Holy Week

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I hope you are all managing to stay safe and healthy as the present health crisis unfolds and new restrictions are placed on our lives seemingly every day.

Holy Week and Easter are the most important liturgical celebrations in the Church’s year. We are sad, even distressed, about our inability to celebrate Holy Week and Easter as we have always done.

Palm Sunday is the first day of Holy Week. Palm Sunday is the Commemoration of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Entrance into Jerusalem for His Passion and Death.

Blessed crosses made out of palm leaves will be available at the church door to be used at home and in your car.

To show our love for the faith let us adorn our houses by putting palm branches outside our home.

Chrism Mass. In relation to the Chrism Mass, and given the uncertainty which still exists, it is decided to postpone the Chrism Mass to a later date, yet to be determined.

Holy Thursday. The Sacraments of Holy Orders and the Eucharist were instituted by Christ on Holy Thursday. One theme is Jesus leaving the memorial of His love through the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Another theme is service.

Good Friday. This is the only day in the Church’s calendar where there is no celebration of the Eucharist, because the emphasis is on the Lord’s Passion and Death as well as the Veneration of the Cross. Jesus through His Death on the Cross redeemed all of humanity, opening the gates of heaven.

The Lenten Holy Land collection will be moved to Sunday 13 September 2020, near the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, because of the suspension of public Masses in many places in the world due to the coronavirus.

The collection goes toward the maintenance and upkeep of the holy sites as well as supporting the lives of Christians in the Holy Land.

The Cross, right to the Grotto in the church ground, specially decorated will be available for veneration and private prayers.

Holy Saturday. The Easter Vigil is the holiest night of the year when Christ passed from death to life.

Easter Sunday. Jesus predicted He would rise on the third day (Mt 16:21). Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to His friends and disciples (Mt 28: 5-10 & Mk 16:1-13). Jesus’ Resurrection is the crowing truth of our faith and the confirmation of all of Christ’s teachings (1Cor. 15:14). Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter Sunday gives all people the gift of eternal life with God, forever in heaven.

Supper, Cross and Jesus’ Resurrection give all hope, the only source of the Eucharist.

Every Sunday Mass is a little Easter. Every Eucharist, we remember, in gratitude, the Last Supper (Holy Thursday), Jesus’ Passion and Death (Good Friday) and Jesus’ Resurrection (Easter Sunday). The Eucharist is the sacrament of God’s love for humanity through the memorial of Jesus’

Jesus, when you walked the way of love, people shouted their joy, they shouted their accusations, they shouted their pain. Grant us your strength so that, when the shouting ceases, we will continue to walk with you all the way to the cross, all the way to new life. Amen.

Let’s keep praying for each other, for our people, for our country and for the world.

God bless you!

- Fr Antony Suresh

COMMEMORATION OF THE LORD'S ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM

Gospel Matthew 21:1-11

When they drew near to Jerusalem

and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives,

Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,

‘Go into the village facing you,

and immediately you will find an ass tied,

and a colt with her: untie them and bring them to me.

If anyone says anything to you, you shall say,

“The Lord has need of them,”

and he will send them immediately.’

This took place to fulfil

what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

‘Tell the daughter of Sion,

Behold, your king is coming to you,

humble, and mounted on an ass,

and on a colt, the foal of an ass.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them;

they brought the ass and the colt,

and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon.

Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road,

and others cut branches from the trees

and spread them on the road.

And the crowds that went before him

and that followed him shouted,

‘Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!’

And when he entered Jerusalem,

all the city was stirred, saying, ‘Who is this?’

And the crowds said,

‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.’

Entrance Antiphon John 12: 1, 12-13; Ps 23: 9-10

Six days before the Passover,

when the Lord came into the city of Jerusalem,

the children ran to meet him;

in their hands they carried palm branches

and with a loud voice cried out:

Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed are you, who have come in your abundant mercy!

O gates, lift high your heads;

grow higher, ancient doors.

Let him enter, the king of glory!

Who is this king of glory?

He, the Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory.

Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed are you, who have come in your abundant mercy!

First Reading Isaiah 50:4-7

The Lord has given me

a disciple’s tongue.

So that I may know how to reply to the wearied

he provides me with speech.

Each morning he wakes me to hear,

to listen like a disciple.

The Lord has opened my ear.

For my part, I made no resistance,

neither did I turn away.

I offered my back to those who struck me,

my cheeks to those who tore at my beard;

I did not cover my face

against insult and spittle.

The Lord comes to my help,

so that I am untouched by the insults.

So, too, I set my face like flint;

I know I shall not be shamed.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 21:8-9,17-20,23-24

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

1. All who see me deride me.

They curl their lips, they toss their heads.

‘He trusted in the Lord, let him save him;

let him release him if this is his friend.’

2. Many dogs have surrounded me,

a band of the wicked beset me.

They tear holes in my hands and my feet

I can count every one of my bones.

3. They divide my clothing among them.

They cast lots for my robe.

O Lord, do not leave me alone,

my strength, make haste to help me!

4. I will tell of your name to my brethren

and praise you where they are assembled.

‘You who fear the Lord give him praise;

all sons of Jacob, give him glory.

Revere him, Israel’s sons.

Second Reading Philippians 2:6-11

His state was divine,

yet Christ Jesus did not cling

to his equality with God

but emptied himself

to assume the condition of a slave

and became as men are;

and being as all men are,

he was humbler yet,

even to accepting death,

death on a cross.

But God raised him high

and gave him the name

which is above all other names

so that all beings

in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld,

should bend the knee at the name of Jesus

and that every tongue should acclaim

Jesus Christ as Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Gospel Acclamation Philippians 2:8-9

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!

Christ became obedient for us even to death,

dying on the cross.

Therefore God raised him on high

and gave him a name above all other names.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, king of endless glory!

click link The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 26:14-27:66

Communion Antiphon Matthew 26: 42

Father, if this chalice cannot pass without my drinking it,

your will be done.