All Souls' Day

The Shrine (where Orin is music and liturgy director) celebrates All Souls' Day:

A display of 20,000 roses in the church - each placed there by a member of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate to remember a deceased loved one

Following the last mass of the morning, a procession to the Resurrection Garden where the names of those 20,000 were placed in a prayer capsule for the upcoming year.

Prayer Request

Friends, 

Please keep a friend of Orin's in prayer, Frank Quinn, OP.  Frank until recently was a prof at Aquinas Institute, and while Orin never had him formally in class, many of my friends did, and he helped a great deal on a couple projects of mine.  He was for many years a leading liturgical voice in America and the English-speaking world.

He is reportedly near death, please keep him and all who know and love him in prayer.  Thanks.

Cerneka, Party of Five

Hey Everyone,

Erin and I wanted to let you all know that we're expecting our third child around June 1st. We feel very blessed to have yet another addition to our family and ask all of you for your prayers during the pregnancy and beyond.

In case you're wondering how another Cerneka child will contribute to the greater good, consider that our other two children were born during years that the Cardinals went to the World Series. ('04, '06)

I have to say, I'm feeling pretty good about 2009!

See ya,
Shannon

A Mysterious Land

This week, now that the Novena has finished, Orin and Erin are heading up to that magical place called Minnesota to visit family. Oddwalk has a few days off and then come back together for a week long conference at the Shrine starting on Monday. The event we're doing next week is called the Institute in Adolescent Catechesis which is being sponsored by the Center for Ministry Development. We will be providing music and prayer support. Keep us in your prayers!

Happy Feast of Our Lady of the Snows

Hello all - we write to all of you on this August 5th, 2008, the Feast of Our Lady of the Snows, known today as the Dedication of the Mary Major Basilica in Rome.

The early Church was often struggling in its theology, and one of the first debates was on the very nature of Jesus: was he a man, was he God, or was he somehow both earthly and spiritual? Jesus, uniquely, is fully God (part of the Holy Trinity) but yet Son of both God and of Adam and Eve, through Mary – fully human.And so, today, we celebrate Mary as Mother of God. The Mary Major Basilica was built to honor this very fact, and was the first church built in honor of and thusly named for Our Lady. We thank Mary for being the first "sacred vessel" to contain the body and blood of Christ, and for her giving spirit in presenting him to us. We see this too in the representation of Our Lady of the Snows, presenting to us both Christ and his message of Healing and Hope.

May we all take a moment today, those whose lives are connected through employment, vows, or some other way to Our Lady of the Snows (her Shrine is where Orin is music and liturgy coordinator) or any other title of Mary, and in that moment, rejoice and be thankful for all that is good in our lives.

Happy Feast Day!

Pilgrims pay homage to a cross constructed of prayers for healing and hope.

Pilgrims receive the sacrament of the anointing of the sick while Karl Z and the band lead the sung prayer.  Oddwalk also played last night at the novena.

Come Pray With Us

This coming Monday, as part of the ongoing Healing and Hope Novena at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, IL, Oddwalk will lead the music for Mass, beginning at 7:30pm.

The Mass, being held in the Church of Our Lady of the Snows, will feature Fr. Jeff Vomund as the main celebrant and homilist. Some of you may know Fr. Vomund as the producer and host of Faith Matters, a bi-monthly television program for KMOV in St. Louis as well as regular guest on the Dave Glover Show in the “Priest and the Rabbi” segment for 97.1 FM Talk, also in St. Louis.

Following Mass, there will be a candlelight rosary procession.

Hope you can join us!

Retreat!!!

Our blog posts might slow down over the next couple of days as Oddwalk is leading a retreat for the teenage children of the National Marriage Enounter Conference being held in Jefferson City, MO this weekend.  We'll write more once the weekend is over.

Orin at YNIA in DC - Update #4

Hello! Here is yet another update from the Young Neighbors adventure that Orin finds himself on this week. It sounds like they're doing very well and having some great experiences in our nation's Capitol. Here are some of the highlights from Thursday:

This picture was taken on the drive to one of the work sites. This location is called the International House of Prayer. Anyone want to guess what it used to be called?



Apparently some body art and t-shirt making broke out at Peace Camp:




One of the work groups helped to clear brush at a house being looked after by Mary House, one of the work sites for the week:



At the Community for Creative Non-Violence or CCNV, participants watch a video on the history of the organization. Apparently, CCNV's headquarters used to house naval offices before the Pentagon was built:


As we've mentioned before, Orin is serving as the Prayer and Music Coordinator this week. This picture shows teens working to plan one of the prayer services:


One of the nights of Young Neighbors is typically focused on learning about a different culture or two. On Thursday night, the participants ate an El Salvadorian meal and took part in a Brazilian-African drumming and dancing demonstration:

Orin at YNIA in DC - Update #3

Hello Everybody!

The last few days have been busy ones for Orin and the Young Neighbors crew in DC. If you aren't sure what we're talking about, please check out the last few blog posts.

If you've been with us all week...here we go!

Here is one of the groups pulling weeds at the Community for Creative Non-Violence:



Another group took part in a "Peace Hike" at Peace Camp:



Zak, one of the participants, had a birthday on Tuesday. Here is Zak holding the birthday cake that he (other folks at his work site) was encouraged to toss back and forth at increasing distances:


I believe this is the throwing of the cake:


A sign at Mary House, one of the work sites:


At Mary House, the work team was kept busy by making vases out of recyclables:


These pictures are of the Community Food Game, one of the processes Young Neighbors uses to show the difficulty of some members of society to obtain a healthy meal. The activity, originally developed by the Atlanta Community Food Bank, helps young people see the real impact that lack of income, transportation, and exploitation have on the problem of hunger:






These pictures show YNIA participants and staff from UCAP (United Communities Against Poverty) preparing for a nature hike:





On the nature hike, Orin spotted a moth with a cross on its back:



Participants at the CCNV clean out a large food pantry in preparation for an inspection:


At Peace Camp, participants process the morning over lunch with M.J., the Camp Director:



On Wednesday evening, the whole Young Neighbors group attended Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, ate a quick dinner, and headed down to the National Mall. After touring many of our national monuments, the group settled at the Lincoln Memorial for the evening prayer service. The Lincoln Memorial picture shown below is not of the prayer service itself :

Orin at YNIA in DC - Update #2

Monday at Young Neighbors in Action was pretty busy for Orin. During each week of YNIA, Monday is typically the day when the parish groups make their way to their work sites for the first time. Usually the three staff members, the Site Coordinator, the Program Director, and The Prayer and Music Coordinator, drive around to the various work sites to learn about the service being done and offer support for the parish groups. Here are some highlights from Monday:

This picture was taken at St. Anthony's, the host site for their Young Neighbors week. Orin's note to me was that this was 'indeed a long fence'. Good thing they labeled it:

This is artwork being done at United Communities Against Poverty, Inc. or UCAP, one of the work sites for the week:

This is the Orin we know:

A pledge posted at UCAP:

The next two pictures are of work being done at one of the service locations that supports poor immigrant families:




The Community for Creative Non-Violence, another work site:


This is something called the "Peace Machine" being done at something called 'Peace Camp' (stop me if you're tired of all the detail.):



Since there are no shower facilities at St. Anthony's, the whole group has to travel to St. Anselm High School each day for a shower. This is an interesting corpus Orin found one one of the walls there:

Each night of Young Neighbors, the participants learn various aspects of their faith and Church teaching where it pertains to justice and service. On Monday night, they learned the different principles of Catholic Social Teaching. Here are some of the posters created during that process: