May 5, 2024

Sixth Sunday of EasteR

by Fr. Boniface Endorf, OP

Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

This week we celebrate Our Lord’s Ascension, when, after His resurrection, Jesus ascends to His Father’s right hand in heaven. His promise, our hope, is that we too will ascend with Christ to live with God in our true homeland in heaven. Our lives here on earth are a preparation for that true and eternal life in heaven. We seek to grow in holiness on our pilgrimage to our final destination in God’s house.

Ascension Thursday is a Holy Day of Obligation, so we’ll have an Ascension Vigil Mass this Wednesday at 7pm, and Masses on Ascension Thursday at 12:10pm and 7pm.

The novena prayer was originally created as a prayer to the Holy Spirit for the nine days from Ascension Thursday until Pentecost. I encourage you to pray that novena this year (you can find the text online), calling upon the Holy Spirit to come upon you and sanctify you for eternal life with God.

Have a blessed Easter Season!
Fr. Boniface

Mass Tidbit

After communion, the priest purifies the sacred vessels: the paten and chalice. While doing so, he prays quietly: “What has passed our lips as food, O Lord, may we possess in purity of heart, that what has been given to us in time may be our healing for eternity.” Here we see the ultimate purpose of the Eucharist: that we may be transformed and made ready for eternal life with God in heaven. He, through His own Body, is sanctifying us so that we may have hearts and minds made pure and ready to see God face to face and find the joy for which we were created.