Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
By Lorene Hanley Duquin Amid your preparations for Easter, be sure to keep the most sacred time of the church’s calendar holy and spiritually satisfying. What are you doing for Holy Week? It’s OK if your Holy Week list includes coloring eggs, cleaning and baking for Easter, shopping for new outfits, traveling to a relative’s home or going on a spring vacation. There’s nothing wrong with secular Easter activities. But it’s important to keep in mind that there is also a profound spiritual basis for the holiday celebration. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and ends at sundown on Easter. Our remembrance of the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus makes Holy Week the most sacred time of the year for Catholics. How will you balance the sacred part of Holy Week with all of the other things you will be doing? All of it is important in your life and in the lives of your family members. But keeping a balance between the spiritual and the secular will require a little planning on your part. Start by making a list of everything that needs to be done during Holy Week. Then block out time in your busy calendar for attending Holy Week liturgies. Be sure to set aside specific times every day during the week for Lenten devotions, quiet prayer, Scripture reading and meditation.
Your greatest temptation will be scrimping on your spiritual needs because there is so much going on! If you let that happen, your Easter celebration may look perfect on the surface, but will feel spiritually unsatisfying. Consider these 12 ways to make Holy Week more meaningful: THINK PRAYER. If you have to work or go to school during Holy Week, think about how you can incorporate prayer breaks into each day. M A K E A N A D D I T I O NA L SACRIFICE by fasting and abstaining from meat on Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday in addition to Good Friday. DON’T WATCH TELEVISION from sundown on Holy Thursday until Easter morning. GO to confession. SET ASIDE 10 minutes every day to read Passion accounts in the Gospels. Make it a point to FORGIVE someone on Good Friday. PRAY the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. OFFER UP any pain or difficulties you experience during Holy Week and unite your sufferings with the pain of Christ. PRAY the Stations of the Cross. ATTEND all of the triduum liturgies. INVITE family members, friends and neighbors – especially people who have strayed from the church – to come to church with you. GUIDE TO HOLY WEEK, page EL2
(CNS PHOTO/CROSIERS)
A guide to Holy Week: Balancing the sacred and secular in celebration
Christ’s ascent to heaven is depicted in a stained glass window at St. Mary’s Basilica in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Toward the end of the Easter liturgical cycle, the church marks the feast of the Ascension, June 5 this year, commemorating the completion of Christ’s mission on earth and his entry into heaven.
Easter Vigil to welcome hundreds of new Catholics in archdiocese By Valerie Schmalz
St. Charles parishioner Stan Ramirez with his wife and children.
Stan Ramirez was always the guy at the back of the church. This year during Easter Vigil, he will be among those who are front and center. Ramirez, a catechumen, will be baptized, confirmed and receive his first holy Communion at St. Charles Church in San Carlos on April 23 during Easter Vigil as more than 200 people throughout the Archdiocese of San Francisco and thousands throughout the U.S. enter the church. “I find myself at home,” said Ramirez, 45, who said that for 20 years he was always the guy who sat in the back of the church. “I wrote an e-mail to a friend, ‘I have really found peace in myself.’”
Ramirez said he found himself drawn more urgently to the faith with the birth of his daughter three years ago. “I always didn’t want to be the person who is over religious and I find myself being that person,” he said. Entering the church during Easter Vigil Mass is an ancient rite that was restored to the Catholic liturgy after the Second Vatican Council to signify that the newly baptized are received into a community of faith. There are two different rituals and processes of preparation in the faith that may culminate at Easter Vigil. The catechumens are those who have never been baptized. They participate in the Rite of Christian Initiation, a process that may take a year or longer. At Easter Vigil, catechumens
are baptized, confirmed and receive first Eucharist. During Easter Vigil parishes might also witness Christians who have been baptized, “come into the full communion” of the Catholic Church. They have also gone through a special catechetical program. In the Archdiocese of San Francisco, a total of 178 catechumens will be baptized, with another 62 candidates being received into the full communion of the Catholic Church. In addition, 155 adult Catholics who were baptized but never received the other sacraments of initiation will be confirmed and receive first Communion at Easter Vigil or later during the Easter season, said Patrick Vallez-Kelly, director of the archdiocesan office of worship. NEW CATHOLICS, page EL7
INSIDE Holy Week & easter Liturgies section
The consolation of Easter ~ Page EL5 ~
EWTN to air Easter liturgies from D.C., Rome ~ Page EL6 ~
Holy Week quiz ~ Page EL4 ~ April 15, 2011
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VOLUME 13
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No. 15