Dear Friends,
We have arrived to our Holy Week. Before us we have the most sacred and solemn week of the liturgical year. This is the time to embrace the most precious gift we have ever received, the gift of salvation from Jesus Christ who gave us His very life.
Today is our Palm Sunday marking the beginning of this Holy Week.
Palm Sunday recalls Jesus’ entrance into the city of Jerusalem. His entrance is noted in all four of our Gospels. People in jubilation, welcoming Jesus’ entrance, laid down their cloaks and palm branches as He arrived. This was the tradition of the day and a sign of highest honor. Jesus riding a donkey symbolized a peaceful arrival whereas someone on horse would often be a symbol of war. In many cultures, the palms that were placed before Jesus represented a sign of victory and/or eternal life.
Our liturgies this weekend commemorate this entrance of Jesus. We are invited to bring ourselves fully into the days before us leading to Easter Sunday.
I pray you will set aside time this week to pray during Holy Week.
As has been shared over these Lenten weeks, on Holy Monday, we will come together for an opportunity with a Penance Service with individual reconciliation. Priests will be available to hear your confessions. Holy Tuesday, at Sacred Heart Cathedral, people from around the diocese will gather for the Chrism Mass. The Oils of Chrism, Initiation and the Sick, that we will use in the coming year, will be blessed.
On Holy Thursday, we come together to celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament following mass. This has always been one of my favorite moments and opportunities to pray during Holy Week.
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a time to “keep watch” with Jesus commemorating His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. It represents the disciples who were invited to stay with Jesus during His agony in the garden before the betrayal of Judas. Recall this night the words we hear in Sacred Scripture, of Jesus’ disappointment that Peter, James, and John could not even stay awake one hour with Him.
This adoration, which follows mass will go to 11 PM in the Transfiguration Chapel. It will be a “quiet time” before the reserved Blessed Sacrament. We have this time for our own prayer, meditation on Scripture, and reflection on the love and sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of our souls. Everyone may enter it in your own way. Churches offer Adoration all around us. Many individuals make a tradition of visiting different churches this time. I will have posted in our churches the places and times you may want to visit.
Good Friday we will come together in the afternoon to commemorate the Lord’s Passion. In the evening, there will be Stations of the Cross.
Holy Saturday is the Easter Vigil. This night, we celebrate everything that marks us as One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic disciples of our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ!!! This is a mass that no one should miss. It is who we are and who we are called to be every day of our lives! This night we recall our own Baptism and welcome our sisters and brothers who are going to be fully initiated into the Roman Catholic Church!
I pray you will come to support these special disciples and witness to them your own faith in the power of living the Gospel.
Check the bulletin, our websites, weekly emails, and flyer you received at the beginning of Lent for times and locations of this week’s services.
May we keep time for Jesus this week. The Lord always has time for us. May we acknowledge the invitation to walk with Him, as Jerusalem is His/our destiny.
Blessings,
Father Rob