Pentecost Sunday- Happy Birthday to the Church!

This Sunday is Pentecost! It's one of my favorite days in the Church calendar- I love hearing about the action of the Holy Spirit among the earliest Christians, our early Church. This weekend as we listen to the readings, I'm going to be looking for ways we can be more like those early Christ-followers, as individuals and as a parish community. And, of course, I'll be wearing RED, the traditional color attributed to the Holy Spirit.
-MM
PS, if you follow the link above it'll take you to my favorite Catholic info. site, www.fisheaters.com. My favorite thing about fisheaters is the cool traditions they include about each holy day. This year we had chicken for dinner on Ascension Thursday, in honor of the tradition of eating "fowl" on this Holy Day, to remember how Jesus "flew" up to heaven- a tidbit we learned about on this site. On the Pentecost page, check out the part about the "Holy Spirit Holes" in medieval churches. Fun stuff!

Being Catholic Now

I've just started reading Being Catholic Now, by Kerry Kennedy- it's a collection of essays by Catholics from all walks of life (or several, anyway) who tell their faith story in regard to their Catholicism. I've only read a few of the essays, but I am having trouble putting it down- each writer seems to have their own version of what Catholicism can look like, and it's so widely varied yet full of similarities, that I find them really fascinating.
In the coming year, one of our goals for the whole parish is to help us all begin to be able to express and share our own faith stories. What kind of Catholics are we? What are our origins in the faith- who brought us up in the Church? Who shared their faith, and helped us to form ours?
This book has really gotten me excited about taking a look at my own story. Have you read it, or any other books like it? Send us a comment below, and tell us what you think! (Click on the picture of the book for the Amazon link)
-MM

Big Day!!

Tomorrow is a big day for our church! Of course it is Ascension Thursday, a Holy Day of Obligation- we'll have additional Masses for you to celebrate this holy day- our usual daily 6:30 AM Mass, plus one at 9:00 AM and one at 7:00 PM. Join us!
It's also special because it is our own Father Mehm's anniversary of his ordination! Do wish him your congratulations on a wonderful 32 years of service when you see him!

Inter-web Churchy Thing of the Day

Wow, you look like you could use a break. How about a quick 3-minute retreat? http://www.loyolapress.com/3-minute-retreats-daily-online-prayer.htm

Save the date and pray for good weather!

Our Parish Picnic is coming up soon, on Sunday, June 14th from 12:00 PM- 3:00 PM. We'll have great food, fun games, good friends, happy times, and a bouncy house! What more could any Catholic ask for? 

Tickets are on sale at the Parish Office, or you can buy them (only $3.00 per, or $10.00 for a whole family) from the Knights of Columbus representatives who will be at the doors after the Masses on the weekends of May 30/31 and June 6/7. 

The picnics at I.C. are always a lot of fun, come on down (or up) and check it out!

Hope to see you there!

-MM

ConGRADUATIONS

We are so proud of our graduating seniors! Last Sunday was the Graduation Mass at I.C., and we honored our graduating seniors with a gift of blankets embroidered with "IC 2009" for them to take with them wherever they travel in life. After Mass, we gave out awards to just some of the shining stars in this class. Here are some pictures of the awards banquet:

GOF!! Woo!!

All week the IC staff have been looking forward to this weekend's Generations of Faith festivals. We welcome THIS GUY: 

That's Dan Ponsetto, director of the Volunteer and Service Learning Center at Boston College. He has some great stories to tell, and will give us a great "wrap-up" of our Just!ce year. He's done lots of service and justice work and will inspire us all. 

After Dan speaks, we'll go to our breakouts for a brief time, then re-gather for a FUN finish to the night! 

See, that's why we're excited. Come on down and share the fun with us. See you there!

-MM

Sum-Sum-Summertime (almost)!

Here's a great post to check out on the "Mary's Aggies" blog- it's titled and directed for college students, but has some great thoughts for all of us as we bound gleefully toward Summer!
-MM

Congratulations, Eagle Scouts!

Immaculate Conception Parish is proud of our two new Eagle Scouts! Tim Ryan and Danny Endicott both have been scouts through IC for years, and both completed wonderful Eagle projects here at the parish- Danny coordinated a massive cleaning of the pews in our main church; they shined and glowed when he and his crew were finished! Time coordinated a great project of interviewing and recording the stories of parishioners for our archives, in the style of the greatStoryCorps project. Our parish has benefited from the presence of our Scouts for many years and we are pleased to support our troop. Here are some pictures from the Eagle Scout Court of Honor, held Sunday, May 3.

First Eucharist

Congratulations to our newest Communicants! We're so proud of you! 

Scenes from First Eucharist

Confirmation

Last Sunday we celebrated the Confirmation of our Sophomores at the 5:00 PM Mass. We are so proud of our newly-confirmed! Thanks to all who prepared and cheered them on!

Chili, Comedy, and Crime

Congratulations to the Knights of Columbus of I.C. Parish, who hosted the successful night of Chili, Comedy and Crime last week at the Irish American Club in Malden. A fabulous time was had by all: the chili was delicious, the comedy raucous, and the Malden and Medford police Departments were the beneficiaries of the funds raised that night, along with other local charities. 

A few pictures from the night:

This sign marked the table reserved by Fr. Mehm for our staff and friends:

Busy Day at Immaculate Conception!

Hey there! Long time no blog, I know - busy, busy, busy around here at I.C. Today, in fact, we celebrate First Communion, have Baptism registrations AND coffee and donuts (hosted by the Charismatic Prayer Group!) after the 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM Masses, plus Baptism class at 1:00 PM in the Chapel, PLUS all the Masses you could ever need: 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM still to go - come on down and jump in!