Photos from the Vigil
Outside during the Service of Light
Inside the candlelit church
Some of the catechumens
Tom and Jackson
Pants aflame!
It seems that without meaning to, I have lied about posting pics from the Vigil. I had the best of intentions but time has once again slipped away from me. I shall endeavor to rectify this tomorrow.
Today I got up rather early to go open the gates at Central Catholic for overflow parking. I then attended the 8:00 Mass. There were tons of people there today. Nice to have the church full at an English Mass for a change. Afterwards, I went by the downtown church to speak with the music group. I asked about joining them and it looks like I’ll start doing so next weekend.
The rest of the day was pretty much working on Haelindir, my hunter. I’m trying to level him up to the mid 50s range so I can use him for my Monday night sessions. I still have 20 levels to go. 🙁
Holy Saturday
I went to the Easter Vigil tonight. I’m hoping I’m just biased, but music just seems so mediocre at the church. But that’s better than being awful. One thing that was good about the music was the selection of songs. Of course, they’re essentially the same songs that I started the parish using two years ago. 🙂 I did one of the readings and took some photos. I’ll post a few of them tomorrow.
My feet are quite tired from all the standing I did.
All weekend in a post
Above all I wish to state that my suffering has begun. It is officially too warm for me. Rule of thumb: If you have to run the A/C to be comfortable, it’s too warm.
Here’s a recap of the past several days.
Thursday I went up to Stockton for the Chrism Mass. Music was ok, I got a couple of decent photos, and dinner was excellent!
Friday I got off work at noon then went for my walk/jog/run. When I finished that, I came home and fell asleep for a couple of hours. In the evening I went to the fish fry at the parish. I think it was even more successful than the one we did earlier this season.
Saturday I went out in the afternoon to the Modesto Earth Day celebration at Graceada Park. Sadly, it was pretty boring. Oh well. After that I went to Mass where I served as Commentator. This being Passion Sunday, the Gospel was quite long. I took the part of the narrator in the reader’s theatre style proclamation. Still later in the evening, I stayed up much too late watching TV. Merlin and Walking Dead.
Today, Sunday, I got up earlyish to go down to the church and open the gates to Central Catholic and post signs indicating that there was overflow parking available. I was quite proud of myself for getting it all done. But when I went back this evening to lock up, someone had already closed the main gate. So for all I know, people went looking for parking only to find a locked gate. Annoying.
After opening up, I went to MJC to do my walk/jog/run on the track. I actually felt quite good after this session! I can tell that the workout is getting a little easier. That’s encouraging! Another nap (geez I’m getting old) and this evening I went out to the Clarion for the belly dancing thing. I took a few photos but I haven’t processed them yet. We’ll see if they’re any good.
Ok. There you go. Now you’re up to date.
More photos
Here are some photos from the Chrism Mass last night.
The view of the cathedral from my vantage point in the choir loft.
Just prior to the beginning of Mass.
The bishop
During the Eucharistic Prayer
The St. Stanislaus delegation
Some photos
I’ve been a bit behind on my photo taking and posting.
Here are a few recent shots.
Fr. Ramon on the First Sunday of Lent
Mary at work
Michelle and her 10,000 watt smile
Bam ba Lam, cool in the shade
Rose & the Bag Man
Woah, we’re halfway there
Today was a pretty good day. I knocked out the minutes from yesterday’s meeting in no time. Surprised myself with that. I was able to obtain some pedometers from the District Benefits Office. Score! I went with Vangie to Central Catholic to get some keys to open gates for the next two weekends. I did a crazy fast couple of laps around the campus with Vee during the afternoon wellness break. And after work, I started week 2 of my 5K training. All good. Following that, I came home to quickly take a shower, cook some dinner, then rush back out to the parish for the Penance Service which. took. for. ever. I was tasked with being an usher so I was on my feet for over two more hours. I’m tired.
Strategic planning
I’ve mentioned before that we are working on updating the Strategic Plan at the parish. I am leading a sub-committee to look at the goals for Vision 7 – Enhance the liturgical experience to foster full, conscious, and active participation by all parishioners.
Here’s what we have so far.
| Goal | Tasks/Strategies | Responsible Party | Completion Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Provide resources full and active liturgy participation | |||
| B. Appoint a Liturgical Committee | 1. Identify membership | 1. This subcommittee & Fr. Ramon | 1. May 1, 2011 |
| 2. Define responsibilities | 2. Deacon Jose & Fr. Ramon | 2. July 1, 2011 | |
| 3. Provide formation & training | 3. Deacon Jose | 3. August 1, 2011 | |
| C. Hold weekly Clergy meetings to unify the Gospel message for the weekend. | 1. Look into & make recommendation about subscribing to Homily resources | 1. Fr. Ramon & Deacon Jose | 1. July 1, 2011 |
| (This item needs more clarification) | |||
| D. Resume a Task Force for a unified Music Ministry with one leader reporting to the Liturgical Committee. | 1. Define charge/responsibilities | 1. Vangie Snuffer & Fr. Ramon | 1. May 15, 2011 |
| 2. Identify membership | 2. Vangie Snuffer & Fr. Ramon | 2. June 1, 2011 | |
| E. Ensure that the Parish norms are consistently followed at all parish liturgies. | 1. Revise and update the Parish Norms | 1. Original committee that initially developed norms. | 1. August 1, 2011 |
| 2. Incorporate Norms into formation/training program | 2. Liturgy Committee | 2. Easter 2012 | |
| F. Provide cantors for each Mass. | (This item needs more clarification) | Easter 2012 | |
| Regularly incorporate Liturgical Catechesis into Sunday Liturgies. | 1. Create (initial) list of topics (Roman Missal) | 1. Hallie Van Deventer | 1. 2nd Sunday of Easter, 2011 |
| 2. Develop ongoing schedule | 2. Liturgy Committee | 2. Advent 2011 | |
| Establish a sustainable formation & training program for all ministers. | 1. Develop a Commitment Form | 1. Mercedes Aviles & Jim Kluesner | 1. June 1, 2011 |
| 2. Develop schedule of trainings/formation topics | 2. This subcommittee (duties to be taken over by Liturgy Committee) | 2. June 1, 2011 | |
| 3. Begin trainings | 3. | 3. July 1, 2011 | |
Interactive Whiteboards by PolyVision
Comments? Suggestions? Complaints?
Choir practice
Went to Choir Practice at Our Lady of Fatima tonight. The rehearsal was for the Mass of the Oils on Thursday. The music is mostly the same as the past several years; functional, pretty (maybe), but not terribly fun. Rehearsal was… difficult. Most of the choir was from OLF as was the director. But there were several of us from other parishes too. So we had a combination of over-familiarity on the part of the OLF folks, and under-familiarity for the rest of us. Add to it that another music director from another parish was there, and he had trouble not directing. And the organist must be new because he had a lot of trouble following the director. Just ugh.
Oh well, Mass is on Thursday and then it will all be over.
I love it when a plan comes together
I had intended to get up in time for the 8:00 Mass, but when my alarm went off at 7, I was not at all ready to get up. I ended up sleeping for an additional 90 minutes and decided to go to noon. This gave me time to make breakfast before heading out. Mass was barely tolerable. The music was really bad. They even managed to take a beautiful song that I love (You Are Mine) and make me wish it would stop! The piano was fine of course, and Danny on viola sounded good as usual. I’ll even grant that John sounded good singing. But everything was mic’d such that all the bad parts got equal volume. There was at least one if not more than one string instrument that was way off and the singing was so atonal. Even the guitar was doing some really funky stuff that just didn’t go. I should just look on this as part of my Lenten sacrifice. It was painful.
Afterwards, I went to get some fro-yo. I selected Alpine Vanilla and I added mango, strawberry, blackberry, pineapple, and granola. Twas yum!
I snuck in a nap. Not because I was especially tired, but because I was procrastinating going for my run/jog/walk. Ultimately, I did go out and do 3 miles alternating walking and jogging according to my 5K training plan. Toward the end of the jogging, I was getting pooped. It eased up just in time.
And good news! I found online that there is going to be a Modesto 5K run on May 28th. This is actually 9 days before the end of my training period, but close enough. So I’ll be signing up to run. w00t!
Dinner was a steak with rice and green beans. And I finished up the evening with a few hours of LOTRO (some festival stuff and book work with Aluatis, my captain), and some television (Survivor and Merlin).
Now to bed.
