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St. Mary's Worship

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20 August 2009 - 3:05pm — joyce

 Welcome to St. Mary’s University Parish here at CMU. I am Fr. Will Prospero, S.J., the pastor. My pastoral associate is Mr. Jeremy Priest, a lay minister. We are here to serve you. We hope that St. Mary’s will become your home away from home. We all come from different worship experiences in our home parishes. Some parishes have very lively music in very modern churches, even with drums, guitars and other instruments; some come from very traditional churches with very traditional music. Some come from churches where there is little participation in singing, others lots of  participation in singing. Some of your parishes have lots of youth involvement, maybe even a youth Mass. Some of you come from a mix of all of the above. All of these are part of the Catholic mix. Our hope is that you can feel at home here, and if you don’t please come and talk to us.

 
Student Focus
We have a special mission here at St. Mary’s. We are unique because we are surrounded by a college campus, and so we have a special mission to CMU students, faculty and staff. Students, though, are our main focus. Students make this parish happen; you are the main reason for its existence. We depend on student leadership. There are many groups, prayer and service opportunities, and events to get involved in. Our extremely talented music directors, Ted and Brandi Brauker, are CMU music school students. If you want to sing in the choir or have a special musical talent, please speak with them. 
 
Witnesses
A major emphasis in our mission here is to be a strong Catholic Christian witness on a secular college campus. The Catholic voice and presence is a very important one; it is a voice that should not be placed into our back pocket when we leave Mass. Our world needs to hear it; we do have something good to offer, really good! We need to be personally convinced of the goodness of our faith, then we can be credible witnesses. The Holy Spirit is a fire, and we need to burn with the love of the Holy Spirit to convince others of the attraction of our faith. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that we are serious Christians, who actively seek the holiness of God. We do this as a community, helping each other to grow in holiness.
 
Prayer and Silence
Being a witness first means we are a praying community. Essential to every Christian’s life is prayer. Prayer that includes regular meditation and contemplation of the mysteries of Christ’s life, is promoted and practiced here at St. Mary’s. The world today, much different than it was even just 20 years ago, is filled with noise. Noise. There is lots of noise from ipods, cell phones, computers, and all the many forms of instant communication and electronic interaction. Holy Mass is a time to leave noise behind for one solid hour, at least once a week. So our time here has a special emphasis on sacred silence and contemplation of the mysteries of God. Our music and choir would be described as more traditional and contemplative, helping us to quiet down and enter into the power of our Holy Catholic Mass. So much is happening at Mass that if our senses, both physical and spiritual, are not attuned, we will miss much of what is going on. Contemplation and silence at Mass are critical to our appreciation of Catholic worship.
 
For some of you, silent contemplative worship may not be what you are used to. It may even be a difficult challenge at first. I invite you to give it a serious try. Be open to the reverent contemplation of the Divine Mysteries we celebrate. Let yourself be attracted to the silence, let your physical and spiritual senses be drawn into the holiness of God, Who can only be perceived in silence and humility.
 
Fr. Will