Lent VI – Palm Sunday

Young Adult Get-Together

This summer, we are hosting a young adult get-together. We hope to draw Traditional Catholics from across the country. Visit our event website for more information.
YAG Cincinnati Website
________________________________________


The altar, as decorated for Laetare Sunday.


The altar, as on Passion Sunday


The altar, as on Palm Sunday


Our Altar of Repose
________________________________________

Daily Sermons
March 31 – Bp. Dolan – A Family Story
April 3 – Fr. Lehtoranta – The Burning Coals of Charity
April 5 – Bp. Dolan – From Animals to Angels
April 6 – Fr. Lehtoranta – Christ, Daniel and the Priest, Destroyer of Idols
April 7 – Bp. Dolan – The Apple & The Heart
________________________________________

March, by the way, went out the way it came in: like a lion. Thursday the 30th was oppressive and heavy, and gave way to a fierce storm which actually knocked me out of bed. The last day of the month was cold and dark and damp. Death seemed to hang in the air as well it might, for it came to claim three women we knew, mothers of our faithful. May they rest in peace.

Marge Soli was buried from church on Tuesday. She had been a member of St. Gertrude going way back. She served with Jim her husband, for awhile as parish secretary, as also some nice Holy Saturday brunches. I married Jim and Marge in Michigan many moons ago. Our beautiful altar, with its gold leafed symbols of the Passion and the three Holy Hearts, is Jim’s greatest contribution to our church. Remember his Marge in your prayers.

Marlys and helpers have been working steadily, between putting on parish meals, to give our church gift shop a fresh new look. Be sure to pop in today and take a look at the (almost) finished project. I’m sure you’ll be proud and grateful as I was, and want to do a little Easter shopping….

We stand at the golden gateway of Holy Week today, Palm Sunday’s triumph blending with the tears of the Passion, pledging, promising Our Sorrowful Mother that we will accompany her every step of the way, at least in heart and intention. Make your good resolutions of fidelity today, and confide them to the Virgo Fidelis, the Virgin Most Faithful. Mary’s Son goes to die for our sins. Don’t make her go alone.

Fr. McKenna’s email and electronic everything got hacked on First Friday, and he’s had quite a time of it getting things straightened out. He also had to deal with some tornadoes in Louisiana last Sunday. He returns from his travels today, and Fr. Lehtoranta heads up to Milwaukee on Tuesday for Holy Week. Our seminarian, Mr. Paul Wesner, is with us for the solemn services of this week of weeks. Young Thomas Simpson has been appointed seminary sacristan, so he’ll be busy in Florida for Holy Week, but we look forward to seeing him for Easter vacation.

It’s probably not too early to issue some thanks for everybody who is or soon will be so busy these holy days buying the linen, or the myrrh and ointment, building the cross or cooking and serving the Last Supper. Special thanks to the ladies who did the Funeral Luncheon and the Lenten Dinners. Thank you for whatever it is you’re doing, for I’m sure you’re doing something. I’d say “May God reward you!” but you know that He will and that your gift is its own reward. Please don’t forget the All Night Adoration on Thursday, and our need for adorers Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

Before closing, I must say clever Bergoglio has been drawing the net closer on our Pius X brethren, offering to recognize their marriages as valid if only they’d have an invalid Novus Ordo priest in the sanctuary. But increasingly, that is the case. The Society no longer reordains new clergy who join them. Think of all those who left us because they “want to have their cake and eat it too.” Legal and the Latin Mass! But it’s not only not a Catholic Mass (being “one with” an antichrist) but it’s not a Mass since the priest is not really ordained. “Sad,” as Trump would tweet. Stay faithful. Stay by the Cross. Just don’t compromise.

But what should you do if you have to attend a “Latin Mass” that’s not really a Mass? Say for a wedding or a funeral? Just sit quietly in the back, and say your beads. Don’t participate in any way. Witness thus that it is no Mass, or a sacrilegious one in which you could not participate. How easily people forget. Convenience and respectability make a deadly duo. No wonder it was only the Holy Women and John at the foot of the Cross.

It’s not crowded on Calvary. There’s room for you this week, and every Sunday. May this blessing be yours!

In the Mother of Sorrows,
–Bishop Dolan