Search
Advent Newsletter
-
by Beth Craig, Coordinator for Sacraments & LiturgyWe recently were blessed with a pastoral letter on beauty from Fr. Haan that helped all of us to engage our senses and see how we can better appreciate the beauty of the Mass and sacred art in our lives.
One of the best parts of my job here at St Louis de Montfort is creating an environment of beauty which includes a great deal of behind the scenes work and tasks. I recall the work that we did last year when the 4th Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve fell on the same day and we had just a few hours to transform the church for Christmas. I reflect on the beauty of Holy Week and the hours that are spent setting up for Holy Thursday, just to take it all down the next day to prepare for Good Friday. Both of these experiences, and many more, are gentle reminders on how we can participate in the beauty of the Church.
In our Catholic faith we are so fortunate to experience the variety of liturgical seasons and feasts where we elevate the environment in our space to help others better encounter Jesus and the Mass. With all of this important work, many volunteers are needed and I would like to humbly invite you to participate. You will find two sign up links below that will direct you to sign ups with many different kinds of opportunities to assist. I encourage you to take a small step out of your comfort zone and maybe help with something that you have not done before.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions ([email protected]).
Wishing you and your family a Blessed Advent Season!
-
-
A Journey to See BeautyBy Deacon Brian Freyberger, Director of Evangelization
I grew up in the 70s and 80s at a time when our Church was still figuring out what to make of Vatican II. At my home parish and school, I experienced much that formed my faith. Religious sisters as my teachers, religion classes weekly, Sacramental preparation and Mass each day to start the school day. My First Communion was celebrated in the ‘new church’ designed with more modern architecture (the previous church became our gym where my basketball career started… and ended). Over the years, I learned guitar and strummed along to accompany at Mass on Sundays and even broke out a trumpet for Christmas and Easter Masses along with my brother, who played guitar and trombone. It was a family affair.
This was my experience of the Mass and Catholicism, and it was familiar to me. I was comfortable and some of those elements still bring back strong emotions for me. As I moved around to college and then living in multiple cities early in my career, I found similar elements of modern architecture and music at the churches we attended. Most of these parishes were also established in the last 100 years, so I didn’t really experience older structures or the rich treasury of Catholic hymns. The other Catholic Church in town, St. Joseph’s, was built by German migrants, but we rarely traveled the 10 minutes to experience Mass there.
It was about 8 years ago on a trip to Italy where I would say I first really
experienced different architecture, and I was struck by the beauty of the Church buildings. Walking into the Duomo in Florence after visiting a separate building with their baptistry. The imagery on the ceiling looking down on the baptismal font tells a story about Baptism and the Communion of Saints and raised my eyes to heaven. The statues and magnitude of the structure was intense. Entering through the Doors of St. Peter’s Basilica during the year of mercy and seeing the Pieta, then praying a rosary with my family in the most amazing adoration chapel I’ve ever seen. Wandering through The Sistine Chapel, the other Basilicas and so many beautiful church buildings.
My brain was shocked at the beauty, my eyes were raised to heaven. While I couldn’t explain the architecture or the style, I was moved and it was clear to me there are so many ways God wants to draw my attention to Him, to Beauty Himself. He uses created beauty to do this along with the natural beauty all around us. When I open my eyes and mind to this, my heart is stirred, and I experience God.
Now, I would say that I am still on a massive journey to appreciate this beauty in our church. It is something I am eager to continue to develop. I can also honestly say that I still have an emotional connection to some of the songs I grew up with. They were the initial formation for me in my faith and God used those experiences to keep my coming back for more in college and my early career when most of my friends were drifting away. But my experiences over the past 5-10 years during diaconate formation and as I’ve accompanied our middle schoolers to visit churches in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis or experienced the National Eucharistic Congress, I am encouraged to be more open to the ways God is present in beauty.
No matter what your background of faith has been, I pray that all of us can open our minds to the beauty that is in our lives and how this points us to the Creator of beauty. As Christopher West stated in the book, Eating the Sunrise: “Follow me,” Jesus is saying, “and I will make the invisible visible. Follow me and I will open your eyes to all the beauty within you and around you – and even more, to all the Beauty behind all that beauty.”
This advent, our team would like to present a few activities you can do with your family, by yourself or with friends to open your eyes and minds to this beauty.- A weekly Visio Divina exercise utilizing an image, scripture and songs to reflect on asking God what He has in store for you.
- A musical guide to our Advent experiences at Mass. This includes links to some recordings you can listen to prior to the weekend.
- An Advent Adoration and Sung Vespers where Fr. Elliot Zak will present on the Immaculate Conception…
- Our 3rdRorate Caeli Mass, a unique Mass experience celebrated totally in candlelight and prayed in Latin.
I invite you this Advent to enter into some of these opportunities to see the beauty of our faith, to see Beauty Himself.
Introducing Two New Hymnals at SLDM
As we enter into this new liturgical year, you will find two new hymnals in our pews: the St. Michael Hymnal and the Queen of Heaven Hymnal. After months of planning, researching, preparing, and designing, it is a great joy to announce that these two wonderful hymnals are finally in our pews here at SLDM! As mentioned by Fr. Haan in his Pastoral Letter on Beauty, when evaluating a song for its suitability for Mass, it is important to look at 3 main criteria: 1. Theological Soundness, 2. Accessibility, and 3. Beauty for the Mass. All of the songs included in both the St. Michael Hymnal and the Queen of Heaven Hymnal definitely meet those criteria. What a treasury of sacred music we have available to us!
About the St. Michael Hymnal:
The St. Michael Hymnal is published and printed in our very own Diocese through St. Boniface Catholic Church in Lafayette. The hymnal is full of beautiful sacred hymns, antiphon settings, and chants of the Church. There will be songs in the St. Michael Hymnal that will likely be familiar as well as songs that are brand new (to me, too!), and I look forward to learning these hymns with you over the years here at SLDM! You can learn more about our new hymnal by visiting the St. Michael Hymnal website: www.stmichaelhymnal.com
About the Queen of Heaven Hymnal:
The Queen of Heaven Hymnal was compiled by myself and staff here at SLDM. Remember all of the colored paper booklets that have been in the pews over the past few years? This hymnal has taken all of those printed booklets and combined it into one beautiful book! It includes a section of Antiphons (including the Communion Antiphons that we have been singing), a section of hymns, and a section of prayers. This hymnal will also contain familiar songs that may not be included in the St. Michael Hymnal, as well as brand new hymns including two songs in honor of our patron, St. Louis de Montfort! And, since St. Louis de Montfort had such a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, we thought that “Queen of Heaven Hymnal” was a great choice for us here at SLDM. This hymnal is truly a labor of love (especially by my assistant, Sarah May – thank you!) and we are thrilled to have it in our pews!
If you have any questions regarding our new hymnals or if you have interest in joining us in music ministry, please feel free to reach out to me! ([email protected])
Come spend time together for a holy hour in the presence of Jesus.
This is a regular hour on the first Friday of each month - A devotion to help us recognize the Eucharist as the “Source and Summit of the Christian life.”
Join us!
Join us for a beautiful, early morning Mass by candlelight in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mass will be said in Latin in the Ordinary Form. Worship aids will be available. Music will be led by the SLDM Schola Cantorum . This is a wonderful Advent tradition for the whole family to attend!
Join our parish community this advent for an evening of prayer and adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament, a reflection by Fr. Elliot Zak, Associate Pastor of Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church in Carmel, and sung vespers with the SLDM Music Ministry.Flow of the Night:- Eucharistic Exposition and Adoration
- Reflection on Mary by Fr. Elliot Zak
- Sung Vespers (Evening Prayer)
- Silent Personal Reflection
- Benediction
-
