There was a dinner tonight at St. Rose, for all the people who have helped with their time and contributions to reopen the church and bring the Latin Mass to Quincy.  It looked like close to 200 people came, so it was great to see so much support for what’s happening there.  I even saw some relatives who I had no idea were involved.  There were kids running everywhere, so the Latin Mass seems to be attracting lots of young families, in addition to older people who remember it from years ago.  The meal was great, with excellent roast beef smoked all day the day before, and lots of side dishes and desserts people brought.  Everyone seemed to have a great time.

Father Devillers arrived very early Friday, and a ton of work was done in the last week to finish getting the church ready.  It’s really beautiful; I can’t say enough about the many people who were there day after day cleaning and fixing things up.  (I’d name names, but not everyone likes being named on the Internet, so I’m avoiding that.  We know who they are.)  We also owe a big thank you to Father Schlangen and St. Joseph’s Church for providing the Latin Mass while St. Rose was prepared and we waited for Fr. Devillers.

Masses start tomorrow, November 9th, with a Low Mass at 8:00am and High Mass at 10:00am.  (High Mass has lots of choir singing; Low Mass has none except at the beginning and end.)  Then there will be weekday Masses at 12:10pm starting Monday.  The choir was practicing tonight, and sounding very good and ready for tomorrow.  (They tried to get me in on it, but anyone who’s ever heard me sing knows that’s a bad idea.)

We’ve been working on this since July (by “we,” I mostly mean other people, but I helped a little), so it’s great to finally get to this day.  Some of the members have been working on this for years, so I can only imagine how excited they are.  It should be a very special morning.

Correction: The High Mass on Sunday will now be at 11:00am, to allow more time for people coming long distances.