Posted on March 24, 2023 View all Pastor's Letter
Dear brothers and sister in Christ,
We are celebrating the fifth Sunday of Lent, the Sunday before the start of Holy Week. I am sure that our hearts are more than ready to celebrate the Easter holidays. We have been preparing ourselves during all these weeks, with sacrifice, prayer and penance, and as good Christians we must continue to do so with a spirit of recollection this last week. Lent is always a special time to rediscover ourselves with God and with ourselves, and although we are just a few days away from this spiritual journey ending, it is never too late to rediscover ourselves with the grace of his love; do not forget to make a good confession, preparing it with great dedication and faith, a good confession is always rest for the soul.
Please put the schedule of the Easter activities on your calendars, in the bulletin you will find a detailed calendar with the schedules of our Easter activities, but it is not bad to remind you how important it is to participate in all the activities that we will have in our parish. The week is holy not because the calendar says so, but because each one of us must sanctify it with our actions and our contact with God. On Monday, Tuesday and Holy Wednesday, we will have an exposition with the Blessed Sacrament and silent prayer, this will help us live this sacred time more intensely.
To celebrate Palm Sunday this year we will have two processions, the first will be Saturday before the 7:00 pm mass in Spanish; Starting in front of the sisters’ convent, at 6:45 in the afternoon, there we will distribute the palms and then we will walk in a procession singing towards the temple to celebrate the holy mass. Then on Sunday we will have the procession at 9:45am starting in front of the school and then we will celebrate the solemn Holy Mass at 10:00 am, everyone is invited to participate in this beautiful Palm procession.
On Holy Thursday we will have the mass of the Lord’s Supper, the mass will be bilingual at 7:00 pm, with this celebration we begin the Holy Pascual Triduum and enter the great silence, at the end of the mass we will have the procession with the Blessed Sacrament to the place of worship in Hannan Hall and we will stay there in worship until midnight; I invite you to remain in silent prayer and ask for the gift of the priesthood, for the increase in priests and the perseverance of those of us who are already active in the ministry, also for our parish and its pastoral projects, we have so much for what which we should pray, and this day is a great opportunity to do so.
On Good Friday, a day of penance and reflection, we will have confessions starting at 9:00 a.m., then Stations of the Cross in English at noon, and the liturgy of the Passion in English at 3:00 p.m., and at 6:00 p.m. We will pray the Stations of the Cross in Spanish and the liturgy of the passion in Spanish at 7:00 pm. On Saturday night, we will celebrate the Easter Vigil in English at 8:30pm and in Spanish at 11:30pm. Since last year we held two vigils, my goal is for the two communities to participate and be able to fully experience the mysteries that are celebrated so that many more can come. I hope that many more can participate in this beautiful vigil that is the heart of our faith.
God bless you.
P. Alex
