Pastor’s Column

April 10, 2022

SCHEDULE FOR HOLY WEEK

April 10 – 16

Palm Sunday. Normal schedule. Procession at 1 pm.
Monday to Wednesday. Normal schedule.
Holy Thursday. Tenebrae at 8 am. Confessions at 11:30 am. Mass at 6 pm.
Good Friday. Tenebrae at 8 am. Confessions at 11:30 am. Stations at noon. Mass of the Presanctified at 1 pm. A collection for the Holy Land is taken during the Mass.
Holy Saturday. No Tenebrae (preparation rites for adult converts will be taking place in the morning). Vigil Mass at 4 pm. Seating will be very limited!!

SEATING DURING HOLY WEEK

The perennial problem! We anticipate very large crowds during Holy Week, particularly during the Sacred Triduum. Please do not reserve seats without a family member constantly present in the pews! (It would be fine, for example, for a family to arrive early, and have at least one or two family members in the pews, while a parent supervises smaller children outside until the beginning of Mass.)

It is so discouraging for people, especially people who live very far away, to arrive many hours before the beginning of Mass, and enter an empty church, where every seat is occupied by a Missal, or article of clothing, or some other indication of “reservation”. An empty church, and no seats available!

If seats are reserved in this way, and there is no family member present to account for them, I reserve the right to remove any Missals, clothing, etc. In that case, they would be available for retrieval in the parish office. I do ask, however, that other parishioners do not take it upon themselves to enforce this request. Please just bring any issues to my attention.

CONFESSIONS DURING HOLY WEEK

Please make every effort to make yours early in the week! Confessions will be very limited during the Triduum.

CAMPS SACRED HEART & IMMACULATE HEART

These camps are scheduled for Jun 19 to 25 (Sun to Sat), and Jun 25 to Jul 1 (Sat to Fri), respectively. Camp Sacred Heart is for the boys, whereas Camp Immaculate Heart will be for the girls. Please note the dates on your calendars. The dates are arranged such that families that have both boys and girls attending will be able to pick up the boys on Sat, Jun 25 and at the same time drop off the girls.

Camp Sacred Heart will be run more or less as usual; however, I do anticipate the possibility of a larger than usual registration, as the parish has almost doubled in size in the last few years. It is possible that we will have to raise the minimum age (which was typically nine years old) this year. In any case, priority will be given to the older boys.

We anticipate a minimum age of twelve years old for Camp Immaculate Heart.

The cost of the camp will be $250 for the first child in a family, $200 for the second, $150 for the third, etc. Scholar- ships will be available for families for whom the registration fee constitutes a financial burden.

Registration forms will be available on Easter Sunday.

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April 3, 2022

CAMPS SACRED HEART & IMMACULATE HEART

Camp Immaculate Heart we had planned on doing for the first time in 2020. Well, unless you’ve been living like the desert fathers, you know that didn’t happen. So this year will be the first year we have had a camp for the young ladies in well over a decade. We are still working out the details, but we anticipate a minimum age of twelve years old. The sisters of Laborae Mariae will be in charge of the camp, although one of the priests of St. Stephen’s will be present as chaplain. We will be reaching out to older or single women to serve as volunteers for the camp, there to assist the sisters.

Registration forms should be available as early as next Sunday (that is, Palm Sunday). Once they are available, they will be due on Sun, May 22. Given the expectation of a large enrollment, registrations received after May 22 will likely be put on a waiting list, and also likely to be unable to attend. Please get your forms in early!

SCHEDULE FOR LENT

1. Stations of the Cross. Every Friday during Lent, after the noon and 6 pm Masses.

3. Lenten Soup Meals. Fridays during Lent, after the Stations of the Cross following the 6 pm Mass. Contact: Janice Aranas (justforjan@frontiernet.net).

4. Holy Week. April 10-16

i. Palm Sunday. Normal schedule. Procession at 1 pm.

ii. Monday to Wednesday. Normal schedule.

iii. Holy Thursday. Tenebrae at 8 am. Confessions at 11:30 am. Mass at 6 pm.

iv. Good Friday. Tenebrae at 8 am. Confessions at 11:30 am. Stations at noon. Mass of the Presanctified at 1 pm. A collection for the Holy Land is taken during the Mass.

v. Holy Saturday. No Tenebrae (preparation rites for adult converts will be taking place in the morning). Vigil Mass at 4 pm.

This year we have over fifty adults involved with adult catechism. Many of them will be received into the Church at the Easter Vigil Mass – meaning seating will be very limited. Please pray for all the catechumens and candidates during Lent.

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March 27, 2022

LAETARE SUNDAY

from the Catholic Encyclopeida

The fourth, or middle, Sunday of Lent, so called from the first words of the Introit at Mass, “Laetare Jerusalem” — “Rejoice, O Jerusalem”. During the first six or seven centuries the season of Lent commenced on the Sunday following Quinquagesima, and thus comprised only thirty- six fasting days. To these were afterwards added the four days preceding the first Sunday, in order to make up the forty days’ fast, and one of the earliest liturgical notices of these extra days occurs in the special Gospels assigned to them in a Toulon manuscript of 714. Strictly speaking, the Thursday before Laetare Sunday is the middle day of Lent, and it was at one time observed as such, but afterwards the special signs of joy permitted on this day, intended to encourage the faithful in their course through the season of penance, were transferred to the Sunday following. They consist of (like those of Gaudete Sunday in Advent) in the use of flowers on the altar, and of the organ at Mass and Vespers; rose-coloured vestments also allowed instead of purple, and the deacon and subdeacon wear dalmatics, instead of folded chasubles as on the other Sundays of Lent. The contrast between Laetare and the other Sundays is thus emphasized, and is emblematical of the joys of this life, restrained rejoicing mingled with a certain amount of sadness. The station at Rome was on this day made at the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, one of the seven chief basilicas; the Golden Rose, sent by the popes to Catholic sovereigns, used to be blessed at this time, and for this reason the day was sometimes called “Dominica de Rosa”. Other names applied to it were Refreshment Sunday, or the Sunday of the Five Loaves, from a miracle recorded in the Gospel; Mid-Lent, mi-carême, or mediana; and Mothering Sunday, in allusion to the Epistle, which indicates our right to be called the sons of God as the source of all our joy, and also because formerly the faithful used to make their offerings in the cathedral or mother-church on this day. This latter name is still kept up in some remote parts of England, though the reason for it has ceased to exist.