Lent V – Passion Sunday
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
It seems that Nature anticipated our Passiontide, all shrouded in darkness and frozen with chill, with howling winds as well. This is the saddest Sunday of the year, and purple veils the beauty of our church—its colorful array of God’s saints from all over, precious as much for the story of the statue as for the saint himself.
Passiontide begins, and in a moment, it seems, leads to Palm Sunday and Holy Week, whose days march on inexorably to the grief of Good Friday, and the anticipated joy of Easter on Holy Saturday. Resolve to be here. Pray with us, follow the schedule of services, plan and prepare to participate. Yes, and because it’s St. Gertrude, eat with us! The last Friday Supper is this week, feast of the Sorrowful Mother. Holy Thursday is a bit of a potluck, but a lunch to tide you over for the Washing of the Feet, and to make a visit before you go. No food is offered on Good Friday, because it’s the great fast. But the parish Easter dinner and Easter Egg Hunt follow the Holy Saturday Morning Vigil and Mass. It’s a memorable week, and we’re hoping for sun.
But first we must glance back with gratitude to Seminarian Sunday, which raised some $17,000 to help equip our four deacons with all they will need for the priesthood. But far more than money was raised last week, welcome and even necessary as these offerings are. What a generous show of support for these four young men, dedicating their lives to Christ as priests, what a vote for their future, and ours at St. Gertrude the Great, as we go forward with confidence into the gathering storm. We know that God has blessed us incredibly and that we shall not go alone. He blesses us by means of so many prayers and individual and collective sacrifices, true acts of dedication. Come what may, we will be ready. You are an instrument of His Providence.
A final word of admiration for Seminarian Sunday. How well everything was organized: A perfect Fund/Fun Raiser. Every detail was carefully thought out, and completely coordinated into an impressive whole. Thanks to our organizers and workers for a job more than well done.
I have no doubt, again with your help, that Holy Week will proceed the same happy way. If we do our best for God, you know that we will never be abandoned by Him. “Cast your care up, for He hath care of you.”
May Our Lady of Sorrows be our consolation, and the Holy Cross our strength in these days of affliction.
– Bishop Dolan