… A nice distinction found in the Father Lasance missal I inherited from my mother. Today, November 1, is the Feast of All Saints and I hope everyone has something festive. One of the priests around here always says, be sure to have some ice cream on a feast day. And tomorrow is the Commemoration of All Souls. More sorrow and less ice cream. But still an important day. Anyway, a little church eye candy in some of the links.

These two pictures come from the Father Lasance missal of the 1940’s, that my mother had, late in life. I can’t give an exact date because this missal is so tattered, even after enormous efforts to mend it, that normally I keep it wrapped in a silk scarf. The beginning pages that might have had a publishing date, are all missing. I couldn’t keep the pages flat either when I took the pictures, but I love them.

Father Lasance wrote lots of books and put together missals with prayers and good instruction. An article in Catholic World Report give a nice summary of his life.** But… I found it helpful to skip through the article to the subheading … A son of Cincinnati … to find his biography. His heritage is German. His mother died when he was very young. He attended Saint Meinrad seminary, and he was ordained at Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati. Hmmm. https://cathedralaoc.org/art-and-architecture/ Scroll through. There are lovely pictures, and the spire has to be seen to be believed, but they don’t make it easy.

Father Lasance was associated with Old Saint Mary’s in Cincinnati for large parts of his life, and there is an amazing tour of the church through Google. You have to go to the church website here.
https://www.oldstmarys.org/
Scroll down the page and click on Tour the Church. Google has a lovely walk-through. The windows are nice, but the wood of the walls and ceiling is much more fun and the altar is quite special.

** https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2021/01/23/make-everything-count-for-eternity-the-story-of-fr-francis-x-lasance/