| Easter Sunday |
| HOLY WEEK and EASTER 2008 Dear Members and Friends of Old St. Mary’s, I write to remind you and give you a personal invitation to enter into the awesome liturgies of Holy Week; and to wish you and your loved ones all the blessings of the Easter season. The Resurrection of Jesus is The Great Event of our Christian faith. In the light of the Risen Christ the world and our lives are being transformed. Holy Week begins Palm/Passion Sunday on March 16 in our commons with the blessings of the palms and procession into the church commemorating Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem. It features a reading of the passion, this year from the Gospel of Matthew. The Palm Sunday services are at our usual weekend times: Saturday 5 PM, Sunday 8:30 and 11 AM. Lent officially ends on Holy Thursday, March 20, as the church begins what is known as the Liturgies of the Easter Triduum (three days) with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. This service features a symbolic washing of the feet and ends with the emptying of the tabernacle and transfer of the Holy Eucharist to a place of reposition (our social hall). Holy Thursday is particularly meaningful for us Catholics for whom the Eucharist is central to our faith experience. Our Holy Thursday liturgy this year is at 7 PM and the church will remain open to 10 PM for those who wish to spent some prayerful time before the Blessed Sacrament in the social hall. Good Friday, March 21, we will have Stations of the Cross at Noon, followed by an opportunity for private confessions until 2 PM. The main Good Friday service, The Lord’s Passion is at 7 PM and includes the reading of the passion from the Gospel of John, Veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion. Holy Week ends and Easter begins on Saturday evening at 7 PM with the celebration of the Easter Vigil. This very sacred service opens with both the blessing and lighting of the fire and the new Paschal Candle. We will also receive seven new members into the church, three of whom will be baptized that night. This, the first mass of Easter, is always a bit longer because of all the beautiful extra rites in this liturgy. It is well worth experiencing if you have never been to an Easter Vigil. The rest of our Easter Sunday Masses will be the usual times of 8:30 and 11 AM. On behalf of all the staff of Old St. Mary’s, we extend to you our prayers and best wishes for a blessed joy filled Easter Season in the light of the Risen Christ! Michael Kallock, CSP PASTOR |
| PASTOR'S EASTER LETTER |
