St. Giles Family Mass Community

St. Giles Family Mass Community The St. Giles Family Mass Community is a lay-based community formed by faith in Jesus and the values of compassion, justice, and care for one another.

Our celebration of the Eucharist each Sunday bonds our community. Community members participate in formulating each Mass. Opportunities for children to participate in Mass abound. Several music groups of community members alternate Sundays they lead the community in musical prayer. In and through our weekly Liturgy, we are strengthened to hear and answer God’s call to reach out to those in need an

d to speak out for justice. With the help of God’s grace, we strive to recognize and meet the ever-changing needs of one another and of the larger community We offer various opportunities for members new and old to minister to every aspect of our faith community as well as to support making a difference throughout the wider community. To give just a sense of one ministry, our Catechesis Ministry tends to the spiritual growth of our young people between the ages of 3 and 14. This child focused approach, guided by the principles developed by Maria Montessori gives children an opportunity to wonder, ponder, question, and explore God, the Bible, prayer, faith, and their love, connection, and responsibility towards those around them. Children gather with catechists in an “atrium”, a room prepared for them, which contains simple yet beautiful materials they use to help them absorb the most essential proclamations of the Christian faith. COur catechesis serves asprogram has always been an extension of the Sunday Liturgy. Thus we continue the preparation for sacraments of Baptism, Communion, and Conformation. As a community shaped by people of every age, gender, and origin, we celebrate the rich diversity of all God’s children. We work for an environment where the talent and calling of each member is honored, and all gifts will flower. All are welcome here!

Mark your calendars for the Holiday Art & Gift Fair held on the first weekend in December. Artists and craftspeople from...
11/13/2025

Mark your calendars for the Holiday Art & Gift Fair held on the first weekend in December. Artists and craftspeople from St, Giles, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. Lucy will be selling a variety of crafts perfect for holiday giving. The place to start your holiday shopping!

04/21/2025

Monday in the Octave of Easter
April 21, 2025
Readings: Acts 2:14, 22-33; Matthew 28:8-15

“I saw the Lord ever before me.”

Easter stands in stark witness, not to the meaning of death, but to the meaning of what it is to go on despite death, in the face of death—because of death. To celebrate Easter means to stand in the light of the empty tomb and decide what to do next. Until we come to realize that, we stand to misread the meaning not simply of the Easter gospel but of our own lives. We miss the point. We make Easter an historical event rather than a life-changing commitment. We fail to realize that Easter demands as much of us now as it did of the apostles then.

Most of all we miss the very meaning of the Easters that we are dealing with in our own lives, in our own time.

Easter is the feast that gives meaning to life. It is the feast that never ends. After Easter, the tomb stands open for all of us to enter. If Jesus is risen, then you and I have no choice but to go into the tomb, put on the leftover garments ourselves, and follow Jesus back to Galilee where the poor cry for food and the sick beg to be taken to the pool and the blind wait for the spittle on their eyes to dry. All the fidelity in the world will not substitute for leaving the tomb and beginning the journey all over again. Today. Every day. Always.

That’s what Easter is really about. It is the “division of humanity” to which Hugo refers in his dramatic rendering of the struggle between light and dark. Yes, Easter is about dazzling light—but only if it shines through us.

Joan Chittister, OSB, In the Light of the Messengers

04/21/2025

Rest In Peace Pope Francis.

04/20/2025

Easter Sunday
April 20, 2025
Readings: Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9

“Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, has been raised!”

The Church relives the amazement of the women who went to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week. The tomb of Jesus had been sealed with a great stone. Today too, great stones, heavy stones, block the hopes of humanity: the stone of war, the stone of humanitarian crises, the stone of human rights violations, the stone of human trafficking, and other stones as well. Like the women disciples of Jesus, we ask one another: “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (cf. Mk 16:3).

This is the amazing discovery of that Easter morning: the stone, the immense stone, was rolled away. The astonishment of the women is our astonishment as well: the tomb of Jesus is open and it is empty! From this, everything begins anew! A new path leads through that empty tomb: the path that none of us, but God alone, could open: the path of life in the midst of death, the path of peace in the midst of war, the path of reconciliation in the midst of hatred, the path of fraternity in the midst of hostility.

May the risen Christ open a path of hope to all those who ... are suffering from violence, conflict, food insecurity and the effects of climate change. May the Lord grant consolation to the victims of terrorism in all its forms. Let us pray for all those who have lost their lives and implore the repentance and conversion of the perpetrators of those crimes...

On this day when we celebrate the life given us in the resurrection of the Son, let us remember the infinite love of God for each of us: a love that overcomes every limit and every weakness....May the light of the resurrection illumine our minds and convert our hearts, and make us aware of the value of every human life, which must be welcomed, protected and loved.

Pope Francis, Urbi et Orbi (excerpt), 2024

04/19/2025

Easter Vigil
April 19, 2025

Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and God has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began.
-Anonymous, from an ancient Homily

Every Holy Saturday, the Church waits as it were beside the tomb, meditating on Christ's death while awaiting the announcement of his resurrection. Like John, we can take Mary into our homes and ponder with her the last words of Christ. Like her, we can rest in a place between anguish and joy, waiting in quiet hope. We can pray the Divine Office, which parts the veil to show us Christ defeating death and releasing sinners from captivity. The King is not dead; he rests from his work. A new day will come. His Cross is not defeat; it is victory!

Today, try to take some time to feel the silence of Holy Saturday. Set aside the business of preparations for Easter and feel how the world is waiting.

Sarah Christmyer, Walking in Her Sandals

04/18/2025

Good Friday
April 18, 2025
Readings: Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42
"Out of emptiness he came, like a tender shoot from rock-hard ground. The
eternal one laid on him, this silent sufferer, the sins of us all."

How can we possibly fathom the longing God has to become one of us, and for us to become one with God? In the first incarnation, namely creation, the energy field of love, the Trinity reveals the god- nature with the wonders of the universe: the beauty and awe of the stars, of rippling brooks and human life. God loves things by becoming them. God then becomes so smitten with humanity that divine father/divine mother whispers the word into human flesh. So, in the second incarnation, Jesus enters as embodied love. Jesus shows how to be fully human with the heart of God. "Out of emptiness, Jesus comes like a tender shoot from rock-hard ground", Jesus startles us with the depth of God's love. Today we realize that not even blood or brokenness or scourging or abandonment are barriers to this love. And the final gesture of love is to throw his arms out in nailed surrender to the Father's will. Jesus is that tender shoot who empties himself in a groan of grit so that grace can give birth to the divine within us.

Ken Wilber says, "Real love hurts; real love makes you totally open; real love will take you beyond yourself; and therefore real love will devastate you... If love does not shatter you, you do not know love."

Today we come not only to worship Jesus...to weep for Jesus...but to become part of the body of Christ that is now being scourged and crucified: migrants and homeless and Palestinians...and even our dear and precious mother Earth, all hoisted on a cross for crucifixion.

Yet in two days the risen Christ will erupt and saturate us with holy presence. We are now the body of Christ. So.... Are we willing to come out of emptiness like a tender shoot and push through the rock hard ground of privilege and comfort? Are we willing to be devastated? Are we willing to be shattered? Are we willing, as a faith -community, to embody the "goodness" of this Friday?

John Hynes

04/17/2025

Holy Thursday
April 17, 2025
Readings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15

“Jesus ... having loved those who were his in the world, loved them to the end.”

Just before entering on the road of his passion he washed the feet of his disciples and offered them his body and blood as good and drink. These two acts belong together. They are both an expression of God’s determination to show us the fullness of his love. Therefore John introduces the story of the washing of the disciples’ feet with the words: ‘Jesus ... having loved those who were his in the world, loved them to the end’ (Jn 13: 1).

What is even more astonishing is that on both occasions Jesus commands us to do the same. Jesus calls us to continue his mission of revealing the perfect love of God in this world. He calls us to total self-giving. He does not want us to keep anything for ourselves. Rather, he wants our love to be as full, as radical, and as complete as his own. He wants us to bend ourselves to the ground and touch the places in each other that most need washing. He also wants us to say to each other, ‘Eat of me and drink of me’. By this complete mutual nurturing, he wants us to become one body and one spirit, united by the love of God. Every time you celebrate the Eucharist and receive the bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus, his suffering and his death become a suffering and death for you. Passion becomes compassion, for you. You are incorporated into Jesus. You become part of his ‘body’ and in that most compassionate way are freed from your deepest solitude. Through the Eucharist you come to belong to Jesus in the most intimate way, to him who has suffered for you, died for you and rose again so that you may suffer, die and rise again with him.

Henri Nouwen

04/16/2025

Wednesday of Holy Week
April 16, 2025
Readings: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Matthew 26:14-25

“Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not
rebelled...The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced.”

It is Holy Week and we are now on the cusp of Triduum. We are about to enter the formal days of remembrance of the last days of the life of Jesus. We will again recount, share in, and honor the suffering Jesus endured, his crucifixion, and the mystery of His resurrection from the dead, all of which was for our benefit due to sin.

In today’s Isaiah reading, Isaiah gives reference to his own personal suffering, accompanied by the determination to face the adversity he sometimes encountered, as Jesus did, due to the guidance he tried to provide. Engaged in his community, Isaiah wrote, “The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.” What gifts am I given and what skillfulness am I able to share to benefit the well-being of others? It may be a small gesture, but it may make all the difference in a person’s day in my family, in my neighborhood, in my circle of friends, in my community. Isaiah continues, “Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear.” Lord, help me, to be aware of my own opportunities to hear you and to listen to you, to hear the goodness as well as the needs of those around me and to hear your urging to help and not ignore those needs nor the deafening silence of the weary and down- trodden. Help me to pursue these things despite obstacles and with your grace. Isaiah doesn’t seem shy about his efforts in doing so. He said, “I have not rebelled, have not turned back. . .The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced.” On the contrary, Isaiah seems to be graced with fortitude and resilience as he moves through his challenges confident that God is always with him and will help him.

Lord, as our liturgical year moves out of the season of Lent, help us focus on the “morning after morning”, day after day nature of the need and the benefit of hearing, of listening, and of outreach to others as well as to you. Likewise, help us be open to the need and the benefit of being the recipient of the outreach from others to us, and the outreach from you. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Susan Schouten

04/15/2025

Tuesday of Holy Week
April 15, 2025
Readings: Isaiah 49:1-6; John 13:21-33, 36-38

“Master, where are you going?”

Merciful God in heaven,
who sent your only Son Jesus Christ to save us from our sin,
show me how to honor you and bring glory to your name,
by walking in the way of Jesus.
Give me grace and mercy as I try and fail,
give me guidance when I am not sure which way to go,
and give me wisdom to trust you in all things.
For your love brings light and life to all who seek it.
May I seek you evermore
as I walk with you through this Holy Week and beyond.
Amen.

Unknown Author

04/14/2025

Monday of Holy Week
April 14, 2025
Readings: Isaiah 42:1-7; John 12:1-11

"Mary took a pound of fine ointment and anointed Jesus'

"Mary took a pound of fine ointment and anointed Jesus' feet with it; and then she wiped them with her hair." John 12: 3

Through imagination, now enter Bethany. Lazarus and Jesus recline along a lengthy table. Martha prepares the food, but we become Mary. We gaze at Jesus. Suddenly an image awakens in us. An image of Jesus as a bloody gash on hewn wood. These recently perfumed feet are now cloven with nails. Our "Mary heart" gasps. We wonder how God can leave Jesus so unguarded. We realize that love has surrendered him. As love, Jesus offers his body to be bruised rather than break even the reed that is so bruised.

Jesus, you are present here with us. We are now Mary for you. Let us now caress your sacred feet with precious ointment. Let our surrendered hair massage the ointment back into your pores. Let our hearts become wellsprings of sacred ointment by entering into union with you.

For your feet are now the brown feet of migrants fleeing violence and facing rejection. Your feet are now Palestinian feet grazed and gashed by grenades in Gaza. So, precious Jesus, allow our silence to become the still for this ointment to ooze into the oil of compassion. Birth in us the courage to act, to resist, to challenge with direct non- violence the crucifixion our capitalist culture is now inflicting on those who walk with your feet. Free us from our comfort zones of privilege to slather those wounded feet with the oil of compassion. Drive us into action.

Then let us all dance and celebrate as the fragrance from the perfume poured out on holy feet fills not only the house in Bethany, but on the one we call mother.....the earth, the universe, the galaxy!

John Hynes

04/13/2025

Palm Sunday
April 13, 2025

“Into your hands I commend my Spirit.”

Lately, I’ve been thinking about my own death. Quite normal when you are 83 and the funeral booklets of friends keep piling up. But until this past year I’ve never been afraid of dying. When I was 20, I had a near death experience, which convinced me, death was radically amazing. Surrendering into God’s hands under these conditions was an experience anyone would yearn to die for! However, at 20, my soul in God’s hands had other ideas. Jesus told me I had to return to my body. Who in their right mind would want me to return to a life of chronic physical pain, mental illness, abuse and unpaid bills? I felt betrayed by God and I was angry. Why send me back? Did my brokenness make me unworthy to be released into God’s Love?

Why? Quite simple: Surrendering into the hands of God meant I had to first say Yes to the gift of Life – accept that my physical life mattered. I was madly in love with God but only spiritually. I was being invited to be embodied and understand that God desired divine union within me, in my daily life - in the suffering, in the failures, in the chaos of motherhood, in the illnesses. Union with God doesn’t only occur after we breath our last breath. It happens in saying Yes to life, which prepares us for the surrender into the fullness of divine Love.

I yearn to surrender my spirit into the hands of God and yet, I’m more hesitant because of my acceptance of life and the people I love. Yes, there is a strong desire to be released from this necessary crucifixion with life and death. I pray for the courage, when the time come, to gratefully whisper: Into your hands, I commend my spirit – and my life.

Annette Hulefeld

04/12/2025

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
April 12, 2025
Readins: Ezekiel 37:21-28; John 11:45-56

Sometimes things happen in life where you just know it is God working in you and through you. For almost 8 years, I had a ministry at Rush Hospital visiting the sick, offering prayer, and giving the Holy Eucharist. Now Rush Hospital is huge and to make things simple for me, I ALWAYS followed the exact same route, and I ALWAYS made their Hospice unit my last stop.

Well, this one Thursday night I'm in hospice and I go into a room and the patient, Maria, was surrounded by 10 family members, all there to see her off. One of her family mentioned to me that they did not expect her to last the night. I prayed with the family, gave them all Holy Communion, said a final prayer and left. I wanted so much to read the Gospel of John, where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but for some reason, I just couldn't make myself do it. On the way home, I began to kick myself for not reading John's Gospel. If I were laying on my deathbed, there's nothing I'd like to hear more than that Gospel where Jesus promises all of us resurrection from the dead, if we just believe. I felt horrible: I couldn't work effectively, or sleep at night. How could I NOT have read that Gospel to Maria and her family?

Well the next week came. I get to the hospital as usual, and walk toward my usual route when "all of a sudden" something stops me in my tracks and tells me to start at Hospice first this time - something I had NEVER done before in all those years. When I got to Hospice, I looked at my list and I was shocked to see Maria's name still on it. I started trembling and anxiously went into her room. Even more surprising to me, I found it exactly like I had left it the week before. All the same family members standing in the same places. I asked the family if they thought Maria would like to hear the story of the raising of Lazarus. To my delight, they replied "Oh yes please do; we were just talking about that". So I read that Gospel and shared how Jesus was not telling us that He was going to raise Maria from her hospital bed, but rather that if we believe and accept Him as Lord and Savior, He would give Maria and all of us resurrection on the last day and eternity with Him.

I could see their silent approval in their eyes and on their faces. I gave them all Holy Communion, including breaking a tiny piece of the host and gently putting it into Maria’s mouth. I said a couple of final prayer and left her room. Folks...I am telling you...the instant the door to her room shut, I heard loud screams. Maria died that very instant. I was in complete shock. I was shaking. It was all I could do to grab the first chair I saw, sit down and burst into uncontrollable tears. It was like God was telling me that He gave Maria a second chance and that He gave me a second chance too.

Bill Holmes

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1025 Columbian Avenue
Oak Park, IL
60302

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