103 Years

Today is the 103rd anniversary of the dedication of our former parish church of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. The church, still in danger, was dedicated on November 21, 1921. Here is what the parish history has to say about the event:

Nov. 21, 1921 Thanksgiving Day. The new Church building is dedicated by the Most Rev. Edward J. O’Dea, Bishop of Seattle, assisted by the Rt. Rev. Oswald Baran O.S.B. Abbot of Saint Martin’s and former Pastor of Holy Rosary, forty Priests from all parts of the Northwest, and eighteen Knights of the Altar. The parish’s first choirmaster, Mr. John Stellbrink conducted the thirty-member Choir. Representatives from the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Order of Foresters, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians provided an honor guard.

The Benedictine Sisters and fifteen hundred people participated in the ceremony. At 11:00am the first Solemn High Mass wass celebrated, with Rev. Mark Wiechmann O.S.B. Pastor of Holy Rosary, as celebrant.

Just after Noon, a Thanksgiving Dinner was served in the School auditorium by the ladies of the parish.

Today is also, of course, the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which guaranteed (at least under the Old Rite and the Benedictine Rite) that whenever Mass was celebrated here on this day, it would be the Mass of the Dedication of a Church, followed by a commemoration of the Blessed Virgin.

Very clever for a Marian church!

Here’s a taste of what the Vatican has to say about today’s memorial:

The Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple recalls – according to the apocryphal gospels, the day on which Mary, while still a child, was brought to the temple in Jerusalem to be offered to God. The Church wants to emphasize not so much the historical event in itself, of which there is no trace in the Gospels, but the total gift that Mary made of herself, by listening: “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observe it” (Lk. 11:28). This experience prepared the young girl from Nazareth to become the “temple of the Son of God”.

The celebration of this feast dates back to the 6th century in the East with the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary the New built by the Emperor Justinian I near the ruins of the temple in Jerusalem. There is evidence that various monasteries in Italy celebrated the feast in the 9th century. It was not until the 15th century that it was included in the Roman Missal.

Sadly, however, no Mass will be celebrated in the old church today. The day has gone unmarked and largely unremembered.

O God, who year by year renew for us the day
when this your holy temple was consecrated,
hear the prayers of your people
and grant that in this place
for you there may always be pure worship
and for us, fullness of redemption.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Amen.