Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

As we approach Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum it is a good time to reflect on where we are in our Lenten journey. We start to prepare ourselves for the rites and rituals of the Holy Season as we will gather on Palm Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord (March 25) in the School Gymnasium for the beginning of all the Masses. There will be a few chairs in the room for those who need to sit, but the brief rite expects that we are standing during this time. We will then all process into the church to continue with the Mass.

We enter into the experience of procession each time we pray the Stations of the Cross. The movement through the streets of Jerusalem is the underlying current as we walk from station to station.

The experience of procession helps us to set the tone for the Liturgy as we experience in some way the movement of Jesus and his disciples as they entered the city of Jerusalem. During Holy Week and the Triduum Jerusalem is our focus. This is where David had built his capital, where Solomon constructed the Temple, and where Jesus offers himself for our sins through his death on the cross. Then, our mood shifts, and Jerusalem is the place of the Resurrection of Jesus, his Ascension into Heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles at Pentecost. Our procession, then, reminds us of the life of the apostles as they walked the path of discipleship with Jesus.

The Holy Thursday procession takes us with Jesus from the Upper Room to Gethsemane where Jesus experiences his final agony before his arrest there and the sham of a trial that follows. On Holy Thursday we will process from the church, outside and around the church, entering the chapel of repose. The evening will conclude with Compline (Night Prayer of the Church) at 11:45 p.m. and the retiring of the Blessed Sacrament following.

On Good Friday the procession with the Cross again reminds us of Jesus carrying his cross through the busy streets of Jerusalem. We assemble at 3 o’clock, the hour of Jesus’ death, to pray for ourselves and the whole world that we might know the salvation that comes from this death. It is the most somber and solemn of all the celebrations of the year.

The Easter Vigil begins outside in the darkness gathered around a small fire. We light our Paschal Candle and then each of us processes with a lit candle, acknowledging that the light penetrates the darkness. The resurrection is at hand! The procession of light that follows leads us into a darkened church. Yet we quickly discover that the darkness is overpowered by light and the chanting of the Exsultet (Easter Proclamation) which summarizes the history of salvation.

It is our fervent hope that our celebrations during Holy Week – Passion/Palm Sunday and the Triduum are as solemn and as beautiful as possible. The more prayerfully we can enter into these sacred mysteries the more we can be transformed by the depth of the symbols and beautiful words which we express and share as a church.

May the Blessings of the Lord be with all of you,
Father Garry