September 8 

 

 

The Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been celebrated in the Church at least since the 8th Century. The Church's calendar observes the birthdays of only two saints: Saint John the Baptist (June 24), and Mary, Mother of Jesus.

John the Baptist is considered especially sanctified even before his birth. His birth to Elizabeth and Zachariah is foretold in the first chapter of Luke, and it is also recorded (Lk 1:41) that Elizabeth felt the infant John "leap in her womb" when Mary approached her soon after the Annunciation.

The birth of Mary was also miraculous. She was conceived without sin as a special grace because God had selected her to become the mother of His Son (the feast of her Immaculate Conception is celebrated on December 8). The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, though generally believed throughout the Church for many centuries, was formally declared by Pope Pius IX in 1854.

There is nothing contained in Scripture about the birth of Mary or her parentage, though Joseph's lineage is given in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The names of Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, appear in the apocryphal "Gospel of James", a book dating from the 2nd Century AD, not part of the authentic canon of Scripture. According to this account, Joachim and Anna were also beyond the years of child-bearing, but prayed and fasted that God would grant their desire for a child.

 

According to one tradition, the house in which Mary was born in Nazareth is the same one in which the Annunciation took place. By another tradition, the Annunciation site is beneath the Crusader church of Saint Anna in Jerusalem, under a 3rd Century oratory known as the "Gate of Mary".

In celebrating the nativity of Mary, Christians anticipate the Incarnation and birth of her Divine Son, and give honor to the mother of Our Lord and Savior.
 
From Women for Faith & Family

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September - this year it is September 7 in 2009.

The holiday originated in 1882 as the Central Labor Union of New York City sought to create "a day off for the working citizens." Congress made Labor Day a federal holiday on June 28, 1894, two months after the May Day Riots of 1894. May 4 was chosen to remember the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.

Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer.

 

Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in the United States since the 1880s. The form for the celebration of Labor Day was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday-a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations," followed by a festival for the workers and their families. This became the pattern for Labor Day celebrations. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civil significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

Today, Labor Day is often regarded as a day of rest and parades. Speeches or political demonstrations are more low-key than May 1 Labour Day celebrations in most countries, although events held by labor organizations often feature political themes and appearances by candidates for office, especially in election years. Forms of celebration include picnics, barbecues, fireworks displays, water sports, and public art events. Families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer. Some teenagers and young adults view it as the last weekend for parties before returning to school. However, of late, schools have begun well before Labor Day, as early as July 24 in many urban districts, including major southern cities in the United States such as Atlanta, Miami, and Los Angeles. In addition, Labor Day marks the beginning of the NFL and college football seasons. The NCAA usually plays their first games the week before Labor Day, with the NFL traditionally playing their first game the Thursday following Labor Day.

 

 

Join us for the next Town Hall Meeting on Sunday, September 13th immediately following Mass.  The Parish financial condition will be provided along with the Rector and Vestry's Vision for St. Thomas in 2010.  Please join us for this meeting that is expected to last no more than 45 minutes.  Your Vestry is providing the goodies!  All are welcome.

Beginning Labor Day, the all five weekday Masses will take place at 7pm; however, on Friday, 11 September, the weekday Mass has been canceled due to the Romanian Patronal Festival liturgy at 7pm in which our clergy are involved. Please consider supporting their event.

 

 

 

This Sunday, the Altar Guild will be sponsoring Coffee Hour. The Guild has had to replace or repair a number of significant items recently; therefore, donations to the Altar Guild Fund will be gratefully accepted. A basket will be provided at the Coffee Hour for your donations. Thank you for your support.

 

 

Associate Rector

Missa Vigil hoc septem dies cum lingua Latina. Missa mos ineo 5 meridianus et cum ero Abeo Gregoriana in Ecclesiae Parochiae Sancta Thomasiensis.

[The Vigil Mass on Saturday will be in Latin this week.  Join us at 5pm in the Church with Gregorian Chant.]
 

Photo by Jeff Knight 

The St Thomas Choir will be officially starting back to its  Thursday Rehearsal schedule on September the 10th. If you are interested in joining the choir please come to this first rehearsal and sit in! 

 

If you would like to join the choir please see Choir Director Jim Keltner to discuss the opportunity.  The choir rehearses in the choir room located in the Parish basement on Thursdays from 7:30 to 9:30 and on Sundays at 9:00am.

Sophie's Choice is a novel by William Styron published in 1979. It concerns a young American Southerner, an aspiring writer, who befriends the Jewish Nathan Landau and his beautiful lover Sophie, a Polish (but non-Jewish) survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. An immediate bestseller and the basis of the 1982 successful film. 

 

Friday, September 18th join in a viewing of the film and a lively discussion afterwards.

Interesting facts about

St. Thomas the Apostle

 

St Thomas Website