Low Sunday
In your charity, please pray for the repose of the soul of a SGG former parishioner who died suddenly last week.:
Melissa Kunkel.
Melissa was 41 and the mother of 13 children.
Please keep her, her husband Tom, and her children in your prayers.
Father Cekada
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Our altar as it appeared after Easter Sunday Mass
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This school year we will be publishing daily sermons from the previous week:
Mar. 29, 2013: Darkness (Good Friday) by Bp. Dolan
Mar. 30, 2013: Be Bold! (Easter Vigil) by Bp. Dolan
Apr. 1, 2013: Easter Monday by Bp. Dolan
Apr. 2, 2013: Easter Tuesday by Bp. Dolan
Apr. 5, 2013: Easter Friday by Bp. Dolan
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✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Holy Saturday, fittingly enough, was our first beautiful Spring day. The Sunday’s cold, dark rain gave way to warm Easter sun by Vesper time, and this past week has seen a succession of bright cool days, suffused with Paschal sun and full of holy joy. How delightful it is to return to the lily-decked church, full of light, to sing Christ’s triumph these quiet days of Eastertide.
I pray the fruits of your Lent and Easter are filling the basket of your soul with delights. May God reward your fidelity and goodness. So many did so much! Holy Week is always such a touching time. God bless you all. How could I ever thank you, or we thank Our Lord?
Our Holy Week attendance was a little bit lighter than usual, with the exception of Maundy Thursday. The adoration at the Sepulchre was faithful, and so many faithful, and children, attended the moving Mandatum, or foot washing. (No girls or Moslems, sorry! Just thirteen “poor men” and boys.)
Our Tenebrae this year was especially beautifully sung, with the Lamentations, Responsories, and the return of Allegri’s Miserere. I was happy to see newcomers and families being introduced to its sublime beauties.
The five hours of the very solemn, long watch of the Easter Vigil, which included a baptism, always seem to pass so quickly, don’t they? Before you know it the bells ring, the lights come on, and Christ is risen! Alleluia!
Our meals all went well. The Fathers and Holy Week helpers were well and healthily fed each evening by Becky Uhlenbrock, and Jim and Marge Soli hosted a very generous Easter Buffet on Holy Saturday. Marlys fixed us a fine Easter dinner to mark the occasion.
This year Fr. Lehtoranta volunteered to do some of the fancy singing, and Fr. Cekada remarked on how well balanced were the voices for Good Friday’s Passion, with Fr. Hecquard doing the high part, Synagogue, himself the middle Chronista, and Fr. Lehtoranta the low Christus. The choir did a good strong “mob scene,” adding to the intrinsic drama of St. John’s Passion.
The choir’s repertory for Easter Sunday, very well executed, spanned the ages and was nicely balanced. We’re enjoying the “leftovers” today for Low Sunday’s High Mass.
It was good to see so many visitors and relatives swelling the attendance on Easter. Today, it’s “just family,” and that’s ok too. Low Sunday. May St. Gertrude continue to grow, and grow strong.
Did you see our new church sign on Easter Sunday? This should increase visibility significantly. We thank the Kamphaus family who donated it in memory of Tom Kamphaus.
Bishop Sanborn reports an excellent Holy Week in his new church at the seminary in Florida. This is a wonderful, and very important experience for our seminarians who will one day be our priests. The same may be said for the enthusiastic participation of our children in Holy Week. They are our future Catholic faithful and families – and maybe vocations? They will never forget the proud memories of their participation in these great, but demanding days. They are so young, but so well trained.
Fr. McKenna is back from a very good Holy Week in Milwaukee. On Monday of Holy Week he drove 14 hours (part of it through heavy Illinois snow) to bring Holy Mass to our devout young congregation at St. Teresa Mission in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
This afternoon’s Vespers open the great feast of the Annunciation, transferred from Holy Week. Precious extra hours of Adoration “bookend” our weekend, from First Friday to Annunciation Monday. Come pray for life, and all of our needs. Come to thank God and the Mother of God for the gift of life, eternal life, which began with her humble “fiat” on Annunciation Day so long ago.
Low Sunday. High spirits. Great joy. Thank God, and thank you,
–Bishop Dolan