Photopost: Start Memorial Day with Mass for those who died serving our country

Memorial Day 2008 at Assumption Grotto
Priests and deacons (left to right): Military chaplain and Cistercian - Rev. Aidan Logan, OCso (hooded), transitional deacon Charles White IV (to be ordained next Saturday for the Archdiocese of Detroit; will celebrate first Mass - TLM on Pentecost at Grotto), Assumption Grotto pastor - Rev. Eduard Perrone, permanent deacon Jim Wilder, and associate pastor - Rev. John Bustamante.

Each Memorial Day, many Grotto-goers meet just before 9:00am for a procession to the flag pole, led by war veterans and family. It is a silent procession, and one that is solemn. Priests and altar boys stand and watch as the flag is raised, then lowered, to the sound of veteran who plays "Taps".

We often have a visitor on Memorial Day - Fr. Aidan Logan, OCso - a Cistercian monk and military chaplain (seen in the slideshow below with the hood). I am unsure if he will be with us this year. All process to the Church for Mass. Following Mass, there is a procession to the cemetery where all gather around the War Veterans monument for a brief ceremony.

Come to Assumption Grotto around 8:45 to start your day. Memorial Day is about those who died serving our country. What better give can we give them, than to remember them, and to pray for the repose of their souls? I am not sure at this time if Mass will be in the ordinary form, or extraordinary form. I may edit this post later if I hear back from Fr. Perrone.

I will be there honoring my uncle Eddie, whom I never knew, but always remember on Memorial Day. He was killed in action on May 24, 1944. He was a TSgt with the 741st Bomber Squadron, 455th Bomber Group (Heavy). He was awarded an Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, and a Purple Heart. His plane went down just off the shore of Italy and he was not recovered. His name appears on the "Tablet of the Missing" in Florence, Italy. I learned his name was on the Tablets of the Missing through the American Battle Monuments Commission. Being a family member, I received a free photo of his name on the monument and some other information by writing to them.

Weather permitting, I hope to get more photos again this year, but these will be hard to top.


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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Memorial Day 2008 at Assumption Grotto

Here are pics taken at the Mass and outdoor service today for Memorial Day. This Mass is always well attended and sometimes is held outdoors, but weather was not predicted to be as good as it was.

Forthcoming are the bulk of the Corpus Christi photos which may take several more days before I have complete for uploading.

The visiting, hooded monk, is Fr. Aidan Logan, O.C.s.o, chaplain, US Naval Acadamy, and a good friend of Chris Kolomjec, who served a tour of duty in Iraq which ended in April 2007. Since 2005 when I first got to Grotto, he has visited the Metro Detroit area each Memorial Day, and once or twice in between.

I never did anything religious for Memorial Day until I found Grotto. The spiritual dimension - the praying for souls of fallen soldiers, as well as for the conversion of veterans and soldiers alike, it is worthwhile to assist at Mass on Memorial Day. I have found that aside from the usual "America the Beautiful" or other patriotic hymn, there are few places to really spend time in prayer for the our war veterans and dead soldiers.

I only recently learned more about my dad's older brother, Eddie, who died in WWII. He was a radio operator on a B-24G in the 741st Bomb Squadron, 405th Bomb Group Ceregnola Field, Italy. His plane went down just off the coast of Italy on May 24, 1944. He is listed on the "Tablet of the Missing" in Florence. Requiescat in pace!

If you want to learn more about your relatives who died during any foreign war, you can write to the American Battle Monuments Commission. They sent me, for free, photographs of my uncles name engraved on the tablet. I can even order flowers to be laid out on certain days. At their home page you can find a search function in which you can pick the war and type in the name.

























This is a favorite view of mine, of the back side of Assumption Grotto Church from the cemetary.


And, one of the visitors down by the grotto itself.




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Memorial Day 2007

The flag is raised to the top, then is brought down to half-staff as the bugeler plays

We get all excited with the prospect of a long weekend, but I for one had never thought to go to Mass on Memorial Day. In fact, the only thing on my mind was the extra day to sleep in, the BBQ and picnic, and other things.

Assumption Grotto's culture has a way of helping us to get our priorities straight on these things. I was at Mass which followed the 9:00 flag-raising. During Mass my thoughts went to an uncle who was killed during WWII, long before my mother and father even met. He was killed in action on May 24, 1944. He was a TSgt with the 741st Bomber Squadron, 455th Bomber Group (Heavy). He was awarded an Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, and a Purple Heart. His plane went down just off the shore of Italy and he was not recovered. His name appears on the "Tablet of the Missing" in Florence, Italy.

I then began to reflect on Memorial Day. As a Catholic, I believe in purgatory - a place where souls reside as they undergo purification before joining our Lord in Heaven. The poor souls in purgatory depend on our prayers and yet, you have to wonder, how many poor souls are actually being prayed for? Such talk is rarely heard from pulpits these days. As a matter of fact, you could get the impression that there is no need to pray for anybody in some Catholic circles because "everyone is going to heaven".

If you had the day off and didn't go to Mass, please consider it every Memorial Day from now on. If you don't know anyone who died during a war or in the service of their country, then go for the sake of the many poor souls who have no one to pray for them. If you are out of town on vacation, find a local Catholic Church and go. If that doesn't work, at least say a Rosary or some other meaningful prayer.

Here are more photos from today. Note the black vestments in use. I never seen these until I came to Assumption Grotto. The first time was on All Souls Day in November. Grotto uses black vestments for funerals, as well. Some would argue that white reminds us more of the joy and hope of Resurrection, and the after-life. However, I will go back to my discussion of purgatory. These vestments remind me of the need to pray for those who have gone on to the next life, rather than to assume they are all in heaven. Hence, it is not just a color of mourning in my mind.

Some of these came out rather dark, but you get the idea of how the morning went. The Mass was not held outdoors as we had thought. This would have required an army of volunteers setting up chairs and it rained all weekend long.

Some of those gentlemen you see firing are around the age of 90. It was a pleasure to sit and talk to some of these old-timers today, and to hear their stories. I hope next year to see a bigger crowd of young and old alike.

As a side note, an interesting site to visit is the American Battle Monuments Commission, where you can search databases with names of your loved ones. It does not cover the Vietnam war or anything after the Korean War from what I can tell. It is government run so perhaps there is a separate set of databases for Wars following the Korean War.

I had no idea, nor did my uncle's only living brother, that we could find out where he was buried, or listed. I used the FAQ page about two years ago and sent an email inquiry. A few weeks later, I received a letter and a packet from the Commission with my uncle's information - his service number, his medals, the date he was killed, and where he was buried. It is not known if he was simply not recovered, or if he was recovered, then buried at sea. I then had the option - free of charge to get several photographs of the plot/tablet listing of my uncle and I followed through. A few months later I got these large poster-sized pictures which I gave to my brother, sister and uncle. He regretted not knowing his brother was listed on the Tablet of the Missing in Florence, Italy because he had traveled to that area many times over the years. For this reason, I pass the info along to you. You must be a relative to request information, but not necessarily the listed next of kin.

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Pentecost 2007

Pentecost will always be very special to me because it not only marks my yearly anniversary with Grotto (second this year), it marks a point in which my life was radically changed.

For those who are newer to the blog, I wrote last Pentecost how the conscience-stirring words of Fr. Perrone in his weekly column lured me to Assumption Grotto.

See my post from Pentecost 2006 and to read about Fr. Perrone's "Fallacy of the Middle Ground"

I will be making separate posts on two priests who visited Assumption Grotto this weekend.

One of those priests was Fr. Tom Euteneuer of Human Life International, the other was Fr. Aidan Logan, O.C.s.o. - a chaplain at the US Naval Academy.