritual of our tradition
as we do so.
Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming
August 20, 2004
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Where shall I begin? My vacation! It was a good vacation, even if I did spend a little too much time on line “taking care of business” back here at the ranch. It was a peaceful joy to crash at my sister and brother-in-law’s beautiful home and to enjoy their company and hospitality - and my sister’s gentle nagging to get off my lap top and relax! From Castle Rock, CO I flew to Hollywood for the Form/Reform Conference on liturgy, art and architecture. GREAT conference! Ran into a couple who are friends of mine from my campus ministry days and who I haven’t seen for 15 years: wonderful renewal of our friendship and time to catch up on each others’ lives. Part of the reason for the conference being held in Los Angeles was to include the new LA cathedral as part of the seminar’s material. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels looks NOTHING like a cathedral from the outside and on the inside it looks like NO other cathedral you’ve ever seen. I loved it! Why? Because it does exactly what a cathedral is supposed to do: it provides a place for diverse peoples to worship in large numbers (it seats 3,000 people) and soars up as a might house of God’s people at prayer. Along the walls are tapestries depicting the Communion of Saints: 138 saints “in procession” towards the altar, joining the people who make their way to receive the eucharist. I was fortunate enough to experience Sunday morning worship at the cathedral with about 2,000 other people. If you haven’t been to Mass in this church, then you have no idea of the service this building can offer and the praise it can be for God! The floor plan of the cathedral was designed to enable a timely distribution of communion. On the Sunday morning I was there about 2,000 people received communion under both kinds (28 cup ministers!) in 13 minutes. The Cathedral complex includes a huge plaza with a font, a waterfall, a restaurant for hungry pilgrims, a gift shop, the Cathedral rectory, an outreach center for the poor and a conference center! If you have any reason to be in LA - be sure to visit Our Lady of the Angels!
And now I’m home again. Coming home has been a little difficult. I realize that I had achieved a certain momentum since the announcement of May 25 and my vacation, even with its online work, slowed me down enough that I lost some of that momentum - and it’s not easy getting it back. I think you know what I mean. Many of us have experienced that loss of momentum in our spiritual lives since we found out that our parish will be closed. Individually and collectively we need the Spirit’s energy to keep us alive.
Last week we convened our “Events Committee” - a group who have volunteered to plan and execute events to mark the closing of our parish. We have many fine ideas - more than there are days between now and October 25th! At our next meeting we hope to begin to sketch out a calendar of our plans so that we can help you plan to join us in prayer, ritual, and remembrance.
This past week the joint Finance Councils of OLHC and StB parishes met and
voted to ask the
Archbishop to allow the new parish in Concord to retain St. Bernard Cemetery
as a parish ministry. I’m grateful to those on the joint FinComs who
provided us with a century model to play out the fiscal future of the cemetery.
This weekend the Transition Team is sending Archbishop O’Malley a profile
of the kind of pastor they hope to have appointed to the new parish The Team
is confident that you will agree with its hope that the new pastor should
be:
- a man of prayer, attentive to the spiritual needs of the whole parish community
- prepared in his preaching, reverent in presiding, and supportive of the
various liturgical ministries
- committed to the renewal begun with Vatican Council II
- committed to collaboration, especially with the Parish Staff, Parish Pastoral
and Finance Councils,
and the various ministries, commission and committees
- committed to Generations of Faith as the parish model for religious education
- committed to uniting the people of our two parishes into one family of faith,
prayer and mission
- committed to outreach to all, especially to serving the poor and welcoming
the marginalized.
Labor Day is around the corner and soon we’ll be joined again by those who have been away on vacation. These next two months will be difficult but I trust that we will celebrate them with faith, reverence and beauty - just as we have always celebrated the Lord’s mystery among us. Please pray for me - I need that. And be assured that I am praying for you.
This past Monday a piece of the ceiling fell in the church. A structural engineer examined the situation for safety reasons and brought in a contractor who hammered the ceiling to see what else might be ready to fall: you can now see the results of his work! Our custodian and a professional cleaning crew of 7 spent Friday cleaning up plaster dust from EVERYWHERE. The failing ceiling is not the result of recent rains - the roof is intact. The engineer told us that this has been in the making for years. Great timing, eh? I will leave the question of whether or not to replaster to the archdiocese.
Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming
August 6, 2004
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As you know, I'm on vacation for 11 days and I am out of state. Still, I've been able to keep in touch with things parochial and Concordian through email.
A recent article in the Concord Journal (for which I was not interviewed) advances a number of opinions regarding the disposition of church properties upon the closing of Our Lady Help of Christians and St. Bernard Parishes. All comers, of course, are entitled to their opinions and best guesses about what the disposition of these properties will be and yield. I certainly understand the desire to have more information and as soon as I have it, I will share it with you. In the meantime, please know that:
1) Our Transition Team, composed of representatives from both Catholic Concord parishes, will be making a recommendation to the archdiocese regards the disposition of the several properties our parishes encompass. This recommendation has not yet been written or submitted. Our target date for submitting such recommendations is September 1. We will submit a recommendation - Archbishop O'Malley will make the final decisions. The Transition Team has no authority to negotiate with the Town of Concord.
2) Because I am taking 11 days off, I will be unable to attend the Town hearing on this issue this coming week. My absence at the hearing is entirely due to my being out of state and should not be read in any other way. Were I in Concord this week, I would certainly be at the hearing, primarily to assert that I have no information upon which to base predictions regarding the disposition of our parish properties.
3) I am grateful to the members of our Transition Team who are giving so generously of their time and effort this summer to make this process as helpful, as healing and as peaceful as possible.
Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming
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