Dear Friends:
As we celebrate Palm Sunday today and enter into Holy Week, it is amazing to note just how quickly Lent has passed. I hope that this Lent has been a time of renewal and spiritual profit for you, a time when you have grown closer to the Lord especially through the use of the traditional disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
The schedule for Holy Week is slightly different from the normal schedule. As is usual, there will be regular morning Masses at 8:30 AM at St. Agnes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and the usual Holy Hour will follow the morning Mass on Wednesday. Wednesday evening, also at St. Agnes, at 7:30 PM, we will celebrate Tenebrae, a service of prayer and hymns which begins with fourteen candles lighted on a table in the front of the sanctuary. One by one, as the service progresses, the candles are extinguished, until at the very end, the entire church is plunged into darkness for a short time before the lighted Easter candle is brought in, expelling the darkness. The central part of the Tenebrae celebration is the chanting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, a chanting that is haunting and mystical. If you have never participated in this service of Tenebrae, plan to do so this year. Its celebration will mark the close of our parish observance of Lent.
For Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, there will be no morning Masses at St. Mary’s. In place of morning Mass, we will gather at 8:30 to pray Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. This will take place at St. Mary’s, as will the principal celebrations of Holy Week, namely the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7:30 PM on Thursday, the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Friday at 3:00 PM, and the Vigil of Easter on Saturday at 8:00 PM. There will be no 4:30 PM Mass this Saturday at St. Mary’s as the Easter Vigil must begin in darkness. On Easter Sunday, the schedule will be the usual schedule with two exceptions. We are adding an “overflow” Mass at St. Mary’s in the school gym at 11:00 AM and there will be no 4:30 PM Mass at St. Mary’s on Easter Sunday afternoon.
Please note that there will be two additional hours of confession available at St. Mary’s on Saturday morning from 10:00 AM to 12:00 Noon. The traditional blessing of Easter food will take place at St. Mary’s on Saturday at noon.
Finally, at the Good Friday service, we will take up a collection, the proceeds of which will go to support the Church in the Holy Land. Those of you who have envelopes can use the envelope provided in your packets.
It is my prayer that the week ahead will serve as a unique opportunity for all of us to stay with the Lord as he enters into his Passion and Death, and ultimately his Resurrection. May we “watch and pray” with the Lord these days of Holy Week as we celebrate the mystery of our redemption and new life in Christ.