Thank you to our Redemptorist Priests who led us through our Parish Mission last week! What a blessed time of retreat and reflection! I hope that each of you were able to attend one of the evening sessions and enter into the beauty of the mission preparing us to celebrate Holy Week and the Easter Triduum! Fathers Philip Dabney, James Wallace, and Francis Gargani helped us reflect on The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and what a Gift of God it is to experience His presence in everything and everyone we encounter and every situation in which we find ourselves. It was a blessing to have them here with us!
Palm Sunday – Holy Week – Easter Triduum
Palm Sunday is one of the more solemn days of the year for us. It marks the entrance of Our Lord Jesus into Jerusalem where He will soon undergo His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Today is the beginning of the Holiest Week of the Year. We call this week “Holy” because in each liturgy we celebrate the mysteries of His deep and abundant love for us. We celebrate how he heals the wounds in us, how He liberates us from sin, how He lifts our lives to abundance, how He makes us holy! “By His wounds we are healed.”
We are reconciled to God and one another. We are made holy because of what He went through. We have life now – eternal life. We no longer have to fear death as death is not the end but a change of life for us who believe. We celebrate His conquering our death with His death and resurrection! His death and resurrection destroyed our eternal death and opened for us eternal life! He has sanctified us in all these events we celebrate and remember!
I invite you to join in the celebrations this week and walk with your brothers and sisters of St. James and with Our Lord in these liturgies! On Holy Thursday evening, we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 6:30 PM with the washing of the feet and then we end with a Eucharistic Procession to the Altar of Repose where we spend time with Jesus in prayer. Good Friday, we begin the day with a Tenebrae Service at 8:30 AM and have Stations of the Cross at Noon. The Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion is at 3:00 PM. Holy Saturday begins with Tenebrae Service at 8:30 AM and then culminates in the Easter Vigil at 8:00 PM.
These liturgies and services help us enter into the divine mysteries of our salvation, our faith, hope, and charity. They bring a richness to our life of faith and help us be a part of the life of our Lord Jesus. I hope you all can attend!
Easter Sunday masses will be at 7:30 AM, 9:30 AM (in the church and the gym), and 11:30 AM. There will be many people here for mass on Easter Sunday, please be patient and welcome ALL who come to worship with us!
I wish each of you a Blessed Palm Sunday and Holy Week!
~ Fr. Daniel Firmin