Congratulations, Bishop Sample! Welcome to Oregon and the Archdiocese of Portland!
Here's some web links to lean more about him.
Wikipedia
Archdiocese of Portland Web site
Vatican Radio
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
New Archbishop of Portland in Oregon: Alexander Sample
Congratulations, Bishop Sample! Welcome to Oregon and the Archdiocese of Portland!
Here's some web links to lean more about him.
Wikipedia
Archdiocese of Portland Web site
Vatican Radio
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Faith Opportunities at St. Anne's
Dear Parishioners,
There are many moments and programs full of opportunities to grow in your your faith once again. Here’s just some of the wonderful highlights.
Movie Night
On Friday, Feb. 8th at 5 PM, we will be offering a very popular Disney-Pixar film which is for everyone, especially families. It has been scheduled at this time so that families can come with their children, bringing their own dinner and a snack to share, and enjoy the company of other parishioners in a movie which portrays a fantastic Christian teaching. Through two main characters, an old man and a young boy, the two have to face and fight through their fears and sorrows in order to find joy in their lives, in order to reach their dreams, in order to become who they are meant to be. With the use of thousands of balloons, the old man decides to “float” his house up-up-and-away to a distant place in order to accomplish a life’s dream. The boy, accidentally was on the porch the moment of the launching of the house, and from there begins the adventure. Maybe this story is familiar to you, and maybe you know the title of the wonderful film. Either way, this film captures the Catholic narrative of the Paschal mystery of suffering, death, and resurrection. Didn’t see it that way the first time around watching it? Well, come and see it again with new eyes and heart. Maybe you will be looking “up” more often when difficulties strike.
Disciples on the Journey & Friday’s of Lent
A week from Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13th. Can you believe that? It has come so quickly! That means Easter is also early, in fact Easter Sunday is March 31st this year. During Lent, as has been our custom, everyone is being encouraged to join or create their own Disciples on the Journey small faith sharing group. These groups are fantastic ways to journey the 40 days of Lent so that, at the end, we will be ready to celebrate the great mystery of Christ’s resurrection. In addition, we will begin again our simple dinners each Friday followed by Stations of the Cross done by various groups and ministries of the parish.
Vespers & Holy Hour
On Tuesday, February 12th, the day before Ash Wednesday, as part of Archbishop Vlazny’s call to greater attention in prayer to the issues of our day, we will be holding an evening prayer service (a.k.a. vespers) and solemn holy hour of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament here at St. Anne’s in the church. It will be bilingual (English and Spanish), so all our parishioners can participate in their own language.
Vespers is the other great liturgy of the Church after the Mass. It is part of what is called, The Liturgy of the Hours. The purpose of the Liturgy of the Hours is to sanctify the hours the day by taking out special time to pray the psalms, listen to Scripture, and offer our prayers for the whole Church. It is done by practically all religious and priests throughout the world everyday.
It is from the Liturgy of the Hours that the Rosary came to the fore. The laity, in ancient time, desired to pray as the monks did, but were not literate or had prayer books. So, the Rosary arose as a way to pray akin to the monks, but with no need for books. The Rosary was a set of simple prayers the people could memorize, and grew and developed over time to what we see today. The Psalms number 150 as do the original Hail Mary’s prayed in a rosary.
Come celebrate Mardi Gras in a different way by joining together in Evening Prayer with Solemn Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. The focus will be the Eucharist, life issues, marriage, and religious liberty. We will supply the booklets needed. All you need to do is come and pray. Again, hope to see you there.
Rite of Election
Every year people find themselves on a profound spiritual journey to the Catholic Church. Our process for helping them is called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults or RCIA for short. This year’s group is exceptionally large. Praise God! In two short weeks, Archbishop Vlazny will come to St. Anne’s to host an important step for those seeking baptism (Catechumens) and reception into full communion (Candidates). The event is called the Rite of Election. All the Vicariate parishes will be bringing their Catechumens and Candidates to St. Anne’s to be recognized by Archbishop Vlazny. Everyone is invited. This is not a Mass, but a formal ritual that is certainly full of good news. The electricity of emotion is in the air whenever we celebrate a Rite of Election. So, please consider yourself invited to this liturgy on Saturday, February 16th at 10:30 AM at St. Anne’s and witness the Church alive and growing!
Blessings,
Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor
There are many moments and programs full of opportunities to grow in your your faith once again. Here’s just some of the wonderful highlights.
Movie Night
On Friday, Feb. 8th at 5 PM, we will be offering a very popular Disney-Pixar film which is for everyone, especially families. It has been scheduled at this time so that families can come with their children, bringing their own dinner and a snack to share, and enjoy the company of other parishioners in a movie which portrays a fantastic Christian teaching. Through two main characters, an old man and a young boy, the two have to face and fight through their fears and sorrows in order to find joy in their lives, in order to reach their dreams, in order to become who they are meant to be. With the use of thousands of balloons, the old man decides to “float” his house up-up-and-away to a distant place in order to accomplish a life’s dream. The boy, accidentally was on the porch the moment of the launching of the house, and from there begins the adventure. Maybe this story is familiar to you, and maybe you know the title of the wonderful film. Either way, this film captures the Catholic narrative of the Paschal mystery of suffering, death, and resurrection. Didn’t see it that way the first time around watching it? Well, come and see it again with new eyes and heart. Maybe you will be looking “up” more often when difficulties strike.
Disciples on the Journey & Friday’s of Lent
A week from Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13th. Can you believe that? It has come so quickly! That means Easter is also early, in fact Easter Sunday is March 31st this year. During Lent, as has been our custom, everyone is being encouraged to join or create their own Disciples on the Journey small faith sharing group. These groups are fantastic ways to journey the 40 days of Lent so that, at the end, we will be ready to celebrate the great mystery of Christ’s resurrection. In addition, we will begin again our simple dinners each Friday followed by Stations of the Cross done by various groups and ministries of the parish.
Vespers & Holy Hour
On Tuesday, February 12th, the day before Ash Wednesday, as part of Archbishop Vlazny’s call to greater attention in prayer to the issues of our day, we will be holding an evening prayer service (a.k.a. vespers) and solemn holy hour of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament here at St. Anne’s in the church. It will be bilingual (English and Spanish), so all our parishioners can participate in their own language.
Vespers is the other great liturgy of the Church after the Mass. It is part of what is called, The Liturgy of the Hours. The purpose of the Liturgy of the Hours is to sanctify the hours the day by taking out special time to pray the psalms, listen to Scripture, and offer our prayers for the whole Church. It is done by practically all religious and priests throughout the world everyday.
It is from the Liturgy of the Hours that the Rosary came to the fore. The laity, in ancient time, desired to pray as the monks did, but were not literate or had prayer books. So, the Rosary arose as a way to pray akin to the monks, but with no need for books. The Rosary was a set of simple prayers the people could memorize, and grew and developed over time to what we see today. The Psalms number 150 as do the original Hail Mary’s prayed in a rosary.
Come celebrate Mardi Gras in a different way by joining together in Evening Prayer with Solemn Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. The focus will be the Eucharist, life issues, marriage, and religious liberty. We will supply the booklets needed. All you need to do is come and pray. Again, hope to see you there.
Rite of Election
Every year people find themselves on a profound spiritual journey to the Catholic Church. Our process for helping them is called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults or RCIA for short. This year’s group is exceptionally large. Praise God! In two short weeks, Archbishop Vlazny will come to St. Anne’s to host an important step for those seeking baptism (Catechumens) and reception into full communion (Candidates). The event is called the Rite of Election. All the Vicariate parishes will be bringing their Catechumens and Candidates to St. Anne’s to be recognized by Archbishop Vlazny. Everyone is invited. This is not a Mass, but a formal ritual that is certainly full of good news. The electricity of emotion is in the air whenever we celebrate a Rite of Election. So, please consider yourself invited to this liturgy on Saturday, February 16th at 10:30 AM at St. Anne’s and witness the Church alive and growing!
Blessings,
Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Mass in the Extraordinary Form
Dear Parishioners,
Several months ago I was asked if we could offer a special Mass in what is called the "Extraordinary Form," previously called, the Tridentine Mass or Latin Mass. After supportive consultation with various people and groups including our Archbishop, Chancellor, and the vicariate area priests, I decided to support and accommodate a quarterly Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Our Lady of the River. The first of these Masses will be on February 10th at 6 PM. Questions you might have likely deal with what, how, and why.
First, the Extraordinary Form is the Mass using the Roman Missal promulgated in 1962 by Pope John XXIII just prior to the Second Vatican Council and used during the council. The most notable aspects of this kind of Mass are the extensive use of Latin, the direction the priest faces when offering the Mass, the fewer amount of responses during the Mass, and the many rubrics which call for a complexity of ritual on the part of the priest and his altar servers(which requires special training). No priests in our Vicariate are sufficiently skilled to offer this form, so we have asked Fr. Adam Kotas, the pastor at St. Joseph's in Crescent City, to come to offer the Mass. While this Mass is officially within the parish boundaries of St. Anne's, I am very aware that this will draw people from around the Vicariate and beyond. This form of Mass looks and sounds different than the current Mass of the Second Vatican Council, which was promulgated by Pope Paul VI, called the "Novus Ordo" or New Order. The Novus Ordo is also called the "Ordinary Form" of Mass, which the Catholic Church offers most commonly in the vernacular language throughout the world. Both are of value to the Church, and both are valid Masses of the Roman Rite. Neither are superior or inferior to each other. Rather, the Novus Ordo is a continuation of development from previous expressions of the Mass, as is the Missal of 1962. Pope Benedict XVI, in his letter, Summorum Pontificum, dated July 2007, allowed the use of the Extraordinary Form in greater freedom in order to more broadly and generously offer the rituals which have nourished the faithful for centuries. He also did so in a reconciliatory way to bring back those who have felt disaffected by the Ordinary Form. My accommodation to allow this form of Mass is not intended to, nor in actuality should, detract from the authority of the Second Vatican Council.
Secondly, the question of how this will take place is important to its success. A small group of Catholics from our parish and the Vicariate have formed an organizational committee in order to make sure that each Mass in the Extraordinary Form is celebrated and organized well. Fr. Adam Kotas has agreed to offer these Masses, for which I am very grateful. The Masses are open to all interested. The scheduled dates are Feb. 10, April 28, Aug. 4, and Oct. 6, although they could change or be canceled based on Fr. Adam's availability. Any changes will be posted as soon as such knowledge becomes available. All of these Masses will be offered at 6 PM. Since these are Sunday celebrations, a collection will be taken up as usual. The funds will be the property of Our Lady of the River and used to pay for the expenses of having Fr. Adam offer the Mass as well as the operating budget of Our Lady of the River. Any normal Archdiocesan second collections will be offered as they normally would at any weekend Mass. After this first set of Masses, I will meet with the organizing committee to discuss how things went. These Masses validly fulfill the Sunday obligation for those attending. You can bring your own 1962 Missal if you like, though bilingual booklets will be offered for use at the Masses. These booklets are Fr. Adam's personal property, and therefore must be returned after the Mass.
Thirdly, why is this Mass being offered? Simply because a charitable request was made, and I believe that many of our faithful could benefit from it. It is my sincere hope that this quarterly Mass will help sow seeds of reconciliation while also broadening our sense of the variations of the Mass in our own Roman Rite of Catholicism. Any sentiments of antagonism about the Second Vatican Council or triumphalism about returning to the "true Mass" are unjustified and are counterproductive. I hope nobody will entertain such critiques. I share Pope Benedict's desire that the celebration of the Extraordinary Form be another way to express the broadness of liturgical expressions of our Church Universal. I believe that this quarterly Mass will complement and further help our faithful to more deeply appreciate the one Mass in both forms.
Finally, I trust that charity and humility will abound for all, for I know that we all appreciate different spiritualities which feed us. It is good to know that the Catholic Church is broad in her expressions of faith and liturgy. May this new-and-old encounter of our liturgical expression be the beginning of renewal and reconciliation from within our members and beyond the confines of St. Anne’s. May it lift up those who desire this form of Mass so as to vivify their faith and strengthen their resolve for harmony within our communities of the Southern Oregon Vicariate.
Blessings,
Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor
Several months ago I was asked if we could offer a special Mass in what is called the "Extraordinary Form," previously called, the Tridentine Mass or Latin Mass. After supportive consultation with various people and groups including our Archbishop, Chancellor, and the vicariate area priests, I decided to support and accommodate a quarterly Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Our Lady of the River. The first of these Masses will be on February 10th at 6 PM. Questions you might have likely deal with what, how, and why.
First, the Extraordinary Form is the Mass using the Roman Missal promulgated in 1962 by Pope John XXIII just prior to the Second Vatican Council and used during the council. The most notable aspects of this kind of Mass are the extensive use of Latin, the direction the priest faces when offering the Mass, the fewer amount of responses during the Mass, and the many rubrics which call for a complexity of ritual on the part of the priest and his altar servers(which requires special training). No priests in our Vicariate are sufficiently skilled to offer this form, so we have asked Fr. Adam Kotas, the pastor at St. Joseph's in Crescent City, to come to offer the Mass. While this Mass is officially within the parish boundaries of St. Anne's, I am very aware that this will draw people from around the Vicariate and beyond. This form of Mass looks and sounds different than the current Mass of the Second Vatican Council, which was promulgated by Pope Paul VI, called the "Novus Ordo" or New Order. The Novus Ordo is also called the "Ordinary Form" of Mass, which the Catholic Church offers most commonly in the vernacular language throughout the world. Both are of value to the Church, and both are valid Masses of the Roman Rite. Neither are superior or inferior to each other. Rather, the Novus Ordo is a continuation of development from previous expressions of the Mass, as is the Missal of 1962. Pope Benedict XVI, in his letter, Summorum Pontificum, dated July 2007, allowed the use of the Extraordinary Form in greater freedom in order to more broadly and generously offer the rituals which have nourished the faithful for centuries. He also did so in a reconciliatory way to bring back those who have felt disaffected by the Ordinary Form. My accommodation to allow this form of Mass is not intended to, nor in actuality should, detract from the authority of the Second Vatican Council.
Secondly, the question of how this will take place is important to its success. A small group of Catholics from our parish and the Vicariate have formed an organizational committee in order to make sure that each Mass in the Extraordinary Form is celebrated and organized well. Fr. Adam Kotas has agreed to offer these Masses, for which I am very grateful. The Masses are open to all interested. The scheduled dates are Feb. 10, April 28, Aug. 4, and Oct. 6, although they could change or be canceled based on Fr. Adam's availability. Any changes will be posted as soon as such knowledge becomes available. All of these Masses will be offered at 6 PM. Since these are Sunday celebrations, a collection will be taken up as usual. The funds will be the property of Our Lady of the River and used to pay for the expenses of having Fr. Adam offer the Mass as well as the operating budget of Our Lady of the River. Any normal Archdiocesan second collections will be offered as they normally would at any weekend Mass. After this first set of Masses, I will meet with the organizing committee to discuss how things went. These Masses validly fulfill the Sunday obligation for those attending. You can bring your own 1962 Missal if you like, though bilingual booklets will be offered for use at the Masses. These booklets are Fr. Adam's personal property, and therefore must be returned after the Mass.
Thirdly, why is this Mass being offered? Simply because a charitable request was made, and I believe that many of our faithful could benefit from it. It is my sincere hope that this quarterly Mass will help sow seeds of reconciliation while also broadening our sense of the variations of the Mass in our own Roman Rite of Catholicism. Any sentiments of antagonism about the Second Vatican Council or triumphalism about returning to the "true Mass" are unjustified and are counterproductive. I hope nobody will entertain such critiques. I share Pope Benedict's desire that the celebration of the Extraordinary Form be another way to express the broadness of liturgical expressions of our Church Universal. I believe that this quarterly Mass will complement and further help our faithful to more deeply appreciate the one Mass in both forms.
Finally, I trust that charity and humility will abound for all, for I know that we all appreciate different spiritualities which feed us. It is good to know that the Catholic Church is broad in her expressions of faith and liturgy. May this new-and-old encounter of our liturgical expression be the beginning of renewal and reconciliation from within our members and beyond the confines of St. Anne’s. May it lift up those who desire this form of Mass so as to vivify their faith and strengthen their resolve for harmony within our communities of the Southern Oregon Vicariate.
Blessings,
Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Year of Faith Challenge
Dear Parishioners,
Happy new year! I pray that 2013 will bring with it an increase in faith and a renewed sense of mission in the Gospel for each one of you. It is a time of resolutions and new beginnings. In that line of thought, I would like to bring forward something special for your prayerful reflection for the new year.
In the forthcoming Catholic Sentinel, Archbishop Vlazny will be offering us a challenge in his personal column. That challenge begins after the Christmas season and continues until the end of our observance of the Church’s Year of Faith. Simply put, it is a call to prayer.
In light of the times, that is the threats to human life, marriage, and religious liberty, the Archbishop desires that we all make personal commitments that will help us have the “spiritual stamina” to be “effective and joyful witnesses of faith, hope, and charity as agents of the new evangelization.” His strategy has five parts:
- Daily rosary
- Monthly Eucharistic holy hours
- Special Prayers of the Faithful at all Masses
- Fasting and abstinence on Fridays
- A second Fortnight for Freedom in the summer.
The reason for such a recipe of prayer is for us all to more deeply encounter our Lord so as to become better witnesses of God’s law of love of our society. Fundamental Christian morality has been ignored or even outright violated which is serving to unravel some of our society’s most basic covenantal unions, threaten more innocent life, and threatened our ability to freely practice our faith in its fullness. The Archbishop will more fully explain these in his forthcoming article. But, I felt it necessary to pre-empt his letter with this encouragement to learn more and read his article when it is published.
We, as a parish and two missions, will do our best to implement all of these directives and will publish the details of these plans once they are fleshed out amidst our current schedule of ministry activities. In the meantime, I want you to bring to prayer your own personal preparation for this forthcoming program. A docile spirit and openness to our Archbishop’s pastoral challenge is a good thing for us all. May we allow ourselves to be “all-in” for this exercise of faith.
Blessings,
Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor
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