As we enter Holy Week! we celebrate the central events around which our whole faith life revolves: Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is interesting for us to note that until the 13th century and the Great Bubonic plagues that wiped out 1/3 of the population of the area from India to Iceland! the usual crosses that would be found in our churches did not have a corpus or the body of Jesus. (See Barbara Tuckmân’s interesting book —Through a Distant Mirror). Before that time Jesus’ resurrection was the clear focus of the church year and prayer hence the empty cross and often Jeweled.
    During the devastation of the plagues when sometimes whole villages were wiped out and 213 of the clergy died, the people focused on Jesus suffering and death. This led to Good Friday becoming the all important day in the Church year with elaborate processions and long liturgies, which led to an imbalance; the Resurrection began to take a far second behind Good Friday.
    One of the major contributions of the Second Vatican Council was to restore the celebration of the Resurrection to its central place in worship and teaching. As St. Paul tells us, if there is no resurrection then our faith is in vain, and yet to reach Resurrection Sunday there has to be a Good Friday.
    I would encourage you to be part of this whole week especially Good Friday (7:00pm) and the Saturday Vigil- the First Mass of Easter at (7:30pm). On Good Friday at 11:45am, we also have a once a year opportunity to join our Christian sisters and brothers from whom we are separated in an Ecumenical Prayer Service —The Stations of the City! starting downtown at St. Paul Episcopal Church on Pleasant St. May what we do together here this week bring us to the full joy of Jesus’ Resurrection.
Items:
• Passover begins the eve of April 8. We remember our Jewish sisters and brothers in prayer.
• Last Wednesday, we held our first Contractors
meeting with representatives of Auburn Construction
Co and the Archdiocese. We should see real
movement on reconstruction of our hall shortly.
• There are flyers on our bulletin boards with helpful information for people experiencing foreclosure on their homes and financial stress.
• We will decorate the church for Easter this Saturday at 10:00am. All helping hands welcome.
• Last call — there are Easter Flower envelopes on the windowsills. Anyone wishing to have us buy flowers for the Easter Altar in memory of a loved one should use an envelope to make a donation and indicate
the name of the loved one.
• 468 + postcards were mailed to our Federal Representatives opposing the so called Freedom of Choice Act & $l7Swas collected for postage and $125 of that used. The $50 balance is in a Parish Pro Life account. Good job alIl!
• We are being told that the Retirement Fund for Priest of the Archdiocese is down by 150 million dollars, so some of my colleagues are thinking about prospects for employment. A question arises: Should we wear our collars bagging groceries? Your generosity will be appreciated.