Tuesday, August 26, is the first day of school for the students here at Sacred Heart School. I am sure it will be a very exciting time for parents and children. As a new school year begins, it may be a good time to reflect on how very important our school is to the parish community as a place not only of education and learning, but a place where our children have the opportunity to come to know Jesus Christ and the love that He has for them. Our children do not only learn about Jesus, but they come to know Him as a person who loves them more than any of us can ever imagine.
In the world we live, where often people try to shut God out of any public place, it is very important that we can maintain our Catholic schools where we welcome the presence of God and make Him the center of our lives. Here we encourage and provide a place for prayer and in our public school is not allowed. Here we teach our children about God who created us, redeemed us, and revealed His Word to us; in the public schools there is no place to learn of God or all that He has done for us. One must wonder where all this will take us and our country. If we cannot see where it has already taken us, one might wonder why people have their eyes closed and what it will take to open them up again. Maybe we are so focused on our own lives and what will work for us that we fail to see the condition of our society. It just makes me wonder what it will take to get more people to use the great gift that we have in our Catholic schools. Most people will use the reason that it is just too expensive and that is true for some people. If only we and other parishes could provide a free Catholic education for all our children. That would take a huge increase in our offertory and would require that everyone does their fair share, including the 70% of our parish that come to Mass only on Easter and Christmas if that.
There are many ways to support our school and Catholic Education in general in addition to the “Support Our School” monthly envelope and electronic giving we can also support our school through the Angel Scholarship Fund which diverts a portion of your Ohio State Income Tax to this fund. It does not really cost you anything at all. You can find all the information on the parish website and on the television monitors on each of the vestibules in the church. Please consider using these means to support Catholic Education here at Sacred Heart
I think this is part of the reason that we need to evangelize ourselves, one another, and especially those who do not come to Mass. We need to begin with ourselves by learning more about our Catholic Faith and asking God to give us the courage to share this faith with others. It is not going to happen overnight, but we must first know the direction we need to go and only then can we begin the journey. Please pray for one another and for all those who support our Catholic schools, especially our teachers, staffs, parents, and students.
Many years ago, we started to sing a portion of Mass in Latin namely the Sanctus and the Agnus Die. We try to alternate these occasions for several weeks at a time throughout the year. We do this in order to have knowledge of the Latin traditions within the Roman Catholic Church. As I stated at that time, this is something encouraged by Church in the teachings of the Vatican II. Gregorian chant is to have pride of place in our liturgy and the worship of God.
Other parts of the Mass that we are encouraged to use and to have the knowledge to do so are the Gloria, The Creed or Credo, and Our Father. This knowledge also helps whenever we may be celebrating Mass with people of different languages when we travel or on a pilgrimage. This knowledge of and ability to sing Gregorian Chant is a 1500-year-old tradition in the Church.
So, we are planning to introduce some of these into the Mass here at Sacred Heart beginning with The Our Father followed by the Gloria in the near future. Some of this is coming from the example of Pope Leo XIV who led the people in singing the Regina Coeli when he was first elected Pope. In fact, there is a website where one can learn to “Sing with the Pope.” You can learn more about this by going to Lets Sing with the pope.com, you can also access this on youtube. Soon we will send out an email with this information and it will also be available on the parish website.
I believe that this will enhance our worship of God at Mass and at the same time keep us in tune with the worldwide Church as well as our history and tradition. This is all in accord with the teachings of Vatican II that seemed to have been lost in the implementation of the teachings of the council. I truly hope and pray that we can put forth the effort to pray in a way that is more mindful of our brothers and sisters around the world.
