St. Stanislaus Catholic Church

Rossville, Kansas

November 24th, Thanksgiving Day - 9am Mass at St. Stan's
December 7th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Vigil)-
                           7pm Mass at St. Stan's 
December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Concepton-
                           6:30pm Mass at IC.  Celebration to follow.
December 18th, Reconciliation Service- 3pm at IC
                                                                      - 7pm at St. Stan's
December 24th, Christimas Eve-  4:30pm Mass at IC
                                                         -  6:30pm Mass at St. Stan's
December 25th, Christmas Day-  9am Mass at St. Stan's
                                                        -  11am Mass at IC
 

This Advent I want to encourage parishioners to purchase this online series:  THE HOLY MASS by Fr. Brad Doyle

The series features daily articles and short videos with Fr. Doyle for 30 days.  It explains the Mass in a format that doesn't take more than 15 minutes each day.  Beginning the series on Thanksgiving week is especially appropriate since the material on the Eucharist focuses on Thanksgiving to God in it's purest form.  This series is an excellent way to prepare ourselves during Advent for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

St. Stanislaus Church will remain open on Wednesdays after 8am daily Mass until 7pm.  Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday the church is open from 3pm to 7pm.

On the 3rd Tuesday of each month, St. Stanislaus will offer a Parish Family Holy Hour which will begin at 7pm with Adoration & conclude with Benediction.  

An additional early morning adoration time: weekdays from 5am to 6am.

Ad Orientem Part 4: A Recap

Happy 1^st Sunday of Advent! In this season, we prepare our hearts more intensely for the second coming of the Lord and at the same time we recall the wonderous mystery of the birth of Christ. God became man; the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us! Both angles of this season provide us with a reminder that Christ is coming to us, and we therefore should have our head and eyes turned toward him, running to meet him. 

As planned, this week I will be celebrating all the Masses ad orientem. I will do this the 3^rd week of Advent as well. It may feel a little bit strange at first, given that many of you won’t be used to it. Give it a try! My sincere desire with all of this is to encourage each one of us to enter into a deeper interior participation at Mass. Speaking from personal experience, even though I did not grow up seeing Mass celebrated ad orientem and have only celebrated it this way on rare occasions, I have been profoundly impacted by the way that it naturally helps me to avoid distractions. I’ve also found that it helps me to avoid rattling off the Eucharistic prayer as if I were talking to myself and gets me to realize who I am addressing - God the Father, on behalf of you and all of His people! There is something powerful in being more clearly reminded that I am supposed to be leading you to God, to the East, to heaven, and not in circles or into an echo chamber. My hope is that you will find it easier to realize who is being addressed at the various parts of the Mass and in this, to be drawn up into the prayers more stirringly. You also won’t have to stare at my face the whole time you are offering your sacrifice to God the Father with mine! Finally, I hope that you will find yourself drawn to worship, adoration, and praise of almighty God with a new fervor and depth. Please note that I am not making a statement as to Mass celebrated versus populum being “less holy” or “less grace-filled”. Nothing of the sort! This is a simply a great opportunity to experience a legitimate expression of the Liturgy in a way that can draw us deeper into the true nature of the Mass.

I welcome questions and want to help you understand why I’m doing what I’m doing. Toward this end, you will be able to pick up a packet at all Masses this weekend, which will include this article as well as the previous 3 articles I wrote for this series on the celebration of Mass ad orientem. Please use this packet for reference and feel free to share it with anyone you want. 

Together, let’s journey ad-orientem into ad-vent. 

Fr. Justin 
 

Religious Education starts September 25/ Jr High & High School Starts September 14th. Register your student now by clicking below.

Religious Ed/JR High Confirmation/HS Youth Group Registration Click Here
 

First Fruits - Archbishop's Call to Share