Posted on April 2, 2022 View all news
Today, on this First Sunday of April, we begin what is known as Passiontide. In the Gospel, we hear how Christ hid Himself close to His betrayal and Passion. To make this real for us, so many centuries away from Christ, the Church veils the statues in our churches from us. Giving us the absence of the beauty of our saints, our churches, and filling us with a sense of emptiness and sadness. During these final two weeks before Easter, Lent takes on a new approach. Rather than calling to mind our sinfulness and nothingness, we now focus more intently on the Passion. Christ suffered because of our sins. Hopefully, having become more aware of our faults and sinfulness these past few weeks, we now see the result of those failings.
Over these next few weeks, focus on the great mercy the Lord has shown to us by His Passion and Death. Resolve, as St. Alphonsus Liguori tells us in his Stations of the Cross, never to offend the Lord again by our sins. On Easter Sunday, the Lord rose from the dead to conquer death and to offer life to each of us. But we can only receive this life if we are willing to change our lives and give ourselves entirely to Christ. May never look back at the old man, but only look forward to Heaven, where our true citizenship is, as St. Philip Neri so often reminds us.
Please also be sure to remember our Catechumens, those up for reception into the Church, and those who will receive Confirmation at the Easter Vigil. Please also remember all of our First Communicants in your prayers, who will receive Communion for the first time the two weeks after Easter. Thank you to all those who assisted them in any way by either teaching them or serving as a sponsor!
Lastly, be sure to support our Ravioli Dinner at Sacred Heart on Palm Sunday. This time it will ONLY be frozen ravioli, sauce, and meatball. We will not have the full dinner this time, but please pray we can restart that this Fall. Thank you to everyone who has assisted with this thus far and who will assist us in the weeks to come. Find more details later in this newsletter. I also want to thank all those who helped in any way with the Old St. Mary’s Fish Fry, especially the organizers. We made about $10,000 on just this one night, our best fish fry ever. So thank you! Have a blessed month ahead!
Last year’s catechesis on Holy Week:
See the April Newsletter for this year’s Holy Week schedule (the times mentioned in the following are from last year):