Lord

The heart of the Christian community is our Triune Lord: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Geography, history, and numbers are not the heart, but probably I will type mostly on these topics. As the internet already provides many encouraging spiritual guides and discouraging contentious forums, I intend to offer neither.
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To find a parish, enter a keyword in the search box at the top left, or look through the labels and links down the right-hand column. The posts themselves follow the Blogger format of newest items on top.
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Friday, September 25, 2015

Recessional hymn at Pope's Mass at MSG

It is 7:40 p.m. on September 25, 2015, and Mass has been celebrated with Pope Francis at Madison Square Garden.  Allow me to point out a special quality of the recessional hymn, "Now thank we all our God." 
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Martin Rinkart, a clergyman who followed Martin Luther, wrote this hymn about 1636 despite having suffered a fearful number of deaths among his companions, fellow citizens, and family. He wrote "Nun danket alle Gott" is heartfelt thanksgiving for God's good gifts.  Please see this context in this Wikipedia article.
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Another article, linked HERE, describes the Biblical motivation for the hymn, following Ecclesiasticus 50:22-24.

Friday, September 11, 2015

Nassau numbers from 2015 Directory

The 2015 Official Catholic Directory, recently available, includes statistics probably collected in 2014 or earlier.  My computations could be wrong, but it would seem that the 27 Catholic elementary schools in Nassau County had a total enrollment about 9,797, plus whatever the enrollment at Notre Dame, New Hyde Park, is.  Whether some schools included pre-kindergarten students in the count is unclear.    St. Agnes, Rockville Centre, reported the highest enrollment, 753 students.  St. William the Abbot, Seaford, reported 569, but that was the same number reported last year.  St. Anne 530, St. Aidan 518.
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The median group of the 27 Nassau County Catholic schools would seem to be Our Lady of Victory, Floral Park, 365, St. Elisabeth Ann Seton, Bellmore,  356, and St. Joseph, Garden City, 356.  With lower enrollments are Our Lady of Lourdes, Malverne, 263, and All Saints Regional, Glen Cove, 195.
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The site elementaryschools.org lists grade-by-grade enrollment without giving a date of the statistics.  However, an analysis of that site shows how Pre-Kindergarten enrollment at some parishes can skew the total.  
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The approximately 66 parishes in Nassau County have religious education programs which instructed about 43,208 youngsters, plus whatever the enrollments at Notre Dame and St. Anthony (Oceanside) are.  The highest enrollments seems to have been at St. Rose of Lima, 2,695 students, Maria Regina 1,800, and St. Frances de Chantal 1,633. The median group would seem to hover around the 570's, St. Ignatius Martyr, Long Beach, Our Lady of Mercy, Hicksville, and St. Boniface Martyr, Sea Cliff.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

DRVC numbers from 2014

The 2015 Official Catholic Directory, published recently, includes statistics probably collected in 2014 or earlier.  Below are some sample statistics for the Diocese of Rockville Centre.  In some cases, the numbers may be rather stale. particularly where the number is exactly the same annually.  I have omitted some numbers that seem wildly inaccurate. 
Sisters in the diocese: 980, down 46 from last year.
Brothers in the diocese: 67.
Permanent deacons in diocese: 292 up from 275 in 2013.
Diocesan priests: 207 active in the diocese, 11 outside the diocese. Number retired, sick, or absent: 92.
Extern priests 89. In 2002 was 51; (2014) 89.
Parishes in the diocese: 134.
Catholic elementary schools in the diocese: 47.
Students in Catholic elementary schools: 17,202.  Was 20,042 in 2011.
Infant Baptisms: 14,210.  Was 15,211 in 2013.
Adult Baptisms: 798.
Received into full communion: 799.
First Communions: 15,451.  Was 16,722 in 2013.  
Marriages: 3,188. Was 3,203 in 2013.  Catholic marriages: 2,639.  Interfaith marriages: 549.
Deaths: 9,981.  Was 10,370 in 2013.
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For earlier years, please see this report.