Revive! @ Eucharistic Congress 2011

Here's the remarks by Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory at the Revive! celebration on the first

evening of Eucharistic Celebration 2011.

Adoration Chapel

There's a constant stream of women, men, and children into the conference room set aside for prayer and eucharistic adoration at the Georgia International Conference Center, long time home for the Eucharistic Congress.

The Atlanta Archdiocese just marked the 16th annual celebration on June 24th and 25th. Estimates are that more than 20,000 people attend.

Below is a photo of adoration chapel with the diversity of people in prayer.

Catholic Chapel Closes on Fort McPherson, Atlanta, Ga.

Video Interview with Father James Martin

Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and best-selling author, visited Atlanta during the last week in May. He did a Q & A with young people at the Ignatius Jesuit Retreat House in Atlanta. Some 60 people came to hear him speak.

After talking for close to two hours, posing for photos and signing his books, Father Martin kindly stood in front of my iPhone for a short interview on video. (I'm a bit of a novice with the video on my phone, so it's a bit wobbly. I need to work on that.)

Here's the video:

Chapel Blessing

SMYRNA - The Atlanta Archdiocese celebrated the blessing of its new chapel Thursday, May 26, at the Chancery.
Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory was the main celebrant, along with Aux. Bishop Luis R. Zarama and several priests and deacons.

These photos were taken with my iPhone and then filtered through a couple photo apps.

-Andrew

From upper left, the Blessed Sacrament ciborium

before being taken to the tabernacl; prayer card cover;

and Easter Candle and reader

Gathering prayer with altar

before blessing with holy water

Communion

These windows adorn the chapel, dedicated to St. Dominic.

Clockwise from left, Mother and Child Jesus, with on the right St. Joseph, and St. Dominic. He is the patron of astronomers, astronomy and falsely accused people.

You can read and hear about the installation of the stained glass here.

Ordination at Holy Spirit Monastery

I had the good fortune to spend some time at the Holy Spirit Monastery recently. The assignment was to write about the ordination of a monk.

CONYERS - With prayers and ancient rituals, the monks at Holy Spirit Monastery and friends celebrated the ordination of Brother Augustine Myslinski to the priesthood.
Friends and colleagues crowded the abbey church Saturday, April 30, as streaming light from the stained glass windows made the stone glow blue.

A long faith journey for now Father Augustine Myslinksi came to an end when he kneeled in front of Auxiliary Bishop Luis R. Zarama and the bishop in silent prayer laid his hands on the monk’s head. During that moment, the church teaches that a man receives the Holy Spirit to serve as a priest.

“May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfillment,” said the bishop.

Read the rest of the story and in next week's edition of the Georgia Bulletin. Below is the video of the procession at the end of Mass:

Who would have thought?

Today when I came cross the story of the School Sisters of Notre Dame selling a Honus Wagner baseball card for more than $260,0o0, I kicked myself for tossing my extensive collection of cards all those years ago. Not that I had any particular card that could compare to an early 1900s item of such value, but maybe in about 40 years some of them would have been worth more than the 50 cents I spent buying those old packs (which were usually complete with a stale, stiff piece of regular chewing gum).

Apparently the rare baseball card was inherited from the deceased brother of one of the nuns and purchased by a collector and card shop owner from Knoxville, Tenn. But what was most intriguing to me about this story was that the Baltimore-based religious order, which has a special focus on teaching, education and mission work, now has over $200,000 to dedicate to their ministries that are present in 30 countries throughout the world.

Who would have thought something like collecting baseball cards, that distracted me from school and homework all those years ago, could actually have a profound impact in education around the world?

Stephen, Staff Writer

To read the full AP story, please click here.

Does that face on TV look familiar? You may be sharing a pew with them.

Two Catholics in the Atlanta Archdiocese are hopefuls in national contests.

The first is Henry Chandler, chef/owner of Henry’s Louisiana Grill, Acworth.

Out of thousands of nominations, he is one of 18 finalists to be named the “People’s Platelist" sponsored by "Nightline." The winner is to be an “authentic and creative chef” with a signature dish and cuisine. Votes are cast online here.
According to the Web site:

Over 1,000 of you wrote in to nominate a local chef for the Nightline People's Platelist contest. 20 finalists were announced on Aug. 2 and 18 submitted short videos. Now you can vote for which of the top 18 you think should win! The chef with the most votes from viewers across America will be featured on national television!

Click here to see the videos of the finalists.

The essay to nominate Chandler reads:

Take one little boy growing up in a Louisiana kitchen at his nanny's elbow. Mix in college in Lafayette, Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Christmas Festivals in Natchitoches. Marinate for three years in European culinary schools. Return to the States for further seasoning. Observe carefully as ingredients ignite. Contain fiery mixture in small town restaurant and present: Chef Henry Chandler!

He attends St. Catherine of Siena Church in Kennesaw.
If you like Chandler’s message, go eat in his restaurant and vote for him. Or vote then go eat. The online voting ends Sept. 26th at 11:59 p.m., ET.

(Disclaimer: The Georgia Bulletin has not gotten any jambalaya for this news items. Laissez les bons temps rouler.)

And the second local face on national TV is Andie DeKroon, a contestant on the “Amazing Race.” DeKroon's brother is Father Paul Willams, pastor of St. Joseph Church, Dalton.

A graduate of Marist School, DeKroon has her birth daughter, Jenna Sykes, 21, as a team mate in the around-the-world scavenger hunt.

The race features 11 teams traveling across four continents and 30 cities with first time visits to Bangladesh, Ghana and the Arctic Circle. It is the 17th season for the CBS show, which premiers on Sunday, Sept. 26.

The mother and daughter recently reunited. When the two stand at the start line it will be only the third time the mother and birth daughter have been together since Sykes was adopted more than 20 years .

“I'm definitely having a midlife crisis,” DeKroon says. On her lifelong to-do list is skydiving, bungee jumping and a diver’s certificate.

“I hope to get to know my birth mother through this incredible opportunity,” 21-year-old Sykes says. “It is my hope that we will be able to spend a lot of time together and become friends.”

See their video

My time as a "Knight of the Altar'

Altar servers have recently been in the Catholic news when for the first time girl servers outnumbered the boys at a celebration at the Vatican.

That spurred some recollection of my own when I served as a ‘Knight of the Altar,’ as we were called.

My first thought was: how cool a ministry name is that? Nothing namby pampy about seeing yourself as a knight for a grade school kid.

In truth, a highlight of my service is a story that makes me chuckle.

I’ll set the stage. It would have been early 1980s. I was either in third or fourth grade. Our church – St. Sebastian Church, in Frankfurt, Germany –hosted Cardinal Terrence Cooke, archbishop of New York. He was touring Catholic facilities used by U.S. military families as part of his duties as military vicar.

Time has erased most of my memory of the visit, except when he celebrated Mass.

The small sanctuary was naturally jammed with priests. A cardinal coming through was not a usual occurrence. The one familiar face in the crowd was 'Father Joe,' who was either the pastor or a parochial vicar of our parish.

Somehow during the liturgy of the Eucharist, I was assigned the all-important task to ring the bells during the consecration. At the appointed time, I swear the one face I recognized – Fr. Joe – smiled at me and I took it as the signal to ring those bells. I rang them so hard that it was like a heavenly court of angels were present. You’d have been hard pressed to find an altar server ringing bells with more zeal.

Pause. A few moments later, again, ringing those bells like never before.

Later I realized I rung the bells at the wrong time! I used the hand bell during the Eucharistic Prayer leading to the consecration of the bread and wine. During the proper bell ringing moment – when the cardinal would have held up the body and blood of Christ - silence. Not a chime escaped from the bells.

I can only imagine what the cardinal was thinking. A “prince of the church” and he couldn’t have an altar boy who knew when to ring the bells correctly.

You may be thinking that surely brought my service to an end. But you’d be wrong. I continued to serve at the altar for years after. As I followed my brother in this service to the church, I was followed by my younger sister who fainted while serving Midnight Mass. But that’s her story to tell.

--Andrew, Staff Writer

Sudanese Catholics joined together to celebrate Mass

Sudanese Catholics joined together to celebrate Mass on Sunday, June 27.

Leading the prayers were three bishops from the east African country who visited Atlanta as part of a trip to the United States.

I wrote about what the visit meant to the community, many who escaped their war-torn native lands as refugees. They talked about walking for hundreds of miles to escape burning villages and detouring around vast minefields as if that were normal. Look for the story in next week's Georgia Bulletin.

Meanwhile, here's a short video shot at the Mass with a focus on the choir.

On the road to South Africa

My colleague, Michael Alexander, wrote about his changing interest in the "beautiful game" and the young people, including a standout from Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School, heading to South Africa for a global soccer competition.

In the video below, Katelyn Longino talks about what she hopes to learn from the trip.

Godspeed and safe journey to Katelyn and all the young people from around the world traveling to South Africa for this unique event.

--Andrew

PS: Atlanta Magazine profiled Ricardo Clark, a graduate of St. Pius X Catholic High School who plays for the USA soccer team.



Read this week's Georgia Bulletin to learn the rest of the story.