The Last Weeks of Lent- Father Kevin Louis's Bulletin Column - March 25, 2007
Please note that this week Wednesday, March 28, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament concludes at 5:00 pm with the praying of the Litany of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and benediction. Evening Prayer is prayed in church as usual at 6:30 pm. However, in church that night there will NOT be the normal 7:00 pm Stations of the Cross and Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Instead, you are invited to take part in a moving presentation of the Shadow Stations at 6:30 pm in our Saint Peter Middle School gymnasium. All are welcome to this dramatic production of the Way of the Cross by students from Assumption Catholic High School in Wisconsin Rapids.
This Friday, March 30, is the last of our 12:10 Stations of the Cross and penitential soup luncheons. Thank you to the altar servers who offered their time to assist with the procession and benediction. Thank you, too, to Loretta Nowak and her hard-working crew who always put together such delicious “penitential” meals! Excellent soup like Loretta prepares makes it difficult to actually consider it a Lenten penance!
If you have not already done so this Lent, I encourage you to receive the Sacrament of Penance as an essential component of your preparation for Easter. At Saint Peter this week of March 26-31 confessions are heard Wednesday through Saturday from 7:15-7:45 am and Monday through Friday from 4:30-5:00 pm. Also, a number of the parishes of our area offer communal Penance services (common song and prayer followed by individual Confession and absolution). During Holy Week confessions are heard at Saint Peter Wednesday, April 4, from 7:15-7:45 am and Monday through Wednesday (April 2-4) from 4:30-4:45 pm. Please don’t wait until the last minute as no confessions will be heard at Saint Peter’s the weekends of March 31/April 1 and April 7/8. The words of Pope John Paul II, I make my own: “To those who have been far away from the Sacrament of Reconciliation and forgiving love I make this appeal: come back to this source of grace; do not be afraid! Christ Himself is waiting for you. He will heal you, and you will be at peace with God!” (13 September 1987).
With next weekend’s celebration of Passion or Palm Sunday we begin Holy Week. This week is the apex of our year of faith together. Indeed, our participation in the sacred rites of Holy Week is a privileged manner in which we live more deeply the mystery of our rebirth in Christ through our Baptism into the Death and Resurrection of Christ (see Romans 6:3-9). Plan now for your participation in the solemn liturgies of these days!
Beginning with Passion or Palm Sunday we celebrate the mysteries of our salvation accomplished by Christ in the last days of His life on earth. “On Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday) the Church enters upon the mystery of her crucified, buried, and risen Lord, who by His entrance into Jerusalem, gave a glimpse of His own majesty. Christians carry branches as a sign of the royal triumph that Christ won by His acceptance of the cross” (Caeremoniale Episcoporum, 263). The liturgy of Passion (Palm) Sunday has two parts: (1) The Commemoration of the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem with the blessing of palm branches, the proclamation of the Gospel about the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem, and the solemn entrance procession of ministers into the sanctuary; and (2) The Mass proper with the solemn proclamation of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The palm branches blessed at the Mass “should be taken home where they will serve as a reminder of the victory of Christ which (is) celebrated in the procession” (Paschales Solemnitatis, 29).
Saint Peter, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
Father Kevin Louis
Return To Bulletin Column Archives
