Mass Schedule – Week of Easter II (May 4, 2014)
5, Feria
6, Feria
7, Feria
8, St. Monica
9, St. Gregory of Nazianzus
10, Feria
+ Our parking lot is scheduled to be paved Monday afternoon therefore if you are coming to mass or any other business at the parish you should park at the steps and enter through the white door next to the bell tower. Daily Mass will be celebrated Monday through Saturday at 12:15 p.m. as usual. You and your family members are remembered by name at the Altar of God every week. Please take an All Saints parish prayer list home with you & remember your fellow parishioners in your prayers.
+ We know about Monica almost entirely from the autobiography (the Confessions) of her son Augustine, theologian and philosopher. Monica was born in North Africa, near Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, perhaps around 331, of Christian parents, and was a Christian throughout her life. As a girl, she was fond of wine, but on one occasion was taunted by a slave girl for drunkenness, and resolved not to drink thereafter. She was married to a pagan husband, Patricius, a man of hot temper, who was often unfaithful to her, but never insulted or struck her. Monica soon recognized her son’s extraordinary intellectual gifts, his natural leadership, and she had strong ambitions and high hopes for his success in a secular career. However, she grew in spiritual maturity through a life of prayer, and her ambitions for his worldly success were transformed into a desire for his conversion. Augustine in his youth rejected the Christian religion with scorn, and looked to various pagan philosophies for clues to the meaning of life. He undertook a career as an orator and teacher of the art of oratory (rhetoric), and moved from Africa to Rome and thence to Milan, at that time the seat of government in Italy. Monica followed him to Milan where she and her son came under the influence of Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan. It was through him that Augustine converted and was baptized on Easter Eve in 387. Monica fell ill and died shortly after his baptism. When she was close to death she spoke to her son and said: “You will bury your mother here. All I ask of you is that, wherever you may be, you should remember me at the altar of the Lord. Do not fret because I am buried far from our home in Africa. Nothing is far from God, and I have no fear that he will not know where to find me, when he comes to raise me to life at the end of the world.”
+ Gregory of Nazianzus (Bishop, Confessor & Doctor, 329 – 389) was the Bishop of Nazianzus and is numbered amongst the Cappadocian Fathers, along with Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. The son of a bishop suffragan, Gregory was educated at the highly esteemed University of Athens, which would later aid him in defending the Nicene proclamation of Christ’s divinity against Arianism. He subsequently gave up his solitary life as a monk and was ordained priest and later bishop. Gregory is best known for the role he played in shaping the conclusions of the Nicene Creed during the Council of Constantinople in 381. His deep knowledge and love of scripture allowed him to convey through poetic language the ineffable love that exists between the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Called “the Theologian,” Gregory was given to the Church to teach the faith and guide God’s people in the way of everlasting salvation. Pray that God continues to give us learned and holy teachers, so that we do not lose our way in this generation.
+ All Saints Men’s Group which meets Tuesdays at 7:00 a.m. in the undercroft will meet next Tuesday, May 6.
+ Our Monday morning Bible study will meet May 12, 2014 in the Undercroft. For further information about the Monday morning Bible Study please contact Priscilla King, 540-456-6458 – kingplk@gmail.com.
+ All Saints parishioner may obtain a Mass card from the Church office. A Mass card is a greeting card given to someone to inform him or her that a deceased loved one or friend was remembered and prayed for at a weekly Mass. It is a specifically Christian way to express one’s love. Call Julie McDermott at the Church office (434-979-2842) and she will help you fill out the form. The celebrant will sign the card and we will mail it from the Church to the family of the loved one.