March 24, 2024

Palm Sunday

by Fr. Boniface Endorf, OP

Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

This week is Holy Week, the most important week of the year. There are many special liturgies this week—please see the Triduum and Easter schedule in the bulletin and on the website for times.

Triduum means three days—Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, the three days of Our Lord’s Passion and Death. Afterwards we celebrate His Resurrection at Easter! These days are the center of our Faith and the special liturgies allow us to be present to Christ during those pivotal days and receive the graces Christ won for us. Attend as many of the liturgies as you can—you certainly won’t regret it, but rather find the joy and peace that Christ invites us to.

God Bless,
Fr. Boniface

Mass Tidbit:

The priest then takes the consecrated host, the Eucharist, and holds it above the chalice, lifting it for the people to see, and says “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” The Lamb of God is Christ, who was sacrificed on our behalf, offering Himself as Priest and Victim to the Father, offering satisfaction to the Father and taking ways the sins of the world. In the Eucharist Prayer we just relived Christ’s sacrifice, when He in His mercy satisfies all justice, opening the way for us to be called to the supper of the Lamb: the divine and eternal banquet of heaven. Here we see the center of our faith and of our pilgrimage toward heaven, of the hope that sustains us. Here we are about to receive a foretaste of that heavenly banquet as we receive communion with Our Lord.