“Arise and Eat, Else the Journey Will Be Too Great for You.” (I Kings 19:7)

Prayer Corner

Please remember the sick of our parish in your prayers:  Roland Bangsund, Jan Blod, Tom Burwell, Marion Caylor, Elise Christianson, Jim Dawson, Robert Fink, Debbie Griggs, Elizabeth Hanley, Rose Hennen, Rose Holland, Donna Johanns, Dorene Johnson, Gloria Lindquist, Renee Lubbers, Joseph Mannelly, John McGowan, Deacon Jim Murphy, Irene Turmes, Bob and Barb Velner, and Jim Walker.

 

Readings for the Week

Monday:            Is 42:1-7; Jn 12:1-11

Tuesday:            Is 49:1-6; Jn 13:21-33, 36-38

Wednesday:       Is 50:4-9a; Mt 26:14-25

Thursday:           Chrism Mass: Is 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9; Ps 89;

                          Rv 1:5-8; Lk 4:16-21

                          Lord’s Supper: Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; Ps 116;

                          1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15

Friday:                Is 52:13 — 53:12; Ps 31; Heb 4:14-16;

                          5:7-9; Jn 18:1 — 19:42

Saturday:           a) Gn 1:1 — 2:2 [1:1, 26-31a];

                          b) Gn 22:1-18 [1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18];

                          c) Ex 14:15 — 15:1; d) Is 54:5-14;

                          e) Is 55:1-11; f) Bar 3:9-15, 32 — 4:4;

                          g) Ez 36:16-17a, 18-28;

                          h) Rom 6:3-11; i) Mk 16:1-7

Sunday:             Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Ps 118; Col 3:1-4

                          or 1 Cor 5:6b-8; Jn 20:1-9

                          or Mk 16:1-7 or (at an afternoon

                          or evening Mass) Lk 24:13-35

 WELCOME,

AND WELCOME TO THE MOST HOLY WEEK OF OUR FAITH

Amazingly, it was a Roman centurion at the foot of the cross who proclaimed: Truly this man was the Son of God. This man and his testimony are in the Passion reading from St. Mark that we heard today, Palm Sunday. He is the first according to Mark to openly profess Jesus as Son of God and the promised Savior. Strange, isn’t it? Jesus had worked miracles of wondrous proportions. Yet he cautioned those touched by those miracles to remain quiet about their experience. Most likely, Jesus did not want to become known only as a wonderworker. Perhaps he knew that the meaning of the Messiah was very different from what people wanted the Messiah to be. Mark, inspired by God, reveals Jesus as the suffering Messiah. If Jesus, in whom we believe and whom we have chosen to follow, is fully himself only in suffering death on a cross, then is that not the place where we should find ourselves, the person that we really are? Think of Pope John Paul II. Even in his old age and his body so strickened and limited by sickness, the Holy Father allowed himself to be seen in all this frailness. He, like so many others who have known and accepted Jesus as the way of life, chose to walk through sickness and suffering. They have known that we will never discover resurrection, and our own true self, unless we walk through the cross.

We discover Jesus and we discover our own self in the crucible of suffering. Lenten practices of denying self what we do not really need or of what is harmful to us, such as an open and accepting attitude toward a discipline or a headache or a sickness, are not only good for our human life, but necessary for our resurrection with Jesus. We experience the fulfillment of our Lenten efforts as we journey with Jesus this week. On Holy Thursday we receive his promise to be with us always in the Eucharist and in the service we give and receive in his name; on Good Friday we join our sufferings and the needs of the world to his suffering and offering of self to God on the cross of salvation; in the Holy Saturday Vigil/Easter Sunday Mass, we are filled with new life as we experience the resurrection of Jesus from death and darkness. What experiences await us in those three holy days? Please be part of them, and invite your families and neighbors too.

AN IDEA:  Why not show the newness of Easter by dressing up for Easter Mass?  Dress-up does not have to be fancy, but for men, dress pants and shirts, coat maybe; for women, dress or pant-suit and maybe a hat—certainly no torn, worn jeans, tee shirts or dirty sneakers.  It’s a new day and a period in our lives.

 DID YOU NOTICE the new arrangement of the front pews?  The aisle is wider to better accommodate the casket at funerals.  The open space invites folks in wheel chairs or walkers, and those who need more leg room, to have a comfortable and convenient place to sit for Mass

—Father Ralph

 

 

Holy Places Collection

On Good Friday, our parish will take up the annual collection for the Holy Land. We ask you to be generous. Your financial contribution will support the works of the Catholic Community in the Middle East and to protect the Holy Places and Christian shrines.

Marriage Bann

Please pray for Todd Ley and Alison Hodapp as they prepare for their marriage on April 22, 2006.