Marvels of Mass

Just a reminder for all about the 50 days of Easter – instructions that we are given at Easter:

The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better as one “great Sunday”. These above all others are the days for the singing of the Alleluia. #371, Ceremonial of Bishops.

Yes, we’re still singing Alleluias and celebrating the Resurrection! Yes, our music is still reflecting the Easter season and the Gospel.  This week we hear about Christ giving the ‘new commandment: love one another’.

By now, we’re all kind of used to the ‘Easter’ thing.  The candy is gone out of the stores, no more Easter bunnies running around, the hard-boiled eggs have gone bad, the Easter lilies are dying.

Today’s Gospel passage reflects on Jesus’ encounter with some of his disciples, after His death and resurrection, while at the Sea of Tiberias.  Simon Peter recognizes Him while out at sea when Jesus instructs them to cast their net one more time and it comes back so full that they cannot pull it aboard.  Jesus sits down with them once again and eats a meal.

Today we celebrate the Octave of Easter. That means we should celebrate this Sunday just as we celebrated Easter Sunday last weekend.  The great dismissal is sung again today with a double ‘Alleluia’.  We still rejoice in our Risen Lord!  

Excerpt from St. Augustine: Discourse on the Psalms: The Easter Alleluia

We are now here at the last ‘regular’ Sunday of Lent.  Next week begins Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday.  I would highly recommend that you make plans NOW to attend as many of these services as possible to fully engage in this once-a-year religious experience.  The schedule for the services are in this bulletin.

This Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday.  The entrance antiphon for this Sunday in Latin is “Laetare Jerusalem” or “Rejoice, Jerusalem”.  We are halfway through Lent now, and the Church gives us this Sunday to add in a little ‘rejoicing’.  The presiders have the option of wearing rose-colored vestments, which just like during Advent, is seen as a mixture of the regular Lenten purple and the upcoming white of Easter.  We can add in some greenery or flowers to the sanctuary.  We aren’t in the Easter season yet, so we aren’t going to go crazy and sing the Gloria or Alleluia or pull out the East

This weekend at the 9am mass on Sunday, we celebrate the First Scrutiny with the elect.  Who are the elect?  These are the people who are preparing to enter our community at the Easter Vigil.  Some have been baptized already and are the Candidates; those who are not baptized are the Catechumens.  After the Rite of Election during the first week of Lent, they are all now called the elect (technically, the catechumens are just ‘the elect’; the candidates remain as ‘candidates’ – but for our sake, we refer to all of them as ‘the elect’).  During the following two weekends, at the 5pm Saturday

This Sunday, as always on the 2nd Sunday of Lent, we have the Gospel reading of the Transfiguration.  Our song during the preparation of the altar and gifts is a retelling of the Gospel narrative – “’Tis Good, Lord, to be Here”.  We also here the story in a more modern rendition at Communion with ‘Transfigure Us, O Lord”.  In this musical piece, the narrative is transformed a bit as we are asking to be transfigured – ‘break the chains that bind us; speak your healing word, and where you lead we’ll follow.’  Once again, we’re asking for our lives to be changed.  Remember from last week about

You may have noticed some changes today or on Ash Wednesday when you came to mass.  The environment is definitely different.  All of the gold that can be removed has been; all the greenery is gone.  We have gone back to using a simple wooden cross and wooden candle sticks.  Taking it all down a notch.  Just getting simpler and down to the basics.  We started our mass in silence with a reading of the entrance antiphon. We’re using a different form of the penitential rite that recalls very directly our sinfulness and our need for mercy. So why do we have all these changes?