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Celebration of a Family Seder Meal  Enable the family to experience the relationship between our Jewish and Christian ritual heritage by celebrating a Family Passover meal. Passover usually coincides with Holy Week, which would be a good time to have a family Passover. You may also wish to invite another family to celebrate with you.  Sometime during Lent, gather the family to hear the story of the Israelites' exile, slavery, and liberation, with an explanation of the celebration of Passover as a thanksgiving feast celebrated annually by the Jewish people in honor of their freedom. (The Passover story is found...

Part I - The Easter Triduum We have just entered the season of Lent. This has always been an important time in the life of the Catholic Church. It begins very dramatically with the reception of ashes, in a sense, marking us as God's people. Near the end of the season we receive palms which remind us of the people's love for Jesus - a love which turned to hate and indifference quite rapidly. The special practices of Lent….added prayer, fasting, abstinence, almsgiving… remind us that this is no ordinary time. Because Lent is a season with a personality...

I want to get to something before Holy Week arrives. Many have asked WDTPRS and the ASK FATHER Question Box (askfather.net) about a translation point regarding the optional rite of washing feet (the “Mandatum” or “Command” – whence the word Maundy) on Holy Thursday. In many places women are invited to have their feet washed. This is against the Church’s laws based on Scripture (cf. Matthew 20:28). Two main excuses are offered in defense of the abuse. The first excuse concerns a false sense of service and charity: “hospitality” suggests women must be “included”. In the USA some might obtusely...

April 8, 2004 Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper Psalm: Thursday 17 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading I Ex 12:1-8, 11-14 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the...

The Holy Season of Lent Fast and Abstinence.It is a traditional doctrine of Christian spirituality that a constituent part of repentance, of turning away from sin and back to God, includes some form of penance, without which the Christian is unlikely to remain on the narrow path and be saved (Jer. 18:11, 25:5; Ez.  18:30, 33:11-15; Joel 2:12; Mt. 3:2; Mt. 4:17; Acts 2:38). Christ Himself said that His disciples would fast once He had departed (Lk. 5:35). The general law of penance, therefore, is part of the law of God for man. The Church for her part has...

Fair Lawn officer killed in shootout     Play the video (04/18/03) BERGEN - A manhunt involving numerous law enforcement agencies was launched on Thursday night after a shootout in Bergen County ended with one police officer dead and another wounded.Fair Lawn Police Officer Maryann Collura was helping a Clifton officer who was involved in a car chase on Thursday night. The Clifton officer was chasing a red sports car that was eventually stopped on a church's front lawn.Authorities say when the officers tried to arrest the people in the car, at least one of the suspects and the Clifton...

THE FOURTH CUP Scott Hahn The Sacrament of the EucharistI'd like to cover a lot, and I'd like to tell you in advance what I'm going to tell you. I'd like to move from one to another to a third area. The first area I'd like to focus on is how it is that Christ in the Last Supper and in the Eucharist offers himself up as the new covenant Passover, and how the Eucharist and the Old Testament Passover are in a sense two sides of the same coin. The second focus of our time will be on...

Maundy Thursday The feast of Maundy (or Holy) Thursday solemnly commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and is the oldest of the observances peculiar to Holy Week. In Rome various accessory ceremonies were early added to this commemoration, namely the consecration of the holy oils and the reconciliation of penitents, ceremonies obviously practical in character and readily explained by the proximity of the Christian Easter and the necessity of preparing for it. Holy Thursday could not but be a day of liturgical reunion since, in the cycle of movable feasts, it brings around the anniversary of the institution of the...

April 17, 2003Holy ThursdayEvening Mass of the Lord's Supper Psalm: Thursday Week 18 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading IEx 12:1-8, 11-14 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, "This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;you shall reckon it the first month of the year.Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your familiesmust procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring oneand shall...

April 17, 2003Holy ThursdayChrism Mass Psalm: Thursday Week 18 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading IIs 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,because the Lord has anointed me;He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly,to heal the brokenhearted,To proclaim liberty to the captivesand release to the prisoners,To announce a year of favor from the Lordand a day of vindication by our God,to comfort all who mourn;To place on those who mourn in Ziona diadem instead of ashes,To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning,a glorious mantle instead of...

Home The Meaning of Holy Week    GRACE MACKINNON Dear Grace, I hear Catholics talking so much about Holy Week. What exactly is going on during this time? Holy Week is most definitely a very sacred time of the year, for it is now that we will commemorate and remember the last week of Jesus' life on this earth. These are the days leading up to the great Easter Feast. The Lenten season of sacrifice and self-denial is about to come to an end, but this coming week is extremely important for all Christians. The greatest focus of the...