The Church celebrates this Sixth Sunday in Lent as both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday.  It is on Palm Sunday that we enter Holy Week, welcoming Jesus into our lives and asking Him to allow us a share in His suffering, death and Resurrection. This is the time of the year when we stop to remember and relive the events which brought about our redemption and salvation. The Holy Week liturgies present us with the actual events of the dying and rising of Jesus.  These liturgies enable us to experience in our lives here and now what Jesus went through then.  In other words, what we commemorate and relive during this week is not just Jesus’ dying and rising, but our own dying and rising in Him, which result in our healing, reconciliation, and redemption.  Just as Jesus did, we, too, must lay down our lives freely by actively participating in the Holy Week liturgies.  In doing so, we are allowing Jesus to forgive us our sins, heal the wounds in us caused by our sins and the sins of others and transform us more completely into the image and likeness of God.  In this way, we will be able to live more fully the Divine life we received at Baptism.  Attentive participation in the Holy Week liturgies will also deepen our relationship with God, increase our Faith and strengthen our lives as disciples of Jesus.  But let us remember that Holy Week can become "holy” for us only if we actively and consciously take part in the liturgies of this week.  During this week of the Passion -- passionate suffering, passionate grace, passionate love and passionate forgiving – each of us is called to remember the Christ of Calvary and then to embrace and lighten the burden of the Christ Whose passion continues to be experienced in the hungry, the poor, the sick, the homeless, the aged, the lonely and the outcast.  Today’s liturgy combines two contrasting moments, one of glory, the other of suffering - the welcome of Jesus into Jerusalem and the drama of His trial which ends in His crucifixion and death. Let us rejoice and sing as Jesus comes into our life today. Let us also weep and mourn as His death confronts us with our sin. The African-American song asks the question, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed Him to a tree?" The answer is yes, a definite yes. Yes, we were there in the crowd on both days, shouting, “Hosanna!” and later “Crucify Him!” 

Almighty ever-living God, who as an example of humility for the human race to follow
caused our Savior to take flesh and submit to the Cross, graciously grant that we may heed his lesson of patient suffering and so merit a share in his Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading:  ISAIAH 50:4-7
Responsorial Psalm:   PSALMS 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24
Second Reading: PHILIPPIANS 2:6-11
Gospel:  MATTHEW 26:14 - 27:66

   7:00 am Mass

Pray for our Sick:              
Isabel Vega
Nelwyn Wiley
Ray Sistos
Gerald Entrop

Frances Pillow

Cliff Kreitz

Roberta Kreitz
Clark Nicholl
Larry Nicholl

Eleanor Schwab

Ellen Neusch (mother of Father Tony Neusch)

Mary Preciado

Josie Campos

John Barrett

Robert Herrera

Abe and Dottie Lopez

Alice Felix

Lucy Sierra y Castillo

Lord hear our prayer. Amen 

The white lily symbolizes purity, rebirth, new beginnings and hope and is most often associated with the resurrection of Jesus Christ as observed on Easter.  We have been encouraged to bring Easter Lilies to Church next weekend to adorn the altar.  

The annual Chrism Mass will be celebrated at St. Mary's Cathedral in Amarillo on Tuesday, April 4, beginning at 7:00 PM. The Mass will also be broadcast on St. Valentine Catholic Radio.

During the Chrism Mass, the Oil of the Catechumen, the Oil of the Sick and the Holy Chrism will be blessed. Priests of the diocese, who will concelebrate with Bishop Zurek, will renew their commitment to their ordained ministry and to the Bishop. The Mass of Chrism Mass is considered a celebration of ordained priesthood.
Chrism is used in the administration of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, in the consecration of churches, chalices, patens, altars and altar-stones, and in the solemn blessing of bells and baptismal water. The head of the newly-baptized is anointed with chrism, the forehead of the person confirmed, the head and hands of a Bishop at his consecration and the hands of a priest at his ordination. So are the walls of churches, which are solemnly consecrated, anointed with the same holy oil and the parts of the sacred vessels used in the Mass which come in contact with the Sacred Species, as the paten and chalice. 

Bishop Zurek invites the Faithful to attend the Chrism Mass and to show their support for the priests of the Diocese of Amarillo.  “If you support your parish priest, we encourage you to join us for the Chrism Mass in a show of support for all of our priests,” said Bishop Zurek.

As Friday, April 7, is the observance of Good Friday, please note that there will be no Mass on that day.  The Church will be open from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm for meditation and private stations of the Cross.  It is commonly held that Jesus was crucified and hung on the cross from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm, at which time he died.  Please take the time to stop by the Church during these hours to reflect upon Jesus' agony and death for our sins. 

As a reminder, Good Friday is an obligatory day of fasting and abstinence for Catholics. For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards. 

Christians often describe the season of Lent as a journey of sorts, with its final destination being Holy Week. The events of Holy Week recount the so-called ‘passion narratives’ in the New Testament Gospels that relate to the suffering (passio in Latin), death and burial of Jesus Christ.  

Thus, Holy Week marks the last week of the Christian season of Lent – the week leading up to Easter.  

Here’s a rundown of what it all means:

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, when Christians commemorate Jesus’ ‘triumphal entry’ into Jerusalem where the Gospels tell us he was greeted with crowds waving palm branches and crying ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’ (Mark 11:9-10).  

(Ironically, these same voices that greet Jesus as Messiah and King will be the same voices that shout ‘Crucify him!’ just a few short days later on Good Friday.)  

Traditionally, worshipping Christians will receive palm branches or palm crosses on Palm Sunday as a tangible sign of Jesus’ ‘triumphal entry’ into Jerusalem. And in some churches, Palm Sunday is also known as the Sunday of the Passion, when one of the Gospel passion narratives is read aloud during the liturgy.  

Holy Wednesday – into the darkness 

Holy Week continues in many Christian traditions on ‘Holy Wednesday’ (known as ‘Spy Wednesday’ in earlier times). Holy Wednesday is often marked with a service of Tenebrae (Latin for ‘darkness’ or ‘shadows’), with the hearing of appropriate psalms and other readings while candles on a candelabrum (the ‘Tenebrae hearse’) are gradually extinguished, creating the sense of growing darkness.

This darkness symbolises the abandonment of Jesus by his disciples, and anticipates the anguish and tragedy of Good Friday later on in Holy Week. 

What follows then are the ‘Triduum’ of Holy Week – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. 

Maundy Thursday marks the Last Supper that Jesus shares with his disciples, his betrayal by his disciple Judas Iscariot, and his arrest at the Garden of Gethsemane.

Often Maundy Thursday services will include an act of foot washing, which commemorates Jesus washing the feet of his disciples as an act of service on the night of his arrest (John 13:1-20).

Maundy Thursday reminds participants of the ‘new commandment’ (mandatum in Latin) that Jesus gave his disciples to love one another as he has loved them (John 15:12) – a love that is most readily seen in Jesus willingly giving up his life on the cross on Good Friday. 

Good Friday commemorates Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate, his sentence of death, his torture, and his crucifixion and burial. It is called ‘good’ Friday in the obsolete sense of the word ‘good’ – connoting something ‘holy’ or ‘pious’ (‘Holy Friday’), which is striking as ‘Good Friday’ is the most somber day for Christians, when the agony, death and burial of Jesus is remembered.

For many Christians, Good Friday is a day of fasting, with the faithful attending a church service where they will meditate on and venerate the cross of Christ.  

The Triduum of Holy Week concludes with Holy Saturday, often with a late-night Easter Vigil service, which is really two parts.

First, a liturgy that recalls the vigil, the ‘keeping watch’ of Jesus’ female disciples at the tomb of Jesus, which begins in darkness where a new paschal or Easter fire is kindled. This, then, is followed by the joyous celebration of the first Eucharist of Easter, which will often include the baptism of new converts and the renewal of baptismal vows by the faithful.

  

Holy Week moves from the enthusiastic shouts of ‘Hosanna’ to the somberness of Holy Wednesday and Maundy Thursday, to the horrors of the agony and death of Jesus on Good Friday, to the joyous celebration of the first Eucharist of Easter.  

It is an emotional week for Christians, but one that anticipates the hope and glory of the resurrection of Christ at Easter, which is at the heart of the Christian Gospel and the center of Christian faith and worship.