THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT!

So many good things are happening in our Church! Especially thriving parishes like St.Ann's, Ossining, where I was Weekend Associate for the first ten years of my retirement. I go back at Christmas, Holy Week and Easter, and for special occasions like the feast of St. Ann, last weekend. New life from the Mass; new life from the people at Mass. The Saturday different language Masses were combined into one at 6 PM. Mostly English and Spanish were used for the readings; where in Spanish, the little booklet carried it in English; where in English, the booklet told it in Spanish. Responses to the Prayer of the Faithful were in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Tagalog.

An offertory procession saw two ladies come down the aisle with the long cloth that they unrolled and spread over the altar. Then a pair of parishioners with flowers; followed by a couple with the chalice and the paten; then the Roman missal, the bread and the wine. Throughout the procession, choir and congregation sang "Come to the Feast". An authentic sense of the worshipping community was evident in the singing at that point, at the acclamation after the Consecration, and during the Our Father, the people holding hands, even across the center aisle. Genuine, authentic! After the Mass,the parishioners enjoyed food and drink and conversation on the patio beside the church. One could easily imagine St. Paul and his worshipping community of Ephesians. But they would have had the ouad and other Greek music devices, not the five Ecuadorian instrumentalists of St. Ann's. "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad therein!"