Happy Holy Octave
- Written by randyfronek
Happy Holy Octave!!!
You now possess a beautiful, modern rendition of the Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. This Icon has not been blessed yet. Please bring your Icon to Mass with you on the weekend of June 26th and 27th, and during the course of the Solemn Mass, on the last and greatest day of our Holy Octave, your Icon will be blessed; and then you can enthrone our Lady in a place of honor in your home. The Tradition of the World’s most famous Icon is that whomever the Icon sees, our Lady will ask her Son, Jesus, to give that person a blessing! What could be better for your family members and any visitors to your home than to be blessed by our Lord, Jesus Christ?
We have been praying throughout the Pandemic to Our Lady Most Admirable – that the Blessed Mother would protect our Faith and never allow us to lose sight of the invisible presence, the invisible life, the invisible action, or the invisible love that her Son, Jesus, has for us. As the Governor has moved Illinois into Phase 5, our Churches may now celebrate Mass at 100% seating capacity, and fully vaccinated parishioners no longer need to wear a mask or social distance. Because of this Bishop Malloy will be lifting the dispensation on July 1st; thus, restoring the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. In order to properly thank our Lady for all her protection and the help she has extended to all of us – we have christened the days from the 20th of June through June 27th (the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help) as our Holy Octave. I encourage everyone to come pray three solemn Masses with your priest to show our gratitude to God.
The first solemn Mass will be on the 19th – Father’s Day weekend – and not only will we work a plenary indulgence as a community for our dearly departed fathers, grandfathers, and godfathers; but also, all men and boys will receive a blessed sacramental tool kit.
The second solemn Mass will find us celebrating the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. A Vigil Mass at 7:00 pm in Sublette will provide us with a blessed brazier that we might go home and start our own St. John’s fire in our backyard. Won’t God the Father be surprised that the people of Sublette, West Brooklyn, and Maytown have resurrected this age-old tradition of bonfires to mark the birth of the last Prophet of His Son, the Light of the World?!
Our third solemn Mass will coincide with Our Lady of Perpetual Help’s Feast Day, and what a special treat for all of us to have a replica of the most miraculous Icon in Christendom enthroned in our homes!
I would love to see all of you again celebrating the Mass at your favorite Catholic Church, so please come out for the uniqueness of this once in a lifetime Holy Octave! Bishop Malloy is very sensitive to those of you, who have not been vaccinated or who remain fearful or medically vulnerable to the effects of the virus. So, if your conscience, so moves you, and you feel uncomfortable attending Mass, I will continue to film the Mass and upload it to our website (www.olphmarystpatrick.com) that you might continue to virtually make Sunday a Holy Day. Of course, those who are sick and or very elderly, may continue to make a Spiritual Communion, and I would encourage you to set-up an appointment with me to hear your Confession, so you can still make many plenary indulgences during this year of St. Joseph.
If you are returning to the celebration of Mass, you will find some changes – such as – there is no sign of peace, but the biggest change will be the prayers that we have added to the Mass. You will find a double sided “Prayer Sheet” in this mailer, which has our prayer before Mass to Our Lady Most Admirable, our Spiritual Communion prayer, Prayer of Thanksgiving, and the lyrics to the St. Joseph song that we sing as our recessional song. Please bring this “Prayer Sheet” with you to Mass, and if you have yet to receive your own Lectionary (a hardbound book that contains all the Sunday and Holy Day readings for the complete 3-year cycle), please come to the sacristy after Mass and I will be happy to provide you with your own personal copy.
I could think of no greater way to invite you back to the celebration of your Catholic Faith than to invoke this Holy Octave and ask St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help to pray for our three parishes. Remember I said way back at the beginning of the Pandemic – that this time of great testing was going to see you actually grow stronger in your Catholic Faith, because only God can bring good (your love for His Son in the Holy Eucharist and your love for others by making Spiritual Communions and working plenary indulgences for them) out of an evil (the Pandemic). May we come together as a Parish Community during this Holy Octave to worship God full-throatedly.
Yours on the Path
Fr. Randy Fronek
