Posted on 08/10/2009 8:51:09 AM PDT by markomalley
Anchorage, Alaska, Aug 9, 2009 / 02:21 pm (CNA).- It’s a massive feat to just to climb North America’s highest mountain, but even rarer to celebrate Mass on the 20,320 foot peak. In fact, one local Alaskan historian doesn’t recall it ever happening before July 3, when three childhood friends from Poland summited the famed Mt. McKinley.
Father Krzyaztof Grzybowski and his brother Father Robert Grzybowski celebrated a Mass with their childhood friend Adrian Przyluski attending.
In a letter to the Catholic Anchor, Father Richard Tero, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Seward and local church historian in the Archdiocese of Anchorage said he believes the Mass might be the first on the top of North America’s highest peak.
“In a most exceptionally clear and calm day, at about 4 p.m. after a long climb from 17,000 feet, on the West Buttress route, they were able to spend about 45 minutes at the 20,320 foot summit,” Father Tero wrote.
Other priests known to have summited Mt. McKinley include Father Carl Abele in the early 1970s, as well as Father Michael Shields and Dominican Father Tim Conlin in the 1980s, Father Tero said. None of those men celebrated Mass on the mountain.
“I’m sure other foreign priests have also had success but didn’t share it with the local priests,” Father Tero added.
Getting to the top of the mountain with a Mass kit, however, doesn’t guarantee that a priest could celebrate Mass, as weather conditions and wind levels are often extreme.
On July 3rd, the peak was clear and calm, conditions that are “extremely rare,” Father Tero said.
Father Tero hosted the priest brothers and their friend in Seward, where the Polish men enjoyed a Kenai Fjords tour of a glacier after their climb.
In sharing the story of the mountaintop liturgy, Father Tero said the men had to “blow on the wine to unfreeze it for the Mass.”
The three men grew up together in Bielsk Podlaski at the far east of Poland, on the border with Belarus.
The two brothers now serve in their home diocese as priests. Przyluski is a police officer in Warsaw. The men left Anchorage on July 23.
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I can't quite put my finger on it, but it just feels like there's something wrong when only one non-officiant is present.
MR. FURIOUS: So, let me get this straight. You have the power to become invisible.
INVISIBLE BOY: Yes.
BLUE RAJA: But... only when no one is looking.
INVISIBLE BOY: Yes.
FURIOUS: If someone looks at you, you immediately become visible again.
INVISIBLE BOY: Yes.
BLUE RAJA: So you're only invisible... to yourself?
INVISIBLE BOY: No.
MR FURIOUS, BLUE RAJA, THE SHOVELER: (Together, hopefully) No?
INVISIBLE BOY: If I look at myseif, I become visible.
BLUE RAJA: So you're only invisible, when abuolutely no one is looking at you?
INVISIBLE BOY: Yes.
FURIOUS: So how do you know that you've ever been invisible?
INVISIBLE BOY: I just know.
It sounds lovely!
Good catch.
254. Mass should not be celebrated without a minister or at least one of the faithful, except for a just and reasonable cause. In this case, the greetings, the introductory or explanatory remarks (monitiones), and the blessing at the end of Mass are omitted.But it is possible to celebrate Mass with only one minister assisting the celebrant(s) -- and that is what is being described in this article. Please see this section of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (in case you're interested) (the above quote is at that page, as well)
Ping
The GIRM says the same thing.
Lolol. Self-deception is painless.
Jean Cauvin felt no pain.
Next time you go, take a better camera.
I don’t attend dark, superstitious rituals.
Denial is not becoming you.
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