The Bishop’s Note
Already eight days have passed since Easter Sun-day, tomorrow is the last day of our Novena of Masses, and the children return to school. It has been a very peaceful Easter week, made even more so by the daily High Masses. The contemplation of the mysteries surrounding Our Lord’s Resurrection really put everything else in proper perspective. Our Lord rose from the dead, therefore our Faith is true. He rose from the dead, and thus gave us a pledge of our own future resurrection. And so we must more and more live, not for earth, but for heaven. It is as the liturgy reminds us this sea-son: “If you be risen with Christ, mind the things that are above.”
I think this year’s Holy Week ceremonies were among the best yet. Our young MCs have really mastered the most difficult ceremonies of the year. The sacred ministers filled their roles most professionally. The choir was excellent! The sacristy help knew exactly what they were doing. The Altar of Repose was most beautifully decorated. Attendance at all the ceremonies was remarkable! Oh! and the ladies did a fantastic job for the Holy Saturday potluck! It is a relief to have a crew of people who do not need much direction in these matters. Bishop Dolan and Fr. Cekada would have been proud of everyone this Holy Week. I know I am! May Our Lord be forever thanked and praised.
Holy Saturday ceremonies took just shy of five hours this year, but they were made even more special by the baptisms of two babies after the blessing of the baptismal water. Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Ribar’s baby, Emmett James; and Eddie & Renee Fernandez’s baby, Ed-ward Ross. God is good! 9 months ago, the odds that little Edward would make it to see this world were slim to none. I think the doctors gave him a 1% chance of survival. Yet, here he is safe and sound, and now a child of God. It is another testament to how prayer works.
Just before Holy Week, Fr. Simpson was at church late in the evening patching parts of the hallway ceiling. The cloister floor was finished during Easter week, and it looks wonderful! Thank you for that, Joseph Simpson and JMJ Handyman LLC. We are still fighting the insurance company and the roofing company about our roofs, which are in a bad state and worsened by all the windstorms in the past couple of months. Fr. Simpson and Fr. McKenna are getting it taken care of though. We are trying to make it through Corpus Christi before getting the sanctuary floor fixed. This repair will most likely require removing most, if not all, of the tiles and will prevent us from using the
main altar for Sunday Mass for a bit during the summer.
Fr. Ercoli, the rector of our seminary in Seattle, took the seminarians to Rome for Easter week, but Poncho Capetillo and Chris Brueggemann should be home sometime this week for the rest of their vacation. It will be nice to see them again. I hope they had a nice trip to Italy!
I noted that once we entered the Holy Week tunnel, there was a lot more peace from the world’s troubles, particularly those in Iran. It’s funny how they all seemed to vanish and how the world did not end just because we stopped paying attention to its silly problems, isn’t it? But that is the point. The world is like a narcissist who will cause all sorts of trouble for you and ruin all of your peace for as long as you listen to it and allow yourself to be swayed by its problems. What am I saying?! The world is controlled by the prince of darkness, who does want to entangle you in all of the world’s problems for the very purpose that you lose peace of soul, forget your last end, and lose your soul. Again, the Easter lesson holds true: “If you be risen with Christ, mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.”
Our Lord, entering the room where the Apostles were, greeted them with the words: “Peace be to you.” This same peace I wish to each and every one of you this second week of Easter. If you wish to find this peace, it all starts by looking heavenward!
– Bishop McGuire