This Week at Ascension + February 28, 2024

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." - Psalm 96

Wednesday, February 28

Oswald of York, Bishop, Abbot, 992

Evening Prayer on ZOOM at 6 p.m.

In-person and Live-streamed

Said Mass at 6:30 p.m.



VIA YOUTUBE or FACEBOOK LIVE

FOOD PANTRY

Saturday, March 2nd



We will again gather to assemble bags of shelf-stable groceries and personal items for our neighbors in need. We begin filling bags in St. Michael Hall at 9 a.m. and start distributing them at 11 a.m. We need the most help between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., but welcome your help for however long you are able to stay.

Come be the hands, heart, and feet of Christ in our own neighborhood, following in the wake of the Cross, and enjoy some fellowship as well.

The Third Sunday in Lent

February March 3, 2024

7:30 a.m. Morning Prayer via Zoom

9 a.m. Sung Mass

11 a.m. Solemn Mass,

In-person & Live-streamed

The 11 a.m. Bulletin may be found here.

Click to join us VIA YOUTUBE

or VIA FACEBOOK LIVE

Image: Christ Driving the Moneychangers, Rembrandt, 1626



And in the Afternoon on March 3rd

3:30 p.m. Organ Recital by David R. White (b. 1959)

Featuring works by Juan Bautista Jose Cabanilles,

Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms,

and Charles-Arnould Tournemire

4 p.m. Choral Evensong and Benediction

Orlando Gibbons, Second Service & So God loved the world

Edward Elgar, O salutaris hostia, No. 3 in F (1880)

Gabriel Fauré, Tantum ergo (1904)

Stations of the Cross

& Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

on the Fridays of Lent at 6 p.m. 



February 16 & 23 and March 1, 8, 15 & 22

Following Stations & Benediction, a vegetarian soup and bread supper will be offered in Wheeler Hall

New Weekday Mass Schedule

Be present, be present, O Jesus, our great High Priest,

as you were present with your disciples,

and be known to us in the breaking of bread.

On Monday, February 19, we instituted a new weekday Mass schedule. We hope you will make our new weekday Mass schedule part of your Lenten journey. 

12 p.m. on Monday & Friday

8 a.m. on Tuesday & Thursday

6:30 p.m. on Wednesday

From the Rector

For nearly a decade, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament has been a mainstay of my devotional life and priestly vocation. During my seminary formation, I was trained, and expected, to serve at Benediction every Sunday. Since then, I have served parishes who offer this devotional service either seasonally or monthly. As well as on Fridays in Lent, preceded by Stations of the Cross, as is the practice at Church of the Ascension. 

If you're not familiar with this service, let me explain this rite. At Benediction, the priest exposes the Sacrament for adoration, and after singing hymns of praise and offering prayers, lifts the monstrance containing a consecrated Host and blesses the people. An act in which, as Father John MacQuarrie puts it, we are blessed by our Lord’s Presence and we bless him with our presence. We come to Benediction to receive our Lord’s blessing, but in this rite we find ourselves blessing God as we profess: Blessed be God!

Having participated in multiple Benediction services over the last decade, on Friday I experienced a new and powerful encounter. As I raised the monstrance containing our Lord’s Body to bless the people, there was a sudden confluence of sound. As bells rang, so did an ambulance rushing by our church. As I held the monstrance in my hands wrapped in a humeral veil, I was reminded of the spiritual function of Benediction: to adore Christ’s Body under the substance of Bread (and Wine) to such an extent that our hearts and minds are transformed to see his Body in the world. And as that ambulance rushed by, my thoughts and prayers were moved to see our Lord in that ambulance: in the person receiving care and in the paramedics, providing it. To see him in all those in distress, in all those who are suffering, in all those steeped in hope, in all those seeking God’s justice and mercy in this world. Blessed be God!

—Fr. de la Torre

Images of Pilgrimage

2024 Lenten Program led by Fr. Robert Petite

Our Lenten program will explore Images of Pilgrimage as they inform the practice of Christian love throughout the Christian’s life journey. A pilgrimage is a journey to visit holy places: historical churches, religious shrines, or other sacred sites in a particular country. We can also speak metaphorically of the whole of life as “a pilgrimage”, a metaphor for the spiritual journey we all take, with all the challenges, demands and hardship that accompany it. Please join us for this rich formation program led by Fr. Petite, following the 11:00 a.m. Solemn High Mass. A hearty lunch will be provided. 

Sunday, March 3 – Images of Pilgrimage in the poetry of Dante Alighieri (The movement of Romantic love to love of neighbor and God).

The Week 3 reading notes may be found here.

About our Written Resource: Images of Pilgrimage; Paradise and Wilderness in Christian Spirituality by Rev. Dr. Robert Crouse, one time professor of Classics at Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fr. Crouse was a respected spiritual director, an authority on St. Augustine (354-430) and on Dante (1261-1321). He died in 2011. His book can be found on Amazon in hardcover and Kindle: https://a.co/d/0DVRdcs

Lenten Quiet Morning Saturday,

March 9, from 8 a.m. - Noon

What’s so good about a crucified God?

Mtr. KJ Oh, priest associate at St Paul and the Redeemer, Hyde Park and Emerita Professor in Practical Theology at Bexley Seabury Seminary, Chicago, will lead us as we reflect on what it means to follow a savior who was so easily exterminated and how Jesus’ sacrificial act results in our salvation. Our conversations, while framed by theology, are offered as a time for personal, spiritual exploration rather than as a theological exercise.

Mtr. KJ requests retreatants simply come as they are in comfortable clothing. Breakfast will be served at 8 a.m.

This retreat is free of charge. Please register using this sign up form so we can plan appropriately plan for food and space. 

Because He First Loved Us: Holy Week for Families w/Children

Saturday, March 23 | 10-11:30AM

Households with young children are invited to journey through a “mini” Holy Week, in preparation of this most important week in the Church year. Through interactive activities, crafts, and mutual learning, families will experience the power and glory of Holy Week. We will begin by entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, learn about our Lord’s institution of the Eucharist and his command that we love one another, walk the way of the Cross, and receive the light of Christ. Snacks and lunch will be provided for the entire family. We hope to see you there! 

In order to offer this programming, we need at least two families to sign up. Please confirm your attendance by registering here: https://forms.gle/mxregL2ULx3HULo5A



Simnel Cake for Lent IV Coffee Hour

A little bird phoned the parish office with a gentle reminder to include the recipe for Simnel Cake in the newsletter early enough for you to easily prepare one before the Fourth Sunday in Lent. Below you will find the usual two recipes. Happy baking.

Consider being a Coffee Hour host

There are spots available for hosting Coffee Hour after either Sunday Mass! Look for the MARCH & APRIL sign-up sheets in Wheeler Hall.

If you are leary of what hosting a Coffee Hour might entail, speak to Hospitality Committee members Josh or Ellie Simpson, David Reeves, LaVerne Saunders or Carol Noren. They will be glad to help.



The Prayers of the People

As part of our Sunday offering of the Mass, we bring to God our petitions and thanksgivings. As a community, we do this by bidding the parish’s intentions in the Prayers of the People. If you wish to have someone added to the Prayers of the People, please email Father de la Torre or Mother Murphy-Gill. You can also fill out the prayer request form in the link below. Names will remain on the prayer list for three weeks, unless otherwise requested.

Lord, hear the prayers of thy people; and what we have asked faithfully, grant that we may obtain effectually, to the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Share your prayer requests here.



For our prayers

Terrence Kumro, John Barry, Jeanne Fitzsimmons, Mary Sliwinski, Neha Nikita Andrade,

Ken McPhillips, Elizabeth McLaughlin, Marilyn Labkon, Lee Gould, Robert Pischke, Florence Jones Clanton, Rachel Smolinski, Sara Reece Glanman, Suzanne Dines, MB Hwang, Juanita Malone, David S. Jones, Richard Francis Tracz, Victor Fernandez, Claire Green, Beth Hall,

Sue Lenz, Brenda Martins

Birthday

Rowan Giles Hedley, 3/2

Requiescat in pace

Vanessa Rogers, 2/14/2024; Nancy Alice Holub, 2/25/1994;

Patricia Wilson Laibly, 2/26/2018; James C. Krulish, 2/27/2008

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon them;

May their souls and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.



Organ and Choral Repertoire for

March 3, 2024

Between Masses, please don’t forget that The Choir of the Ascension has recorded upwards of 60 tracks that you can listen to anywhere you have an internet connection. They can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/choir-of-the-ascension

Ascension Connections

(with your click and God's help)

Our website home page --

often with up-to-date info/links.

Participate in Ascension masses at our YouTube Channel. (Look for other connections options soon.)

Our Facebook page:

Videos, upcoming events and more.

Weekly Ascension Schedule

For connections:

via Zoom (click here)

SUNDAYS

7:30 a.m. Morning Prayer via Zoom

9:00 a.m. In-person Sung Mass

11:00 a.m. In-person and Live-Streamed Solemn High Mass

VIA YOUTUBE or FACEBOOK LIVE

MONDAY-FRIDAY

7:30 a.m. Morning Prayer via Zoom

6:00 p.m. Evening Prayer via Zoom

Weekday Mass Schedule

12 p.m. on Monday & Friday

8 a.m. on Tuesday & Thursday

6:30 p.m. on Wednesday

View the Wednesday Mass here

VIA YOUTUBE or FACEBOOK LIVE

Wardens

David Reeves, Sr. Warden

David Reeves, Sr. Warden

David A. Robertson, Jr. Warden

David A. Robertson Jr. Warden

Vestry

Ian Barillas-McEntee, Jay Peterson, Joshua Simpson

Ken Cozette, Elizabeth Simpson, Samuel Sommers (Clerk)

Vicki Dvonch, Nancy Pardee, DiAnne Walsh



Susan Schlough, Treasurer

Finance@ascensionchicago.org

Br. Nathanael Deward Rahm BSG, Parish Office

Office@ascensionchicago.org

Approved minutes of Vestry meetings are always available online to parishioners who request the link. If you would like Internet access to these Vestry Minutes, please email the Parish Office and request the link. Once you access the web page, you can read all recent Vestry meeting minutes.

The link remains live indefinitely. Any parishioner who has the link will not need to request a new link from month to month.