In honor of the month of the Holy Rosary, this Sunday we blessed our new shrine to Mary at St. Thomas of Canterbury and held a rosary walk through Uptown on October. Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!
We were so blessed to welcome back alumni of St. Gregory the Great Grammar School and High School for the Saturday reunion! Thank you so much to the Reunion Committee and all those who worked so hard to plan and put together the festivities. To all alumni of St. Greg's who traveled near and far to get here, welcome home!
By Joseph Malham Trinity Icons God’s providence, like His grace, knows no boundaries and always manages to surprise us in the varied ways in which it is manifested. The way churches in Chicago were conceived and created is no exception. There are churches organized along ethnic lines and proximity to factories and stockyards. There were also churches built to reflect the homeland of the community and the wealth they were blessed with in the New World. However, St. Thomas of Canterbury in the heart of Uptown is the only church in Chicago history to have originated in a snowstorm.
A severe blizzard in the winter of 1916 kept numerous Catholics in the Wilson Avenue District (soon to be known as “Uptown”) from reaching either St. Ita in Edgewater or Our Lady of Lourdes in Ravenswood. A compromise in the form of a new church halfway between the two was proposed to the new Archbishop of Chicago, George W. Mundelein. Find 500 families who could be potential parishioners, His Excellency said, and you have your church. In less than a week the requisite number of families had been found, and St. Thomas of Canterbury Church became a reality. It was fitting that St. Thomas of Canterbury began as a response to the spiritual and practical needs of the community. That is a spirit of spiritual care and communal outreach to a wide and diverse group of people that continues to this day. |
If you would like to share an announcement (i.e. funeral, Sacrament, anniversary, etc.) with the parish community, please email the parish office. Archives
November 2024
Categories
All
|