April 09, 2020 (Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper)
Parish Update
Imagine for a moment receiving a letter, an email, a telephone call. You open the letter, the email, or listen to the phone message. It is an invitation to come to a supper prepared and waiting for you. You can bring anyone you want to the supper. Your family, your children, your friends, the poor, the sick and afflicted, anyone you want. They are welcome too. And then you read further, or listen more, and find out the supper is being held in your honour. It goes on to say when you arrive the Host will greet you at the door, you will sit beside him, and he will kneel down before you, and wash your hands and feet, he will then place a mysterious piece of bread in your hands, pour a mysterious wine in your cup. He will then say, take eat it, take drink it. This is my gift to you. It is the gift of Life. Eat, and drink, it will bring peace to your lives and homes. It is good for you. It will bring strength of faith. It will console and comfort anxiety and fear. Make you strong in good times and bad. It will heal you, bring peace to you, cure the world, and offer the way to heaven. What an amazing invitation. The supper is tonight. Do not turn it down. The Host is waiting at the door. The pandemic might force us to keep physical distance, but it cannot prevent us from attending. Or from being seated close, very close, to the Host. After supper he will take us to a garden and there we can regale one another with stories and jokes and all the good times we have had with one another, the wonders of the supper, the joy we feel in our hearts when the Host tells us we can have the supper forever. The invitation is an open invitation. The mysterious food is always waiting for us. We will then begin to fall drowsy and tired and end up falling asleep in the garden. When we awake we will look for the Host. But we won’t find Him. He is gone. Thank you, Lord, for inviting us to the Supper. We are such strange creatures. We don’t know what we have until we lose it. Blessed Holy Thursday.
Parish Messages:
Thank you to all who have signed up to help CARE FOR NEIGHBOURS TEAM. Those who have been asked to help a neighbour please keep a check on them.
Mass is offered today for the repose of the souls of Joyce Trudeau & Helen Obsteen.
Pray the Rosary at 4 PM in your homes offering prayers for the sick, and afflicted, our nurses and doctors, and an end to the pandemic.
Mail drop off at the Rectory mail box kitchen door. Place prayer requests, messages, envelopes, letters.
Dry food items for food pantry can be placed in the grey bin outside office entrance doors.
DIOCESE DECREES ALL WEDDINGS MUST BE CANCELLED UP UNTIL JUNE 30, 2020. A WEDDING CAN TAKE PLACE BUT ONLY WITH THE BRIDE, GROOM, AND WITNESSES.
FIRST COMMUNIONS AND CONFIRMATIONS ARE ALL CANCELLED . TO BE RESCHEDULED AT A LATER DATE.
Reminder this Sunday 9 AM Mass will be live streamed. Instructions are posted on the Parish Website https://holyrosaryguelph.ca under the “Masses” header on the home page of website. A link to a recording of the previous Sunday Mass is also available in the same location.
Courage everyone. Pray. With my blessing.
Fr. Vernon P. Boyd S.J.
Pastor
Holy Rosary Parish, 175 Emma Street, Guelph, ON, N1E 1V6
519-822-4701 x 22 www.holyrosaryguelph.ca
