Dear Church,
We welcome all our regular parishioners and our guests to this awesome Sunday that begins Holy Week, our most significant week of celebrations of the life of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Today we begin outdoors with a Gospel proclamation extoling Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover. We bless and wave palm branches as did Jesus’ followers. However, the mood takes a dark turn as we move together towards Good Friday. Now we see that the brooding clouds of jealousy and ignorance of the scribes and Pharisees lead them to have the Roman authorities execute Jesus as a common criminal. Despite their desperate attempts to quash the Lord and His followers, we already know that He will rise from the Grave on Easter and thereby defeat our great enemy, our own deaths. And the Church He began continues to thrive to this very century and year. In Him we have salvation and eternal life. We only need follow His Way, claim Him as Lord and Savior over us and trust in His promise of heaven for those who are indeed His own.
See the schedule of Masses elsewhere in this bulletin for the coming Sacred Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, which are one celebration observed over those three days). Triduum is Latin and means, literally “three days.” They allow us to walk with Jesus and his Apostles and His blessed mother, Mary most holy, in the final days of His human life and into the tomb; They reach a crescendo on Holy Saturday when we find the grave empty because He was raised by His Father. During the fifty days of the Easter season we will rejoice at His many appearances to his Apostles as well as His Ascension to heaven, and thrill to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost, which closes the days of extended Easter exaltation.
Know that everyone is always welcomed at St. Patrick Parish on any Sunday, and particularly next Easter Sunday.
May God’s abundant Grace and Mercy wash over you and draw you to attend Sunday Mass every week with our loving, faithful and vibrant Catholic community at Saint Patrick Parish.
Fr. Mario