Greetings from St. Joseph Parish.  A surreal time especially felt as we approach Holy Week.  Nonetheless, guided by the efforts of our governor, our bishop and local community efforts may our sacrifices safeguard the well being of the most vulnerable, and provide us with a faith in God who is always before us.

Though we are unable to share the Eucharist, bringing you Holy Communion, our parish continues to provide daily Mass on our website and Facebook sites.  For your convenience, the following Holy Week Masses will be live-streamed and saved to watch later:

     Holy Thursday Mass of the Last Supper April 9th  5:00pm

     Good Friday Service April 10th Noon

     Easter Sunday Mass of the Resurrection April 12th 8:00am

Also on our webpage and Facebook is the Stations of the Cross and the Rosary for your personal prayer, (as well as other Catholic faith information).  With the serious efforts to safeguard ourselves and others, may I include a few tidbits of faith, humor, and reflection.  You are a part of our parish, and your faith and presence is a blessing.  May we soon share in the Eucharist again!  You remain in our prayers.

 

Holy Thursday

During the Passover supper, knowing his Father had now put everything into his hands, Jesus rose from the table and took off his outer garments.  He tied a towel round his waist and knelt before them.  He moved from one to the next with a basin of water, washing each one’s feet and drying them with the towel.  When he’d finished, he said, “Now you are clean.  But not all.  Do you understand what I’ve just done for you?  You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and so I am.  But if I, the teacher and master, have washed your feet, then you, too, should wash one another’s feet.  What I’ve done for you, you must do for one another.”

(John 13:1-5, 10-15)

 

Reflection:

A group of Chinese Christians invited an American biblical scholar to come to China to give a workshop on Scripture.  In the course of the workshop, the scholar asked the participants to select the episode in the Gospel that impressed them the most. To his surprise, the Chinese Christians did not ick the Sermon on the Mount, the crucifixion of Jesus, or the resurrection of Jesus.  Rather, they picked Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet.  What does the “washing of the feet” say to me about Jesus?  (Mark Link, Praying Scripture)

Prayer:  Holy Friend, help my soul absorb all this week means. Amen.

 

Good Friday

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?  Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

 

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?  Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?  Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

 

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?  Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?  Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

 

Reflection:

“Jesus never wrote a book.  He never owned a home. . . . He never traveled 200 hundred miles from the place he was born. . . . While still a young man, the tide of opinion turned against him. . . . He was nailed to a cross. . . . When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave. . . . Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race. . . . I am far with the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched. . . . have not affected the life of man upon earth as powerfully as this One Solitary Life.”  What am I doing for Christ?  (Mark Link, Praying Scripture)

Prayer:  God, my Friend, into Your hands I commend my spirit.  Amen.

 

Easter Sunday

The dead will be raised, imperishable, and our mortal nature will be fused into immortality.  Then scripture is fulfilled: Death is swallowed up forever in victory!  Death, where is your triumph?  Where is your sting?  The sting of death lies in death as loss and separation, in our fear that sinners can’t possibly merit God’s love.  But Christ gives us forgiveness, and value, and eternal life!  Therefore, dear friends, keep firm and unshakable, alive with the energy of christ for his ongoing work.  And in the Lord Christ, none of your labor—none—is wasted!  (Romans 15:54-58)

 

Reflection:

“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.” 

(Pope John Paul II)

Prayer:  God my Friend, in the silence of that tomb, a whole new world was coming to birth.  What a grace to know how the Story ends!  Amen.

 

And for your leisure . . .

 

  

Blessings upon you and your family this Easter, Fr Tim