Parishes incorporate spirit of pilgrimage into Lenten journey |
 |
 |
|
Written by BY LAURIE STEVENS, Chronicle Writer
|
|
Thursday, 06 March 2008 19:00 |
PAULDING—Each year during Lent, Catholics living in Rome make an ancient pilgrimage to the basilicas and churches scattered throughout the city.
A different “station church” is designated every day for Catholics from around the city to gather together for Mass early in the morning as a visible reminder of the unity of the church.
“It’s the idea of many church buildings in Rome, but it’s the expression of one faith,” says Father G. Allan Fillman, pastor of Paulding St. Joseph and Payne St. John the Baptist, who learned about the station churches last year while he was on sabbatical in Rome.
 |
| A new altar cloth used in all three Paulding County churches depicts,
from left, Payne St. John the Baptist, Paulding St Joseph and Antwerp
St. Mary churches in the “embrace” of the arms of the colonnade of St.
Peter’s Basilica in Rome. |
This year, the three parishes of Paulding County — St. Joseph, St. John and Antwerp St. Mary — are incorporating the station churches into their own Lenten journey.
Fr. Fillman says the concept particularly seemed to resonate with people now because of changes taking place in the local Catholic community.
“Paulding County is in the midst of a pastoral plan where the three church buildings will become one parish,” he explains.
In 2007, 70 percent of Catholics in Paulding County who responded to a survey about their parishes favored the option of becoming one parish with three functioning church buildings.
Other options the survey gave were to build a new church in a central location, or to reduce the number of parishes from three to two, while keeping all three church buildings open.
Eighty-four percent of respondents said they believed closing any one of the three churches would “really hurt the local communities.”
Seventy-five percent said they thought the people of their parish were generally willing to make the adjustments necessary with their favored option in order to secure all three churches remaining open.
Under a plan approved by Bishop Leonard P. Blair, Fr. Fillman says the three individual parishes in the county will be suppressed, and a new parish that has three church buildings will be created. The date for the transition has not yet been determined.
Fr. Fillman believes the station churches relate because they express “that idea of unity and diversity” in the church.
A symbol has been designed for use on the altar cloths in all three churches of Paulding County starting in Lent. It depicts silhouettes of St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist and St. Mary churches within the embrace of the silhouetted arms of the colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Beneath the image is the phrase, “Embrace the Faith.”
Information about the station churches is being incorporated into bulletin announcements and homilies throughout the season, according to Fr. Fillman.
Parishioners are encouraged to visit the Web site of the Pontifical North American College (PNAC) in Rome, www.pnac.org, for an extensive resource on the daily station church, its patron saint and corresponding aspects of Christian history.
The PNAC, home to Roman Catholic seminarians, faculty members and graduate students from across the United States, Canada and Australia, organizes the station church Masses each Lent.
Fr. Fillman and about 50 parishioners from St. Joseph and St. John had the opportunity to visit some of the station churches in person on a choir pilgrimage to Rome and several other cities Feb. 6-15.
While the pastor was out of the country, Father Jacob Gordon shared some of his insights on the tradition with the congregations of St. Joseph and St. John the Baptist when he presided at Masses the first Sunday of Lent.
Fr. Gordon, the associate pastor of Toledo St. Patrick of Heatherdowns, visited the station churches while he was studying at the PNAC in Rome for two years as a seminarian.
“It’s a popular devotional pilgrimage,” he explains. “It goes back to the time of Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century.”
In those early days, the pope — the bishop of Rome — would visit the major and minor basilicas and other churches to celebrate Mass.
The practice faded away while the pope was living in Avignon, France, in the 14th century, but was revived again in the 20th century by Pope Leo XIII.
A task force at the PNAC now organizes the Masses, which are celebrated in English. Fr. Gordon recalls rising early each morning before classes to make his way with other students to the station church.
He says the practice recalls our unity as Catholics and members of the body of Christ, and it honors the early Christian martyrs, whose relics are kept in many of the station churches. Fr. Gordon also relates the spiritual significance to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.
“As we approach Easter, we’re going up to the spiritual Jerusalem, liturgically,” he says. “I always saw the station churches as a way to remind us of that — we are moving towards resurrection, as we offer up our fasts and our time early in the morning in prayer.”
|
|
Last Updated on Monday, 22 September 2008 09:19 |
