Weekly Update from Fr. van Dooren 2.13.26
Dear brothers and sisters of our Little Church family,
Blessings to you this balmy Friday as temperatures finally reach above freezing. Thank you for your faithfulness and encouragement through these challenging winter Sundays!
I look forward to joining many of you for the annual Blessed Absalom Jones Celebration at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine tomorrow, Saturday February 14th at 10:30am. Click here for more details.
We come to the end the Epiphany season this Sunday with the story of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9). Mother Church so lovingly places this story before our souls twice a year, always on the final Sunday of Epiphany and then on the fixed date of August 6th, the Feast of the Transfiguration, which is our feast of title.
Before turning our eyes of faith to the forty day preparatory season of Lent beginning this Ash Wednesday, we enjoy one last and grand celebration of our Lord’s earthly ministry with this miracle of attestation of his divinity. As the shadow of Calvary loomed, Jesus accompanied his favored disciples, Peter, James, and John upon a high mountain, and for a brief moment, the veil of his humanity was lifted. His disciples were in awe as they witnessed his divinity. It is a story of dazzling beauty and immense depth. Please join us this Sunday for this most important and beautiful celebration.
It is also that time of year when we return our sacred palms from last Palm Sunday to be burned to make the ashes for our Ash Wednesday masses, Wednesday, February 18th at 8:30am, 12:10pm, and 6:30pm. We have a basket for the palms placed at the entrance of the nave.
We will celebrate our Spanish mass this Sunday at 5:00pm. Even if our Spanish isn’t perfect (your priest says with great conviction!..smile), it is a beautiful opportunity to experience the spirituality and uniqueness of another language.
This week’s music focuses on the Transfiguration story. We will sing Richard Shephard’s The Transfiguration, which was commissioned by this parish for our 150th anniversary. The choir will also sing Mozart’s Mass in D Major, K. 194. We are a repertoire choir, which means we repeat things in cycles. We haven’t sung the Mozart Mass Setting for about a year and a half, and it’s fun to see how the kids who were very young when they first sang the mass remember it so well and truly love it.
In honor of Black History Month, baritone Stacey Robinson joins us this week to sing the spiritual arrangement by the African-American composer John W. Work, This Little Light of Mine.
Prior to Ash Wednesday, our annual talent show returns this year, tomorrow, Monday (instead of Tuesday), February 16, with a combination Talent Show and pizza party. The pizza reception will begin at 6:00 pm with the talent show to follow at 7:00pm. The pizza will represent the possible “fat and excesses” that we will give up for the 40 day season of Lent starting on Ash Wednesday. Parishioners are also invited to bring salads (fruit salads, too), desserts, and soft drinks to complement the pizza. Please contact Lee (leealderson04@gmail.com) to coordinate what you plan to bring. This is always a fun evening for our parish family on the eve of a very serious and somber Lenten season.
Poets, rappers, dancers, singers, actors, readers, comics, artists of all sorts are encouraged to spread the joy at our talent show! Please contact our music director Claudia Dumschat (cdumschat@littlechurch.org) for more information
Please join us on Sunday, February 22 at 4 pm for a special concert featuring Benjamin Bradham, pianist performing Music of Scarlatti, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt. Suggested donation $20 at the door.
This Lent, the Adult Education Committee will lead a discussion of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis on Thursday evenings at 7:00-8:00 PM on Zoom. Please email Grace Kobryn (gkobryn@littlechurch.org) to receive the Zoom link. We recommend this modern English translation by Peter Northcutt. Our first meeting will be on Thursday, February 26th.
We will honor the devotions of the Stations of the Cross and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on the Fridays of Lent beginning Friday, February 27th (Note this devotion will not be held on the First Friday of Lent, February 20th).
The Holy Rosary will be prayed in the Family chapel at 9:30am this Sunday. We will pray the Luminous mysteries which include the story of the Transfiguration.
We continue to live-stream each Sunday’s mass at 11:00am, and a link is sent out each Sunday morning at 8:00am. We live-stream on Facebook and YouTube. Please email the parish office (parishoffice@littlechurch.org) if you would like to pray the morning and evening offices with us by Zoom.
Thank you for your continued faith, support, and love for the parish.
Fides Opera
With loving wishes,
Fr. van Dooren