April 10, 2020 Update:
*Please see the Change of Plans link for information concerning these events…
Thank you for your patience in waiting for updates here on our website but Deacon Pat & Joan Berigan and I have been meeting and planning for Holy Week according to the directives given us by the Diocese. So here is our plan for helping you to keep next week a time of spiritual focus as we continue to contemplate the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus even during this time of social separation, and indeed, especially during this time of isolation.
For Palm Sunday (April 5th, this upcoming Sunday), we will post a YouTube video here on the website which you can view beginning this Saturday, April 4th, at 4pm. You will see me blessing the palms before the Mass begins. During Mass we will proclaim the short version of the Passion story, followed by a homily and then the rest of the Mass as usual.
We will invite you to drive by on Sunday to pick up some blessed palms to take home with you. Deacon Pat, Joan Berigan and I will be there from 11am until Noon. Of course we will practice social distancing. You can also come to pick up palms in the vestibule of the church from Noon until 3pm on Palm Sunday.
On Holy Thursday, you will be able to view Mass through a YouTube video that will be posted at 7pm Thursday evening. Of course there will be no washing of the feet or procession with the Eucharist following the Mass but we will celebrate the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist and the call to service as we always do at this beginning of the Sacred Triduum, the three holy days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday & Holy Saturday.
On Good Friday we will post a YouTube video of our Solemn Celebration of the Lord’s Passion at Noon. We will also allow you to view on our website a slideshow of the Stations of the Cross using pictures of our mosaic Stations here at St. Leo’s, with a brief reflection on how we can unite our unique sufferings during this pandemic to the sufferings of Jesus.
We will also invite you to drive by and venerate the large cross we will have outside in that part of the drive that connects the two parking lots on our property. You can simply stop for a moment, look at the cross, make the sign of the cross in your car, and then move on as you pick up a small pin that shows the cross draped in a purple cloth. The cross will be outside from Noon until 3pm.
On Holy Saturday, you are free to drive by with your basket of food to be blessed from 11am until Noon. Again, we will say the blessing from a few feet away as you remain in your car with the basket. We will also have a holy water bottle you can take home with you to use in blessing your food and yourselves.
The Easter Vigil Mass, a very shortened version of our usual celebration, can be viewed on our website beginning at 7:30pm on Holy Saturday. It will begin with the blessing of the Easter Candle and will include the singing of the Exsultet but will be a modified form of this most important liturgy of the Church.
Finally on Easter Sunday morning, you will see a YouTube video on our website as we celebrate Easter Mass, beginning at 8am. Again you are welcomed to drive by on Easter Sunday morning from 11am until Noon, to receive a book that we planned to give away this year, as is our annual custom. It is called “Rediscover the Saints” by Matthew Kelly, a wonderful easy-to-read book that will inspire you with stories about the holy people we honor.
We hope that these little “sacramentals” or blessed objects we give to you will be a little sign and reminder of what we celebrate during this sacred time of the year, especially when we are deprived of the sacraments that are so important to us.
So again, please visit our website each day of Holy Week so that you may benefit from what we can offer you during this time of quarantine. And let us pray each day for those suffering from the Coronavirus illness, especially those who have or will die from this terrible pandemic. We pray too for all of the medical people who are tending to the sick while endangering their own health, for they are showing us each day what it means to “lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”