By Dan Sullivan
Catholic Herald

Volunteers prepare oil for chrism Mass

SUPERIOR -- On Tuesday, March 30, the annual chrism Mass will be celebrated at St. Joseph Church in Rice Lake, beginning at noon. To prepare the oils for this service some dozen volunteers gathered at the Newman Center on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Superior on Tuesday, March 16.

Husband and wife, Frank and Pat Kocon, were among those who assisted. The Kocons have been helping for five years. "We were asked, and wanted to represent our parish," Pat Kocon said. "We are members of St. Francis Xavier Parish (in Superior)."

Frank Kocon filled bottles with the Oil of the Sick, as Pat Kocon wiped each container and secured its top.

Besides the Oil of the Sick, the other oils used in various sacraments throughout the year -- the Oil of the Catechumens and the Sacred Chrism -- were poured into individual bottles.

Meanwhile, Jan Cannon and Mary E. Anderson took the bottles and boxed them up in a complete set of three. During the Chrism Mass, Bishop Raphael M. Fliss will bless these oils. The packages -- containing bottles of the three oils -- will then be distributed for use in the individual parishes of the Diocese of Superior.

Cannon, who is a member of Holy Assumption Parish in Superior, has been lending a helping hand with this oil effort for six years and says the day makes this time of year more meaningful for her.

"I enjoy the Easter season so much and I am contributing to it by preparing the oils for the Chrism Mass and the Easter season," she said. "When I see a baptism or anointing, I know that I had something to do with it in a little way."

Mary Anderson, a member of Superior's Cathedral of Christ the King Parish, said she also finds the task rewarding. "We know we are doing a good deed for the church," Anderson said.

Sniffing her hands, Luz Lao, a cathedral parishioner, was attracted to the sweet fragrance of the Sacred Chrism. "I love the smell," Lao said.

Helen Anderson, also a member of the cathedral parish, recalled days gone by when the oils were poured in the cathedral's crowded sacristy during the actual chrism Mass. "We would be checking to see where they were in the Mass, to make sure we would be ready on time" Helen Anderson said. "We aren't as rushed this way."

"They get more and more efficient every year," said Fr. Gabriel Baltes, OSB, diocesan director of the office of worship, who was supervising the pouring.

"Every parish gets a box. They are all blessed by the bishop and the oils symbolizes the unity of the diocese," Baltes said.

Three holy oils used for sacraments, anointing throughout the year