Happy Good Friday! It is a bit strange to speak of today as happy or good. What is good about crucifying Jesus? How is it happy that he has died? In the Exsultet sung by the deacon at the Easter vigil, he sings, “Oh, happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!” The “happy fault,” the first sin, Original Sin, while tragic, is happy because it merited Jesus coming to save us. Today is tragic, and killing God is evil, but this day is good because Jesus willingly laid down his life for us. Oh, the great love that God has for us! “No greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” What great love shown by our redeemer, Jesus the Christ! 

As we head into the Easter weekend, I would like to thank all of the people who have worked hard to make these liturgies beautiful. Thanks to Deb Driscoll for her work behind-the-scenes and also for her worship aids and hymn sheets. Thanks as well to Kathy Klingelhofer for her coordinated work at ICC. Thanks to the decorators, the musicians, the lectors, servers, and the deacons. Thanks to Fr. Jeffrey for putting up with me and for saying two Easter Sunday Masses. I’m sorry if I missed anybody, but thank you too!

As a reminder, we will have two Easter Sunday Masses each at both parishes at 9am and 11am. 

I hope this would be obvious but sometimes we need to be reminded. On Holy Saturday, there are no Masses celebrated anywhere in the world because Jesus is in the tomb. The first Mass that we can celebrate is the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening. Therefore, there will be no First Saturday Mass tomorrow. There is no hard rule that says you must attend Mass on Saturday morning if you want to fulfill this devotion. If you go to the Easter Vigil or even Easter Sunday Mass, that will likely suffice to fulfill the First Saturday devotion. 

You will hear the Sequence sung at the Easter Sunday Masses. The Sequence is a hymn sung in between the second reading and the Gospel reading. It tells the story of the struggle between life and death and how Christ, the Paschal Victim, has overcome death. It also tells of what Mary Magdalene saw at the tomb. Rather than standing after the second reading like we usually do, we remain seated and listen to the Sequence before rising for the Alleluia. The Sequence is so-called because in the long history of the Church, these chants were sung following or sequential to the Alleluia on certain feast days. It was a prolongation of the Alleluia because of the great festivity of the day. In recent years, the Church has changed the order so that the Sequence is sung before the Alleluia. Here is one version of the Sequence as performed at the University of Notre Dame on Easter Sunday 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvVm7-aXBmk&t=376s

No pressure on our musicians! 😉

We, Catholics, like to celebrate, so with the major feast of Easter, like Christmas, we celebrate for 8 straight days (actually it probably goes back to our Jewish roots. Think of Hanukkah, the 8 day Jewish festival). If you go to daily Mass, you will recite or sing the Gloria on those days as well. The 8^th day is the second Sunday of Easter, known as Divine Mercy Sunday. 

In the 1930s, Jesus appeared to St. Faustina and asked her to spread the message of His Divine Mercy. He entrusted to her the Divine Mercy chaplet and asked specifically for it be prayed as a novena, that is, for nine days straight. In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II declared the second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday. Since then, the Church has asked for us to pray the Divine Mercy novena beginning today, Good Friday, and ending on Divine Mercy Sunday. If you do not have a pamphlet to help you with the Divine Mercy chaplet and novena, you can find the prayers here: https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/chaplet

Jesus promised great graces for those who recite this chaplet, not only for one’s self but for the hardest of sinners if they pray it or if we offer it for them. 

We will recite the Divine Mercy chaplet during a Holy Hour on Divine Mercy Sunday at 3pm at OLL. 

We will have small holy water bottles filled with holy water available for pickup this weekend in the churches. You may take multiple bottles for your family to use holy water at home and then bring them back to refill when needed. We have about 200 for each parish. Starting next weekend, I will have the holy water containers filled so that you can refill your bottles at any time. Hopefully soon, the diocese will allow us to start using the holy water fonts as you come into the church. 

Easter Monday Mass 

The morning Mass at OLL is cancelled, but Fr. Jeffrey will still say the Mass at ICC. 

Please return your CRS Rice Bowl to the church. 75% of the donations support CRS’s work around the world. 25% stays here in our own diocese to combat hunger and poverty. 

As part of your almsgiving this Lent, you can still contribute to CRS at www.crsricebowl.org 

We will be livestreaming two Easter Sunday Masses

The livestream of the Mass for this Sunday, April 4th, will be from ICC at 9am and from OLL at 11am.  

Attached are the bulletins. The worship aids are in yesterday’s Flocknote.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!      

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, pray for us!   

God bless!      

Fr. Ed