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“Top of the day!” as the Irish would say upon greeting and my response would be “and the rest of the day to you.”  Best wishes to you as we start the month of August for many who have children going back to school and those who prepare to teach those children. May God give us His guidance.

We were blessed to have a full Mass on the 22nd thanks to Father Andrews coming. We were blessed to have his lovely wife Anneliese also. The Friday before, Nick spearheaded a gathering at his house and it was a spiritual and fun time. Nick even played his ancient pump organ. We are so blessed to have Father Andrews, Nick and a whole family of God lovers in our midst.

We had a lovely sung morning prayer service with the Presanctified Gifts last Saturday. The choral postlude “Fanfare and Air” by Henry Purcell from the 1680”s was very special. This Saturday will include a chanted Litany with sung responses, along with Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. May God continue to bless this mission church.

For you star gazers, we had a Supermoon last night and we will have a rare blue Supermoon August 30th. It will be the the biggest and brightest Supermoon of 2023. We are blessed to experience God’s creation.

From Deacon Ron Reno:

Top of day as they would say in “Merry Old England.” They may be eating strawberries and cream, drinking a Pimm’s Cup cocktail at Wimbledon; we are enjoying the beauty that God has blessed us with in Nebraska. I hope everyone can get out of the city and maybe enjoy someplace like the Mahoney State Park, our amazing world class Zoo or enjoy a drive to one of our local wineries. Check out the beauty that surrounds you. They say to stop and smell the roses. God would agree. We did the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts with the Litany last weekend, The Merbecke Gloria and Agnus Dei by the choir were exceptional. We are blessed to have so many God loving people around us.

The following is part of a homily given by Archbishop Robert Sherwood Morse several years ago. It is very poignant.

“The Church is the mystical Body of Christ. In its essence it is not a building, nor a society organized to do good. It is rather a communion, a mysterious Body in which we are all together in union with Christ. The Holy Spirit is everywhere. A teacher in a ghetto in New York City described to the children who had never seen a rainbow what it looked like. One little boy came to class and raised his hand and said, ‘I saw a rainbow today.’ The teacher said, ‘Where did you see it? I didn’t see one.’ The little boy said, ‘I saw it in the gutter.’ He had seen an oil slick, and to him it was a rainbow. The beauty, the love, and the truth of God the Holy Spirit are everywhere.”  God bless

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From Deacon Ron Reno:

Another fine weekend to live in Nebraska. We have been blessed with good weather although we could use more rain. We had a sung morning prayer service that included the “Communion of the Presanctifed Gifts.” Nick leads MP and is our organist too. I loved the Music for the Royal Fireworks by Handel as the organ prelude. It is always a blessing to chant the Venite, the Psalms and the Te Deum. We are a work in progress in learning to chant these historic, Godly, and  venerated canticles. The choir sung the Agnus Dei.

Father Andrew’s homily hit home on our collect: “O God the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy: that thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not things eternal. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake our Lord. Amen” Please read Father’s homily when you get time.

Excerpts from Thomas A Kempis “The imitation of Christ.” I use this book to keep me focused on doing God’s work.

“Lord, I will willingly bear for Thee whatsoever Thou wilt have to come upon me. Without choice I will receive from Thy hand good and evil, sweet and bitter, joy and sadness, and will give Thee thanks for all things which shall happen unto me. Keep me from all sin, and i will not fear death nor hell.”  God, please grant us your armor and guidance, Deacon

From Deacon Ron Reno:

We had another blessed service last Saturday. Our epistle reading focused on humility and on being humble under the hand of God. It said to be sober and vigilant and  I think it was another lesson to understand the truth of Jesus. His good news asks us to be afraid of the devil, but to remain steadfast in the faith and share His good news in a humble fashion. We are witnesses as it says in Acts 1:8 but we pray for humility in our heart as we do His work on this earth.

Yes, we can evangelize because the Holy Spirit is given to us through baptism and confirmation. We all need to learn more about our faith but we have Christ as our sovereign leader, the Holy Spirit to help us with His evangelization and being God’s disciple as our goal. God bless, Deacon

From Deacon Ron Reno:

Good afternoon! Summer is hitting in full stride in Omaha with the high 80’s and low 90’s for the next 7 days. We prayed for it and it is here. The College World Series is finishing up in Omaha and I suspect the players are relishing the good weather. Our Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts last weekend included the chanting of the Litany. The history of the English litany comes to us as a Latin intercessory prayer including its petitions going back to the fifth century in Rome. The prayer book litany was the first English rite prepared by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and first published in English in 1544. It is the perfect gateway to the mysteries of the Eucharist. It is a noble gateway to our presanctified gifts. Through this litany is the preparation and humble intercession for the human race and leads unto the Gospel of Christ.

Our service this week will be without music. It will be much closer and reverent to how it was done in the early days of the church. We are blessed  to have the Presanctified Gifts available in this mission church. Thank you Father Andrews for being our priest in charge and having these presanctified elements available to us.

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From Deacon Ron Reno:

Thank God for another wonderful spring day. After the long winter we endured, we are ready for this. We had a wonderful Rogation service with wonderful music. It was a blessing to have Nick sing the Litany, the choir and our people for the chanted responses. That was a very appropriate way start out that service. We are blessed to have our services at the Our Lady of Mercy Chapel on the campus of the the College of Saint Mary. This Saturday is the graduation ceremony for the college and our service will be moved to 11:00 am on Sunday. We need to give thanks to Lynda and CSM for working with us for our time of worship.

The Ascension of Christ is this Thursday May 18th. The Ascension of Christ led to the new evangelization given to our Apostles. This evangelization has led people to know Jesus all over this world. It has led to great churches to be built and mission churches to be started. We are one of those mission churches and our job is to preach His Gospel. This is the Great Commission that God gave us to do after Christ’s Ascension. The Ascension is about Jesus’ triumph and to get our attention off ourselves and allow the Holy Ghost to enter our souls to do this commission. God bless, Deacon

From Deacon Ron Reno:

Springtime weather in Omaha finally! Get outdoors and enjoy it!

The Sacrifice of the Lamb at the Good Friday service is a reminder of Christ’s victory of the Cross. We must never forget what our Savior did for us; His victory of love to the end. The cross was victorious for us because it bore the fruit for our salvation. During our humble service it was especially moving when Nick, Lynda, Julia, Julie and David sang the Passion according to Saint John. Thank you!

Our Easter service was befitting of a mission church to celebrate Christ’s Triumph and His Resurrection. Jesus’s Resurrection brought us a new humanity and a opportunity to share His Risen life. Father Andrew’s homily was excellent. This mission church celebrated with wonderful Easter Hymns and the offertory hymn “Come, Ye Faithful” was especially appropriate. The Regina Coeli was also sung by the choir. We are blessed to have God loving people in this mission church.

We also need to thank God for the sacrifice, His Son made for us. Deacon