April 10, 2020 (Good Friday)
Parish Update
A monument stands on the high rocky hills overlooking the town in which I was raised in Northern Manitoba. It is a humble monument but a significant one. Commissioned soon after the First World War it was dedicated to the war dead of the town. It is a monument similar to most found in thousands of towns in Canada. Most monuments stand to remind us of a great sacrifice. However, it can happen, over time, that we begin to forget or even notice the monument is there. Inscribed on the bottom of this particular monument one sees rather ironically the words written ‘Lest We Forget’. And yet this is often what we do. We forget. Not always, but often. There is an ancient medieval ritual performed during the Good Friday liturgy every year on this day. The priest takes up a cross, usually veiled in red, and carries the cross, down the aisle of the church, stopping three times along the way, unveiling the red cloth, ever so much, until the full corpus of the dead Christ on the Cross is revealed, and he intones three times the versicle; ‘behold the wood of the cross on which is hung the salvation of the world. Come let us adore Him’. It is a moment in the liturgy when one could hear a pin drop. All eyes fixed on the dead Christ. All eyes see the dead body of Jesus. All eyes ponder the tortured body, the horror, the sorrow, the injustice. And perhaps for just a second or two we see. And we get it. And we don’t forget. We are not walking by without looking or seeing. The ritual has a purpose. It reminds us, even if but for a moment, to see, to look, to ponder, to pray, to thank, to grieve for Christ. To not just walk by without seeing. Jesus is killed. The dead Christ we so often see, but don’t see, when we so casually walk by His Cross, as we might a public monument, be it in our churches, our homes, or schools, we see, because the ritual forces us to see, and we grasp perhaps but for a moment, the magnitude of what has been done. Love has been killed on a Cross. We have killed Jesus. When we act out of anger, selfishness, or greed, when we walk by a hand reaching out asking for help, we are killing too, we are also pounding in the nails into Jesus hands and feet, when we see a broken world and we don’t care, or become indifferent to a suffering world, when we tolerate the killing of millions of babies in the womb, the destruction of the Middle East, the destruction of the oceans, when we look the other way when we see millions starving, millions fleeing civil war, when we see when nature is fooled with a pandemic follows, and we do nothing, we are killing Jesus. We are killing love. Lest we forget.
Parish Updates:
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.
The Holy Thursday Mass was offered for the repose of the souls of Iole Innocente & Onorato & Alfeo Zilio; the Living & Deceased Members of Jones & Keba Families, & for the intentions of Marie Gazzola. Holy Saturday offered for Parish families.
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, Mass intentions, messages, envelopes, letters. The mail box is carefully monitored.
Dry food items for food pantry can be placed in the grey bin outside office entrance doors. Thanks for the donations.
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 Parish Easter Sunday 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
