THE CRUX · 2013. 1. 9. · THE CRUX THE NEWSLETTER OF HOLY CROSS PARISH, CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF...

THE CRUX

THE NEWSLETTER OF HOLY CROSS PARISH, CATHOLIC D IOCESE OF PEORIA

405 w. Clark St., champaign, Illinois 61820 January—February 2013

Holy Cross is a community of one heart and mind de-voted to the Eucharist, the Word of God, and the sacra-mental life. United and guided by the Holy Spirit, we witness to the conversion that comes through faith in Jesus Christ and invite all to share in that experience.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

CRUSADER COR-

NER 2

Cda news 2

VETERANS AC-

TIVITIES 3—5

FOCUS: DECO-

RATING FOR

CHRISTMAS

6—7

M IDNIGHT MASS 8—9

MASS OF RE-

MEMBRANCE 10

ETC . 11

4th grade

angels 11

Crux (krux, krooks)

n., pl. cruxes or cruces

1. A critical or crucial point.

[Latin, CROSS]

In this issue:

A challenge for the new year

As we begin our New Year, we end our 100th Anniversary as a Parish and School, and we thank God for all the blessings He has bestowed on us during this past year. We are now all called to be the Torch of Faith in the next one hundred years. In this Year of Faith, which Pope Benedict XVI has declared, we are challenged to evangelize our faith in our homes, city, diocese, and world by living out the Gospel message of Love.

A couple of years ago at Christmas time, I gave out the book by Matthew Kelly, Rediscover Catholicism. This book enlightened us all to be the best-version-of-ourselves. Many people told me that this book inspired and challenged them to live out the Catholic Faith. One of our parishioners believes that this book changed her life. This person since then has read many of Matthew Kelly’s books. This person was moved by the Holy Spirit to give a gift of 750 copies of a new book by Matthew Kelly to our parishioners this past Christmas. This new book entitled The Four signs of a Dynamic Catholic – How Engaging 1% of Catholics Could Change the World. The four signs of a Dynamic Catholic that he gives in the book are: PRAY-ER, STUDY, GENEROSITY, AND EVANGELZATION. I am grateful for this person for her great gift to the Parish. We need to make a difference in our society today, especially as Catholics.

We have an obligation to Christ to live out our faith daily and at every moment of our lives. Many people in our world are looking for truth, love, peace, and joy. When they see us living out our Faith and see the joy that we have in our life here on earth and our hope for Eternal Life, they may come to us to seek out how to obtain this joy. At this moment, we can lead them to Jesus especially in the Eucharist. When we lead them to Jesus, we humbly decrease while the Lord increases in their lives.

We are called to be Beacons of Light in the World today. It is a challenge, but with Jesus on our side and led by the Holy Spirit, we can change our world. We must humble ourselves daily and be an instrument of Jesus now. I hope and pray as we begin this New Year, we can be DYNAMIC CATHOLICS. May God bless you all this New Year and let us all rejoice in the gift of our Faith. Remember, we are always home & always family!

In Christ,

Fr. Stephen Willard

Pro-life dates to remember

January 22, 2013: 40th Anniversary of Roe Vs Wade

January 22, 2013: Ecumenical Memorial Prayer Vigil and reception at St. Matthew’s (see bulletin for more details closer to the date)

January 25, 2013: March for Life, Washington, D.C.

January 26, 2013: Walk for Life West Coast, San Francisco, CA

February 13 – March 24, 2013: 40 Days for Life

Watch the bulletin for the kick-off event for 40 Days for Life

the crux January—February 2013

CRUSADER CORNER

HAPPENINGS AT HOLY CROSS SCHOOL

BY ROSE COSTELLO, PRINCIPAL

Students at Holy Cross School prepared for Christmas in many ways. Several of the classes filled backpacks for the Dai-ly Bread Soup Kitchen. Our first graders collected funds to help the students of St. Francis de Sales in Rockaway, New York, whose school was devastated by Hurricane Sandy. The second grade had a bake sale to benefit the Champaign County Humane Society. Students in grades 3-8 celebrated the Sacrament of Rec-onciliation on December 13th. In addition to our weekly all-school Mass on Fridays, we celebrated Mass together on our last day of school on December 20th.

Our students performed several times this fall. We honored veterans at our Veterans Day program on November 13th and grandparents at our Grandparents Day Mass on Novem-ber 20th. Pictures from these events can be found on the follow-ing pages. Two Christmas concerts took place on December 5th and 6th: one for students in grades K-4 and the other for students in grades 5 and 6, the 3 bands, and the 7th grade music elective.

We are so grateful for Mr. Phil Coleman who teaches music and band to our students as well as working on his doctorate at the University of Illinois.

Catholic School Week begins on January 27 and runs through February 1. We will have many activities to celebrate the numerous opportunities that our Catholic schools offer. We will host an Open House on Wednesday, January 30th, from 9 a.m. to noon. All are welcome to see our school in action, espe-cially those interested in enrolling their children in our school. Kindergarten Information Night will be on Tuesday, February 5th, at 6:30 p.m. in the school cafeteria and kindergarten class-rooms. Prospective kindergarten students are invited to meet the teachers and participate in fun activities that evening while their parents meet with the principal to learn about our kinder-garten program. Please check our school website for additional information and details (www.holycrosselem.org).

News from the Catholic daughters of the Americas

We had a wonderful turnout for the November meeting at the Rib Eye Restaurant in Champaign, with over 25 in attendance. Our court installed two new members, Mary Lou Widloski and Mary Julia Gallivan. After an opening prayers by Deacon Bob Ulbrich, our co-chaplain, and special guest Monsignor Hallin, we heard from our featured guest speaker, Cindy Howie. Cindy spoke about Family Formation, C.C.D., and Elizabeth Ministries. We all found Cindy's talk to be informative and entertaining. Donations were made, and our meeting followed. For Advent and the Year of Faith, Monsignor Hallin has suggested that we read the entire Book of Luke carefully and thoughtfully.

On Election Day we met at Holy Cross and led by Gloria Fellers, prayed a rosary for our nation in front of the Tabernacle.

Our December meeting was held at at O'Charleys Restaurant on the 11th. We had two speakers, Father Cyr from St. Patrick’s in Tolono who spoke about the food pantry there and Rob Taylor from the Catholic Charities Senior Out-Reach Program. We also discussed how to distribute funds for our Christmas charities.

We had our Christmas party on December 18th at Holy Cross Parish Center. We heard Sue Keller, L.M.H.C., speak on how to improve our memories (Didn’t I just write that a paragraph or two ago?). We enjoyed refreshments and had a trivia contest with the subject matter being The Catholic Daughters of America. Attendees brought donations for Joy Pace to give to Birthright, a Pro-Life organization.

It is a somewhat somber time for our court, with some of our members hospitalized with strokes, other illness-es, and falls. We are blessed to have a Sunshine Committee led by Sandy Nichols and prayer chain led by Eileen Feeney.

Please always remember that all Catholic Women 18 and older are welcome to join us at any of our events. Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year to all!

Peace in Christ,

Patti McDaniel

http://www.holycrosselem.org/


Left & above:

Veterans Day assembly

November 13, 2012

Left & below:

Grandparents Mass

November 20,

2012


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a closer look at the people, places, and

activities at Holy Cross. In this issue,

decorating our church for Christmas

Our church is beautiful even when unadorned with seasonal themes, but she really radiates God’s grandeur when decorated for Christmas, although the Easter season motif comes in a close second. The guiding force behind all this splendor is Harry Breen, who was the driving force behind the church’s renovation in the early ‘80s. Beginning in 1984, he with his late wife, Diane, began the decorating tradition that we know to this day. The first time I worshipped at Holy Cross was at the 5:30 Saturday Mass that fell between Christ-mas and New Year’s Day in 1994. My breath was quite literal-ly sucked from me when I came through the front door and beheld that luminous glow that emanated from the baldachino and the area surrounding the altar. So, what’s the process that takes place to make it all happen? What magic occurs? An-swering these questions is the purpose of this issue’s Focus sec-tion.

There are three basic steps involved in transforming the sanctuary. Before anything can take place, though, the boxes and containers that hold the Christmas decorations have to be brought up from the parish center basement, a job done by Dwain Shuler, our parish custodian.

T h e next step is to bring up the Christmas trees which is the first step of stage one. The ordi-nary-time trappings are removed and replaced with the first Christmas components, three large, sturdy wooden boxes which are stood side-by-side to form the foundation that is cov-ered with a tapestry upon which the Advent wreath and candles are placed. Next, come the Christmas trees. For many years when the Christmas deco-rations came down, they were disassembled and stored in large, zippered bags. Over time, that created wear and tear on the trees, making them more difficult to assemble the following year. In recent years, we’ve stored the trees, except for the largest two, intact, a change we’re finding makes stage one decorating go much easi-

er and quicker. Even when stored intact, however, we still need to ‘fluff’ the trees’ branches to make them look more full and life-like before placing them in their proper position. Also during the first session, we bring out the first ‘citizens’ of our C h r i s t -mas al-t a r , s o m e s h e e p a n d l a m b s , maybe a cow or donkey, as well as a human figure or

two. Some minor detail decorat-ing is accomplished during this session like the evergreen sprigs on the candlesticks by the altar and ambo. That, essentially, is what occurs in stage one.

Stage two mainly re-volves around putting the lights on eight of the 10 trees and adding/moving the human and animal figures. You can see in the accompanying pictures that the lights are lit when we put them on the tree. That makes it easier for

us to see how densely we are putting them on. We also try to make each tree’s partner directly across from it match it as closely as possible to p r o v i d e b a l a n c e . This can be more diffi-cult than it seems. Also thrown into the mix is the occa-sionally temperamental string of lights that works fine for hours or days but later decides to go out. This is especially troublesome when it occurs at one of the Christmas Eve Mass-es.

Stages one and two provide the framework for stage


three, which is where the magic really happens and requires a crew of six or seven to work anywhere from 4 to 5 hours on December 24th, occasionally longer if problems crop up. An-other factor in stage three is how Advent falls. In the case of 2012, the last Sunday of Advent is December 23rd. That only leaves Monday, December 24th, to get everything up and run-ning. People can arrive for the 4:30 p.m. Mass as soon as 3:30 or even a bit earlier to get a good seat for this, the most well attended of all the Christmas Eve Masses, with standing-room-only a common occurrence. For that reason, we’ve had to take care of a few of stage three’s tasks prior to the 24th.

The first event of stage three actually begins a day or two earlier with the arrival of the live poinsettias. These are downloaded from the delivery truck with the smaller ones go-ing to the sacristy and the larger ones going to the parish cen-ter’s great hall, where Harry adorns them with artificial floral picks and other embellishments (red berries, gold leaves, etc.).

On the 24th, there are many activities going on at one time. The larger poinsettias are brought over from the parish

center, and even here trouble can occur as the poinsettias are ex-t r e m e l y c o l d -s e n s i t i v e , and even the short j o u r n e y

from the parish center to the church can damage them. The poinsettias are placed between the altar and ambo so those of similar size can be paired to provide balance in the overall scheme. Meanwhile, the Advent wreath and candles are re-moved and pre-constructed artificial floral arrangements are placed on the sides of the ‘steps’ where the A d v e n t wreath and c a n d l e s were, as well as on other areas of the high altar. The Angel is also hung at this time. Harry directs the placement of the poinsettias based upon their size and fullness, so everything falls into his artistic vision for that year’s over-all theme.

The candle sticks are also decorated, a labor of love done over the years by Doyle Moore, a long-time friend of Har-ry’s. Another person who’s had a specialized task for a long time is Margaret Smock who has traditionally shined the brass

candle sticks, as well as the brass containers that hold some of the poinsettias. The St. Mary & St. J o s e p h s i d e shrines also are decorated, while the tabernacle is

flanked by a pair of the larger poinsettias. The large garland that spans the choir loft has traditionally been hung by the Mur-phy family. The other altar figures are put in place except for Baby Jesus who is reverently carried in and placed in the man-ger at each Christmas Eve Mass. Finally, the processional cross is decorated.

This gargantuan task is accomplished by a dedicated band of volunteers, never numbering more than six to eight people. Numerous people have asked to help, but the unfortu-nate truth is that all this activity takes place in a limited space, and a larger crew ends up bumping into each other more often than not. So, if you’ve asked to lend a hand and been told ‘no, that’s the reason. For 2012, in addition to Harry, the crew has been composed of Margaret Smock, Jane Sisk, Adrian Visocky, John Goyette, the Kristovich family (Sharon, David, and Scott), and Dave Devall. That, in a little over 1,100 words, is the pro-cess behind the sight that greets you as you enter Holy Cross Church to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

DID you know? Little Known

Facts about the Christmas Altar

A question that we’re inevitably asked every year involves the two, tall unlit trees. Ac-cording to Harry Breen, they’re left unlit to pro-vide contrast for the lit trees, plus Harry says they’re just too tall to put lights on.

The three colors involved in lighting the trees--clear on the bottom, yellow in the middle, and orange at the top—are used so each tree sym-bolizes a flame.

At one time, real trees and garlands were used. Harry says he and his late wife Diane spent hours trying to find trees that matched in height and fullness.

Among the decorating crew, the small lamb up by the angel is referred to as “Margaret’s Lamb” because Margaret Smock once commented that that particular lamb was her favorite animal figure.

This year, 50 poinsettias are used at the cost of approximately $630. Fortunately, dona-tions to the Christmas Flower Fund totaled $945 with $300 of that coming from one generous pa-rishioner.


Midnight Mass 2012


November 2, 2012


First things first: I’d like to take this oppor-tunity to thank all of you who offered your condolences to both Penny & me on the passing of our Mothers just 8 days apart. My Mother died on December 6th, and the funeral was on De-cember 8th. Three days later, we got word that Penny’s Mother in England was failing rapidly, and she quickly passed away on December 14th. Both were 94 years old when they died and had lived full, exciting lives. They both passed away quietly. I was fortunate to be on hand when my Mother passed away. With the Atlantic Ocean inconveniently in the way, Penny, of course, did not have the same opportunity. We’re dealing with our loss the best way we can, filled with the Holy Spirit and uplifted by the prayers of our parish family. God bless you all. Holy Cross is indeed always home and always family.

Unfortunately, my Mother’s funeral prevented me from being here to photograph three of my favorite parish events: The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass/dinner and the two evenings of Christmas concerts at Holy Cross School. Our parish celebration of the Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe has become more popular each year and always has a festive ‘buzz’ about it. The two Christmas concerts are always fun.

The talent of our children is matched only by the talent of the school staff who connect all the dots to make it happen.

As a 24-year veteran of the United States Air Force, I salute Father Steve and the Knights of Columbus for the Veter-ans Mass and pancake breakfast/brunch. This year, it actually fell on Veterans Day which made it all the more special. Two days later, on November 13th, Holy Cross School hosted us veterans again with an assembly that featured patriotic music. Some of us had served or fought in not just one, but two wars or conflicts. This was followed by a reception in the school library.

As I roamed around the room at the reception taking pictures and watching the veterans enjoying each other’s com-pany, I was struck with the uniqueness of the conversations between these men and women who had served at different times and in different wars, literally generations apart. This was a true gathering of warriors, and the tone and topics of the conversations were spoken with an easy familiarity that only veterans can share with other veterans. Thanks to the Holy Cross student body, faculty, and staff who made it possible. Pictorial coverage of both events can be found elsewhere in this issue.

Dave Devall

[email protected]

Etc.

Father Steve poses with Mrs. Tate’s 4th grade class as they drop off the stockings they’ve filled with Christmas goodies for parish shut-ins. The stockings will be delivered by the Eucharistic ministers when they take communion to the shut-ins.


THE CRUX

THE NEWSLETTER OF HOLY CROSS PARISH, CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF PEORIA

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“For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.” — Luke 2:11

The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross 405 W. Clark St.

Champaign, IL

Phone: (217) 352-8748

Fax: (217) 366-2929

Email: [email protected]

The first mass of Christmas 2012

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