Sunday morning - Mass at Ascension Parish

Mass is said here at Visitation Monastery about three times a week. Other days the sisters go out to parish masses in the neighborhood. On Sundays, they most often go to Ascension Parish, just four blocks away. I went with them last summer and loved it. And I went again today for the second time since my arrival on July 5.


Ascension Parish is "doing church" in the way I believe it's meant to be done: it's inclusive, vibrant, down-to-earth, REAL. The music group is superb - a pianist, drums (of more than one kind), and a group of singers who are g-o-o-d! Including a young boy who is amazing.


There is no air-conditioning in Ascension Church and it's HOT in Minneapolis! Two big fans blow through open doorways up by the front - and that's where the sisters have headed both of these past two Sundays. Right next to the fan and the music group. This Sunday the pew in front of us was filled with children who, I believe, have parents in the music group.



I look around the church and I see diversity everywhere - old people, young adults, families, lots and lots of children, a truly multi-cultural church. The sign out in front reads, All are Welcome! and it's obviously true!




The pastor here is Fr. Michael O'Connell, who has served in some very important roles in this diocese: he has been Moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul (which he calls a fancy title meaning CEO of the diocese); he also served for many years as Rector of the Basilica of St. Mary, an enormous edifice which serves as spiritual home to 5400 families. In recent years, he chose to become pastor of relatively small Ascension Parish in N. Minneapolis where he has created a place of safety and welcome for all people in this neighborhood which is rich, diverse, and a place where violence is commonplace.

The church itself is old - it is lovely, old-fashioned, has ornate statuary and beautiful stained glass windows and Stations of the Cross. The picture at the right was taken as the the procession was beginning in the back of the church - the pews filled up simultaneously with the arrival of the priest, servers, and lay ministers.

The service began with the baptism of a baby: Caedon George . . .  (apologies to the family if I've misspelled his name here). Father Michael reminded us - as he instructed this lovely little boy - that in our baptism we are annointed Priest, Prophet, and King. He built on that idea in his homily later - in which he reminded the community, quite solemnly and quite simply, that a man had been attacked and killed on the sidewalk outside the door of the church where the fan was sitting, just a few days ago. Two weeks ago a five year old boy was shot at 8:30 in the morning as he lay on the sofa in the livingroom as a volley of gunfire was sprayed into the house - part of a feud between gangs. And a little farther back in time, a 3 year old was shot when stray bullet came through the wall of his house as he was carrying his dinner upstairs to a "safer room." Father Michael spoke with sorrow and told people, we must be prophets. Our children are killing each other.

Blessing of the children

At the conclusion of each service, it is customary here for the priest to call up all children and youth to the altar. They gather around Father, and all the people in the church raise and extend their hands over the children as he blesses them. Then the recessional begins, with the children leading the way out of the church, followed by Father, the servers, and the ministers. What a lovely custom. These children will grow up knowing that they were acknowledged and loved by the whole parish every Sunday of their lives.


This Sunday there is to be "blessing of gardens," so they all process out the side door into the church yard, where everyone follows, and all gather once more, as Father explains that every year, these "memory gardens" are blessed once more.

Linda and her fellow lay minister carry the holy water and sprinkle it liberally in every part of the garden as the priest and people pray the blessing.


Then it's time for the ice-cream social! 


So now it is Sunday afternoon, and I have some time to write - but not everything I wanted to write!  There is so much I want to share!  I'll save for another day some of the other experiences and impressions of these first days at Visitation Monastery. I'll have to choose from some of these:

• I attended an all day meeting on Saturday with some of the sisters in St. Cloud, MN - Region 11 of the Leadership Council of Religious Women. Richard Gaillardetz, a professor of theology at Boston College who specializes in "questions of ecclesiology" (or how authority works in the church). He presented a fascinating review of Vatican II and related it to current church events.Morning Prayer as we drove north. I got a quick drive-around tour of St. Johns at Collegeville on the way to the meeting. And I won a door prize at the meeting! (Note paper - for those little paper notes we used to write before email. Remember?)

• We had a young couple and their Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy - and a young woman who has been on a retreat at Jane House - for dinner last night. There has been someone for dinner nearly every night. Lots of tables to set, meals to cook, and dishes to wash. 

• Today two of the sisters are going to a baseball game (don't ask me who's playing).

• Another sister left this morning for a family reunion out of state.

• Another sister is returning tonight from a family visit.

• Sister Karen made peach/banana sorbet for dessert tonight. (I might even learn to cook here!)

• One of the sisters had news today of a death in her family.

I am thinking of St. Anne's and yesterday's memorial service for dear Richard Haberman. 


And my daughter-in-law MaryBeth who is running a 5K in Ocean Shores today - in the rain.  They will be starting back to California later this week. I am missing them already - and I'm not even there.

My life is amazingly rich - and I am extraordinarily happy.