Off on vacation tomorrow!

Will be taking my post-Easter break tomorrow afternoon, heading to Green Bay, WI, to spend a couple of nights with a priest friend and visiting the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help and then to Chicago for a couple of nights. So I was mighty pleased to find Fr Ray Blake's post about St John Cantius parish in Chicago. Fr Ray in turn links to Fr Simon Henry who writes the Offerimus Tibi Domine blog.

Here's a video about the restoration of the Church:



Fr Henry describes the transformation that has occurred since the Fathers and Brothers of the Canons Regular took over:

Fr Frank Phillips took over a failing church and parish in downtown Chicago in 1988 when there were only 40 families attending Mass and has transformed the parish into an active and thriving community with a Mass attendance of 2,500 and in 1998 formed a community following the rule of St Augustine of 26 priests and brothers.

Mass is offered in both forms with the Novus Ordo in both Latin and English. Fr Phillips believes that a concern with celebrating the liturgy beautifully and in full conformity with the rubrics of the Church is important and his conviction certainly seems to have borne much fruit. The community pray the Divine Office in full and certainly the community members I met were very impressive, dedicated, young and serious about the Religious Life - but not stuffy or lacking a sense of humour.

Fr Blake posits this as a model for the "new evangelism".