Low Sunday
If you missed Bp. Dolan’s Holy Week sermons, be sure to listen to them here:
Maundy Thursday Morning: Not My Will, but Thine be Done
Maundy Thursday Afternoon: Wash Away Your Neighbor’s Faults
Good Friday: Let Go
Holy Saturday: Rest
Easter Sunday: Fear Not
Bishop’s Corner
Blessed Easter Octave Day to you, and blessings of our Easter all around. How blessed we were this Easter with beautiful ceremonies and music, devout attendance, appreciative guests and enthusiastic participation from our own faithful of all ages.
Ours was a “family Holy Week” this year. Our families fully participated, each according to their possibilities. All was done, if not with utter technical perfection,{when is it ever here below?} then with genuine devotion and humble love. I was genuinely pleased with each day and each ceremony, and I pray Our Lord was as well. How nice to see so many little children helping on Good Friday after Tre Ore services, and boys manfully doing the work of adults as they maneuvered through the long and complicated rites of the unchanged Catholic Holy Week.
The seminarians edified us and were edified in turn, I think. This is a wonderful training for our international (Catholic!) band of future priests. The newer Nigerian, Bede, had never so much as seen Holy Week before, yet he did a fine job, as did they all.
My favorite part of Holy Week is always the Tenebrae of Holy Saturday sung so peacefully on Good Friday evening, and the Matins of Easter before sunrise, with the birds and the beautiful chant of the Haec Dies – thanks to Fr. Desposito and Rev. Mr. Hecquard!
Speaking of a family spirit I must thank the busy mothers who cooked meals for our big family here, or arranged hours away from their own to do the so very beautiful Holy Week altars, or to sing and rehearse the many long services of these days. May God bless you and your families for your sacrifices!
I wish to thank our new party manager, Jim Soli, who certainly enjoyed the many meals and parties he managed and is just looking for an excuse to do another!
A final, and feline note to my Holy Week thoughts. Cats can be distracting. On a beautiful Holy Thursday morning Puccini was napping peacefully in the sun on my little porch, as I quickly stepped over him, hurrying to church. Later that morning one of our seminarians was shaking visibly during the ceremonies, and I thought to myself: “He’s as nervous as a cat.” Then, thinking of Puccini, I wondered: “Why do people say that? My cat is quite calmly sleeping.” More distractions!
Today I am visiting St. Clare in Columbus. Take advantage of Easter’s Octave Day to review your Lent and Holy Week, and resolve especially on certain regular devout practices for the Poor Souls, who are depending on you now. Chief among these should be extra Masses offered and attended for them. The peace, for them and us, which comes with these Masses is its own reward!
A Blessed Eastertide!
–Bishop Dolan