17 March 2021
The Feast of St. Patrick
My Dear People of the Diocese of Nashville,
As springtime begins anew, I am pleased to announce a new phase of our response to the covid-19 pandemic that has afflicted our world for over a year. Last week, the three Bishops of Tennessee collaboratively discussed our plans for restoring the obligation to attend Sunday Mass in the State of Tennessee. Here in the Diocese of Nashville, the obligation will return as of the weekend of Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021. The bishops took into account the rapid decline in hospitalizations and deaths, our emergence from the winter flu season, and the now widespread availability of vaccination, in particular those in vulnerable demographic categories. Steadily increasing attendance at Mass is now straining the limited capacity of many of our churches. We have consulted with leaders in the Catholic healthcare system throughout the state, who support our plan and have assured us that it is prudent and reasonable. Therefore, today, exactly one year after the dispensation was put in place, I have signed a decree formally restoring the obligation to attend Mass, effective Palm Sunday.
In conjunction with the lifting of the dispensation, Palm Sunday will also be a time when some of your own parish’s covid-related precautions may be modified, including increased seating availability, and the use of facial coverings at some masses or events becoming optional. We will remain prudent, however, as not all precautions will be set aside. I am leaving significant discretion to your pastor, in consultation with lay leadership in the parish, to discern the details of this transition in the way best suited to your community. I also take this opportunity to remind you that, even once the obligation is restored, the law of the Church envisions situations where the obligation does not apply because of a grave cause; serious ongoing risks and concerns you might have about the coronavirus can certainly constitute that grave cause. At the same time, I believe that the health situation now permits a fuller expression of the Church’s life and a reasonable courage and confidence in the face of what is now a much-reduced risk. Personal responsibility is a centerpiece of our Faith; each person is called to exercise this responsibility with prudence and wisdom at all times, and especially in times such as this. I humbly ask for your cooperation and flexibility in working with all our pastors and parish leaders as they collaborate with me to navigate this challenging transition to normalcy.
In that light, allow me to take this opportunity to thank you for the extraordinary faithfulness and understanding you have shown and continue to show as we have continued to live the life of our Church during this extraordinary time. We pray that the Divine Physician will protect and defend us, today and always, from all illness of body, mind, and spirit.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend J. Mark Spalding, D.D., J.C.L.
Bishop of Nashville
Read full article on the Tennessee Register
3-17-21-Letter-and-Decree96-1A
All children of the parish are invited to join us for an Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday, March 28 after the 11:00 mass. We will gather in the back parking lot. You can bring your own basket or there will be bags provided.
We are in need of individually wrapped candy to stuff the eggs. Non-chocolate candy or treats preferred. Please drop off any candy in the church vestibule or church office before March 21.
If you would like to order an Easter Lily as a memorial to be placed in the Church for Easter, please call the Church Office at 615-889-4065
or email Cyndi at cynthia@holyrosary.edu.
Suggested stipend:$15. Please be sure to contact Cyndi
NO LATER than March 31st at NOON.
I would like to share with you from the Liturgy of the Hours, the second reading on Feb. 27, 2021.
From the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council.
(Gaudium et spes, Nn. 9-10) Man’s deeper questionings)
The world of today reveals itself as at once powerful and weak, capable of achieving the best or the worst. There lies open before it the way to freedom or slavery, progress or regression, brotherhood or hatred. In addition, man is becoming aware that it is for himself to give the right direction to forces that he himself has awakened, forces that can be his master or his servant. He therefore puts questions to himself. The tensions disturbing the world of today are in fact related to a more fundamental tension rooted in the human heart. In man himself many elements are in conflict with each other. On one side, he has experience of his many limitations as a creature. On the other, he knows that there is no limit to his aspirations, and that he is called to a higher kind of life.
Many things compete for his attention, but he is always compelled to make a choice among them, and to renounce some. What is more, in his weakness and sinfulness he often does what he does not want to do, and fails to do what he would like to do. In consequence, he suffers from a conflict within himself, and this in turn gives rise to so many great tensions in society.
Very many people, infected as they are with a materialistic way of life, cannot see this dramatic state of affairs in all its clarity, or at least are prevented from giving thought to it because of the unhappiness that they themselves experience.
Many think that they can find peace in the different philosophies that are proposed. Some look for complete and genuine liberation for man from man’s efforts alone. They are convinced that the coming kingdom of man on earth will satisfy all the desires of his heart.
There are those who despair of finding any meaning in life: they commend the boldness of those who deny all significance to human existence in itself, and seek to impose a total meaning on it only from within themselves.
But in the face of the way the world is developing today, there is an ever-increasing number of people who are asking the most fundamental questions or are seeing them with a keener awareness: What is man? What is the meaning of pain, of evil, of death, which still persist in spite of such great progress? What is the use of those successes, achieved at such a cost? What can man contribute to society, what can he expect from society? What will come after this life on earth?
The Church believes that Christ died and rose for all, and can give man light and strength through his Spirit to fulfill his highest calling; his is the only name under heaven in which men can be saved.
So too, the Church believes that the center and goal of all human history is found in her Lord and Master.
The Church also affirms that underlying all changes there are many things that do not change; they have their ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Praised be Jesus Christ, Now, and Forever!
The Men of St. Joseph (Mens Group) is a community of Christian men, united under the Catholic Church, who meet weekly to pray together and encourage each other to be the spiritual leaders of their families. All men are welcome. This lay person-led group has weekly meetings that consist of prayer, reading the upcoming Sunday’s Gospel, and an open discussion of a practical application of that Gospel in today’s world. This weekly prescription helps give men the tools, confidence, and support of other men, to become the spiritual leaders we are all called to be. We have two weekly opportunities to meet:
Both are held here at Holy Rosary Church in the St. Jerome conference room. Meetings last up to an hour. We hope to see you there!
Contact:
John Yanacek
john.yanacek@comcast.net
(615)476-5716
For more info go to https://www.menofstjoseph.com/
I would like to share with you from the Liturgy of the Hours, the second reading on Feb. 27, 2021
From the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council
(Gaudium et spes, Nn. 9-10) Man’s deeper questionings
The world of today reveals itself as at once powerful and weak, capable of achieving the best or the worst. There lies open before it the way to freedom or slavery, progress or regression, brotherhood or hatred. In addition, man is becoming aware that it is for himself to give the right direction to forces that he himself has awakened, forces that can be his master or his servant. He therefore puts questions to himself.
The tensions disturbing the world of today are in fact related to a more fundamental tension rooted in the human heart. In man himself many elements are in conflict with each other. On one side, he has experience of his many limitations as a creature. On the other, he knows that there is no limit to his aspirations, and that he is called to a higher kind of life.
Many things compete for his attention, but he is always compelled to make a choice among them, and to renounce some. What is more, in his weakness and sinfulness he often does what he does not want to do, and fails to do what he would like to do. In consequence, he suffers from a conflict within himself, and this in turn gives rise to so many great tensions in society.
Very many people, infected as they are with a materialistic way of life, cannot see this dramatic state of affairs in all its clarity, or at least are prevented from giving thought to it because of the unhappiness that they themselves experience.
Many think that they can find peace in the different philosophies that are proposed.
Some look for complete and genuine liberation for man from man’s efforts alone. They are convinced that the coming kingdom of man on earth will satisfy all the desires of his heart.
There are those who despair of finding any meaning in life: they commend the boldness of those who deny all significance to human existence in itself, and seek to impose a total meaning on it only from within themselves.
But in the face of the way the world is developing today, there is an ever increasing number of people who are asking the most fundamental questions or are seeing them with a keener awareness: What is man? What is the meaning of pain, of evil, of death, which still persist in spite of such great progress? What is the use of those successes, achieved at such a cost? What can man contribute to society, what can he expect from society? What will come after this life on earth?
The Church believes that Christ died and rose for all, and can give man light and strength through his Spirit to fulfill his highest calling; his is the only name under heaven in which men can be saved.
So too the Church believes that the center and goal of all human history is found in her Lord and Master.
The Church also affirms that underlying all changes there are many things that do not change; they have their ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Praised be Jesus Christ, Now, and Forever!
My dear family,
I would like to strongly encourage each of you to consecrate yourselves to Mary this year. Our Lord calls her our eternal Mother and Mary wants to protect us and keep us close to Her Son’s Most Sacred. Here is a beautiful Consecration prayer to Mary. When we give ourselves to Mary she takes us immediately to Her Son, while pleading for us at His side so we may receive His Divine life. Mary is the mother of all living and desires you and me to live in freedom from sin and death.
In Christ, through Mary, Father Steiner
Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Prayer of Consecration
As the Father has chosen you, O Mary, to be His Immaculate Child, Joseph’s spouse, and the Mother of His beloved Son and of the whole Church, in full communion with the Holy Spirit, so we choose you this day as Mother and Queen of our whole family; and we consecrate to you our souls and our bodies, all that we do and all that we have, without exception. Envelop each one of us with your most maternal mercy. Teach us to love Jesus and the Father always more, and in and through them, to love one another in the Holy Spirit, discovering one another ever more profoundly in the light of Jesus, respecting one another, and choosing one another each day with a more divine and simple love. O Mary, grant that each of us fulfill the Father’s will each day in a more personal gift of ourselves., so that our whole family may bear witness, in the midst of the world, to the love of Jesus victorious over evil.
Amen
Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you I always want to belong completely to Jesus. Amen.
