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Welcome to www.mayjesuschristbepraised.com. This webstite is my humble attempt to answer the call of Pope Benedict XVI to use the internet to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This website is always awork in progress so check back often to see what I have to offer.

My Mass schedule may change without warning because I may need to switch with one of my brother priests for one reason or another.

AUGUST
August 1	Helping with a retreat
August 8	10AM
August 15	11:30AM
August 22	Girl Scout Retreat
August 29	8:30AM

August 1, 2010

New Spiritual Pondering

New Catholic Trivia

Redesigned the "Formal Prayer" Section & the "Prayers from the Heart" Section

Updated "Calendar" Section

July 25, 2010

New Spiritual Pondering

New St. Mark's Servers' Manual in the "Ministry" Section

Round 4 Questions August 2010
Number	Question
1	What is the name of the place where the Blessed Sacrament is stored in between Masses?
2	What feast day is August 15th?
3	Which King Louis of France was the saint?
4	Who was the pope that started the Second Vatican Council?
5	Which saint was the first to found a monastic order with a written rule of life?
6	Which received his call through a talking crucifix?
7	Which Saint wrote the Eucharistic Adoration Song "Tantum Ergo"?
8	Which saint warded off enemy invaders by showing them the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance?
9	Which saint is the patron saint of music?
10	What is the name of the special linen place mat at Mass?

Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius
August 1, 2010
Spiritual Pondering
Church Tourism

For the month of August, I thought I might do something a little different. I was inspired by two separate events. The first was our parish servers’ picnic. Each year we host an event to thank all the boys and girls who minister at our parish as altar servers. Before we get to the fun part of the day though we begin with a little refresher on some of the finer points of serving and in order to facilitate this part of the day I created a server’s manual and in order to create our server’s manual I created some pictures using PowerPoint and clip art.

The second event that inspired this month’s Spiritual Ponderings was my trip to the Grand Canyon with my mother and sister. Instead of going directly to the Grand Canyon we went to Williams, Arizona and got on the Grand Canyon Railroad. I have always loved trains and this was the perfect opportunity to catch up with my mom and sister as we rode to the train to the Grand Canyon. Each car of the train had an attendant who also acted as a tour guide. I was really impressed with the knowledge that the attendant had about the region. She was able to point out some very interesting things about the vegetation and the local history that I would have missed.

And as I began to think about what it was that I wanted to write about this month, the idea came to me to combine both experiences in an effort to give everyone a better understanding of our faith especially the Mass. So attached is my first map which is a view of the top of the altar at Mass.

In a future spiritual pondering, I will talk more about the altar so right now I want to begin our tour today by focusing on the large white clothe at the back (our side closes to the priest) and centered with a large red cross on it. This white cloth is called the corporal and acts sort of like a place mat at Mass. The word corporal comes from the Latin word “corpus” which means body. The corporal has two primary purposes. The first is that it is used to define the space. What do I mean by that? By laying out the cloth the altar now has a special place on it for the Mass. The second purpose is to catch any crumbs from the bread or the Blessed Sacrament. As Catholics we believe that even the smallest crumb contains the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ and that the Eucharist is a priceless treasure/gift from God and therefore demands respect and reverence. When handling the corporal servers (and others) should be respectful and deliberate and not carelessly lift it up or swing it around for fear of losing any of the Blessed Sacrament. In fact the smaller thin black lines represent folds (creases) which allow the corporal to be folded in a way that traps any particles into the center of the corporal. Many parishes use a second corporal on the altar (pictured here in the top right hand corner) to place the extra chalices (communion cups) on it.

In the center of the corporal is the paten and chalice. The paten is the small plate or bowl in which the hosts (the bread which becomes the Body of Christ) is held in during the liturgy. If the plate or bowl has a lid for it then it is called a ciborium. Why I do not know? It is also important to note that some ciborium’s look like chalices except that they have lids that can be place on top and are used for the Consecrated hosts and not the Precious Blood. The chalice is a special cup made of metal used to consecrate the wine into the Precious Blood. While Jesus probably did not have a gold cup at the Last Supper (which is something I actually learned by watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) we use gold and silver to remind us of what is truly inside the paten and chalice. We human beings are visual and so the use of these special vessels helps remind us consciously and subconsciously is precious. Because of the size of the crowds at Mass we normally have more than one chalice on the altar. These extra chalices are often referred to as communion cups and are not as ornate as the main chalice the priest’s uses. The reason for this is because the Church wants us to focus on the fact that there is one Lord and one cup of blessing but because of so many people the Church wishing to be practical uses communion cups. There is no qualitative difference between the Precious Blood in the priest’s chalice and the communion cups.

I do not want to fail to point out a little bit about the symbolism of the bread and wine used at Mass. Think about how all the individual grains of wheat must die to themselves and become one bread (the use of one large host and many small hosts is a practical choice by the Church for the Church hopes that we see all the bread as one loaf) and think about the grapes are crushed in order to become wine. These are excellent symbols for our faith lives as we die to ourselves in order to become the Body of Christ. The bread and wine also symbolize for us whatever it is that we are offering to God at this Mass.

The other clothes that can be found on the altar other than the corporal are small white clothes called purificators. The purificators are like special linen napkins. We use purificators and not normal napkins to once again show us how special the Body and Blood of Christ are.

The big red book on the altar is called the Sacramentary and contains the prayers that the priest says at Mass. I believe this is important because our liturgy has a history to it and the priest is not simply up there making up the words as he goes along.

The last thing on our map is our candles. I like to think of candles like sirens or flashing lights in that they are meant to draw our attention to whatever they are on top of or in front of. Candles are a great simple way for the Church to draw our attention to the altar.

I hope that you have enjoyed your tour today of the top of the altar. Our next part of our trip will take us to an overview of the whole church layout.

Round 4 Answers August 2010
Number	Answers
1	Tabernacle
2	Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
3	King Louis IX
4	Pope John XXIII
5	St. Benedict
6	St. Francis of Assisi
7	St. Thomas Aquinas
8	St. Clare of Assisi
9	St. Cecilia
10	Corporal