March 10, 2024
Fourth Sunday of Lent
by Fr. Boniface Endorf, OP
Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,
This weekend we have one of the hardest penances of Lent: the resumption of Daylight Savings and losing an hour of sleep this weekend!
We’re approaching the culmination of Lent in Holy Week and the week after this one, on Monday 3/18 to Wednesday 3/20, we’ll have our annual parish mission. Fr. Gabriel Torretta OP will preach it. He’s a great preacher and it should be a wonderful mission. It’s three nights, Monday through Wednesday, at 7pm each night. The topic is “Call Me Jonah: Coward. Bigot. Curmudgeon. Image of Christ.” Fr. Gabriel comments on the topic: “The prophet Jonah isn’t what we think a saint should look like—he’s too mediocre, too petty, too normal. But his story is the story of Lent, the story of redemption, the story of reality. It’s our story.”
The weekend before our parish mission, next weekend, we have our annual St. Joseph parish dinner! It will be Saturday, March 16th, after the 5:30 Vigil Mass (i.e.: 6:30pm). March 16th is also the 190th anniversary of the dedication of our church building! Monte’s, our local Italian restaurant, will be providing us a great meal again this year. Tickets are on sale after this Mass, and all Sunday masses, until they sell out. I hope to see you all there!
Finally, the week after the parish mission, the week of 3/24, is Holy Week. This special week is our final preparation for the joy of Easter. Central to Holy Week is the Triduum—Holy Thursday evening through Holy Saturday. There are special and unique liturgies on those days that provide much grace and help us to live this season well. Holy Thursday night at 8pm is the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Good Friday at 3pm is the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, and Holy Friday evening at 8pm is Tenebrae. If you take off work on Good Friday, you can attend all these liturgies. It’s well worth it for the spiritual graces you will obtain!
God Bless,
Fr. Boniface
Mass Tidbit:
After the Sign of Peace, we sing “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.” We proclaim Christ as the Lamb of God: the unblemished lamb of sacrifice who thereby redeems us and wipes away our sins in His blood. We praise His great love for us in giving His life for our salvation. We have just been present to His sacrifice in the Mass, with His Body and Blood now present on the altar. But already we know of His resurrection, His victory over death, because, while the people sing, the priest takes a small piece of the consecrated host, the Body of Christ, and places it in the chalice of Christ’s Blood, quietly saying: “May this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it.” The reunion of Body and Blood points to Christ’s resurrection: life returning to the Body that tasted death. We too are returned to eternal life when we receive Christ’s Body and Blood.
