The Saving Power of Christ

Dear Friends in Christ,

The last two weeks of Lent are here, and we are offering extra opportunities to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that Christ, the physician of our soul and body, instituted this sacrament because the new life that He gives us in Baptism can be weakened and even lost because of sin. Therefore, Christ wanted his Church to continue his work of healing and salvation by means of this sacrament.

The Church also obliges us to receive Holy Communion at least once a year during the Easter season (Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday) and the Compendium also reminds us that all Catholics who have reached the age of reason is bound to confess his or her mortal sins at least once a year. Most people usually confess before Easter or shortly thereafter in order to fulfill their Easter duty of receiving Holy Communion.

Now I would like to add here that I hope that people confess and receive Communion
more often than once a year. These sacraments of mercy and love are so valuable for our relationship with God that we should make use of them regularly. In the past century Our Lord’s message to St. Faustina Kowalska underlined the importance of seeking His Mercy. For this reason our late holy father John Paul II instituted the feast of Divine Mercy for the Second Sunday of Easter. This feast is traditionally preceded by a novena of prayers and intercessions which begins on Good Friday.

We will pray this novena in our church beginning on Good Friday, April 6 and ending on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 15. Each day prayers will be offered for different classes of persons who need God’s mercy. On the last day, April 15 we will conclude with exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and a veneration of the relic of St.Faustina. Our Lord revealed to St. Faustina: “I will grant a complete pardon to the souls who will go to confession and receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My Mercy”(Diary of St. Faustina, #1109). It seems to me that a person could go to confession a week before the feast and receive Communion on the feast and still fulfill these requirements. I encourage all to join in the celebration of the Novena and closing rites of Divine Mercy.

The covered images in our sanctuary remind us of the proximity of the Passion and Death of the Lord. May these outward signs also inspire in us a change of heart that leads to true reconciliation so that we might celebrate Easter renewed in spirit.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Hildebrand

Easter

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today I would like to give you some explanation of the Easter Vigil,
which we will celebrate here in our church on April 7 with all three of our language groups present. There is a great tradition in our Catholic Church regarding this vigil. Here is a short history.

“This vigil opened with the blessing of the new fire, the lighting of lamps and candles and of the paschal candle. St. Cyril of Jerusalem spoke of this night that was as bright as day, and Constantine the Great added unprecedented splendor to its brilliancy by a profusion of lamps and enormous torches, so that not only basilicas, but private houses,streets, and public squares were resplendent with the light that was symbolic of the Risen Christ. The assembled faithful gave themselves up to common prayer, the singing of psalms and hymns, and the reading of the Scriptures commentated by the bishop or priests. The vigil of Easter was especially devoted to the baptism of catechumens who, in the more important churches, were very numerous. On the Holy Saturday following the deposition of St. John Chrysostom from the See of Constantinople, there were 3000 catechumens in this church alone. Such numbers were, of course, only encountered in large cities; nevertheless, as Holy Saturday and the vigil of Pentecost were the only days on which baptism was administered, even in smaller churches there was always a goodly number of catechumens. Rabanus Maurus, an ecclesiastical writer of the ninth century (De cleric. Instit., II, 28), gives a detailed account of the ceremony of Holy Saturday. The congregation remained silent in the church awaiting the dawn of the Resurrection, joining at intervals in psalmody and chant and listening to the reading of the lessons. These rites were identical with those in the primitive Church and were solemnized at the same hours.”

Today, the Easter Vigil takes place after dark on Holy Saturday night much like it did inthe times of St. Cyril and Rabanus Maurus. The rites celebrated also reflect those earlier times. The vigil is divided into four parts:

1. Service of Light during which the Paschal Candle is lit and we walk
in procession into the church singing “Christ, our Light!”

2. Liturgy of the Word, which includes Biblical readings from both
Old and New Testaments that recount the history of salvation.

3. Liturgy of Baptism, during which our catechumens will be baptized
and confirmed and we will renew our baptismal promises.

4. Liturgy of the Eucharist, at which Christ our Paschal Victim offers
Himself to the Father and gives Himself to us in the first celebration of Easter.

May the Lord bless you during this Lenten Season.