Vocations Rosary from February 2, 2010 at St. Margaret Mary (photo courtesy of Bernie)
We have received word that there will be a Rosary for Priestly Vocations at 7:00 PM on November 2, 2010, the Feast of All Souls. The venue will be St. Thomas the Apostle Church at 4536 St. Paul Blvd., Rochester, NY 14617. Fr. Dennis Bonsignore will preside over the service, which includes Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, recitation of the Holy Rosary, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
Please try to go to this Vocations Rosary. It’s one way to show support for our priests, our seminarians, our discerners,
and the Diocese as a whole. Prayer must constitute the majority of our efforts to restore an appreciation of the sacred, and what better way to pray than this? A Nod of the Miter to Fr. Tanck for allowing the Our Lady of Lourdes/St. Anne Knights of Columbus to sponsor such a noble thing.
I have been asked not to “spoil the liturgical surprise,” but I will say that the glorious echo at St. Thomas may just be used for that purpose for which it was created – the glorious strains of Gregorian Chant.
Again – this will be at 7:00PM, November 2, at St. Thomas (in the church itself).
Tags: Events, Music Sacred Catholic Liturgical and Chant, News and Media, Orthodoxy at Work, Reflection, Vocations
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It would be really nice if someone official from the diocese showed up as well. It might be too much to expect the bishop (although that would be fantastic!)but perhaps someone else is available. We -the Knights of Coucil 11411- have had several of these rosaries for vocations in our diocese over the last couple of years, beginning originally at St. Anne Church on Mt. Hope Avenue. They have been very well prepared, and very prayerful (and they have definitely been effective). The last one at St. Margaret Mary Church in Irondequoit was well attended and a beautiful prayer service ending with Benediction. I remember that Fr. Bonsignore gave a wonderful sermon/homily and that the music was excellent. I’m thrilled to see that he will be leading this next one. I’m also very happy to see that the rosary for vocations series is being continued. Thank you to all involved in the planning and execution of this most worthy venture.
I wonder if anyone called Buffalo Road to let them know they were having a worthwhile service like this at the church. Not defending the bishop; however, I presume his calendar is managed far in advance, so he could be wrongly chastised for not being a part. It is a local event and great if well attended by all.
Forgive me but this is a sham. All these efforts to attract young men, and then they are told they are not worthy of a priestly vocation in the DOR because they are too orthodox.
God gives only a certain number of vocations and if you trash these, there will be none forthcoming.
And yet, there is a priest shortage and multiple parishes close and the spirit of thousands of parishoners is torn asunder by the ideology of the bishop. A real Darth Vader.
A Rosary prayer service for any reason ia always worthwhile, but, I personally think that for it to take place at our beautiful church is like flogging a dead horse. Bish Clark has decided that our parish will close, and that’s that. He wants to get his gruby hands on Monsignor Burns’ legacy to our parish, and nothinc will stand in his way. You must all consider that he laid the groundworks for his goal quite a number of yearts ago, when he closed our school. He knows that a parish is like a family, and it takes children to make a family. Remove the children, and the family no longer exists.
I don’t think you should take out your aggressions on the only group of people actually doing anything about the vocations crisis. Having Solemn Benediction with torchbearers, acolytes, and schola, and following the rubrics of the Extraordinary Form, is hardly a sham.
Many young people have emailed us, spoken with us, commiserated with us, and the general sentiment is that they’re waiting till things are different in Rochester. There are tons of vocations out there, but they’re waiting for the sun to come out from behind the clouds of dissent until they bloom.
I don’t mean to sound harsh. It’s just that there is so much negativity in the Diocese, and when there is something non-partisan and genuinely beautiful, it’s our duty, as Catholics, to support it. (This Vocations Rosary, as far as we have been told, is not in any way affiliated with the Diocese. It’s an event sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.)
As I was involved with the start-up of the Vocations Rosary I can assure people that it is totally a Knights of Columbus Council 11411 project and not connected in any way with with our diocese.
Bernie, that is what I alluded to in my post. I interpreted it as a “local event.” If you want the Bishop to attend, he at least has to know about it a bit in advance, I presume. I wish you a full church.
Gilbert – the event is going to be recorded in its totality. Video, photo, and audio. It’s a way of memorializing the parish, using something beautiful when the Knights still have the opportunity to do so. We’re blessed to be able to let people know about this event, and volunteers are just crawling out of the woodwork, wondering how they can help out. Musicians, servers, knights, etc. I think the amount of zeal and enthusiasm going into this by so many people is a sign that the fight is not over. Bernie was personally involved in planning these, as he’s said, and he can definitely convey the sense of what these things are all about. I’m just an outsider relaying emails! 😉
Again, folks, this has NO ties to the diocese. It might actually be a detriment to the service to drag in certain individuals whose pastoral focuses aren’t exactly oriented towards this kind of thing. It’s a prayer service. And what more fitting venue than a church that is being forced to shut down because it doesn’t have a priest? Personally, I think this whole thing is very well thought out.
Why on Earth would we want the Bishop there? It’s going to be a glorious evening of Gregorian Chant, humble prayer, and great devotion. Having the Bishop (and his Mistress of Ceremonies) present would definitely mar the spirit of the event.
I wish this weren’t so, but think about it. Do you really think Bishop Clark would enjoy this kind of service, and on the flip-side, do you think the people who go to these would enthusiastically support one of his ecumenical prayer services? There’s an unfortunate gulf in Rochester between what is the norm and what should be the norm. Hopefully things like this can find even more support in coming years.
interestly enough, this is also election day.