A Pastoral Letter from Father Bob
3-23-21

Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and the Easter Season rapidly approach. This letter is to explain how we are going to approach this holiest time of the year. Many people have asked if we will require reservations for the most important liturgical celebration of Holy Week and Easter. No, we will not require reservations. We have learned how to put a few more people into the church and still maintain appropriate social distancing. We will have overflow capacity into the Activities Center and Gathering Space; both places are well equipped with screens, good speakers, and the distribution of Holy Communion. We believe this is all that will be necessary. We required tickets for Christmas masses (traditionally many more people come to Christmas masses that Easter masses). It proved to be unnecessary. Many people with reservations did not show up. We believe that we are sufficiently prepared to responsibly trust God for all of our great Easter services.

The Most Holy Week
This week begins the most solemn week of the entire church year.  I encourage every parishioner, in some holy way, to make this week different.  I especially urge you to attend our liturgical celebrations during the Sacred Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.

• Holy Thursday is the celebration of the institution the priesthood and the Eucharist.  It is the beginning of three very special days.  After 7:00 pm mass, there will be exposition of the Holy Eucharist until midnight.  You are invited to make a visit to pray on the evening where Jesus asked his disciples if they could watch and pray with him for one hour.
• Good Friday is the only day of the year where mass is not said.  At 1:30 pm we begin the Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion: this includes the reading of the passion, the veneration of cross, and the reception of Holy Communion.
• The Easter Vigil begins at 8:30pm in a dark church with the blessing of fire.  We will baptize our catechumens and we will welcome new brothers and sisters into full communion with the Catholic Church.  It is the great celebration of the Resurrection and the pinnacle of the liturgical year; it is the most solemn and majestic liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church.  Sunday masses are at their regular times of 8:30, 10:30, 12:30.
• The Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil services are bi-lingual, as well as the Easter Sunday 12:30 mass.
• If you love God, if you long for his presence, if you desire to more deeply enter into the richest mysteries on earth, then you will find these times an overflowing abundance of grace.

Good Friday Stations of the Cross
For many years Holy Family has been proud to host a Good Friday ecumenical Stations of the Cross sponsored by the Novi Minister’s Association.  Because of the pandemic this tradition remains on hold. We will have the Stations of the Cross at noon. These are the same Stations of the Cross that we have had for all the Fridays of Lent at the usual time of 7pm.  This is a great way to pray. It is an extended meditations on the Passion with many Scripture passages that reveal spiritual insights about the sacrifice of Jesus and our redemption.  The text we use has been specially written for Holy Family. It is a powerful way to start our observation of the sacred three hours (noon – 3pm) that Jesus spent on the cross. It a great preparation for the Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion that starts at 1:30. If you haven’t been to the Stations of the Cross here recently, I specially encourage you to come.

Divine Mercy
The Divine Mercy Novena begins on Good Friday at 3pm – or the conclusion of the Commemoration of the Passion of the Lord

Easter Baskets
We will bless Easter baskets this Saturday at noon in the church.

We Have Added a New Page to our Parish Website – The Pastor’s Corner
Since we started live-streaming masses on YouTube we had not continued our regular pattern of providing an audio version of my weekly weekend homily. We resumed that practice the weekend before last, the Fourth Sunday of Lent; an audio file is easier to share with another person or listen to on the go than watching an entire video on YouTube.  People at home have asked for a copy of the handouts that are available here in the church. I don’t always have written notes for my homily, but often I do; people have asked if they could have a copy of my homily notes. So there is a new page on our website called ‘the Pastor’s Corner’. It will have an audio version of the weekend’s homily, and homily notes and handouts if they are available. It will also have, starting with this letter, any pastoral letters we send out through an email blast.

Last March, as public masses were suspended, I provided a link on our website to an extensive playlist I have constructed over many years of inspiring praise and worship songs; it is over seven hours long and includes the praise and worship songs we often use at masses, and many others. It is available to those who have Apple Music. Andy Karl generously volunteered to convert my Apple Music playlist to a Spotify playlist. Those playlists are also now available on the Pastor’s Corner page.

The Holy Spirit is continuing his work of transforming us to be Catholic Missionary Disciples. I pray that Holy Family will increasingly be a bright light on a high hill, a spiritual haven for those looking for more of God. May your Holy Week and Easter season be filled with his transforming and equipping grace.

Fr. Bob