Last week I reflected on the unthinkable becoming reality. It turns out there were more unthinkable moments ahead. It truly shows how serious this crisis is when my post last week is woefully out of date. This week, I want to share with you what I shared with my parish. This is a Pastor’s response to his people. Parishioners of mine have lost their jobs, fear how they are going to feed their children, and today it was announced the state of Wisconsin is moving to home confinement to flatten the curve of the spread of this virus. I wish I could wax eloquently today with you on the questions of faith and astronomy. Instead, I simply offer the following resources and message I have shared with my parishioners: God will see us through this crisis.
Just to clarify, the resources below in no way reflect anything official from the Vatican. Writing for Sacred Space Astronomy, people sometimes presume that every pixel I publish comes with a Vatican seal of approval. I’m sure that, in time, there will be, if there hasn’t been already, official resources of home prayer in the absence of Mass from the Vatican. I simply share with you what I have provided for my parish of St. Olaf Parish in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. If you find these resources helpful, by all means, use them!
Let us support one another. We will get through this. And may we take this time to see God’s love and presence in the small things in life. Christ is with us in this spiritual desert. As I have had the good fortune of watching a mother hummingbird build a nest for her future youth, let us delight in the smallness of God’s creation around us, finding time to take a mental break from this pandemic. As we strive to be as safe as possible, let us also seek simple ways to smile, find peace, and love one another.
My Facebook post from Yesterday:
After silencing my heart today, I asked: Lord, are we, amid this crisis, entering a new era of mission?
In silence, the Lord wrote on my heart: You are my mission. You have been my mission. You will always be my mission.
Lord, break into our seclusion. Meet us with your love. May it fill us with the fervor of 1,000 missionaries. Make the desert of our fears bloom with the flowers of hope, peace of heart, joy, and love.
A family prayer when Mass is not possible.
Guide for Home Prayer – St. Olaf Parish
Prepare a small altar someplace in your home where your family can be comfortably seated. Find a white cloth that can cover the table. If you have a cross or a crucifix, place it in a central location on the table. Take a Bible and place it before the cross. Find one candle and place it by the cross.
Begin your prayer with the following blessing as you light the candle on your table:
Leader: Lord,
This candle reminds us of the light of Christ’s love that burns in our hearts.
Amid these dark days, come as light into our home, our family, and our hearts.
Chase away the darkness of fear and lighten our hearts with love, joy, and peace.
We ask this through Christ our Lord
All: Amen.
Leader or other family member:
Let us pray.
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the
human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to
take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross,
giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant
that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share
in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever.
All: Amen.
First Reading from the Prophet Ezekiel
Thus says the Lord GOD:
O my people, I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the LORD.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.
The Word of the Lord
All: Thanks be to God
Reflection: At times of crisis, we can begin to lose hope, feeling like our heart is in a type of spiritual tomb. In that darkness and cold, God reminds us that He will break through this “entombment of the heart” and allow the warmth and light of his love to penetrate our hearts.
As a family, reflect on this question: Do you feel your heart is entombed or bathed in the light of Christ? Regardless of how we feel, where do we see signs of hope that God is breaking into the darkness of our times?
Responsorial Psalm
- (7) With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the LORD.
R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption;
And he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.
Reflection: Have we felt a desire to cry out to the Lord? Have you allowed your heart to do so? I challenge your family, whether now or after the prayer service, share the fears and tears that are hidden in your hearts, not simply for the sake of grieving, but allowing us to get the venom we taste out of our mouths so we can instead taste the sweetness of Christ’s healing and mercy.
Gospel John 11:1-45
The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying,
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
+Let us go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
Your brother will rise.”
Martha said,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him,
“Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
The Gospel of the Lord
All: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
A Word from Fr. James: As the fears of pandemic are reaching deeper and deeper, it wouldn’t surprise me if you feel a little like Lazarus. We can see in our world death and fears of what the future holds. The hard truth is that we don’t know what the future holds. All I know is this: God is God of the living and he wishes to bring his light and life to crisis we face. Do not give into the temptation to feel that all is lost. Take one another’s hand. Express your love for each other. And know that God’s light of hope will shine brightly through these times. Your Pastor loves you. God loves you. And, together, let us allow the Love of Christ to see us through these times.
Petitions:
At this time, share your petitions as a family to God. I would personally ask you to continue your prayers for Brett Kleinke as he prepares to become Catholic and join St. Olaf Parish with his fiancé Lydia LaBudda.
Creed:
In the spirit of the upcoming Easter Vigil, let us renew our baptismal promises.
Leader: Do you believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth?
All: I do.
Priest: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered death and was buried,
rose again from the dead
and is seated at the right hand of the Father?
All: I do.
Priest: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting?
All: I do.
Pray together an Our Father
An Act of Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come spiritually into my heart. I embrace You, Lord, embrace me in your love and mercy. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Closing Prayer:
Almighty God, whose dear Son went not up to joy but
first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he
was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way
of the cross, may find it none other that the way of life and
peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.
If your family is so bold, sing a closing hymn… don’t be afraid to share a laugh with each other if it sounds… creative!
