Low Sunday
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
We managed to sneak in one more procession, unbeknownst to almost everybody on a rainy Easter Thursday for the Greater Litanies. As on Palm Sunday, the waters parted, and we passed dry shod on the gravel path. There was no donkey but all the other roles were filled by visiting seminarians and Faithful Few. Hard work it was, and good penance which continues even in Paschaltide. Prayer it is which saves the world, and averts many a chastisement.
Our April has slipped away in the continuing shuttle between Winter and Spring, during these so holy days of Passiontide and the Great Week and the Resurrection and the great rest afterwards. Now comes the merry month of May, the “Mary” month of May, that is. Soon “the year” will be over, and it will be time for Summer. But a late Easter spells a short Summer. June will be full of feasts, Pentecost and First Communion, Corpus Christi and Sacred Heart. The camps come in July, and the Young Adults to get together. Our Lady leaves in glory in August.
Many thanks to you all for your Holy Week help. Beautiful ceremonies. We were proud of our young masters of ceremony who mastered the intricate ceremony of the Mass of the Presanctified, and prepared the servers. We were also proud of our old Good Friday MC, Johnny VandeRyt, whose experienced hand was a great help. And the crowd of Good Friday night helpers! God bless you all, choir too and sacristans, and watchers and honor guards. So beautiful, all of it.
The big surprise this Triduum was the attendance. So many visitors from all over! And the Easter Family Brunch crew was ready for them. How, I don’t know, for no one expected such numbers. But the Lord provided and all went away well fed. And the organized Eater Egg Hunt, Teutonic in its efficiency! Again, a sight to behold.
How cold was the church for the Matins at dawn. But it warmed as it filled for the first two Masses Easter morn, and we did run out of leaflets. Happy problem. It was a beautiful morning. Such music, and the lilies! Easter Vespers were quiet with Fr. McKenna and myself, and Fr. Cekada at the organ console, but a fitting conclusion to such a week, quiet thanks from the heart. The Lord is truly risen.
Holy Saturday offered some surprises. The rain sent us into the cloister to bless the fire. The water was duly blessed after long prophecies, and the baby baptized, a particularly beautiful (for a baby) niece of Fr. McGuire. How well behaved. The dog was a bit of a surprise at the sermon, but we compromised. As I turned to leave the pulpit, I slipped. Fr. Cekada blames the eucalyptus, which was spread around the Font. It does tend to stick to the sole, but it may have been a bit of slippery wood as well which caught me. But I was saved by my Bishop’s Staff. It symbolizes driving away the wolves from the sheep, but this time the crozier saved the shepherd.
We are happy to have our two seminarians visiting home for Easter, and our two Nigerian seminarians staying with us. Fr. Nkamuke reports a good Holy Week back home. But one of our former seminarians, Augustine Mary, was almost killed Good Friday night by armed bus robbers. Thank God he escaped. But the conductor, sitting next to him, did not. Rest in peace. My Jesus, mercy! What a world. Handle with prayer.
May the Risen Christ rest and refresh and refurbish you, and remind you to honor His Mother come May.
–Bp. Dolan