.Self-Isolation by Father David- April 17-2020
Dear All,
Firstly, very many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the Easter liturgies happen. I don’t think we have perfected it yet, so I am still trying to see what works and what doesn’t work, but with the ultimate aim of making a Sunday morning experience that helps sustain people through the week. I was so pleased last Sunday that we could show you the paschal candle in close-up. And I liked the insertions of the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. With more time I would have searched the stain glass windows in our church in Fernie to find some more scenes from the passion, so that all our pictures could have been ‘home grown’. This week we will have a picture from Sparwood, this time at the offertory, but Matthew who is drawing it has not finished it yet.
Just a little explanation: the Church considers Easter to be so important that it celebrates it for eight days (the octave of Easter). In the Eucharistic prayer on each of these days we say, “Celebrating the most sacred day of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh”. Even after Sunday – the eighth day of the octave – Easter won’t be over, it is just beginning, because from now up to Pentecost is all ‘Eastertide’.
A characteristic of Eastertide is that at Mass both the first reading and the second reading are taken from the New Testament; the first reading will be running through the Acts of the Apostles, while the second reading will be (up to the Ascension) from the first letter of St. Peter. The gospel reading is mostly from John’s gospel, with Luke’s story of ‘The Road to Emmaus’ slotted in next weekend.
I have attached a short 500 word reflection that I have written this week. Really it isn’t that deep and it says more about myself than the corona event we are going through, but as I have written it I thought I would pass it on.
Fr. David John is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Sunday Mass – 2nd Sunday of Easter
Date & Time: Sunday 19th April at 9am (Edmonton time zone)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 933 3318 6929
One tap mobile
+15873281099,,93333186929#
At a parishioner’s suggestion I have included a phone number so that those who don’t have access to the internet can phone in and listen to the Mass. I haven’t tried this out as yet, but as we have this Alberta number to access our Sunday Mass I thought I would include it. I so much want to see how we might be able to make Mass available to a few more people.