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Another cycle of Christmas Masses at St. Joan of Arc will have ended by the time you read this. For some of the staff and the behind the scenes helpers that may come as a relief! A great deal of work and effort goes into to making each of the 5 services over a 20 hour period a success (7 services over 44 hours if you count Sunday the 26th). It's no wonder that the Parish Offices were closed and staff had the day off on the Monday the 27th!
Months before the Masses the St. Joan of Arc Choir, under the direction of
Anna Vagle(right), has been rehearsing and planning the songs they will sing. The
band musicians have been rehearsing. The schedule of what musicians will play
what service and what services the choir will sing at is discussed. For 2004, it is
decided that the Choir will sing at the 6:00 p.m. Christmas Eve and the 9:00
a.m. Christmas Day services. The band is there for
the long haul. They begin arriving at 3:00 and don't leave until after
11:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day the musicians arrive at 7:00 a.m. and don't
leave until after 12:30. Because Christmas Day is a Saturday, most of the
musicians are right back again on Sunday, December 26th from 7:00 until
12:30. That's a looong weekend of performing. Most of the musicians have
"day jobs" during the week also. Next time you see one of our St. Joan of
Arc musicians, please thank them for their dedication.
A few weeks before, Dorothy Kalinowski and Nancy Wright call volunteers to be host and wine ministers at each service. Readers are arranged. Father's Jim and George discuss which of them will preside at which service.
On Thursday the 23rd (at the latest), the Christmas bulletin has to be finalized and printed. This bulletin will cover all three days: the 24th, 25th and 26th. I counted at least 4 full boxes of bulletins in the vestibule. The Parish Center prints extra bulletins during the holidays. I don't know exactly how many people attended St. Joan of Arc from the 24th to the 26th but I would guess over 5000 (some of whom attend more then once during the 3 days). The Parish Center has it's own copy machine and paper folder and the typical Sunday bulletin is formatted by Nancy Becker each week. The Christmas bulletin used colored print so it was sent to a commercial printer. When it returned, someone had to staple those inserted Christmas collection envelopes into EACH bulletin by hand.
Then the first Mass (the infamous 4:00 Christmas Eve service) approaches. I
say “infamous” because the 4:00 Christmas Eve service is the service most
people have in mind when they say St. Joan's is "too crowded" during
Christmas. The 4:00 Christmas Eve service is the only service that the
children reenact the Nativity and it's an early service so it's popular with
families. In past years, no one was allowed in the gym until 3:00. This
year, Doug Lohmann, Director of Maintenance just decided to leave the doors
open. I think this was a wise decision. People start arriving for this
service (I'm not kidding) at 2:30 p.m. to get good seats. Every year it can
get "ugly" because people don't like waiting in the cold vestibule and they
usually say so to the hapless volunteer unfortunate enough to be at the door
(many times I've been the hapless volunteer at the door, so I know!). The
gym is usually full (I'm not kidding here either) by 3:20. Every year large
families show up at 3:50 and they all want to sit together and they get mad
when it's already packed. I've seen people turn around and leave. The
lesson here is arrive REALLY early or attend another Christmas service at
SJA. I'm very grateful that Father George reminds us every year that there are
plenty of Masses at St. Joans so don't get discouraged by the high
attendance at the 4:00.
The Choir sings at the 6:00 Mass on Christmas Eve. The Choir arrives at 5:15 and leaves around 7:30-8:00. 10:00 is the late service at Christmas Eve which is surprisingly(to me an early bird!) well attended.
Things went very well this year. No disasters. Almost all of the volunteers showed up. Not too many instances of children ringing their bells at times other then during the "Angels We Have Heard on High". No one fell down or dropped a host or spilled the wine. Father George always says: "Somehow it always works out" and he's right. Jim Potts always says: "Most people won't even notice or care if there is a glitch" and he's right too!
The Christmas services provide me with an opportunity to see the families
and children who attend the Family Masses. Since I don't have any children,
I don't get many opportunities to meet these fellow parishioners. To me,
it is a treat to attend Christmas services with the kids since the Nursery is
closed during almost all of the Christmas services. To me, Christmas is
about the children and I get great joy out of seeing their excitement and
fascination as they gather around the Nativity scene at the front of the gym
to see the Baby Jesus after the services.
A special nod to Echo Thoren who was at St. Joan's on Christmas Eve at 1:30 p.m. and did not leave until 7:30 and was back again on Christmas Day by 6:30 a.m until 12:30 and BACK YET AGAIN on Sunday the 26th by 6:30 a.m. and left at 12:30. Echo is over 80 years old and has been a parishioner of St. Joan's for about 30 years. Yet, she's there for nearly every service making sure all the host and wine ministers are there and in place … Seating people, making sure the collection is done … Helping get the altar and the candles set up … Meeting and greeting people. Also a pat on the back to Echo's reliable helpers, Dorothy Kalinowski, Nancy Wright, Ron Joki and Dick Voss who lend able assistance.
Another behind the scenes nod goes to Doug Lohmann, Director of Maintenance and Sound Man. Doug told me he should have just slept on one of the couches at St. Joans rather then go home since he was there until 2:00 a.m.(!) on the 25th and then had to be back in 5 hours to get ready for the Christmas Day services.
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