Palm Sunday - Holy Week 2nd April 2023
Sun 2nd April
8.30 am Mary Giblin Aniv
10 am Sheila Curtain RIP
12 noon Mary & Patrick Maher RIP
Mon 3rd April Monday of Holy Week
10 am John Gallagher RIP
Tues 4th April Tuesday of Holy Week
10am Eugene Durkin RIP
Weds 5th April NO MASS
Thurs 7th April Maundy Thursday
8pm Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Fri 8th April Good Friday
11am Family Stations of the Cross
3pm The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
7:00pm Stations of the Cross
Sat 9th April Holy Saturday
8pm Easter Vigil – People of the Parish
No Confessions or Exposition on Holy Saturday
Your Prayers:
Let us keep in our prayers: Pope Francis, Christina Cahill, Eric Nicholas Darwent, Therese Kemp, John O’Shea, Rekha, Bina, Noel, Jose Luis Pérez, Alice, Karina McKiernan and Izabela Lissowska – all unwell at this time. We also pray for:: Gino Tomei, James Meally,Peter Sartori, Noel Ryan, Donato Merola, Siobhan Lynch, Dennis Lennane, Susan Wren, Geraldine Day, Catherine Kelly, Josephine Okuyiga, Jane Ikwueke, Maureen O Sullivan, Patrick Reilly, Ann Gourdarznia, Nina Cole, Lorenzo Marcantuono, Pat McMahon, Michael Walsh Esther Ampomah Arhin, Peter McHugh, Marguerite Kyunga, Kathleen Molloy, Maria Pini, Madeleine Melling, Jenifer Danvers, Enrico Soracchi, Raymond Tissot, Sr Theresa,Patricia Caddle and Lilian Murphy whose anniversaries occur at this time or have died recently. May they Rest in Peace.
Altar Servers Over Holy Week:
Please add your name to the list in the sacristy for which Mass or service you can serve over Holy Week and the Easter Weekend.
Washing Machine and Tumble Dryer:
Patrick Dunning is giving away a second-hand washing machine and two second hand tumble dryers. For more details please contact Patrick on 07976963565
St Mary’s Lourdes Pilgrimage Group:
There will be a meeting for those preparing to go to Lourdes in the small hall of the parish centre at 7:30pm on Monday 3rd April.
Easter Offering:
The collection at all Masses at the vigil and on Easter Day is your gift that contributes to the salary of your priest. Alternatively, you may wish to give Fr Peter a personal gift.
Family Stations of the Cross: Good Friday:
Family Stations of the Cross will be at 11am on Good Friday. As with last year, you are invited to the hall afterwards for tea, coffee and hot cross buns. Donations of hot cross buns will be happily accepted and any left overs will go to the Foodbank.
Mary’s Meals Total:
Mary’s Meals would like to thank everyone in the parish for their wonderful generosity. The value of all the foreign currency collected earlier this year was £421.73 which is terrific! This alone will feed 22 children one good meal every school day for a whole year. Please continue to pray for the work of Mary’s Meals. God bless you all.
What is the Triduum?
Triduum is taken from a Latin root that mean “three days,” it is a period of time that traces the final days of Jesus’ life, his death, and his resurrection from the dead.
Starting on the Thursday before Easter Sunday, each day is traditionally marked with a particular liturgy. On Maundy Thursday there is the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 8pm that marks the Last Supper that Jesus had with his disciples, wherein he showed them what it means to serve by washing their feet. It is also marks the establishment of the celebration of the Eucharist (or Mass).
Good Friday is marked with fasting and prayer as a way to remember Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. The 3pm Good Friday liturgy involves the reading of Jesus’ passion and death from the Gospel of John as well as an opportunity to pray with and venerate a cross – the instrument of Jesus’ death and our salvation.
Holy Saturday is meant to be a quiet day, remembering the empty space that was present for the disciples of Jesus after his death and before his resurrection. They did not expect the resurrection and so were left in a place of grief.
After sundown on Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil at 8pm is celebrated. It one of the longest of Catholic liturgies, involving several readings from scripture tracing God’s care for humanity, the baptism and reception of new members of the Church, the celebration of the Eucharist, and a great many joy-filled songs. It was that night when Jesus rose from the dead. It is that great victory over sin and death that the community celebrates.
St Mary’s will then gather again on Easter Sunday to celebrate Mass and continue to the joyous songs of celebration. Jesus Christ has risen to die no more! Humanity has been invited into that same trajectory through death to life.
“Mount Calvary is the academy of love.”
St. Francis de Sale
"Remember finally, that the ashes that were on your forehead are created from the burnt palms of last Palm Sunday. New beginnings invariably come from old false things that are allowed to die."
Richard Rohrs