Mon 4/20/09 Ferial Day
11:25 AM Requiem High Mass Purgatorial Society
4:00 PM Knights of the Sacred Heart with Fr. McGuire
5:00 PM Low Mass All of our faithful departed relatives, friends &
benefactors (Patick Omlor)
Tues 4/21/09 St. Anselm BpCD
11:25 AM High Mass Charles & Elinor Richardson
(Mr. & Mrs. Mark Lotarski)
5:00 PM Low Mass Conversion of Family Members
(Paulina Strauss)
Wed 4/22/09 Ss Soter & Caius, PpMm
6:30 AM Low Mass For Fr. Cekada & Parishioners of
St. Gertrude (The Andreotta’s)
11:25 AM High Mass †Mrs. Rosemary Dolan
(St. Gertrude the Great School)
5:00 PM Low Mass †Fr. Leslie (Arlinghaus Family)
Thur 4/23/09 St George, M
11:25 AM High Mass Bishop McKenna
5:00 PM Low Mass Intention of Pro-Life Cause
(Rosary Confraternity)
Fri 4/24/09 St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, M
11:00 AM Confessions
11:25 AM High Mass Special Intention (Kathy Schweitzer)
Opening of the Triduum The Mother of Good Counsel
5:15 PM Confessions/Rosary
5:45 PM Low Mass The Gerry Keaveney Family (Bernie B.)
Novena and Benediction, Confessions
7:00 PM Spiritual Talk for Ladies of the Parish
Questions & Answers, Refreshments
Sat 4/25/09 St. Mark, Ev
Greater Litanies
The Holy Sepulchre
7:15 AM Confessions
7:30 AM Low Mass †Alberta Courter B-Day Remembrance (Andy Courter)
8:00 AM Greater Litanies Procession
8:30 AM High Mass Month’s Mind †Rosemary Dolan
(Keaveney Family)
Triduum to the Mother of Good Counsel
Sun 4/26/09 Easter II
Ss. Cletus & Marcellinus, PpMm
Our Lady of Good Counsel
7:30 AM Low Mass Vivian Bloemker Birthday (Kathy Schweitzer)
9:00 AM High Mass In Honor of the Mother of Good Counsel for Charles &
Nadine Henry (Bishop Dolan)
10:30 AM Catechism Classes
11:30 AM Low Mass In Honor of the Holy Face Poor Souls (Fullenkamp Family)
12:45 PM Spring Spaghetti Dinner & School Program
5:45 PM Low Mass In Honor of Our Mother of Good Counsel for Mario Derksen
(Kathleen Mary West)
After the exertions of Holy Week and the highest of feasts, Easter, the joyful, bright quiet of a Low Sunday is always welcome. The Easter Octave, kept with fitting solemnity at least in part this past week by some disciples who lingered at the tomb and rejoiced in our Risen Lord, comes to an end today. May these next two weeks before May deepen your joyful grasp of those graces, won for you by Jesus Christ this Lent and Easter.
Palm Sunday was preceded by an achingly beautiful Spring day, and many helpers to prepare our King’s entrance into the week of weeks. The procession is worth remembering. Simon Peter and Danny, our intrepid 7:30 acolytes, did an excellent job with the donkey and her colt who led in our annual Palm Sunday homage. The bells were silent, though, as the rope got caught during their final ringing by a long time and loyal usher, Jim Gebel. Jim had decided to leave us that day, due to doctrinal differences. We will miss him and his lovely enthusiastic wife, Olga.
Goodbye, dear friends!
Keith Monin, our highly sociable assistant caretaker around the church, perceiving the problem (not the doctrinal issues but the bells) came running with the ladder to put things right. This reminded me of an incident in the Passion I was about to sing, how one of the bystanders came running with a sponge full of vinegar on a reed. So everything was quite scriptural. It was decided, however, to delay the frontal attack on the refractory bell until after the procession, with its glorious Gloria Laus hymn, had opened the church doors and returned inside.
The only difficulty each year on Palm Sunday is the late ending of the High Mass. Next year we will try starting at 8:45 to permit the 11:30 Mass to begin on time. Thank you for your understanding.
We were pleased and edified to have some of the seminary with us again this year. They are an international group from Africa, Russia, Finland, and California. Please pray for their perseverance. And may God reward the good ladies who lovingly fed them all week long. We were happy as well to have Fr. Ercoli with us, and appreciate his beautiful singing, as well as that of our own excellent choir, which seems to have outdone itself.
Please remember in a special way the Deacon, Reverend Mr. Julian Larrabe, of California, who will be ordained this summer. Pray too for Michael Oswalt and other Novus Ordo clergy who have shown an interest in converting to Catholicism and being properly ordained as priests.
Thank you for your prayers for Fr. Saavedra. On Spy Wednesday we received the happy news that, after months of effort and much money, the government would allow him to return to the United States.
Speaking of returning, how nice it was to see many of our former faithful, all turned out in their Easter best, returning to St. Gertrude for the feast. Pray they all return again soon, and to the sacraments, and please do all you can to welcome them home and encourage them.
Thank you for your kind welcome to our Holy Week visitors from all over the United States – Rhode Island, Florida, Illinois, and Kansas to name just a few. I know that they were all strengthened, truly edified by their visits, and I hope they will return.
To end on a hopeful note, may I mention the Jog-a-Thon, which needs serious attention from all of us? Also do remember our Spring Spaghetti dinner Next Sunday afternoon, and the school childrens’ charming entertainment. Oh, and who will walk with me Saturday morning for the Greater Litanies? At their origin, St. Michael the Archangel was seen to sheathe his sword and spare Rome God’s wrath. Do we need any less?
God bless you with much Paschal peace!
-Bishop Dolan