The Weekly Bulletin of the Catholic Community at The Family Foundation School
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Number 18 – March 28, 2010
Beginning with today, Passion Sunday (also known as Palm Sunday) we begin Holy Week. But isn’t every day a holy day; every week a holy week? Of course, as each is given to us as a gift by which we can come to know and love and serve God. But THIS week is given the name HOLY as it recalls the events in the Life of Jesus which saved us: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday.
Blake and Kevin will be Baptized on Saturday night. They invite you to join them in prayer as they meet Jesus in the water for the first time, as they receive their First Communion (taking their place in the life of the Church around the altar) and as they are Confirmed – sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit who gives us spiritual gifts as we return to the Father.
Want to keep this a truly Holy Week? More silence, no moody sulking, but the silence that accompanies less talk, less inner noise, a deeper union with Jesus.
Want to keep this a truly Holy Week? Come to the three liturgies we will celebrate Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. They are very beautiful celebrations of what Jesus has done for love of us.
Want to keep this a truly Holy Week? Do some fasting. Do without seconds. No candy until Easter. Fast from complaining. Fast from condemning and criticizing people. This requires a great attentiveness.
Want to keep this a truly Holy Week? Avoid all argument, especially in the dorms. Practice small acts of anonymous charity. Read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Passion.
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The Savior has come today to the city of Jerusalem,
to fulfill the scriptures;
and the children have taken palms into their hands
and spread their garments
before him, knowing that he is our God,
to whom the cherubim sings without ceasing:
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed are you who show great compassion for humanity,
Lord, have mercy upon us. (Byzantine Vespers)
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We’re each given a little bunch of greens today: a palm branch not unlike the branches used to welcome Jesus 2000 years ago; a pussy-willow branch, a sign of spring’s new life and growth; and a piece of boxwood, a slow-growing and hardy bush that survives the winter (symbol of our own survival, by God’s mercy); tied with a red ribbon to remind us of the Blood of Jesus shed for love of us. Even though they will dry out, keep these things near your bed during the year – a reminder to welcome Jesus each day with great joy.
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Baptism: When we were born, we had to pass through our mother’s water. “My water has broken” mom would call to dad or to her own mother as an excited way of saying you and I were on our way. And in Baptism, we draw near to the womb of the Church which is the font. And there we pass through water a second time to be born from above and to take our place in the new creature begun by Jesus – freed from our inner slavery – as the Hebrews passed through the waters of the Red Sea – to inner freedom – the freedom to live without faithless fears, from sin to grace, free to love others joyfully and generously.
Listen to the prayers and accompanying scripture verses as the newly baptized are clothed in white – flinging off the old clothes of our corruption – rotted through and through with lusts illusions. And the giving of Christ-light by which we are to walk through this world of shadows.
And there is the oil of Confirmation. The word Confirmation means, “Yes it’s so!” And the oil is called chrism. It is blessed only by a bishop which means that the Baptized Catholic is part of a church that extends back in time to Jesus (chrism=Christ) and that ancient faith is guarded throughout time by bishops who are fathers in the faith. And the oil is highly fragrant – that I would leave behind me, wherever I go, the fragrance of Christ. And the oil reflects light – that I would become a “child of the light” and bring about the things of light, dispelling darkness. And the oil-cross marks me as belonging to Christ – and so all other signs (including tattoos) are now obsolete as the cross, though invisible, remains throughout my life. And oil was used by ancient wrestlers – that I would evade Satan’s grip. Water, oil, clothing, light: cause for deep reflection!
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