Next Saturday, August 13th, is the Annual Saint Matt’s Mass in the Park with Buffet following.
This annual event usually takes place on the weekend closest to the Feast of the Assumption, August 15th. The relaxed atmosphere of the park provides a different experience of prayer and liturgy as well as an opportunity to visit with fellow parish members and their families and friends.
The Men’s Club provides the meat; the Rosary Society provides the table setting (paper plates and plastic cutlery). You are invited to bring a side dish and beverage. Bring a lawn chair; or a blanket if you plan to sit on the grass.
Invite your neighbors and friends to join you; they will receive an experience of our parish—we pray and we share hospitality. If you have friends or family who have not been to church for a time, invite them. This can be an opportunity to come to church in a relaxed manner – for those who have not been to church in a while the relaxed atmosphere is far less threatening.
The origin of the word “church” means a gathering of people, not a building. “Doing church” in nature is a different experience for us. In the Acts of the Apostles we read about Paul and Barnabas in a gentile town preaching the Good News of the mercy of God made visible in Jesus. After preaching they looked for a synagogue for prayer. Because of a very small portion of the population was Jewish there was no building. Going out of town they walked along the riverbank and there found a group of women at prayer, Paul and Barnabas joined them.
After praying the Apostles were invited to stay at the house of one of the leading Jewish women. We are told that the presence of the Apostles, their preaching and their joining in prayer led the woman and her whole family to be baptized.
Coming together on the grass in prayer can be an occasion of grace.
Father Steve Adrian
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