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St. Thomas More
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7 November 2007
Dear Friends and Members of the St. Thomas More Society, I write this month to you with a heavy heart. Just four days after celebrating the second anniversary of the reconciliation to Mother Church of the St. Thomas More Society’s founding members, one of those members died. Jane Kelly was called from this life Sunday morning, having succumbed to the cancer that she battled for more than a year. Of those confirmed with me on October 31, 2005, she is the first to die, a milestone I had hoped we would reach much later. Her funeral will take place at 9:30AM this Thursday, November 8 at St. Anthony of Padua Church. Come pray with me for the repose of Jane’s soul, offer your condolences to Jack, her husband of almost 49 years, her mother, Hannah, and her brother, Paul, and receive the comfort that our Lord offers in His Body and Blood to those who mourn. We shall miss her dearly but may take consolation in the fact that she died in communion with Christ’s Church, and in the presence of her loved ones. The Journey Home Appearance I administered the Sacrament of the Sick to Jane one day after I got home from my trip to Alabama, where The Journey Home program with Marcus Grodi is taped. My appearance on the show occasioned in less than two weeks more than 3,000 hits on our website. Moreover, I received many, many emails from people interested in our ministry, so many, in fact, that I have not yet been able to answer all of them. Some people simply have questions, and others desire in their locale what we have here in Scranton. Please pray that my responses to their queries issue in more conversions and perhaps even new Anglican Use communities. I thank all of you who kept me in your prayers as I traveled and witnessed to our faith and life in the Catholic Church. Your petitions on my behalf are in great wise responsible for the success of the program. If you missed it and would like to see it, let me know. Some of our members have DVDs and tapes you can borrow, and the Society will soon have many copies to offer to those who want to have one for keeps. The cost will be about $10. Holy Days of Obligation My appearance on the show has also brought us many new visitors, some from the area and one from as far away as Chicago. But the greatest number of visitors we have seen came to the Vigil Mass for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in August and the Vigil Mass for All Saints’ Day last month. We had more people at Mass on the anniversary of our reconciliation to Mother Church than we have most Sundays. Since these Vigil Masses are so popular, I have scheduled one for each of the three Holy Days of Obligation that are coming up within two months. The Anglican Usage Mass Holy Day schedule is as follows: Day Date Holy Day Time Friday December 7 Vigil of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 5:30 PM Saturday December 8 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 10 AM Monday December 24 Christmas Eve 8 PM Tuesday December 25 Christmas Day 7 AM Monday December 31 Vigil of the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God 5:30 PM Tuesday January 1 Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God 7 AM Please mark these dates on your calendar and use these additional opportunities to fulfill your obligation. Looking Ahead to Christmas For years our biggest celebration during Christmastide has come on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, January 6th. We will continue this tradition this year, blessed that the commemoration of the Revelation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles takes place this year on a Sunday. Last year’s Round Robin on the Epiphany was great fun, but the much larger number of people participating in our occasions for fellowship necessitate a different plan for 2008. In addition to the Mass on the morning of January 6th we will offer Evensong at 5PM, after which we will gather in the undercroft at St. Anthony’s for a pot-luck dinner and our annual Three Kings Celebration. If you have suggestions for the day’s festivities speak with Joanne Shuemaker (655.5489). In the meantime mark the date, and be prepared to serenade our community, should you be crowned one of the kings. Our New Ministry Last month we established a Cenacle of Life, a simple prayer group to pray the Rosary twice each Wednesday, beginning at 5 PM in St. Anthony Church. Members of the Cenacle of Life pray together each Wednesday and each member fasts one day per week. Our purpose is to bring down abundant graces to end the culture of death. In the latest edition of The Catholic Light, the Diocese of Scranton’s newspaper, our Cenacle of Life was featured on the back page. Many of you have formally registered and I encourage others to do so. Be sure to tell your friends about this invaluable pro-life ministry, so that they know they are more than welcome to join us each week. Also, with this new exposure, we should expect people to seek us out. Be sure to welcome them and thank them for their interest in this prayer group. Pledge Update Last but not least, you must know that we have received a few new pledges and some gifts from far away friends, so that the amount we need to hire our administrator is down to around $12,000. We are looking now to have hired help on staff by the end of March, so please do what you can to ensure we must not push the date back any further. Of course, while we wait to have someone on staff, if you would like to help me in the office, I would greatly appreciate the assistance. Call me or let me know in person if you might be available for a couple hours, especially during the weekly office hours listed below. Thank you so much for your contributions thus far, and thanks in advance for the gifts you will give. In solidarity with all of you now mourning the passing of our beloved Jane, and grateful for the powerful witness to the love of Jesus she offered in her last days, I am, Ever yours in Christ, Fr.
Eric L. Bergman, Chaplain Reminders:
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