Dear Parish Family,
While Lent may be 40 days, our celebration of the Easter season lasts 50 days from the first Sunday of Easter all the way to the Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday a full seven weeks later!
What a Holy Week!
Despite the diminished numbers due to a concurrent spring break, what a lovely Holy Week we had here! It was a hectic several days preparing for the Easter Triduum. The extra 5:00 p.m. Easter Sunday Mass we had on April 5 was well worth having, as a number of our parishioners gone for the weekend took advantage of it. I also saw a number of new faces, so word somehow got around that we had a Sunday evening Easter Mass. A number of folks are hoping we have one year round, so we’ll be looking into the idea.
We also received many favorable comments about the use of the screens to project the words of responses or song lyrics. We did that for Holy Week primarily for our guests and those who may not get to Mass as regularly, but the support was coming more from our regulars! We noticed that your participation had increased with whenever the words were projected. I am attributing this to the confidence you had knowing you were going to say the right words! Your surer and more booming voices are very encouraging to me as the celebrant because I sometimes wonder if there’s anybody out there!
The Lingap Children’s Foundation
Speaking at all the Masses at St. John Church after communion is Aileen Bantolinao. After an internship in
Baltimore, she is spending some time here in Michigan before flying back to the Philippines. Lingap founder, John Drake, emphasized that her presence here this weekend is a thank you to our parish for our very generous support that enabled them to buy a new vehicle a few years ago. Though they are not asking for any contributions during this visit, we plan to name the Lingap Children’s Foundation as the beneficiary of our mission appeal this year.
Divine Mercy Today at St. Joseph Oratory
This second Sunday of Easter is called Divine Mercy Sunday. To find out more about the Divine Mercy devotion, please join us at St. Joseph Oratory today at 2:00 p.m. when we will be offering a presentation on Divine Mercy, eucharistic adoration, the praying of the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3:00 p.m., and confessions available from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Easter blessings,
Fr. Chas