ROAMIN'
CATHOLIC
By Stanford Espedal2005 ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
January 2005
QUEEN OF THE ANGELS, ALPINE
Queen of Angels parish, located at 2569 W. Victoria Drive, has served the East County community of Alpine since 1950. The present mission style chapel was dedicated the same year. Additions to the original structure created an entrance portico and expanded the left side of the building. With 764 current registered households, the parish is planning the construction of a new church on the scenic hilltop property next year.
The most striking feature in the church is the Stations of the Cross, a series of superb oil paintings which blend romantic and realist elements. Parishioner Justin Gruelle painted them as a gift to his parish in 1959. They are a priceless treasure for the community.
A porthole stained glass window of the Blessed Mother with her Immaculate Heart exposed adorns the left rear of the sanctuary. Next to it stands an image of the Holy Infant of Prague.
Above the wooden altar hangs a traditional crucifix, surrounded during Advent with violet wall hangings. Nearby an Advent wreath hangs suspended from a chain.
The tabernacle of the Blessed Sacrament sits in an alcove which forms part of a passageway into the sacristy. I watched seven people pass before it into the sacristy on various errands, yet none made any sign of special reverence while passing it, except for a bow of the head from the lector.
I attended the 10:00 Mass on December 12, the third Sunday in Advent and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. For this feast a special Guadalupe shrine had been set up; a portrait of Our Lady's image on a stand against a backdrop of gold cloth with 24 red roses arranged in a vase at her feet.
Father Brendan McKeever, the pastor, celebrated the liturgy. A 23-person choir led the singing. Instruments included an electronic piano, two rhythm guitars, an electric bass guitar, drums, tambourine, mariachis, and violin.
In honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe certain parts of the Mass were sung in Spanish, which Father Brendan speaks fluently. These included the kyrie, the offertory and communion hymns, and the preface, sanctus, and consecration of the eucharistic prayer.
Voices filled the church with noise before Mass.
Father Brendan entered behind two altar girls, a woman in a red and green Christmas sweater carrying a red lectionary, and a lector in a grey T-shirt and blue jeans. During the procession we sang "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." The musicians pulled out the stops, and transformed this plainchant hymn into Gregorian soft rock.
Father invited a child to come up and light the third candle on the Advent Wreath, meanwhile catechizing him — and the people — on the meaning of the pink candle and the "Rejoicing Sunday" of Advent, "Because Jesus is coming soon, and he is our joy." After this the youngsters left the church with the woman in the Christmas sweater to take part in a Liturgy of the Word for Children.
The lector in blue jeans read the Old and New Testament lessons. The first, from Isaiah 35, foretells that God himself will come to save us, the wonders of healing he will perform, and the everlasting joy of those he has ransomed. Then the musicians went into overdrive on verses of Psalm 145, belting out the refrain "Lord, come and save us." The Psalm singer swayed her body to the beat as she sang. The second reading, from James, exhorts us to patience until the coming of the Lord. The band again rocked out on the Alleluia, giving special prominence to the shaking of the tambourine. Finally, Father Brendan proclaimed the Gospel, Matthew 11: 2-11, in which the Lord directs the disciples of John the Baptist to the messianic signs he is fulfilling, so that they would know that he — Jesus — is the Messiah to come, and they need not look for another.
Father Brendan began his homily by refreshing his hearers' memory on the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He said that the Spanish had come to Mexico for conquest, and brought their Christianity with them. The Mexican natives, however, were oppressed and therefore reluctant to convert. Our Lady wanted these poor people to know her maternal love. And so, when she appeared to Saint Juan Diego and left her image on his cloak, it was their special invitation to salvation, and they responded to her love with love.
Father then took up the theme of the first reading and the Gospel. He made a connection between the words "The desert will rejoice and bloom" and the miraculous bloom of roses witnessed by Saint Juan Diego on Tepeyac. Then he spoke of the spiritual desert we sometimes go through. But Jesus, who has shown by his works that he is the Messiah, can make this desert "rejoice and bloom" as we receive him more fully into our lives.