From Our Pastor

From Our Pastor

Dear Folks,

This week I went down into the basement and saw a print of one of my favorite paintings of the Immaculate Conception near the youth and RE office!   The original is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.  Since she is our patroness, I am inspired to share it with you here, and a few thoughts as well.
Often times folks confuse paintings of the Immaculate Conception with the Assumption.  If you type “assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary” into Yahoo or Google and check the images that come up, some of those which are labeled incorrectly.  How can we tell the difference?
The classic painting of the Assumption will have a few factors: Mary will appear a little older, the Apostles will often be gathered below looking up as angels escort her to heaven (or crown her queen of the universe), and Mary will most often be wearing a red garment with a blue cloak (the red represents her humanity and the blue represents heaven with which he is clothed).   
On the other hand, images of the Immaculate Conception will have Mary with a very young face, a white garment (for purity), a blue cloak (again for heaven), and held aloft by a number of cherubs (again with young faces to suggest youth and innocence).  Obviously it would be impossible to paint an image that is what the IC looked like, so artists have tried to represent this through symbols.
Some artists will combine all of these symbols because they may just want to paint the Blessed Virgin Mary, and with elements from the various Marian dogmas.  Hopefully this will help you be able to identify symbolic elements in Catholic art.
And finally, it is time to start extending invitations to folks who are considering becoming Catholic.  RCIA will be starting up in September, so pray this week about whom you might invite to consider becoming Catholic.  This weekend we are offering you cards that you can hand out to anyone you would like to invite to consider our Catholic Faith!  Personal invitations truly matter.  Who can you invite to become Catholic?
 
Pax,
Fr. Mosimann
Catechists Needed

Catechists Needed

St Mary is still in need of volunteer catechists for our 2019-2020 school year!  Volunteering to be a Catechist provides you the opportunity to do more for God than attending Mass for 1 hour a week. The commitment will be about 20- 25 classes a year and attendance at Catechist Training 4 times when you will receive helpful lessons on teaching your students on our faith. “The best way to learn is to teach” is true because your preparation will result in your increase in knowledge and understanding of Christ’s messages that he wanted His Church to spread to the world. But for now, let’s spread the Word to our children who are the future of our Church. Contact the Religious Education Office at 540-373-7553 for the more than 11 positions we need to fill. You will not regret it!

From our Pastor

From our Pastor

Dear Folks, 

 As I was praying and googling for inspiration…. Opps…did I just admit that I had writers block for my bulletin note this week? Well sure, the words of the Saints are a great start to spot when looking for weekly inspiration! And I have joked a few times that “St. Google told me what to do.” 
 And so I came across a catechesis that Pope Benedict did on St. Catherine of Bologna back in 2010. In the “Treatise on the Seven Spiritual Weapons,” Catherine teaches that to combat evil it is necessary: (1) to be careful always to do good; (2) to believe that we can never achieve anything truly good by ourselves; (3) to trust in God and, for His love, never to fear the battle against evil, either in the world or in ourselves; (4) to meditate frequently on the events and words of Jesus’ life, especially His passion and death;(5) to remember that we must die;(6) to keep the benefits of heaven firmly in our minds,(7) to be familiar with Holy Scripture, keeping it in our hearts to guide all our thoughts and actions. 
That it is good road map for getting to heaven!
 
Pax , 
 
Fr. Mosimann
Thursday, Aug 15 is a Holy Day of Obligation

Thursday, Aug 15 is a Holy Day of Obligation

Thursday, August 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a Holy Day of Obligation.  The Mass Schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, August 14: (Confessions canceled) 6pm and 7:30pm Vigil

Thursday, August 15: 6:30am, 9am, 12pm, 6pm, 7:30pm (bilingual)