As some of you may know I am currently in my second trimester, almost six months pregnant, with twins. The joy and excitement my husband, daughter and I feel is overflowing! We are incredibly excited and very much in “twin planning mode!” What will they need? Do we need two of everything? How will the car work with three car seats? Will we ever be able to sleep again? This Sunday’s Gospel speaks to me, it reassures me that rest in this overwhelming world of ours is equally important to our lives and daily tasks.

It is easy to get caught up in a “To-Do” list. If you are like me, you may have a hard time saying, “No,” which means you might be over extending yourself often! It is hard for those of us serving in ministry to be able to pause and rest. We almost get a sense of guilt if we say no or if we take time to ourselves. But, how else can we listen and be open to hearing God if we don’t make the time to be quiet? It is often through rest, reflection, and silence that we can draw closer to Him, it is not like he has a megaphone on standby!

My daughter has a hard time napping, in fact a hard time getting to sleep at any time. I can imagine I was similar when I was her age (5). Singing, talking with her stuff animals, or “reading” to her barbies, is a more engaging and fun activity then closing your eyes and silence. As she says, “Sleeping is boring.” Oh the joy of being young! Her actions remind me how hard it is for us to slow down. Rest is just as essential to her young growing mind and body, as it is to mine. If prayer is essential and intentional, so too must our commitment to rest and silence.

As Jesus encouraged his disciples to rest, he too encourages us to take time for ourselves. I often tell Gracey, Jesus likes to whisper little secrets just for you to hear, so quiet time is essential to a friendship with Him. How can we take time to find rest and silence in this busy world?

Here are some tips:

• Find a quiet place, all to your own, where you can commit to being in silence when you are there. Maybe a room in your house, a park bench, or a pew in church.
• Set aside 1% of your day to silence and prayer. This can be just 15 minutes a day! If you set aside this time before bed, you might have an easier time falling asleep!
• Explore the silence by journaling afterward. As you sit in silence, your mind may tend to drift. It takes practice to control your mind. Perhaps writing down where your mind is drifting might indicate items controlling too much of your time.
• Remember, being comfortable in silence takes practice. Being intentional about rest is important and essential. Don’t worry, that “To-Do” list will be there when you get back!

 Katie Price is the Coordinator of Stewardship and Discipleship at the Cathedral. She can be reached at the Parish Offices 522-3342 or via email at [email protected].

What makes the Cathedral church different from all other churches in a diocese? It is not a question of beauty or architecture or size or liturgical style. The simple answer to the question is one item: the cathedra or bishop’s chair from which a cathedral derives its name. Throughout history, chairs have been used as a symbol of authority, both in the Church as well as in secular society.

The pope, as Bishop of Rome, has his own Cathedral, but it is not the church that most people think that it is. Most people think that St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City is the pope’s cathedral but it is not. Vatican City is actually not a part of the city of Rome nor is it in Italy. The city of Rome and the Italian Republic surround it, but Vatican City State has its own sovereignty.

The pope’s cathedral in Rome is the Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist in the Lateran, or popularly known as St. John Lateran or simply as “the Lateran.”

It was gifted by the Emperor Constantine to the Church sometime in or after the year 313. In 324, Pope Sylvester I formally dedicated the Lateran as a place of worship, placing the cathedra of the Bishop of Rome inside of it.

Before our parish was the Cathedral Parish, it was known as Immaculate Conception Parish until the Holy See moved the see (seat) of our diocese to Springfield from Alton in 1923. The newly appointed diocesan bishop, Bishop Griffin, chose the church of Immaculate Conception Parish to be the pro-cathedral (temporary) until a new and larger cathedral church and complex could be constructed.

When our current church and plant were completed in 1928, it became the new location for the parish church as well as the mother church of the diocese by being designated as the Cathedral.

Sometimes you will hear of churches referred to as basilicas, which is a different designation from a cathedral, although some cathedrals are basilicas, such as the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. A basilica is a church that is given a special honorific designation by the pope, generally for its historical or its artistic merit. Basilicas have a few special privileges attached to them such as a special bell called a tintinnabulum and a special red and yellow umbrellino (umbrella), which bears the coats of arms of the pope, diocesan bishop, and others historically connected to the particular basilica. Almost all basilicas are termed minor basilicas. There are only four major basilicas, one being in the Vatican State and three in Rome: St. Peter’s in the Vatican, St. John Lateran, St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major. The Lateran has the distinction of being an archbasilica because it is the oldest of the four major basilicas.

In the next edition of The Weekly, we will look at some of the unique features of how Mass is celebrated by the bishop, especially here in the Cathedral.

Father Christopher House is the Rector-Pastor of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, specifically Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.

As we start to prepare for the fall What’s for Dinner program, we need your help! The What’s for Dinner program meets the first Thursday of the month. If you are able to provide childcare during the program, please contact the Parish Offices. We want to continue providing an evening of family formation for the Parish!

Have some news you would like to share? Please email Katie Price at [email protected].

It gives me great joy to welcome Father Michael Friedel to the Cathedral Parish this weekend! Father Friedel (pronounced FREE-dull) was ordained with Father Stock in May of 2017 and returned to Rome to finish advanced studies in biblical theology. He completed those studies the last week of June, returned from Rome and, after a few days with his family, arrived at the Cathedral last Sunday evening and has spent the past week getting settled.

Father Friedel grew up in Rosewood Heights (East Alton) and was a member of St. Kevin Parish which was eventually merged with St. Bernard Parish in Wood River to become Holy Angels Parish; it was there that I first met the young Michael Friedel when I was pastor from 2005-2007. He is graduate of Marquette High School in Alton and the University of Illinois at Urbana. From the U of I, Father Friedel entered seminary formation at Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago, spending two years there for his philosophy studies before being sent to the Pontifical North American College in Rome for his theological training. Please join me in welcoming Father Friedel to the Cathedral Parish!

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For the past several weeks there has been a lot of activity in our school building with cleaning and moving. Preparations are also being made for the CCCW’s annual garage sale the first weekend of August. Moving forward, the plan is to eventually move the parish offices to the first floor of the school building. The fact is that the building must be used. It is in very good condition but it is 90 years old and we need to be using it to keep it that way.

The current location of the offices in the rectory has become problematic because we have run out of office and storage space, which was never abundant, and the rectory, because of its age, is not accessible while the school building is accessible. The second floor of the school building will eventually be given over to diocesan use as a center for the diocese’s Discipleship and Stewardship initiatives. This transition will take some time with planning needing to be done as to how some minor re-configuring is to be made for the offices. I will keep you informed as the project progresses.

Finally, I hope that your summer is going well and that it is affording you some leisure time. It is hard for me to believe that we are already well into July, but time never stops. Let us be continually mindful of the goodness of God and his blessings as we move through these summer months and always. God bless you and yours!

Father Christopher House is the Rector-Pastor of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, specifically Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.

The image of a mustard seed was something very familiar to those living in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago. The mustard seed was symbolic for the smallest of things. The Lord Jesus teaches us in this Sunday’s Gospel to be cautious in underestimating something simply by its initial appearance.

A mustard seed yields a mighty tree, an image not unique to this Sunday’s Gospel. A strong tree was symbolic in ancient times, including in the Old Testament, of various empires on the earth. From this Sunday’s Gospel, the mustard tree becomes a symbol for the Church, singular in her beginning yet growing large and strong to the point that others some and dwell in her shade and strength. Two millennia ago, the religious and secular authorities thought nothing more of Jesus after he was crucified, but his life, death, and resurrection became the singular see from which the Church came forth. The world did not think much of the early Church either. Today, the Church draws all people to herself as the source and fount of God’s grace in the world.

The Church is both a static and active reality.

 She exists because she is a divine initiative, but much of her vitality is contingent upon our discipleship, our free choice as to whether or not we cooperate with the grace of God in our own lives.

We are the living stones that make up the Church. We must make the active choice to advance her agenda of the Gospel, given to her by our Lord.

The mustard seed may seem insignificant to many, not getting a second thought, but locked within is so much potential. The same is true with us. To the world we may seem insignificant or unremarkable, but not to God. God knows the potential that lies within each and every human life; the power and possibility to change the world by simply being the men and women that he has called each of us to be, to use the gifts and talents given by him to build up the Kingdom here and now.

Before the parable of the mustard seed, we were presented with the parable of the farmer who scatters the seed but knows that the rest is not up to him. Jesus is reminding us that we must rely on God’s grace. The farmer cannot make the seed grow on his own. He does his part in sowing the seed but nature does the rest; so it is with our discipleship. We are called to do what we can with what God has gifted us and to allow God to do the rest; this demands trust. Trusting in the gifts and talents that God has given us, trusting that he will do his part, and trusting that, in the end, all things will work for his purposes.

 Don’t under estimate the power and possibility that God has placed within you.

Use your God-given gifts for his glory and for the good of your fellow sisters and brothers. If each of us would simply do our individual part in God’s grand design then we would find the world set ablaze with his grace, his love, and his mercy. God bless you!

 Father Christopher House is the Rector-Pastor of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, specifically Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.

Stewardship of Time
This summer try adding a Mass Journal into your routine. Draw from the Readings or the homily and take time to write and reflect how God is speaking to you each Sunday.

Stewardship of Talent
Thank you to our ministry volunteers who celebrated with us last Thursday evening. Please pray for them!

Stewardship of Treasure- June 2nd & 3rd
Envelopes: $4,817.00
Loose: $4,376.31
Maintenance: $170.00
__________________________
TOTAL: $9,363.31
Needed to operate weekly: $15,907.89
Difference: $6,544.58

May EFT: $18,261.10

As you have noticed, the summer edition of the Weekly is going to be a bit lighter. We have done this to save on costs, but will maintain a vibrant E-news weekly and social media presence to provide additional faith formative resources and articles. We will resume the larger Weekly this fall.

1968 Cathedral Class Reunion (50th Reunion) on June 23rd, 2018 in the School Hall, following the 4pm Mass. We look forward to hosting and it is handicap accessible. No need to RSVP, just show up!

Have some news you would like to share? Please email Katie Price at [email protected].

We are hosting a Cathedral Parish Ministry Volunteer Appreciation Reception on June 14th at 6:30PM in the Cathedral Atrium. If you are a part of a Cathedral Ministry you are invited and we hope you will attend! If you are able to join us, please R.S.V.P. by June 8th to [email protected] or by calling the Cathedral Offices at 522-3342.

Cathedral Min Invite

Dominic is a seminarian for our diocese in formation at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis. Dominic will be entering his third year of theology studies and will be ordained a deacon next spring. We are happy to welcome Dominic to the Cathedral Parish for the summer!

This weekend we celebrate the feast formally titled the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, but popularly known as Corpus Christi. Every time the Church gathers to celebrate the Mass, the Eucharist, which is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord, is at the center of our worship. We must avoid the danger of growing lax in our reverence and awe due to our familiarity with this great and wonderful sacrament, which is one reason why the Church dedicates a particular day of solemnity to focus solely on this mystery. The Eucharist is the life source of the Church, the ultimate manifestation of Christ’s presence among us, and it has been the strength of the faithful for the Church’s entire history. It is not a sign or symbol, because a sign or symbol points to another reality. It is itself a reality because the Holy Spirit changes the humble gifts of bread and wine that we offer into the real presence of Jesus.

Two years ago at Father Braden’s first Mass, the rector of Saint Meinrad Seminary preached and in his homily he recounted a wonderful story told by the 20th century American Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor. In a letter, Flannery recounted that she was invited to a dinner party and how she felt out of place in a group of “intellectuals.” She goes on to say that she said nothing all night until the conversation turned to the Church and the Eucharist and that her hostess talked about that, even though she had left the practice of the faith, she still thought that the Eucharist was a wonderful “symbol.” Having heard enough, Flannery stated: I then said, in a very shaky voice, ‘Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.’ That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.

May we have the same grace that Flannery O’Connor did to recognize just how vital the Eucharist is for us. The Eucharist has been the strength of martyrs, it has comforted the faithful over the centuries in the face of adversity, it is the source and summit of our life of faith, and the remedy for our mortality that will lead us to everlasting life.

 Father Christopher House is the Rector-Pastor of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, specifically Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.