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Prayers for a Principal
Commit to praying a Hail Mary with the special intention of peace and growth of our parish school community and for God to send us the perfect principal! Dates are available for adoption here!
Commit to praying a Hail Mary with the special intention of peace and growth of our parish school community and for God to send us the perfect principal! Dates are available for adoption here!
The Churching of Women: A Blessing for Mothers after the Birth of Their Child
Save the Date: On Sunday, 15 October at 10a, Father Smith will give a special blessing to women who have had a child in the past year who want to give thanks to God for the life of their child. Please join us!
The Old Covenant: According to Leviticus 12, a woman who bears a child was considered ritually impure (one week for a son and two weeks for a daughter) because of the emission of blood, seen as the life force in Semitic cultures. The mother would then have to take a ritual bath in water. At the end of this time of purification, she would then come to the temple to offer a year-old lamb as a burnt offering and a turtledove as a sin offering. The priest offered up the animals as a sacrifice of atonement and thanksgiving.
Christian Tradition: The Levitical laws of the Old Covenant found their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. After the Redemption, women were no longer ritually impure after birth; they were to be recognized as participating in God’s gift of creation. For most of Christian history, however, many mothers spent a significant amount of time in recovery in bed after birth. Because of the high infant mortality rate and the desire to see children baptized as soon as possible after birth, many mothers were never present at the baptisms of their children, who were often brought to the font by their fathers and godparents. Today, most mothers are able to recover very quickly and be present at their child’s baptism. But for centuries, when a mother was well enough to come back to Mass, she would first ask the priest for a blessing in thanksgiving for her child, in imitation of how the Blessed Virgin went to the temple to receive the blessing of the priest after the birth of Jesus. Because it was the first time the mother was able to come back to church, this blessing was called “churching” in English-speaking countries. A purification ritual of the Old Law was transformed into a blessing of thanksgiving.
The Restoration of Churching at Prince of Peace: Nowadays, most mothers are present at the baptism of their children, and receive a short blessing at the end of that rite. Requests for the old rite of churching gradually disappeared. But as many young people seek to reconnect with the traditions of their religion, more mothers are asking for the rite of churching nowadays. At Prince of Peace, mothers are always welcome to ask the priest for the rite of churching after a baptism or at some other convenient time, either privately or with their families and friends. For some time in our parish, we have celebrated on the Rose Sundays of Lent and Advent the blessing from the Roman Ritual of expectant mothers. But we have not as a faith community marked the blessing after birth.
We would like to invite all mothers who have given birth in the past year who would like to give thanks publicly for the birth of their child in church to join us on Sunday, 15 October, when the Catholic Church in America observes Respect Life Month, at the 10a Solemn Mass.
Jesus told us, “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them; for to such belong the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)
Prince of Peace invites all children, birth to high school, to a special Children’s Holy hour on Saturday, 7 October, 9am-10am. This Holy hour will introduce our children to praying in community before the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Scripture, song, and prayerful quiet will touch each child’s heart, inspiring a love for adoration and a desire to share more with Jesus. Donuts on the plaza will complete this joyful hour. We hope your family will join us!
Click below to read this week’s bulletin:
On 19 September, Erin Lewis, a member of the Catholic Identity SubCommittee, spoke to the General Meeting of the school’s PTO. Erin is the mother of 4 gentlemen: Robert (3rd grade), Daniel (1st grade), Cullen (K5), and two-year old Andrew. The subcommittee includes 7 women: Erin Lewis, Sara Hinson, Catherine Johanning, Angela Calabro, Stephanie Lassiter, Maria Rippon, and Andrea Suarez. Its purpose is to support the Catholic Identify of Prince of Peace students and families.
Erin’s heartfelt and inspiring talk below was accompanied by this handout.
“I am not here tonight because I was the best candidate to speak on the topic of establishing and growing a domestic church! And, this is not false humility – for any of you that have seen me struggle to manage my four very active boys during every school function, you know what I am talking about! So, in an effort to give you my best, I did a lot of research and spoke to many incredible families and organizations that do an amazing job in this area.
I would like to simplify this vast topic tonight by breaking it down into an explanation, resources and some ideas.
These are a few of the ideas of how to practice the domestic church. I have a more exhaustive list with resources listed on the handouts.
CLOSING
What I would like to close on this evening is this: any little bit that you do will make a tremendous difference not only in the lives of the members of your family, but in your community as well. It can feel very overwhelming to establish and grow your domestic church, but refuse to let that lie sink in. I strongly suggest that you allow The Holy Spirit to be your guide. With an eager heart learn to understand how the Holy Spirit communicates with you and follow with your own “fiat” as Mary did at the annunciation and again at the foot of the cross.
And I would like to leave you with the words of scripture from Revelation chapter 3 versus 15 – 16: “I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” Let us allow ourselves the opportunity to be hot on fire with love and passion of our Lord and of one another. Thank you.
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