Greetings Everyone!
We are getting closer to the high point of the Church year, the Paschal Triduum, which recalls the central events of our faith, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.
Recap of Last Class
During our most recent class, we spent time on the symbols of the Triduum. They include the bread and cup that were part of the Jewish celebration of Passover that have become incorporated into the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, Who offered His Body and Blood for our salvation. This New Covenant was established with a new commandment, to love one another as God, in Jesus, has loved us. We celebrate what happened at the Last Supper specially on Maundy Thursday and also experience every time we attend Mass.
We also had a brief meditation/prayer with the Cross, similar to the custom of the Veneration of the Cross at the liturgy of Cross Friday.
And we had a demonstration with a room being lit up progressively with light, like what happens at the Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass. It is an amazing visual effect as the lights getting brighter in Church through the Liturgy of the Word, leading to the Gospel of the Resurrection, recounting the central event of our faith.
We also touched briefly upon two important celebrations during the month of March: the Feast of St. Patrick on March 17 and the Solemnity of the Annunciation on March 25.
There are some links at the bottom of this post about these topics from class.
Looking Ahead
We are not scheduled to have class again until April 13. That class will be in the Second Week of the Easter Season, and we'll spend time unpacking the meaning of the Season that follow Easter/Resurrection Sunday.
We don't officially have class scheduled on March 30 because it is District 97's Spring Break week. However, we invite you to join an additionally-scheduled class on March 30, during which we'll pray the Stations of the Cross, a prayer liturgy that allows us to ponder more deeply Christ's Passion and how it speaks to our lives and our world today. This class will start at the usual time of 7:00, and should last no later than 7:40, and may even end earlier than that.
Activity Options for the Coming Weeks
You will do two different activities in the weeks until our next scheduled class on April 13, preferably one option for Lent, and one option for Easter Season..
Please start with one of the following options and then submit a short reflection of 1-2 sentences at this link.
1. Pray the Stations of the Cross. Here are some options available online:
Scriptural Stations of the Cross by Pope St. John Paul II, which has a different sequence of events
You're welcome to use any of the above formats for praying the Stations, or any other format you find online or in a print resource.
Joining class on March 30 will count toward this option as an in-depth option.
2. Spend time listening to the hymn "Go to Dark Gethsemane", which was used in part at the end of class on March 30. (This version has a 30-second introduction before the singing starts.)
3. Watch Father Bob's Triduum reflection or Mrs. Ondrlas's Easter Sunday reflection on the Ascension YouTube channel.
4. Read and reflect on the Scriptures passages for Palm Sunday, or any of the days of the Triduum, Maundy Thursday, Passion Friday, Holy Saturday, or Resurrection Sunday.
If you choose Palm Sunday, you can read the Procession Gospel, the 1st reading, the Psalm, and the 2nd reading. If you read the entire Passional story from the Gospel of St. Mark, that counts as an in-depth option.
If you choose Holy Saturday, please read the Gospel reading, the Epistle reading from Romans, and then pick any of the Old Testament readings and read it along with its Psalm. If you read all the readings for Holy Saturday, that counts as an in-depth option.
5. In-depth option: Attend any of these Triduum liturgies or watch the livestream of them, at Ascension or a different church. (Paul proclaims the first part of St. John's Passion narrative on Passion Friday.) Here is the Ascension YouTube channel where livestreams and archived liturgies are available.
6. Watch one of the videos for Best Lent Ever and write a short reflection on what stood out to you in any of the videos. All videos, for the current day and past days, are available for viewing at this link. The reflection for Holy Saturday has some particularly good insights for Easter/Resurrection Sunday.
7. Read from the Words for the Weary Lenten booklet.
8. Write Easter notes to residents at Belmont Village. Please contact Paul for information on where to send them. If you aren't able to do them in time for Resurrection Sunday on April 4, it would still be fitting to send them to the residents as cards for the Easter Season, which lasts for several weeks after Resurrection Sunday.
9. Send a get-well note to a former Irving student awaiting surgery. Please contact Paul for details on where to send your note.
10. In-depth option: Watch Lenten Vespers for Palm Sunday, March 28, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception occurs. You can watch it on the basilica's website, where there is also a leaflet posted so you can follow along. Or you can watch it on the YouTube channel, live at 3 PM CT that day, or archived later. It lasts about 30 minutes.
11. Listen to an Easter Season hymn from this collection and reflect on it. If you listen to the entire collection of songs, that counts as an in-depth option.
12. In-depth option: Spend time with the Divine Mercy Chaplet. You can read the article on this webpage on the Ascension Parish website, and follow the instructions to pray the chaplet. You may also view an archived recording of the chaplet prayer on the Relevant Radio website, about 35 minutes long in total.
If you pick more than two of the above options to do, that counts the same as an in-depth option.
We pray that you have a blessed time in these final days of Lent, during Holy Week, and the Triduum.
We pray you have a joyful Easter/Resurrection Sunday and great start to the Easter Season.
And we pray you have a restful, enjoyable Spring Break.
We remain ever connected as One Church in our Savior, Who died and rose again:
All my relations.
God's blessings,
Debbie Lopez
Paul Rubio
Here's the crown of thorns bush in the Desert Room at the Oak Park Conservatory. Jesus was crowned as a cruel joke during His Passion, and is now exalted as King because of the Paschal Mystery, His Death and Resurrection, by which we are saved.
Additional Links
Paul previously recorded two videos that speak about Triduum symbols:
Here's the video for Maundy Thursday.
Here's the video for Holy Saturday.
Paul thanks his parents for assistance with these videos.
We also watched these two music videos in class:
This video is Chris Tomlin's performance of "Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)", which embellishes the well-known Christian hymn, interspersed with scenes from the 2007 movie Amazing Grace, telling the story of William Wilberforce's campaign to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire.
This video is for Michael W. Smith's song "Purified". While not written specifically about Lent, its lyrics speak to what Lent is about.
Here again is the video about St. Patrick, by Chris Stefanick.
Please note that Chris releases a short video every week on Tuesday on a topic about the spiritual life.
Here's the video of YouTube stars Mat and Savannah Shaw singing the Beatles song "Let it Be". While the words weren't intended to be about the Blessed Mother, they speak to the words she offered in her Fiat: "Let it Be".
This dad-daughter duo has made many great videos singing songs to spread joy and encouragement over the past year. Please feel free to check out their YouTube channel.
Here's a short video with the scene of the Annunciation in the 2006 movie The Nativity Story.
Here's a link to the news story about Prince William's night out on the streets of London. It connects well with how Christ humbled Himself and died on the Cross for us, as described in Philippians 2:6-11, the 2nd reading for Palm Sunday.
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