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Confession Times
- Wednesday 6:30 PM Novena to St. Joseph
- Saturday 4:00 PM to 4:45 PM IN THE CHURCH (please wear mask)
Also available by appointment. Please contact the Parish Office. -
Mass TimesSunday Mass Schedule
- Saturday: 5:00 PM English English EN In Church, Livestreaming, Facebook, Webpage
- Sunday: 7:30 AM English English EN In Church, Livestreaming, Facebook, Webpage 9:00 AM English English EN Fr. Jackson Center/Gym 9:00 AM English English EN In Church, Livestreaming, Facebook, Webpage 11:00 AM English English EN In Church, Livestreaming, Facebook, Webpage
Daily Mass ScheduleSpecial Masses -
Adoration Times
- Wednesday: 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM , Friday 3:00 pm HOLY HOUR & DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET 6:30 PM Novena to St. Joseph (Rosary, Confession, Reflection)
- Friday: 7:00 PM Stations of the Cross
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From Pastor's Desk
CHURCH REOPENING VIDEO
January 26, 2021
Dear Friends,
Our OMPH vision calls us to be “a welcoming community witnessing our faith in Christ and growing in our relationship with Jesus as we journey together toward eternal salvation.”
Some of our present parishioners remember those harrowing days, 25 years ago, when the weight of the snow collapsed the school-gym roof. Thank God, no one was hurt. Under the leadership of Fr. Gildea and the parish pastoral council, a beautiful church, offices, and new school wing were built. For the last 25 years, unfortunately, the parish has been in a maintenance posture, rather than creatively looking at the ‘future possibilities' of OMPH.
Last year, as good stewards, the Long Range Planning Committee of the Finance Council began looking at the long term needs of our parish. The committee focused on three areas of the parish that should be addressed based on their declining condition and the needs of the parish, keeping in mind the parish mission and vision statements.
After we informed the diocese of our intentions, we quickly decided it was time for the parish community to be part of the process. So we formed three subcommittees with 10-12 parishioners in each group. Each group consists of various members of our parish community, with diverse backgrounds, and different skills.
The three areas of our parish community that make up the three subcommittees are the following:The Bernadine Center
The ministerial life at OMPH has grown rapidly over the years. We presently have over 35 active ministries at OMPH, and we do not have enough room for meetings and various hospitality functions. Our mission and vision statements challenge us to be a ‘welcoming’ community to everyone, but especially those who are searching for the Good News. We need more space to be that ‘welcoming’ presence of Christ through our parish ministries. The Bernadine Center has served our parish community well over the years, but presently, it is hardly used. This subcommittee will be looking at different possibilities in regard to the Bernadine Center, always keeping in mind our Mission and Vision statements.
The School
Even before the pandemic, OMPH Catholic School was experiencing space limitations. When this occurs, the school begins to look at places where programs need to be limited. Unfortunately, when this occurs, the school cannot grow.
This subcommittee will study the space limitations at the school and recommend ways in which the school can reach out creatively to meet the needs of all the children who come to OMPH.
In addition to this, we have learned from parent surveys that a full day preschool for 3 and 4 year olds is greatly needed. Therefore, this subcommittee will be looking at OMPH ‘specializing’ in Catholic preschool education for young children.The Grounds, Landscaping etc.
While we have hard working parishioners who selflessly care for the grounds, it has been pointed out that many of the trees are now over grown, the OMPH sign is not practical, the lighting is insufficient, and there should be more gardens for reflection and prayer.
If a parish is to be a ‘welcoming’ community, then it must begin when a person approaches the property. This subcommittee will ask - “when a person, or family approaches OMPH - do they feel welcomed - when they are searching for a place of worship, or a school for their child? Do they experience the warmth and beauty of God’s creation in the parish landscape and garden design?”
As a part of this process, the parish conducted what is called a “Reserve Study.” This study is highly recommended before beginning any major building projects. A couple weeks ago, a Professional Reserve Analyst came to our parish and looked at the condition of our buildings, appliances, machinery, grounds, windows, etc. This firm after completing their study will provide the parish with a report listing the useful life of all the items inventoried. We will know how much we will have to spend going ahead, based on this report - and what we will have available in Reserve.
We have currently implemented at OMPH parish what is called the Master Plan Process. To be faithful stewards, we need to evaluate our present needs, but also we need to look to our future needs. The Master Plan Process will be implemented in different phases over the next 15 years in coordination with the parish finances.
During the process, the parish pastoral council will submit survey questions to all the parishioners. Newsletters will be sent out on a regular basis, also from the parish pastoral council, informing parishioners of the subcommittee activities.
Each subcommittee will focus on their area of concern, and will recommend with the assistance of professionals (architect, engineer, etc.) a preferred plan to present to the Master Plan Team (Future Possibilities Group). The Master Plan Team, also consisting of approximately 12 parishioners, will collect the results of the subcommittees and put together a final prioritization/phasing plan.
The Master Plan will go to the Pastoral Council for approval and then to the Pastor for his approval. Then, final town hall meetings will be held to seek input and approval of the plan (exhibit, model) from the parish community.
The Master Plan will then be submitted to the Diocese for approval.
Although the majority of you are not in the meetings, you are just as much a part of this process as the committee members. If you have any comments or suggestions, please go to our parish website home page - omphchurch.com - Master Plan.
Also, if you would like to drop off a comment or a suggestion, we will have suggestion boxes outside the school gym and in the church narthex.
Please keep all of us in your prayers as we come together in committees to discern the will of God for this wonderful parish of OMPH.
May Mary our Mother of Perpetual Help protect us and keep us safe.
Fr. John -
National Catholic Register
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Today's Readings
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Reading I Ez 18:21-28Responsorial Psalm 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-7a, 7bc-8Gospel Mt 5:20-26
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OMPH PARISH MISSION & VISION STATEMENT
Our Mission is to celebrate the real presence of Jesus in our Eucharistic worship and empower ALL to be Disciples of Christ.
Our Vision is to be a welcoming community, witnessing our faith in Christ and growing in our relationship with Jesus as we journey together toward eternal salvation.
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Black History Month
Rev. Augustine Tolton, the first known black Roman Catholic priest in the United States, just moved two steps closer to sainthood.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis deemed Tolton to be “venerable,” positioning the formerly enslaved priest for possible sainthood. The pope’s designation of Tolton as venerable means the church has investigated Tolton’s life and deemed it as having “heroic virtue,” the Diocese of Springfield said in an announcement.
Tolton’s life story was indeed incredible. It begins with a miraculous escape from slavery in 1862.
Tolton was born enslaved in Missouri in April 1854. His parents, Peter and Martha Tolton, had him baptized Catholic, the faith of the family that “owned” them.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Peter Tolton ran away to join the Union Army. Months later, Martha Tolton also fled with her three children — a bid for freedom that nearly ended in capture.
The Toltons were chased through the woods by Confederate slave catchers.
“We stayed hidden in the bushes, afraid to breathe,” recounted actor Jim Coleman, who is starring as Tolton in the one-man play “Tolton: From Slave to Priest” touring the country. “They dragged us out. But like angels coming down from heaven, we saw Union soldiers. They smuggled us into a dilapidated row boat and pushed out into the mighty Mississippi River.” The next performance is scheduled to open Sept. 6 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore.
In the production, Confederate soldiers shoot frantically at the boat, as Tolton’s mother rowed across the muddy river.
“Bullets whizzed by our heads. We crouched down in bottom of boat,” the actor recounted. “That is when our Mama showed us what she was made of. Mother courageously rowed that boat. With each stroke, she prayed, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.’ ”
When they made it safely across the river to freedom in Illinois, Martha Tolton broke down and cried. In Illinois, they got directions to the small settlement of Quincy, where they joined a Catholic church. Tolton’s mother took him to a Catholic school and asked the priest to allow Augustus to study there.
“He was initially welcomed into one of the Catholic schools,” Coleman said in an interview, “but he was kicked out because parishioners didn’t want a negro child in the school.”
A priest, Father Peter McGirr, was impressed by Tolton’s billiance and mentored him, teaching him Latin and Greek. He encouraged Tolton to enter the priesthood.
“McGirr promised Augustus he would be educated,” Coleman said. “He wrote letters in the U.S. to get Augustus into a seminary. None accepted him because of his race. Then Father McGirr wrote letters to Rome, saying this individual was brilliant.”
In 1880, Tolton was sent to Rome, where he entered the seminary at Collegium Urbanum de Propaganda Fide. Six years later, on April 24, 1886, at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, Augustus Tolton was ordained a priest.
“Pope Leo XIII delegated Cardinal Giovanni Parocchi to officiate at the ceremony,” according to a biography by the organization seeking sainthood for Tolton.
Tolton celebrated his first Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. “It was April 25, 1886, Easter Sunday,” according to the Tolton canonization biography. “Pilgrims and tourists must have wondered when they saw a red-robed cardinal taking his place beside a black priest.”
Tolton wrote that he thought he would be sent as a missionary to Africa, but the Vatican ordered him to return to the United States. “It was said that I would be the only priest of my race in America and would not likely succeed,” Tolton wrote, according to the Catholic News Herald.
But he did, becoming a popular pastor of St. Joseph Church in Quincy.
“He was loved,” Coleman said. “But the problem was, he was taking parishioners from white churches, even protestant churches. Everybody wanted to see this priest who studied in Rome. They ran him out of Quincy.”
In 1891, he was sent to Chicago, where he opened St. Monica’s Church, built with donations from philanthropists Anne O’Neill and Katherine Drexel. (Drexel became a saint in 2000.)
“It is the first Catholic church in the city to be built by colored people,” a Jan. 15, 1894, article in the Chicago Tribune reported. “More than this, it is the first church of the kind constructed in this State and probably the only Catholic church in the West that has been built by colored members of that faith for their own use.”
“Father Tolton’s success at ministering to black Catholics quickly earned him national attention within the Church,” according to the Catholic News Herald. Augustus Tolton was known for “eloquent sermons, his beautiful singing voice, and his talent for playing the accordion.”
He was described in one newspaper article as “a fluent and graceful talker and has a singing voice of exceptional sweetness, which shows to good advantage in the chants of the high Mass. It is no unusual thing for many white people to be seen among his congregation.”
But just three years after St. Monica’s dedication, Tolton was on his way to the church on a hot July day in 1897 when he fell to the sidewalk, apparently suffering from heatstroke. He died at Mercy Hospital in Chicago at the age of 43.
More than 113 years after his death, Cardinal Francis George, who was the archbishop of Chicago, announced the push to make Tolton a saint.
In 2012, Tolton was granted the title “servant of God” by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, allowing the Archdiocese of Chicago to proceed with an inquiry into his life and virtues.
Tolton is one of six African Americans and three formerly enslaved being considered for sainthood — a process that can take decades.
Two miracles credited to Tolton’s intercession have been sent to Rome for evaluation, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry told Chicago Catholic, the newspaper for the archdiocese, earlier this year. He is the priest designated by the archdiocese to lead the canonization effort.
“We’re hoping and our fingers are crossed and we’re praying,” Perry said, “that at least one of them might be acceptable for his beatification.” -
Photo Albums
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Teacher's Retreat, August, 2020
9 Photos
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First Communion
2 Photos
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Kayaking photos
18 Photos
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Church Ambo Photos
8 Photos
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Church Re-opening
17 Photos
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Diocese of Harrisburg, Office of the Bishop
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