While much of the East Coast was being rained upon by a little nuisance named Irene, there was an outdoor Mass held under crystal clear skies at my parish. And no unorthodox horrors occurred,
Sunday morning mass at Knoxville's All Saints Catholic Church was a little different this week. The several thousand-member congregation participated in both English and Spanish.
All Saint's pastor, Father Michael Woods, led the Mass outside on the church lawn. His goal was to unite the members of his church into one large family.
"We have six definite communities here at All Saints because of the number of masses over the weekend, so they don't get to see each other or know each other," he said.
"So I cancelled all the masses on Sunday to just have one outdoor mass so we get to see the size of our community, the joy of our community."
Here is a nice little video clip with an appearance by Father Michael,
At Mass last Sunday, Fr. Michael assured us that it wouldn't rain for this celebration, and as you saw in the video above, it certainly did not. In the week leading up to the Mass, Fr. Michael invited all parishioners to spend an hour in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament to pray for our parishioners and for the whole Church. Well over 1000 parishioners signed up to do just that for round the clock adoration of Our Eucharistic Lord.
Last year, before a similar event, we did the same and Fr. Michael reminded us that as a result, we were blessed with 50 Catechumens and Candidates who joined the Church through our RCIA program last year. I shared that information with you earlier this year.
For the rest of the scoop on the Mass yesterday, go here.
Update: Monsignor Pope's thoughts on martyrdom while evangelizing.
