WE CROWN THEE WITH BLOSSOMS TODAY.... QUEEN OF THE ANGELS

Perfect day of sunshine and 80 degrees for our May Crowning!

PRESCHOOL -young ladies looking up as they prepare for the May Crowning procession

All are lined up and ready to process in singing" We Crown Thee With Blossoms Today"

The little ones were proud to dress up and they all brought flowers.

Beautiful dresses-some new and some were the 1st Communion dresses that they still could fit in.

The young boys asked me, "Don't we look handsome today?" You sure do!

All ages took part!! And proud parents and grandparents took many pictures!

The Court of Honor proceeds to the Statue of Our Lady

Mary is crowned Queen for the month of May

The Mass continues as the 1st Reading is read!

Holy Family Parish at Fort Huachuca

Today I went to Mass at the Army Fort-Fort Huachuca. The parish there is called Holy Family. Several of our school families attend this church and it was nice to see them there and to celebrate with them. Lt.Colonel Fr. Pete Uhde is the new pastor there. He came to visit our school for our Career Day to speak about being a military chaplain. Fr. Pete gets you laughing and keeps you laughing with all kinds of stories. And through it all is a message for all of us that we can take with us for the week.

The unusual part about this church is that it is really nondenominational. All religions at the Fort use this church. Before Mass began the little wooden doors on the stations were opened up, the statue of Mary was brought into the sanctuary and the Blessed Sacrament was brought in from the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. We now have a Catholic Church.
At the end of Mass men carry the statue of Mary out and the servers close all the doors on the stations so it is ready for the next religion to come in and have their Sunday worship.

It makes you see what makes our church Catholic and different from other religions.

On Saturday it was First Holy Communion at our parish-Our Lady of the Mountains. Students were very anxious, nervous and excited and so were the parents.

Lining up for the procession in.

Gloves were removed in preparation for receiving the Body of Christ.

Praying of the Our Father

Blessing of 1st Holy Communion, rosaries, crosses, Bibles

One of the guests was so proud to be able to wear her Easter dress and bonnet.

AND ....her mom let her wear her new purple flip-flops that she isn't allowed to wear to school-she was thrilled :):)

It was a year for the boys. 

Spring is here and summer is knocking-the roses at the convent are all in bloom once again.

Hatched, Matched, Dispatched!

Easter is here at last after 40 dark days of Lent! The dark, brown curtain covering our beautiful window in church was finally opened and I had the honors to do so!

Seeing it was Easter we had lotsssssssssss of people for Easter Sunday Mass. In fact, our pastor planned ahead and scheduled two Masses for 9:30am-the usual one in church and another in our parish hall. Both were packed. Fr. Ricky, our diocesan vocation director, celebrated the one in church.
Here is how our hall was transformed for Easter Sunday liturgy:

The empty tomb on stage was transformed from the cave for Adoration on Holy Thursday night.

Fr. Ariel had a very strong homily-Be proud to be a Catholic and don't be afraid to show it!! One way to do it is to make the sign of the cross in the restaurant before you eat.

He also had us all laughing with one of his jokes: In the Philippines we have some Catholics who only come to church 3 times in their life: 1) when they are Hatched 2) when they are Matched and 3) when they are Dispatched!

After the two 9:30am Masses we had an Easter egg hunt, sponsored by our school, for all children at the Masses. We don't have green grass, and we don't have snow but our dirt and stone playground with a few weeds.So some eggs were hidden and some weren't. Ages 6 and under got to go first and then any other age could run and find eggs. Here is what the hunt looked like:

Easter dresses-no bonnets though!

The race is on for the eggs!

Big  Sister and Little Sister!

Try hiding eggs in this!

She found a golden egg-it says-"See Father A for a prize!"

A very proud Papa!

The hunt is over and we have some happy children and parents.

At the Easter Vigil we had an outstanding Easter fire to light our new and very tall Paschal Candle.

Sunset!

Catechumens burning their letters to God they wrote earlier on their retreat.

Blessing the fire!

Ready to light the new Paschal Candle!

Coming to the end of our RCIA Journey-three of my teachers-I sponsored two and Chris sponsored the other one.

Holy Saturday morning-the 14 Stations for the Way of the Cross were acted out or picured by 14 families as we walked all around our church/school property. Here are a few of them.

Simon of Cyrene helps to carry the cross.

Mary, his Mother, stood beneath the cross.

Tears of the weeping women of Jerusalem.

The veils of the weeping women of Jerusalem.

The children were asked to carry the cross. 

 The Stations helped us to connect with the Good Friday services.

The candles in the background were there to represent the Reflections on the Seven Last Words.

Lent is over and now we sing Alleluia! Alleluia!  Bring out the chocolate! :-):-):-)