The Sacrament of Holy Orders
The last two sacraments are called the sacraments of service, Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony. They are both all about serving others. In Holy Matrimony, husband and wife receive grace from God to better serve one another and their family, to treat one another with love, kindness, compassion, and generosity, and to help one another get to heaven. In Holy Orders, deacons, priests, and bishops receive grace from God to serve the Church, the people of God, to lead people in prayer and service to God, to help people to grow in holiness, and to help people get to heaven. The Sacrament of Holy Orders is based on apostolic succession. Each bishop alive today was ordained by another bishop, who laid hands on his head and prayed over Him, and that bishop was ordained by another bishop, going back in a line all the way to the Apostles and before through them to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gave the Apostles the authority to lead the Church, to perform the sacraments, to forgive sins, and to preach and teach in His name. They passed that authority on to their successors. Priests and deacons are ordained by bishops and receive from the bishop the right to lead prayer, administer the sacraments, give blessings, etc. When a deacon, priest, or bishop uses their authority and power in serving and leading the Church, it isn’t really their own authority and power; it’s the authority and power of Christ passed down to them through apostolic succession. Some of the sacraments change the very soul of the person receiving them, like baptism and confirmation and Holy Orders. If you ever stop by St. Louis Cemetary No. 3, on Esplanade, just inside the front entrance is the priest’s mausoleum, where many priests of the Archdiocese of New Orleans are buried. On the font is has the inscription in Latin, “Tu es sacerdos in aeternum.” You are a priest forever. These three sacraments leave an indelible mark on the soul. They are, truly, eternal, because they connect us to Christ the High Priest, who is eternal. The purpose of Holy Orders, of the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopacy (bishops), is to imitate Christ who “came to serve and not to be served.” We serve people by trying to help them to grow in holiness. Please pray for your clergy, deacons, priests, and bishops, that they may grow in holiness, too, so as to better help all people to grow in holiness.
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Holy Week
Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday, is the beginning of Holy Week. Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem while being honored by the crowds, and it continues through the events of the Passion of the Lord. This is one of the most ancient feasts in the Church. We know this because a pilgrim to Jerusalem, named Egeria, recorded the services of Holy Week in her diary. At that time Holy Week was already a normal celebration in the Holy Land, and these services spread throughout the Church. Holy Week prepares us to celebrate the resurrection at the Easter Vigil, which itself is one of the oldest Masses in the history of the Church. In New Orleans, all of the priests gather for the Chrism Mass on Holy Tuesday. At the Chrism Mass, the Archbishop blesses the holy oils which are then distributed to all of the Churches to be used in the sacraments. There’s the Oil of the Sick which is used in the anointing of the sick. The Oil of Catechumens is used in the Rite of Baptism, to anoint those who are about to be baptized. A catechumen is a student, or a disciple, and this anointing shows that the newly baptized are about to become disciples of Christ. Finally, the Sacred Chrism, which is the only one where the olive oil is mixed with perfumes, is used in baptisms, confirmation, and Holy Orders, and it represents the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is a special Mass for priests because we renew our ordination promises on this day. The next major Mass is the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. Knowing that He was about to be arrested, Jesus gathered His Apostles in the upper room where He washed their feet, thus commissioning them for the service of the Church, and instituted the Eucharist with the very first celebration of the Mass. After Mass, we keep vigil with the Eucharist in Church, as Jesus asked His apostles, “Could you not watch one hour with me?” The Church will be left open until 10:00 pm for those who wish to pray before Jesus in the tabernacle. On Good Friday we commemorate the arrest, condemnation, and crucifixion of Jesus with the Solemn Service, which begins at 3:00 pm, the time when Jesus died. After the service we will keep vigil with the cross, because the Eucharist will have been removed from the Church in honor of the death of the Lord. These are some of the most important, solemn, and beautiful services in the entire year. They celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, which is our salvation and the reason we are Christians. The whole week, and especially the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday) is designed to be like a spiritual retreat. In addition to the special services, we’ll have morning prayer on each day of the triduum, the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, and confessions on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. I’d encourage you to participate in whatever parts of Holy Week that you can. The 12th Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross
“Behold Jesus crucified! Behold His wounds received for love of you! His whole appearance betokens love. His head is bent to kiss you. His arms are extended to embrace you. His heart is open to receive you. Oh what love! Jesus dies on the Cross, to preserve you from eternal death.” –St. Francis of Assisi The 13th Station: Jesus is Taken Down From the Cross The body of Jesus is taken down from the Cross and placed in the arms of His mother. Jesus proved that He has power over life and death by raising Lazarus from the dead. Instead of taking Himself off of the cross, He must be lifted from it by one of His disciples. In the midst of suffering and affliction, we must pray that we may persevere until the end. If Jesus Christ, the Son of God, prayed to the point of sweating blood, how much more do we need to pray. The 14th Station: Jesus is Laid in the Tomb In the Rite of Burial, the Church prays, “Lord Jesus Christ, by your own three days in the tomb, you hallowed the graves of all who believe in you and so made the grave a sign of hope that promises resurrection.” As we keep vigil before the empty tabernacle from the crucifixion on Good Friday until Easter Sunday, and as we keep vigil before the graves of our loved ones, let us remember the vigil that the disciples kept during those three dark days, and thank God that He has given us the hope of resurrection. The Resurrection of Our Lord (To be prayed on Easter Sunday) Today we approach the tomb of Jesus with the women and the disciples, we see the stone rolled back and the burial clothes rolled up. Pope St. John Paul II wrote of this moment, “The empty tomb is the sign of the definitive victory of truth over falsehood, of good over evil, of mercy over sin, of life over death. The empty tomb is the sign of the hope which 'does not deceive' (Rom 5:5). '[Our] hope is full of immortality' (cf. Wis 3:4).” Lord God almighty, you have prepared us for this Easter Sunday by the self denial of Lent, as we celebrate today look upon us in Your mercy shine the light of Your Presence upon us, enlighten us with Your Truth, and fill us with the Life of the Spirit, that we may see your presence among us as clearly as the Apostles saw you in the upper room. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Stations of the Cross, part 2
The 6th Station: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus The name “Veronica” literally means “true image,” we do not know Veronica's true name, for she was named for the gift that Christ gave her, his Divine Image imprinted on her veil. We can also do a service of mercy for Christ. Whenever we do it for the least of His brethren, the poor, weak, and suffering, then Christ will imprint His Image, not on a piece of cloth, but on our very souls. The 7th Station: Jesus Falls a Second Time This second fall of Jesus speaks to us of how we fall into sin again and again. Christ was able to get up, pick up His cross, and continue. By getting up again, Christ gives us the strength to get up again. By ourselves, we are not strong enough to get up again, we get discouraged and disillusioned, but Jesus tells us, “My grace is sufficient for you.” The 8th Station: Jesus Speaks to the Holy Women He tells the women not to weep for Him, but for themselves and for their children; He tells them to weep for their sins, because they “did not recognize the time of their visitation.” What about us, do we recognize the time of our visitation, do we hear the voice of God speaking in our hearts? Now is the time for us to weep for our sins, to repent, and to return to the Lord. The 9th Station: Jesus Falls the Third Time “Exhausted at the foot of Calvary, Jesus falls for the third time to the ground. How painfully must have been reopened all the wounds of His tender body by these repeated falls. And how enormous must my sins be, to cause Jesus to fall so painfully. Had not Jesus taken my sins upon Himself, they would have plunged me into the abyss of Hell.” –St. Francis of Assisi The 10th Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments Imagine the pain of Jesus as His blood-soaked garments are torn from His body and His wounds once again reopened. Let us remember that pain when we shy away from the confessional for fear reopening our own spiritual wounds of sin. In His great love for us, Jesus received the wounds to His body that He might heal the wounds to our souls. The 11th Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross Jesus' agony is only intensified as large nails are driven through His hands and His feet. As the cross is lifted He must fight even to take a breath. As He lifts Himself to fill His lungs the nails tear at the nerve endings in His hands and feet. Getting enough air to speak is especially difficult, but Jesus speaks 7 times from the cross. However, as great as this suffering is, Jesus' love for you and me is even greater, and, as He is lifted up, it is this love that draws us to Him. The Divine Mercy devotion was revealed by God to a young nun of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw, Poland, St. Faustina Kowalska. In 1931, the Lord Jesus appeared to St. Faustina and instructed her to have an image painted of what she saw, that image is what we know as the Divine Mercy image. He would speak to her a lot about His desire to pour out His mercy upon the world, if only we would ask for His mercy and show mercy to others. In the image Jesus has one hand raised in blessing and the other is pointing at His heart. There are two rays of light coming from His heart, representing the blood and water that flowed from His side when He was pierced by the soldier’s lance as He hung upon the Cross. The light ray is the water, representing the healing waters of Baptism, and the red is the blood, which “is the life of souls,” and represents the Most Precious Body and Blood of our Lord.
St. Faustina’s spiritual director instructed her to write a diary about all of her visions of Jesus and everything that He revealed to her. The devotion to the Divine Mercy had began to spread in the 1930’s, even before her death in 1938. On April 30, 2000, Pope St. John Paul II canonized St. Faustina, and declared the Second Sunday of Easter to be Divine Mercy Sunday for the Church throughout the world. The devotion had begun to spread throughout the world in the 80’s and 90’s, but now it would really take off. There are three parts of the devotion. The first part is the image, which is meant to help us to meditate on the mercy of God, and on our need for His mercy. The second is the novena, which is prayed from Good Friday through Easter Saturday. The Divine Mercy chaplet can be prayed throughout the year, but it is recommended to pray it during the 3 o’clock hour, the hour of mercy. Jesus told St. Faustina, “At three o'clock, implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My abandonment at the moment of agony. This is the hour of great mercy.” This devotion reminds us of the great mercy of God and that God is always ready to forgive the sins of those who ask. No sin is greater than God’s mercy. We may think that our sins are too great or that we aren’t worthy of forgiveness, but remember that Jesus even forgave the very people who put Him on the Cross, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Being reminded of the mercy of God also reminds us that we do, in fact, need mercy and forgiveness. God won’t force anything on us, even forgiveness. We have to recognize that we have sinned, that we have offended Him, and that we are in need of forgiveness, and ask for it. If you want to learn more, click on the "News" tab on the sidebar. |
AuthorFr. Bryan was pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes from July 3, 2017 to June 2022. Categories
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