www.cathedralofmary.org • 5200 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21210 • 410-464-4000 • www.schoolofthecathedral.org

“And the Word became

flesh and made his dwelling

among us,

And we saw his glory,

The glory as of the

Father’s only Son,

Full of grace and truth.”

JOHN 1:14

WINDOWS LOCATED IN SOUTH BAY 2

CHRISTMAS WINDOWS

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Clergy

Most Rev. William E. Lori Archbishop of Baltimore

Msgr. Richard W. Woy Rector

Fr. Andrew T. DeFusco Associate Pastor

Msgr. Robert Armstrong Rector Emeritus

Mass Times

Weekdays 7:00am • 8:15am • 5:30pm

Saturday 8:15am • Confessions 4:00pm • 5:00pm

Sunday 8:00am • 9:30am • 11:00am

Photos courtesy of Alex Lowitt (top) and John J. Coyle, Jr. (bottom).

Christmas

December 24/25, 2016

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas and welcome to the Cathedral of Mary

Our Queen for Christmas Mass! It is a pleasure for Fr.

Defusco and me to welcome you to this magnificent Church

that serves as the spiritual home of the Catholics of the

Archdiocese of Baltimore and parish church to a vibrant faith

community of 1,500 families. Please know you are always

welcome at CMOQ. Please visit us on our website at

www.cathedralofmary.org for more information about the

parish and at www.schoolofthecathedral.org to learn more

about our nationally-recognized Blue Ribbon School.

My heartfelt thanks for another spectacular response to the

“Adopt-a-Family Appeal!” Christmas gifts and dinner

were delivered last Saturday afternoon (in spite of the ice) for

111 families served by our sister parish of Immaculate

Conception in Baltimore’s inner city. A special thanks to

Willis Gunther Baker for coordinating the effort again this

year and Boy Scout Troop 1000 for providing the truck and

muscle for the deliveries. This week’s poor box proceeds will

benefit Immaculate Conception, which services some of

the poorest of the poor in Baltimore.

Finally, please remember the parish in your holiday giving. Our

Christmas collection is one of the major sources of revenue

in support of our programs and ministries. As always, I am

very grateful for your generosity to the parish.

Merry Christmas!

Msgr. Woy

Last week

Faith Direct is a convenient way

to support the Cathedral of

Mary Our Queen using direct

debit for your offertory giving.

Register:

www.faithdirect.net

CMOQ Code:

MD500

Thank you to our parishioners

who already use Faith Direct!

Faith Direct

Offertory $16,369.20

Poor Box $251.21

Pres. Trust $4,368.01

Food Program $80.00

Attendance 1,131

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you join the angels in this festive time and sing “Glory to the newborn King!” One of my joys

of serving in music ministry is hearing the large numbers of people singing enthusiastically. God gifted you with a voice. Be sure and

use it to share the Good News.

The original version of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” written in 1739 by Charles Wesley has ten verses and began “Hark, how all

the welkin rings.” Welkin, meaning heaven or sky, is not part of our modern vocabulary. George Whitefield altered the text in

1753 to the line we know today. The original tune intended by Wesley was the same as for his Easter text “Jesus Christ Is Risen

Today.” While I know of one other tune with both Christmas and Easter texts, this is one combination I find hard to make. Have a

look at #442 in Worship for the melody if you want to try it yourself!

The tune that we now sing for “Hark! The Herald” was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1840 for

the second chorus of his Festgesang, op. 68. This was a secular three-movement work written to

celebrate the anniversary of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. Mendelssohn once said of

the melody that it will never work with sacred words. William H. Cummings apparently did not

know Mendelssohn’s opinion when he paired Wesley’s text with the tune in 1856. It was published

in Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861 and has become one of the most popular Christmas carols.

David Willcocks was director of music and organist at King’s College, Cambridge, from 1957 to

1974. He arranged numerous carols for their annual service of Lessons and Carols. “Hark! The

Herald” is the traditional closing hymn for the service. The harmonization and descant that

Willcocks wrote for the tune is one of his most popular and well-known. We use it at the end of

our own Lessons and Carols service and again for our Christmas celebrations.

Hoping to hear your heavenly voices sing Gloria in excelsis Deo!

As we reflect and share in our many blessings this Christmas, we are deeply

grateful for the Cathedral community; the time you spend in ministry with one

another, the talent you invest in creating a joyful, welcoming community of

believers, and your faithful stewardship of the treasure God has blessed you with.

May you and your families savor these blessings and enjoy the miracle of

Christmas.

Photo courtesy of Alex Lowitt

In the St. Joseph’s chapel resides the Cathedral’s manger scene. It

is a serene scene with Joseph and Mary lovingly beholding Jesus.

The shepherds look on with a holy awe and wise men arrive to

pay their homage. This scene is one that can engender a sense of

warmth, peace, and calm. But if we leave it there, we may miss

the deeper messages of this scene.

First consider Jesus in the manger. He is Emmanuel, God with us, and a king. As foretold

by Isaiah, he comes from the line of David.

Matthew’s and Luke’s genealogies trace this

lineage. He is not a temporal king though.

Instead, he rules through the establishment of

the God’s Reign of peace and justice on earth.

His is a non-temporal kingdom which favors the

poor and the outcast on the margins of society.

As representatives of those on the margins,

Luke’s gospel gives us the shepherds. We may think of shepherds as nice guys, but they

were rough characters who lived in the wild with their sheep. They were dirty and not

particularly gentle. For Jews, they were perennially, ritually unclean and therefore

outcasts. They would not be the people you would think of calling to welcome your

baby, and yet here they are. The Magi, who later come as part of Matthew’s narrative

are representatives of the Gentiles. They signify that His reign will have implications

not just for the Jews, but for all of humanity.

Jesus placement in a manger has symbolic meaning as well. The manger is the feeding

trough for the animals. It is the appropriate place for Jesus theologically. His body will

become the “bread for the life of the world.” The price he pays to become life giving

food is one of a cruel and torturous death on the cross. This threat to his life is

foreshadowed by Herod’s campaign to kill all first born males which drives Jesus’ family

into exile and make him an outcast, an exile.

Despite these elements, this is not a dower story. This is a story of hope. This is

Emmanuel, whose light will shine in the world and conquer the darkness. This

Christmas let us pause to take stock of our own darkness. Let our prayer to the Christ

child be a request to touch our lives with His saving light. May the grace and mercy of

His life help us find our way to the manger where we, too, might be fed.

The next Baptism prep

class will be Sunday,

January 8 at 12:30pm in

the baptistery.

For more information on

the Sacrament of Baptism,

please contact:

Lori Ryan

410-464-4000

lryan@cmoq.org

For all who have wedding

a n n i v e r s a r i e s i n

January, join us after any

Mass December 31 /

January 1 in the Lady

Chapel to renew your

vows.

For more info, contact:

Lori Ryan

lryan@cmoq.org

CHANGE IN PARISH

CENTER HOURS:

CLOSED Friday, Dec. 23

and Monday, Dec. 26

OPEN from 9am to

12noon: Tuesday, Dec. 27

through Friday, Dec. 30

CLOSED: Monday, Jan. 2

We keep in prayer those

who have recently

departed as we ask for the

repose of their souls. May

they rest in peace.

For more information

about the Bereavement

Ministry, contact:

Lori Ryan

lryan@cmoq.org

7:00am Anita P. Ward

8:15am Joseph Kershaw

5:30pm Michael Hugh Bagley

Friday, December 30

Sunday, December 25

9:30am Lindsay & Chris Vest* 11:00am For the Parish

Monday, December 26

7:00am Steve Palkovitz

8:15am Daniel Beckenholdt 5:30pm Mary Josephine Archer

Tuesday, December 27

7:00am Wanda Zebrowski

8:15am Earle Wolfe

5:30pm Thomas Palermo

Wednesday, December 28

7:00am Kathryn Elizabeth Keenan Crane

8:15am Frances & Phyllis Della Vecchia

5:30pm Gloria Melanson

Thursday, December 29

7:00am Gemma Sedini

8:15am Catherine Sweeney

5:30pm Patrick McCurdy, III

Saturday, December 31

Masses will be held on Christmas Day

at 10am and 12noon.

Living*

Photo courtesy of John J. Coyle, Jr.

SCOUTS: Troop 1000 scouts braved the

recent ice storm to collect hundreds of

Adopt-A-Family packages at the Parish

Center and deliver them to Immaculate

Conception parish on Druid Hill Avenue.

There were plenty of warm smiles to thaw

the otherwise wintry day! We are getting

excited for a January trip to New York

City, and plans are proceeding for a scuba

trip to Florida Sea Base in 2017, a return

to Philmont in 2018, and a trip to Ireland in

2019.

Sound fun? To join Troop 1000, you

must be 11 years old or entering 6th grade.

Call Membership Chairman Andy Fish at

410-366-1491.

This week, our entire school gathered for a Christmas Convocation. Highlights of the day included:

A Christmas card exchange between Prayer Buddies (a mentoring experience help our Middle School

students develop leadership skills as they serve the younger students of our school)

A special Pre-K Christmas pageant

Performances from our beginner and advanced bands

Announcements of the winners of the “Keep Christ in Christmas” poster contest

Choral performances from each grade

Stations of the Nativity, featuring two middle school students as lectors and students from each grade in

the live Nativity

Missed the Christmas Convocation, or want to re-live the

magic? Watch it on School of the Cathedral’s Facebook

Live video!

We hope you will join us at our next Coffee with

Prospective Families on January 17, where you can meet

the School Principal and learn about the School’s focus on

spiritual strength, academic excellence, and 21st-century

learning for students in grades K through 8.

For more information about the School of the Cathedral, please

contact Fiona Diemer at fdiemer@cmoq.org or 410-464-4117.

FOR ALL VOLUNTEERS: The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen and the Archdiocese of Baltimore have a commitment to maintaining

the trust of the faithful by providing our children and youth with safe environments characterized by healthy relationships. All

parishes and Archdiocesan schools use Shield the Vulnerable for any volunteer/employee who works with minors to facilitate

compliance with archdiocesan child protection requirements. Please visit our website (www.cathedralofmary.org) for details and

instructions for compliance.

ADOPT A FAMILY: Neither rain, nor snow nor dark of day could keep our amazing supporters from delivering

Christmas to almost 600 people Saturday! Hats off to Boy Scout Troop 1000 as they played Santa's helpers in moving

hundreds of boxes in icy conditions so that the Immaculate Conception Community could enjoy some Christmas joy!

We provided food and gifts for 111 families and

contributed over $3,000 for Brother William to give to

the additional families that we were unable to

match. Thank you so much to all of our amazing donors

who make this ministry possible!

If you were unable to participate, it is not too late to

make a financial contribution through Faith Direct or by

check to the Parish Center, marked AAF in the memo

line. Immaculate Conception uses the funds to assist

families we were unable to match and for outreach in the

Druid Hill/Sandtown-Winchester Community of West

Baltimore.

CARES: The CARES food pantry would

like to thank the parishioners for their

generosity in donations of food and

toiletries in 2016. Please remember that

your donations may be tax-deductible—

consult your tax advisor. A wonderful

Christmas and New Year’s to all!

CASSEROLES: Please join fellow school

and church friends in kicking off the

new year and to help feed Baltimore's

hungry!

The Cathedral Casserole Club will

gather on New Year's Day 2017 after

the 9:30am Mass in the church

undercroft kitchen to prepare

casseroles for Our Daily Bread. The

casseroles made Sunday, together with

the many collected here at the parish

on the first Tuesday of the month, will be delivered frozen to the soup

kitchen to serve as hot meals in the coming weeks.

Hope you and your family will consider joining the fun! The more the

merrier. Just bring the ingredients for the dogs & beans casserole - one

48-oz can of baked beans, one 10-oz. can of tomato soup concentrate,

and two packages of hot dogs (16 total. The recipe, pans, utensils, and

fellowship will be provided. Can't make it this time? Pans and recipes

will be available at the narthex tables Friday through Monday for the

first Tuesday frozen casserole collection.

BABY BOTTLE CAMPAIGN: So far the

generous parishioners at the Cathedral

of Mary Our Queen have returned 56 baby

bottles filled with cash, checks and coins

totaling $1,300! This will go a long way in

helping Pregnancy Center North provide

free services to abortion vulnerable women.

Y o u m a y a l s o g o o n l i n e

to www.PCNministry.org and make a

contribution that will help save lives! Thank

you so much for your support.