Fr. Anzelm Chalupka, pastor of Corpus Christi Church, led a candlelit rosary procession on the East Side of Buffalo. Participants carried candles and prayed the rosary in several languages for the transformation and revitalization of the neighborhood.
[see pictures from Corpus Christi’s Rosary Procession on AM-POL Eagle website]
(click on images for full view – photos by Father Anzlem)
Beginning on Monday, November 3rd weekday Masses (Monday – Saturday) will be held in Corpus Christi’s Convent Chapel. Using this area instead of the large church will save on heating bills during the winter months. Sunday Masses will continue in the church.
In the past few weeks, some changes have taken place in the convent sanctuary. A painting of the Most Blessed Trinity from the closed St. Barbara’s Church in Lackawanna now occupies the main wall. The altar also from the St. Barbara’s and for some in the back of Corpus Christi is now in the convent. The sedilia, or presider’s chair, from the former St. Valentine’s Church in Buffalo will be also used at Masses in the convent.
Mass will be celebrated on this altar, ad orientem. Meaning towards the East, the priest and people will face the same direction. This is for three reasons:
1) It is an important part of our Catholic tradition.
2) The Pauline Fathers have always offered Mass this way, even after Vatican II (which did not even call for new altars or the priest facing the people) especially at the shrines of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Jasna Gora, Poland and Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
3) The altar is truly a beautiful peace of religious art which should be valued and used for what it was created for.
Sunday Masses, however, will continue to be celebrated on the church’s free-standing altar facing the people.
Wrongly considered for the past few decades as the priest with his “back to the people,” Pope Benedict has called for a widespread return to this position especially during the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass. His Holiness also celebrated a televised Mass in this way, earlier this year. In his book, Spirit of the Liturgy, the Pope wrote:
“This is not a case of accidentals, but of essentials. Looking at the priest has no importance. What matters is looking together at the Lord. It is not now a question of dialogue, but of common worship, of setting off towards the One who is to come.”
We are very pleased to introduce to you Fr. Marek Lacki, OSPPE, who arrived on September 12 to join Fr. Anzelm and Bro. Peter in the Monastic Community, and to assist in the Pastoral Ministry at Corpus Christi. He graciously agreed to an interview, so that our web viewers would have the chance to get to know him.
Soft spoken Fr. Marek, 35, comes from the town of Wrzesnia in central Poland, and from childhood was strongly drawn to the sanctity of Jasna Gora, the Pauline Monastery in Czestochowa. An altar boy from the age of six, he made frequent pilgrimages to Jasna Gora and dreamed of entering, being there “as in my own place.” “Finally, I did!” beams the gentle priest. Fr. Marek joined the Pauline Fathers and Brothers in 1999. Reflecting on the presence of our Lady of Jasna Gora in his life, he smiles, saying, “It’s her fault, I am who I am. She is my Mom.”
Since entering the Pauline Order, Fr. Marek has spent half of his time abroad, experiencing the Church in many different places. “People all over the world have the same problems;” he notes, “we ourselves are our biggest problem.” Ordained to the Holy Priesthood in 2006, Fr. Marek was assigned for two years to a monastery in Slovakia, serving in a large parish where he was given charge of youth. “It was a beautiful experience,” he remarks, “helping young people build their relationship with God through a life of prayer. It was a wonderful time and also hard, helping people work through their problems, especially interior ones.” Fr. Marek sees communication as of prime importance in facing the difficulties of our daily life, and points to the need for good listening. [Read more…]
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