Hello Everyone,
I hope you’re having a good week. As you know, we will be hosting a forty hours devotion at Saint Timothy’s, beginning on Friday night. We’re excited to host this weekend of prayer and adoration once again this year. It was great to see so many of you come last year.
First, for those who may be new to this devotion, we will be moving the Eucharist into the main church from the adoration chapel. This is the consecrated host that we know and believe to be the real presence of Jesus Christ. As you can see in the picture above, we move some extra candelabras into the main church to highlight and honor the Lord in a special way and add to the prayer. People can come to adore throughout the weekend and pray in quiet and peace. We also will be having a number of opportunities for communal prayer. Any unfamiliar prayer, such as the “Divine Office”, will come with a special booklet that you can pray along with us. Whether you want to say some prayers in quiet with the Lord or join us for some group prayer activities or talks, I am hoping that our whole parish will be able to take some time during this season of Lent to be with the Lord in a special way this weekend. We can pray for our families and others, ask for God’s help in our own lives, and simply be in the peaceful presence of Christ. We will also offer a booklet that will include some prayers that you might want to say before the Eucharist on your own and other reading material in case you would like some particular prayers or meditations to reflect upon or pray. The full schedule is here. Each hour has been set aside to pray for a particular suggested intention. You can, of course, pray for anything that you would like and there are no spoken prayers or activities associated with these prayers, but you might want to come at a certain hour to pray for that particular intention.
With that, I’d like to give a preview of the evening on Friday night.
8:00 PM – At 8:00 PM, we begin our forty hours devotion. While the ceremony itself is very simple, as we will simply move the Eucharist from the chapel to the main church, sing the “O Salutaris Song” while incensing the Blessed Sacrament, read the Gospel, and then have a homily followed by 45 minutes of quiet adoration, we are blessed to welcome Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan, rector of the Saint Paul Seminary to help us to open the devotions. Msgr. Callaghan will preach a homily that will set the tone for our weekend and then we can spend some quiet time in prayer. It would be great to see many of you join us for this opening homily and exposition.
9:00 PM – We will pray the rosary together in the main church. I’m sure many of us are familiar with this prayer, but for those who are not, you can simply follow along. Friday is set aside for meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries. We will meditate on these mysteries of Christ’s life within our hearts while reciting Our Father’s and Hail Mary’s. We ask for Mary’s help and protection upon us, our loved ones, and our parish. The intention for this hour formally is to pray for our Pope, our bishops, and our priests.
10:00 PM – We will pray night prayer from the Divine Office. Priests and deacons promise to pray the divine office five times a day when they are ordained. The entire Church is encouraged to pray the same. It is a way of consecrating our entire day to the Lord and to make sure we are taking time throughout our day to pray. The divine office involves psalms from the Scriptures, Scriptural reading, and other prayers. Recognizing that this is new to most of you, I will lead the Divine Office and give instructions during these times. We will have special prayer booklets for each of the Divine Office hours. You can pray the same exact prayers that every single bishop, priest, deacon, and lay person is praying throughout the world, whether they are halfway across the world or near to home. Traditionally, the night prayer is the last prayer that one says before going to sleep. The closing line is “May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.” Night prayer is one of the shortest prayers in the Divine Office and will only take about five minutes. Once night prayer is complete, the rest of this hour will be devoted to silent prayer and meditation with the Lord.
11:00 PM – This hour is completely dedicated to silent prayer with the Eucharist, as are the remaining nighttime hours until 8:00 AM on Saturday morning. Again, each of these hours has a special intention assigned to it. This hour is dedicated to Christian Unity. It is always a powerful experience to be praying with the Lord during the night, when it is very peaceful and quiet. Feel free to stop in and say a prayer or spend an hour in the presence of the Lord during these night time hours. The candles from the candelabras will help light the altar and church throughout the night.
I will continue writing about the events on Saturday and Sunday in the days ahead. As a reminder, please make plans in a special way to attend the closing evening prayer and benediction on Sunday at 4:00 PM. Anne Pribyl, the choir, and musicians are preparing wonderful music. We will have visiting clergy, including our previous pastors, and a nice reception hosted by the CCW in the school afterwards.
Let’s pray for each other and our parish and families throughout this weekend. I hope to see you there.
Father Meyer
Church of St. Timothy Parish News 