Announcements

Sunday, March 24th - Palm Sunday - St Gabriel the Archangel
Monday, March 25th - Monday in Holy Week - St Dismas
Tuesday, March 26th - Tuesday in Holy Week - St Ludger, BC
Wednesday, March 27th - Wednesday in Holy Week - St John Damascene, CD
Thursday, March 28th - Holy Thursday
Friday, March 29th - Good Friday
Saturday, March 30th - Holy Saturday
Sunday, March 31st - Easter Sunday - St Benjamin, M

Weekly Bulletin

Holy Week Schedule

  • Coffee & Pastries: Join us after Mass in the St Joseph Hall for bagels, muffins, and more! Please donate $1 per item.
  • 2nd Collection: There will be a collection for donations for the Easter lilies today.
  • Catechism Classes: There are classes today after Mass for students preparing to receive the sacraments.
  • Volunteers Needed: To place the flowers for the Altar of Repose after the 11:15 AM Mass on Wednesday.
  • Holy Week: There will be all night adoration beginning at 10:00 PM Holy Thursday. Good Friday's liturgy includes Holy Communion, distributed around 1:30 PM, as well as veneration of the relics of the Passion.
  • Lenten Rules of Fast: Catholics between age 21 and 59 are allowed meat only at the main meal of the day; two small meatless snacks, which together would not equal the main meal, are also permitted.
  • Stations of the Cross: At 8:50 AM Sundays during Passiontide, and 2:30 PM and 6:00 PM on Fridays during Lent.
  • Choir Practice: Today at 8:45 in the upstairs classroom for the 9:30 AM Mass, and one hour and 15 minutes before the Holy Week ceremonies.

Meditation on Palm Sunday

From The Year Made Holy by Msgr Matthias Premm

Jesus' entry into JerusalemToday we go out, the martyr's palm in our hand, on to the streets of the city, and there sing out our exultant hosannas to our Lord, as once on this day His disciples and followers, and especially the children, acclaimed the Savior at His entry into Jerusalem and escorted Him when, mounted on a she-ass, He rode in triumph through the city. Rapturously, they greeted Him, waving their palms, as He entered in state into Jerusalem, not to be found there an earthly kingdom but to die for us. But by that very fact He won for Himself spiritual dominion over all mankind. As, palm in hand, we walk in procession, it behooves us, in the silence of our hearts, to declare ourselves ready to follow the Savior even unto death, thus gaining for ourselves the glory that is everlasting. That is the significance of the martyry's palm in our hand. In this spirit we acclaim the Savior, who, in the holy cross that is carried at the head of the procession, accompanies us on our way: "Gloria, laus et honor - Glory, praise and honor be to thee, Christ our Redeemer!"

The ceremonies today have been emblematic, in part, of the past, in part, of the future; looking backward we commemorated the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and looking forward we meditated on our journey of life, which ends with our entry into the heavenly Jerusalem. In the third Act of today's drama all this becomes mystical reality. Jesus Himself, with His godhead and manhood, enters the church and re-enacts - though in unbloody form - the purpose of His entry into Jerusalem: His holy passion and death. Every text of this Mass speaks of the passion of Jesus; it is the most sorrowful requiem of the whole year. It is as it were and anticipation of Good Friday, when of course the Holy Sacrifice is not offered. Hence, already today the passion commences and the sufferings of Jesus are portrayed. In particular, the psalms (Introit, Tract, etc.), consist altogether of the supplications and lamentations of the Savior in His extreme abandonment.

We have but to surrender ourselves to this mood of the passion of Jesus, and all the texts become clear of themselves. And when, at the Consecration, the Savior lies on the altar as the Lamb-Victim, flesh and blood separated from each other in the chalice and the Host, and when, at the Communion, He actually comes into our hearts as the eucharistic food, we once more - as we have already done at the procession - declare ourselves ready to go with Him to His passion and death. At baptism (and at Ordination and Religious Profession), we have already promised Him this. It must not be that after the ceremonies are over, when we lay aside the palm, we lay aside this martyr-spirit as well. It is only then, in our everyday life, that it has to be put to the test.

Recessional Hymn

O Sacred Head surrounded By crown of piercing thorn!
O bleeding Head, so wounded, Reviled and put to scorn!
Death's pallid hue comes o'er Thee, The glow of life decays,
Yet angel hosts adore Thee, And tremble as they gaze.
I see Thy strength and vigor All fading in the strife,
And death, with cruel rigor, Bereaving Thee of life;
O agony and dying! O love to sinners free!
Jesus, all grace supplying, O, turn Thy face on me!