For the past four years, I’ve been doing at least parts of the 5 a.m. novena at my parish, thanks to my friend Mimi Fitzgerald. Last year, I made all nine days for the first time, but
Category: Friendship
Simbang Gabi Day 7: Our House
“This is our house,” the priest said in his homily at today’s pre-dawn Mass. “We are the children of God.” And what a house it is! The Montgomery girls did the readings this morning. I felt like a
Simbang Gabi Day 3: Silent Night
Simbang Gabi, Mass of the Night, got its start in the Philippines back 400 years ago. At the nine-day novena, which my parish observes at 5 a.m., we get a few hundred Filipinos and
Simbang Gabi Day 1: Emptying Ourselves
“God can’t fill what is already full,” Father Jack O’Hara reminded us this morning at the first of nine 5 a.m. Simbang Gabi Masses at my parish. That’s Father Jack for you. A soft-spoken priest who was our vicar for many years until a