Tuesday, February 05, 2008

super fat Tuesday

Because February 3rd fell on a Sunday, the Catholic church didn't observe the feast of St. Blaise this year. On the church calendar, Sundays trump the lesser celebrations of the saints. After Mass, I told Fr. Michael Woods how as a kid I liked the annual throat blessing on that day. He said he might offer the blessing at daily Mass the next day. When I said that I would be at work, Fr. Michael invited my family and me to follow him to a small room off the narthex. He asked my son, who was the tallest person in the room, to reach up and grab a box stored atop some cabinets. The box held a fancy candle for the traditional throat blessing. Actually it was more like two candles intertwined to form a handle. Fr. Michael used it to give the blessing to my wife, my son and me.



As I used my camera phone to take a picture for the blog, Fr. Michael was reminded of a recent conversation he had with another parishioner. I have mentioned here a couple of times that the twelve days of Christmas start on December 25th and end on January 6th. Fr. Michael has mentioned the same thing in his homilies and the parish newsletter. The other parishioner wanted to know if Fr. Michael was getting his material from me or vice versa. It was probably neither considering that we were both drawing from the same source material.

I told Fr. Michael that I did intend to pass along something he mentioned in the latest All Saints newsletter. Easter 2008 is March 23rd, which is as early as it can be. It basically occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. As an Irishman, Fr. Michael is well aware that this means no St. Patrick's Day this year. On the church calendar, that is. Much like the way the feast of St. Blaise got pre-empted by the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, March 17th of this year is Monday of Holy Week. Fr. Michael says that he will be wearing green under his purple Lenten vestments.

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3 Comments:

Blogger nobody said...

they were offering the blessing before & after mass at St John Neumann. I honestly had forgotten about that feast day till we walked into mass

2/06/2008  
Anonymous little sis said...

St. Veronica's offered the blessing after mass. They had the community come up like we do for communion.

2/06/2008  
Blogger Monica said...

I love Fr. Michael, he is such a great priest; and person! You are so lucky to have him. I only get to see him when he comes to KDCCW conventions and such.

They didn't offer the blessing at our church either.

I had forgotten about no St. Patricks day. At least we can still have corned beef and cabbage since it's not on a friday this year.

2/06/2008  

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