By Fr. Rafael Rodriguez
Pastor, Cristo Rey Parish in Lincoln
Amazing activities happened at Cristo Rey Parish during the month of November. Cristo Rey serves the spiritual and cultural needs of Spanish-speaking Catholics who live in the City of Lincoln and surrounding area. The current church was dedicated in 2003 and is located at the heart of Lincoln, near 42nd and J streets.
As you well know, we started the month of November with the celebration of All Saints Day, followed by the commemoration of all the faithful departed. In addition to the liturgical celebrations of those days, at Cristo Rey, we celebrate “Dia de Los Muertos” (Day of the faithful departed). Parishioners help build an altar, located at the parish hall, in which the pictures of the faithful departed are displayed. It was beautiful to have pictures of the two previous pastors of Cristo Rey, Father John Keefe and Father Ramon Decaen, together with the deceased Passionist Sisters who have served at the parish: Maria Rea and Sister Virgencita, who were remembered at the altar. Setting up an altar is a beautiful way to honor and pray for our faithful departed.
During the last weekend of Ordinary time, we celebrated our feast day, Christ the King (Cristo Rey). There were several parish activities around those days. The Thursday before “Cristo Rey,” the parish priests — I, as pastor, and Father Dominic Winter— together with Father Christopher Barak, celebrated a Mass with prayers for healing. God knows we all need some physical, emotional and/or spiritual healing in our lives. It was very moving to see the amazing blessings that the Lord brings to those who participated at this special liturgy.
Confessions were offered before and after the Mass. One of the parishioners even said: “I received the grace of a great peace in my life, like a heavy burden was lifted form my shoulders.”
On Friday, before the feast day of “Cristo Rey,” the parish’s Catholic School Association organized several games for the kids. In Latin America, the feast day of a parish is celebrated with a big party in which there are activities for the children. There is why we decided to have a fun time for the kids in honor of Christ the King. As part of the event, the young people and their parents attended Mass. After Mass, the kids enjoyed piñatas. Piñatas, when they are made in the most traditional way, have seven points. Breaking them signifies the daily battle against the seven capital sins. The kids try to break “la piñata” and as a reward for breaking it, they receive candies that are inside of it. It is always a fun time when the piñata breaks and all the kids try to get the candy that was inside the piñata.
On Saturday, we had the first of six weekend Masses celebrated at Cristo Rey. At the end of Saturday’s vigil Mass, the Nocturnal Adoration members led an all-night Eucharistic vigil. That ended early in the morning with “las mañanitas” in honor of Cristo Rey. Las mananitas, “The morning song,” is sung traditionally to honor a loved one on his or her birthday, or in this case, our feast day of “Cristo Rey.”
A mariachi group was invited to lead the songs. After las mananitas, the mariachi sang for a while, leading the congregation in beautiful church songs. The mariachi group also led the Mass hymns and acclamations during the early morning Mass. Members of most of the choirs of Cristo Rey were able to sing together in most of the other Masses.
Cristo Rey also has a “Matachines” dance group. The “Matachines” performed their dance during the feast of “Cristo Rey.” Their dance signifies a battle between good (the dancers) and evil (represented by a dancer in an old man costume). It is a way to ask Christ the King for his intercession in the battle against evil. As you might guess, good always defeats evil! The dance took place at the parish hall and began asking Christ for his blessing and finished giving thanks to the authority of Christ the King over evil!
Cristo Rey looks forward to the blessed month of December. During the month of December, the different parish groups participate in the novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe. This novena prepares the parish for the solemn Mass in the morning of Dec. 12 that will be celebrated by Bishop James Conley. As soon as the last Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated, another parish group prepares the monumental nativity scene that occupies half of the parish hall. Everybody is cordially invited to visit this beautiful nativity scene.
