March 6th, 2022
First Sunday of Lent
by Fr. Boniface Endorf, O.P.
—
Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,
We’re now starting our Lenten preparation for the glories of Easter! Make sure to use the graces of this Lenten season to grow closer to Christ and to seek out the holiness He calls us to. With that holiness comes the joy we all long for. Our Lenten penances are especially useful in opening us to hear Christ more deeply in this spiritual season and to follow His lead.
I forgot to announce this past Sunday that every Friday during Lent we’ll pray the Stations of the Cross at 7pm in the church. If you’re able, please join us in these classic Lenten prayers.
Also, this year we’ll have a parish mission. Fr. Thomas Blau, OP, will be our preacher. He was stationed with me at my previous parish and is a great mission preacher. The mission will take place the week before Holy Week, Monday to Thursday, 4/4-7. He’ll preach in the church those evenings and there will be confessions afterwards. I hope you can join us: it will be spiritually well worth the time.
Finally, this year we’ll have our full Triduum liturgies back. Triduum is the three Holy days before Easter: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. On Holy Thursday evening we’ll celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, when Christ instituted the Eucharist and created the priesthood. On Good Friday we’ll celebrate the Veneration of the Cross in the afternoon, and that evening we’ll celebrate Tenebrae, which includes some of the most beautiful music you’ll hear all year. Each morning during the Triduum we’ll also pray morning prayer in the church. The Triduum ends on Holy Saturday night with the Easter Vigil, the highest Mass of the Year. At the Easter Vigil our catechumens will be baptized and our candidates will be received into the Church. We’ll then have a parish party after the Easter Vigil Mass.
The Triduum is the most holy and important days of the year. I encourage you to consider taking Good Friday (4/15) off so that you can attend all the Triduum liturgies. Attending them will bring you deeply into the events they celebrate, and bring you to know and love Christ more deeply. It can change your life!
Have a blessed Lent,
Fr. Boniface
