As I begin this eBulletin article, I want to thank Kim Karmirantzos for her hard work and dedication to our Parish in her role as Pastoral Associate for Community Engagement and Communications. She has done a fantastic job over the years and worked especially hard over the last two years during the COVID pandemic. She enabled us to engage parishioners, young and old alike, online and in person. Thank you Kim, for bringing our community together! We hope you enjoy your retirement and extra time with family. When you see her around the parish, please thank her for her dedication and commitment.
People often ask me, why does God not rescue us from our suffering and pain? Sometimes God does and sometimes he does not. I think of the many people who have different health issues, have had various bad things happen to them, those who have lost a child to a terrible accident or health issues at such a young age. Why if our God is an all-loving God, why would he let us suffer so? Why is he so silent when we call out to him in pain?
It is a mystery that we must embrace and look to the scriptures for some clarity. We know that God’s initial response to Jesus’ suffering and dying on the cross was “silence.” God did not rescue Jesus from his suffering and death on the cross. However, that was not His final response – He redeems Jesus and brings him back to life in the Resurrection after his suffering.
In the same way God may not rescue us from our suffering but he does redeem us. This is true for all the little pains of life as well as the large ones including death because in the end we will be with the Lord for all eternity. Ultimately that means that God’s silence can be trusted as it results in the resurrection. While we do not understand it all, we experience the goodness and love of God throughout it all. God’s silence can be trusted. He has the last word and it is the resurrection. But we have to get through the pain of life first.
Trust in the Resurrection is the message of Holy Week. Tomorrow we start with the celebration of the Passion of Christ with Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. Here we recognize the confusion of heralding Jesus as King while also the crucifixion of Christ all within the same liturgy. We celebrate the gift of Jesus’s willingness to take the full journey of humanity till the bitter end. I invite all parishioners to come and celebrate the Passion on Sunday. Please wear something red to celebrate this feast day. John Angotti will be playing wonderful music with us for all Masses so invite a friend along.
On Monday, April 11 at 7pm we will celebrate the communal sacrament of Reconciliation to prepare our hearts for the remainder of Holy Week. Over the last two years many people could not come to the sacrament because of the COVID virus. I am hoping that most people feel safe to return to the celebration of God’s forgiveness and celebrate as a community.
On Tuesday, April 12 at 7pm—8:30pm, I will give my final session on the retreat called From Here to Eternity: How to Live and Die Well. Over these last few sessions, I talked about death as the birthing process into eternal life and our roles as midwives to our loved ones. To do this well, we need to know more about the dying process and what are the needs of the dying. There are things we can do or say that help and there are things we can do or say that are less helpful. We cannot get it right all the time, but if we can become more informed about the needs of the sick and dying then we get it right most of the time. I will focus on how we can help those who are dying to choose gratitude and joy as they die and what role we play in those last days or hours. Please invite someone to come with you and join us for the fourth session. This session will be longer than the others at 7-8:30 p.m. If you cannot make it in person, then watch it livestream at: From Here To Eternity Schedule – YouTube
On Holy Thursday, April 14 at 7pm we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and remember how Christ instituted the Eucharist with the model of service by washing the feet of his disciples. This year we welcome back the washing of the feet and we invite all people to have their feet washed and invite you to wash another person’s feet too. I realize this may seem hard but I will preach on why this is more powerful and significant than ever before. Immediately following the Lord’s Supper we will process over to the Parish Center and offer Eucharist Adoration at the Altar of Repose until midnight. Please join us for this celebration of our community and spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament.
On Good Friday, April 15 at 12noon and 7pm we will have Communion Service with the reading/acting out of the Passion narrative followed by the traditional form of the Universal Prayer or Prayers of the Faithful. Again we invite you to join us for one of these services.
On Holy Saturday night at 8pm we celebrate the Easter Vigil. This is where we welcome into the Church all those who seek to be full members of the Catholic Church. While it is a long service, it is the most beautiful liturgy of the year with four Old Testaments followed by four sung Psalms, followed by the Baptisms and Confirmation into the faith. I suggest that you join this celebration at least once every few years. You will not be disappointed.
Then on Easter Sunday, we have Masses at 7:30am, 9am and 11:15am and we look forward to welcoming many people back to Church. We encourage everyone to make the effort to come to Church in person with family and friends and experience the grace of Christ gathered in community.
Happy Holy Week
God Bless,
Fr. Brendan