more at MkeJSThe processional at the start of Mass at St. Alphonsus Church on Sunday morning was a bit unusual.
In addition to the cross and Bible held high, a tool belt and firefighter's helmet were carried out before the altar by congregants grateful to have a church.
Above the doors were banners that said "Welcome Home."
"It's just like the sign says - it's like coming home again," Betty Richard, a church member for 35 years, said shortly before she solemnly carried a Greendale Fire Department helmet in front of hundreds of parishioners at Sunday's 9 a.m. Mass.
The exultation of the firefighter's helmet and tool belt were apt: If not for the valiant efforts by fire crews and the hard work of construction workers, the reopening of one of the largest Catholic churches in the Milwaukee area might have taken much longer.
While the sanctuary and nave on W. Loomis Road were gutted and rebuilt after a Christmas Eve blaze that damaged the church and school, parishioners attended services in a community room and sat on folding chairs. Father Alan Jurkus, whose words were beamed to an overflow room via closed-circuit TV, compared the time to being in exile.
......
The first hymn sung at Mass was "All are Welcome," a song with a double meaning in the newly constructed house of worship:
"Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live, a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive. Built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith and vault of grace, here the love of Christ shall end divisions."
Back in the day, we used to pray for firefighters, not canonize them.
10 comments:
Woah. Looking at that first pic at the link, did the choir section grow AGAIN? Pretty soon the sanctuary is going to be a little 5x5 area surrounded by choir.
It makes it hard for me to think that, at one time, I went to this parish and school and thought this stuff was ok. Lucky for me I was able to shed my childhood ignorance, but I can't even begin to count my peers from school and religious ed who are now gone from the Catholic faith.
I didn't realize you went there! I think alot of Catholics have had their "aha" moments when it comes to these sorts of things, me included growing up on Guitar Mass.
I know someone who arrives late just to avoid hearing "All Are Welcome."
I know someone who arrives late just to avoid hearing "All Are Welcome."
Oh, yeah; six years at the school, then in high school went even more crazy lib over at the infamous Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Milwaukee (to be fair, the switch was mostly peer-related, not parish). After escaping to uni, I was a non-practicing catholyc for a few years before I was recovered by St. Paul's University Catholic Center in Madison. Thank God for St. Paul's and the good work they do there!
Matt,
My favorite part of this story is your label! "Why Catholics drink so much!!!" What a hoot! From the picture it doesn't look like the pews have kneelers....
Hahaha, I didn't know what else to say. I'm glad you enjoyed it Anne. :)
just to be sure no the church has never had kneelers and parishioners have never kneeled...Kat as a fellow for St Als student one can not think yow insane the parish continues to be
Oh, my...
I got nothing
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