What a wonderful celebration of the consecration of our church and altar, and the Gala that followed. Bishop McManus was so impressed by the participation of our community throughout the ceremony; “Everyone paying attention, singing and praying together.” Many of you who attended have shared at how moving and meaningful the whole service was. We received a 48-page document of instructions on April 8th to prepare for the consecration and Pam Chaplin got to work and pulled it all together; working along with Msgr. Bob Johnson, Bishop McManus’ master of ceremonies, and created an event we will all remember for a lifetime. How wonderful it was to have Fr. Ray Goodwin, Msgr. John Doran and Fr. Denis O’Brien with us, all of whom had never been present for the consecration of a church and altar before.
They were very impressed by the service, the music Stephen Chaplin provided, the cantors, servers, and all who dressed the altar. A special thank you to Larry Bonetti for taking care of placing the consecration candles on the wall and overseeing so many of the renovations through his 20 years at the helm of Buildings and Grounds. Bill Parent oversaw the outside clean up and worked with the volunteers to make the campus look so great, including some last minute painting in the wet rainy season we have had.
Many had questions regarding the meaning and significance of many parts of the ceremony. If you would like to understand the symbolism of the ritual, please go to:
https://sacredhearthopedale.org/extending-the-message on our website.
The Gala was a wonderful event. Anyone who has ever done event planning or planned a wedding reception knows all the details that go into such a large event. Our Gala committee did a superb job, every detail: publicity, the favors, the cake, the decorations, the slide presentation, the speakers, table seating and meal itself all took many hours of preparation; not by professional event planners, but those who volunteered to work together when we sought help over a year ago. Ernie Chaplin, Paula Cadoret, Michelle Faherty, Donna Rajcula, Frank and Virginia Larkin, and Gene Phillips; we owe you all a great deal of thanks for working together this past year bringing us to the finish line of a celebration worth remembering. Finally a thank you to Ray Andreotti for his watercolor painting gift to the parish on this occasion.
The consecration of our church and altar was all made possible through our willingness as a Catholic Community to work together to contribute to “Making God’s house a Home!” Congratulations and thank you to us all!