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The Shepherd's Voice
It’s hard to believe that we’ve already arrived at Holy Week. I guess the fact that it went by so quickly means I had a good Lent. Perhaps your Lent didn’t go by so quickly. Maybe it was more of a battle. That’s ok, too; that can still be a good Lent, if it allowed you some time and space to work with the Lord on some things that needed healing in your life. God’s time is not our time, and He’ll work as slowly or quickly as He wants to. Either way, we’ve ended up here.
Holy Week can also be a strange experience of time. After celebrating the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday night, we rush around the darkened streets to visit Our Lord at various altars of repose in other parishes, only to enter into a period of silent waiting until Friday afternoon…at which point we recount the dramatic, emotional story of our Lord’s passion and death, experiencing that pain and loss even as we pour out our petitions to Him, only to enter into an even longer period of waiting at the tomb…until darkness falls on Saturday night, and suddenly a light - the light appears.
In all that chaos, that emotion, that hurry up-and-wait, God is in control. He’s always in control. He even conquers death. This Holy Week, spend some time - however slow or fast it’s moving - with the Lord in prayer, and simply let Him be in control.
Sacred Triduum: As you’ll see from the Holy Week schedule, all the liturgies of Holy Week are being celebrated at the Monroeville campus. There have been some questions as to why, so let me do my best to explain. The main reason is a theological one - the liturgy of Holy Week is one continuous action. Although they happen at different times, they’re all part of the same celebration. It’s not intended to be moved around. The other reasons are more practical. Rather than dividing our resources, we can concentrate musicians and servers and all the other ministers in one place and celebrate the liturgies with the solemnity and dignity they deserve. Furthermore, based on last year’s attendance, it is evident that we need to use the largest space we have available.
SCAM ALERT - As a reminder, no priest or staff member of the parish will ever email you asking you to help us with a favor and purchase gift cards. Nor will we text you. This is apparently the latest chapter in the scam game - in the past week, a number of folks have received a text, allegedly from me, asking for gift cards. These texts were coming from the 740 area code - my cell is a 412 number. But more to the point, we would never ask for anything. If you get a text or email like that, just delete and move on.
Seven Church Visit - Again this year, we will be providing a bus to go to seven different churches following Mass on Holy Thursday. There is no cost, but space is limited; please call the parish office to register.
Fish Fry - Thank you to everyone for patronizing our fish fry this year, and an extra special thanks to the volunteers who worked so hard to make it so successful. It’s still too early for final numbers, but we’ll report on that as soon as we can. All indications are that we had a record-breaking year.
I’m rapidly running out of room this week, but there’s an awful lot of upcoming events. Be sure to read the bulletin carefully so you don’t miss any!
Oremus pro invicem!
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