HOLY WEEK
THE GREAT THREE DAYS
Parents, please note that the Mass of Holy Thursday, the Good Friday Service and the Easter Vigil are solemn liturgies that can be rather long in duration and can seem an eternity to small children who may find it hard to sit still in church at the best of times. Parents might want to consider not bringing small children to these liturgies for the good of the children, the parents and the congregation.
THE TRIDUUM
The Three Great Days
HOLY THURSDAY
Thursday April 1 at 7:00 p.m.
Institution of the Eucharist
Institution of the Priesthood
Call to Serve One Another
Following the Mass, procession will take place to the parish hall where the Blessed Sacrament will be reposed for adoration until 11:00 p.m.
GOOD FRIDAY
Friday April 2 at 3:00 p.m.
(Large crowds – plan to come early)
Passion & Death of the Lord
recalled through the readings, the Passion, reflection, Veneration of the Cross, & Communion
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
7:00 p.m. (Good Friday)
EASTER VIGIL
Saturday April 7 at 9:00 p.m.
(After dark, longer liturgy –
not suitable for small children)
Four elements:
Service of Light * Liturgy of the Word *
Liturgy of Baptism * Liturgy of the Eucharist *
EASTER SUNDAY MORNING
9:00, & 11:00 a.m. Masses
The Sunday celebration of Easter in
Jesus’ Resurrection from the Dead
*Please note: if you have attended the Easter Vigil, Saturday evening, you have already celebrated Easter and the Resurrection of the Lord and need not attend an Easter Sunday morning Mass.
SHARELIFE COMMUNITY CHALLENGE –
MAKE DOUBLE THE DIFFERENCE
First-time donors to ShareLife – Double the impact of your generosity through the ShareLife Community Challenge!!
A generous donor has pledged to match all new and increased gifts to the 2010 ShareLife campaign, up to a total of $500,000. Your first-time gift to ShareLife will be matched dollar-for-dollar this year. For example, your $50 donation will result in a $50 matching gift, resulting in a $100 contribution toward the work of ShareLife agencies. ShareLife social service agencies identified more than $800,000 in unfunded needs this year – your contribution could help shorten waiting lists, open new shelter beds, and serve more meals for those in need around us.
For more information, visit www.sharelife.org Please give generously. You can work WONDERS!
Mass Intentions – Week of March 28, 2010
Sunday - 9:00 a.m. – Special Intentions
-11:00 a.m. – Elfie Schimke+
Tuesday - 8:30 a.m. – Gisele O’Hagan+
Wednesday - 7:00 p.m. – Special Intentions
Thursday - 7:00 p.m. – Holy Thursday
Friday - 3:00 p.m. – Good Friday Service
Saturday - 8:00 p.m. – For the intentions of our
Parish community
The St. Vincent de Paul Society is looking for new members. Husband and wife teams are encouraged to join. Please call the Parish Office to apply.
The next C.W.L. meeting will be held in Boardroom 1 on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 7 p.m.
CALLING WEDDING COORDINATORS
Last fall I placed an ad in the bulletin asking for parishioners who might be interested in becoming wedding coordinators to please contact me. We had a total of seven people who responded. Some received training shortly afterward and others did not. I would ask that all interested Wedding Coordinators please call the parish office at 905-655-3286 and speak to Pat, Parish Secretary, about the next training session.
Wedding coordinators open up the church and host wedding rehearsals, taking the couple and their wedding party through their paces for the wedding day. They also attend the wedding itself, assisting the priest by helping to organize people into their proper places and ensuring during the wedding that all is running smoothly. If any other parishioners would be interested in this ministry, please call Pat. This would also be a great ministry for couples to work in together.
(Fr. Charles)
CHILDREN’S LITURGY THIS FALL
Our parish will resume a Children’s Liturgy of the Word in the fall – September – of this year. We stopped having a Liturgy of the Word for children because there was a serious shortage of volunteers to work in this important and worthwhile ministry. Since this type of ministry involves small children in Junior and Senior Kindergarten, Grade one and Grade two, we require responsible leaders who work in pairs. Here, I would like to look at what Children’s Liturgy is all about and what it looks like on a regular Sunday morning.
WHAT CHILDREN’S LITURGY IS NOT
Children’s Liturgy is not baby sitting or a means of getting restless, noisy children out of the church to give their parents and the parishioners a break. It is not a play time for children or a chance for them to meet other children of the parish. And it’s not just bible story reading for children but exposing the children to the same readings that the Universal Catholic Church hears every Sunday.
WHAT CHILDREN’S LITURGY IS
The proper title of the ministry our parish will provide to parents through their children this fall is Children’s Liturgy of the Word. It is about sharing the Word of God with young children that all of us hear each Sunday according to the readings of the particular Sunday and the seasons of the Church year.
It is important that children learn from their parents at an early age what church is all about. I remember as a small child that we weren’t allowed to bring toys or things from home that we could bang around or make noise with in church. We also weren’t allowed to have snacks in church because this place, this building, this House of God was sacred and holy and wasn’t to be treated like any other place. The only thing my parents would allow us to have in the pews was a holy book about the saints or the Mass or about Jesus in the bible. I still remember so vividly a particular book I was looking at in church one Sunday when I was about five or six years old. It was Lent and the readings were about Jesus being tempted by the Devil. In my book was a picture of Satan all in green, with a long, green tail and green horns, standing behind kind and loving Jesus at the edge of a high cliff. The Devil was tempting Jesus to throw Himself off of the cliff, if he truly was God. Even as a young child I associated that story with the place where I was thinking about it – in God’s House.
Children’s Liturgy of the Word is inclusive of children in all of the parts of the Mass from beginning to end with the exception of the Liturgy of the Word. At all other times they are seated with their parents and siblings. Following the Opening Prayer of the Mass, which children are included in and part of, the priest calls the children who wish to go to the Children’s Liturgy to come forward. He then has an opportunity to speak with them, perhaps asking them a question about the decorations and colours the Church is using and what season this might be. An adult leader is presented with a special Lectionary for Children (not a bible) which contains the same Gospel reading the grown ups will hear but is written in a style and language children can understand and relate to. They will then process out together, led by the adult leader and a second leader following the last child and they go to a place designated as the room for Children’s Liturgy with carpeting so that children may sit on the floor.
The leader begins with a prayer that everyone would open up their minds to listen to Jesus’ words to us and that we might be able to learn from Jesus how to live better lives.
Then the reading(s) are read. This is usually followed by some brief discussion with the children about what they have just heard and is an opportunity for them to ask questions if they have any – and they always do. Sometimes a specific activity is planned or the children make something related to the gospel story they heard.
Meanwhile, in the church the readings, the psalm and the gospel have been proclaimed and the priest or deacon gives a homily. Following the homily and as soon as the recitation of the Creed is begun, an usher goes to the leaders of the Children’s Liturgy which tells them they have to begin to wrap up their session. The leader leads the children in a prayer of thanksgiving and they are led back to the church doors. As soon as the Prayers of the Faithful are completed (which ends the Liturgy of the Word) the children return to sit with their parents while the collection is being taken up and the offertory gifts are being presented.
The purpose of good liturgy with children isn’t about making them feel ‘special’; they already are. It is about teaching them and training them in having a healthy respect and reverence for the Word of God, God’s way of speaking to the Church each Sunday, each day, about His wonderful and boundless love. It prepares them for the time when after they have received Jesus for the first time in the Eucharist, they can stay with us and be better prepared and open to hearing that word in the midst of the church which leads and points to Jesus in the Eucharist.
If any adults in our parish would be interested in learning more about and getting involved in this ministry, please speak to me, Fr. Charles, or Pat, parish secretary at 905-655-3286.
(Fr. Charles)