A word to priests

On Good Friday we contemplate, among other things, how very alone the Lord was in his suffering.

While many attend services during the Easter celebration, and while many vibrant parishes exist year around, we know that there is a crisis of faith around the globe. In particular westernized countries have seen a drop in church attendance as people seem to start to feel that they "don't need" to go to church to "honor God" or to be 'spiritual,' that good intentions (and even total neutrality) are enough.

I am thinking with particular desire to comfort those priests who look out and see only a handful of parishioners at Mass.

I know that all of you know that there is never a "wasted" Mass, even if you are the only one celebrating Mass and the only person in attendance. I also know, better than you realize, though, how acutely saddening and distressing that it is to think about all those who jeopardize their salvation and, at the very least, their own spiritual comfort and reality, by no longer attending or valuing Mass. So I'd like you to think about the following.

When you celebrate Mass to a near empty church, imagine it filled with the people who would desperately want to attend Mass, if only it were available where they are, in oppressed, impoverished, or under-served parts of the world. Dedicate as personal intentions in your mind that each available seat is offered up for those people.

Also, think of those who would attend if only they believed. Likewise, have faith that if you also dedicate those empty seats as intentions for those of little or no faith, through the Holy Spirit it will do a powerful amount of good, and also be of great comfort to you.

It is my most frequent personal prayer intention, to pray on behalf of those who will not or cannot pray for themselves, and I find it a great comfort and know it to be efficacious (though results are frustratingly slow to see, I know). This is why I had the idea that if priests as personal intentions dedicate their "empty seats" to those who cannot be there or who are yet in denial and refuse to be there, each Mass, indeed, will be very full.

I hope that you have found this to be helpful. In Christ.

Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral for hardhats died

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/04/25/2008-04-25_st_patricks_cathedral_honors_13_.html

snip

A Mass honoring the 13 construction workers killed on the job since last April is set for Monday, when a roll call of the departed will echo through the Fifth Ave. landmark.

The tribute to the hands that continue to build New York comes just 10 days after the Pope's historic stop in St.Patrick's.

Nearly half the victims died in the March 15 crane collapse; the most recent, Kevin Kelly, was killed on April 14 when he plunged from an East Side high-rise.

"We needed to do something with all the accidents in the city, with all the affected families, to show we keep them in our hearts and in our prayers," said Terry Moore of the Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers union, Local 46.

Relatives of the dead were expected to fill the front rows of the church, with an estimated 3,000 construction workers - in their hardhats - entering the church in a pre-Mass procession of solidarity.

Some work sites will likely close for the day to accommodate those attending the memorial.

The Rev. Brian Jordan, the Franciscan priest who will celebrate the Mass, said the hardhats are doing their version of the Lord's work: "As a priest's hands are sacred, so are the hands of these construction workers," he said.

The Mass was organized by the city's trade unions and construction management, an indication that both realize the inherent dangers of the work.

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What a splendid and good idea! My prayers and thoughts are with the families and the colleagues of those who were lost.