For the first time in three years we will begin our Holy Week Services with the traditional ‘procession’ with the blessed palms. Recovering from the Coronavirus and ensuing restrictions, and now anxiously watching the inhuman tragedy within Ukraine, our Holy Week will hopefully bring forth more than just the routine rituals. Thus, may I step aside and share the following reflections pertaining to this most crucial time for our Church. Holy Week is a privileged time when we are called to draw near to Jesus: friendship with him is shown in times of difficulty. . . .Living Holy Week following Jesus means learning how to come out of ourselves to reach out to others, to go to the outskirts of existence, to be the first to move towards our brothers and sisters, especially those who are most distant, those who are forgotten, those who are most in need of understanding, consolation and help. There is so much need to bring the living presence of Jesus, merciful and full of love! —Pope Francis— Holy Thursday Reflection: Ann Voskamp, The broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life" I wonder if all the bad brokenness in the world begins with the act of forgetting - forgetting God is enough, forgetting what He gives is good enough, forgetting there's always more than enough and that we can live into an intimate communion. Forgetting is kin to fear. Whenever I forget, fear walks in. We're called to be a people known by our remembering - a remembering people. Forget to give thanks - and you forget who God is. Forget to break and give - and it's your soul that gets broken. Forget to live into...communion - and you end up living into a union of emptiness. If all our bad brokenness begins with an act of forgetting, then doesn't the act of remembering, then making Christ present by being broken and given, doesn't that lead to...communion, which literally re-members us? Everything He embodied in the Last Supper - it is what would heal the body's brokenness. Brokenness can be healed in re-membering, Remembering our union, our communion...with Christ. Re -membering heals brokenness.” Good Friday Reflection: Jean Bernard, Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau “The first days of January 1942 brought enormous amounts of snow. What snow meant for the clergy. . . .The torture surpassed the bounds of the endurable. At the same time the thermometer hovered between 5 and 15 degrees below zero. From morning till night we scraped, shoveled, and pushed wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of snow to the brook. The work detail consisted of more than 1,000 clergymen, forced to keep moving by SS men and Capos who kicked us and beat us with truncheons. We had to make rounds with the wheelbarrows from the assembly square to the brook and back. Not a moment of rest was allowed, and much of the time we were forced to run. . . .On Good Friday last year the SS found some pretext to punish 60 priests with an hour on "the tree." That is the mildest camp punishment. They tie a man's hands together behind his back, palms facing out and fingers pointing backward. Then they turn his hands inwards, tie a chain around his wrists and hoist him up by it. His own weight twists his joints and pulls them apart...Several of the priests who were hung up last year never recovered and died. If you don't have a strong heart, you don't survive it. Many have a permanently crippled hand.” Holy Saturday Reflection: Chris Ryan , ― Chris Ryan, In The Light Of The Cross: Reflections On The Australian Journey Of The World Youth Day Cross And Icon “People referred to the symbolism of the empty Cross more than once on its journey. It would seem obviously to point to our faith in Jesus’ resurrection. It’s not quite so simple though. The Cross is bare, but in and of itself the empty Cross does not point directly to the Resurrection. It says only that the body of Jesus was removed from the Cross. If a crucifix is a symbol of Good Friday, then it is the image of the empty tomb that speaks more directly of Easter and resurrection. The empty Cross is a symbol of Holy Saturday. It’s an indicator of the reality of Jesus’ death, of His sharing in our mortal coil. At the same time, the empty Cross is an implicit sign of impending resurrection, and it tells us that the Cross is not only a symbol of hatred, violence and inhumanity: it says that the Cross is about something more. . . .It tells us that the new life of God surprises us, comes at a moment we cannot expect, and reminds us that experiences of pain, grief and dying are suffused with the presence of Christ, the One Who was crucified and is now risen.” “Just as when we were children, we were afraid to be alone in the dark and could only be assured by the presence of someone who loved us. Well this is exactly what happened on Holy Saturday, the voice of God resounded in the realm of death. The unimaginable occurred; namely, love penetrated Hell. —Cardinal Robert Sarah— If you are so moved to help in a small way the efforts to protect and provide some degree of dignity to the lives displaced by the tragedy in Ukraine simply google: Knights of Columbus Ukraine. Members and friends have donated $11,000,000 to date. 100% of your donation goes directly to support humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Working with the KC councils in Poland as well as the Latin and Greek Catholic Churches in Ukraine, donations will provide temporary shelter, food, medicinal supplies, clothing and communications. Blessings this Holy Week, Fr. Tim