Bishop Kevin Farrell

The Chief Shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas

Connect

Keep Christianity in the Holy Land a living faith

By

Please translate this title: Keep Christianity in the Holy Land a living faith

Christianity is struggling to survive in the land where it originated. Christians have been forgotten in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Catholic Church is fighting to keep Christianity in the Holy Land a living faith and not a relic.

Franciscan priests and brothers have been caring for the holy sites for more than seven hundred years dating back to the meeting of St. Francis of Assisi and the Sultan Malek-el-Kamel in the early 13th Century. In 1342, Pope Clement VI issued a pontifical mandate authorizing the Franciscans as custodians.

Today, the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land is doing much more than looking after the holy places, although that is a significant part of their work. They operate schools with more than 10,000 students in grades pre-K through 12.

They have constructed more than one thousand residential units where Jesus walked and preached in Bethlehem, Bethpage and Nazareth and 80 homes have been rehabilitated for Christian families in the Old City of Jerusalem. Friars provide pastoral care in 29 parishes and maintain guest houses and pilgrimages for visitors from throughout the world.

Their pro-active efforts to maintain a dynamic Christian presence in the Holy Land has resulted in 120 young men preparing to become Franciscan priests and brothers. Franciscan archaeologists are seeking to discover new information about the beginnings of the Christian faith in places like Magdala, the home of Mary Magdalen.

On Good Friday a collection will be taken up in every Catholic Church to fund the works of the Franciscans in the Holy Land. We cannot allow the Faith to be snuffed out in the Holy Land. We cannot allow the holy places to fall into disrepair.

Please assist in this most important mission. I ask you to give generously to the Holy Land Collection on Good Friday or donate online at http://www.myfranciscan.org/our-mission/the-good-friday-collection/

Keep Christianity in the Holy Land a living faith and not a relic.

 

 

 

Good Friday: Commemorating the supreme act of mercy

By

20160324-goodfriday

Mercy is the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.

On Good Friday we commemorate the supreme act of mercy, Jesus giving himself up to an ignominious death to reconcile us to the Father. St. Paul describes it in his letter to the Church in Philippi: “… He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2: 7-8).

This supreme act of mercy flows from the compassion of God. At its root, the word compassion means to “suffer with,” accompanied by a desire to relieve the suffering. God’s compassion is not mere empathy, but a sharing of our suffering and a determination to alleviate it. That desire, that determination manifests itself in God’s mercy. Jesus is the personification of God’s mercy, or, as Pope Francis puts it, “Jesus is mercy incarnate.”

The liturgy on Good Friday is central to the Passion of the Lord. It includes the ancient Christian custom of Adoration of the Holy Cross, dating to the fourth century. (Cf Pilgrimage of Egeria). The antiphon sung during the adoration explains why we both venerate and exalt this symbol of our salvation:

We adore your cross, O Lord.
We praise and glorify our holy Resurrection.
For behold, because of the wood of a tree
Joy has come to the whole world.

Our Holy Father Francis recalls that, “Jesus on the cross feels the whole weight of the evil, and with the force of God’s love he conquers it; he defeats it with his resurrection. This is the good that Jesus does for us on the throne of the cross. Christ’s cross, embraced with love, never leads to sadness, but to joy, to the joy of having been saved and of doing a little of what he did on the day of his death.” The Church of Mercy

Think about this for a moment. Jesus transformed the cross, an instrument of death, a mark of ignominy and human failure, into a symbol of the triumph of love and mercy.

Each of us has his or her cross, and in some cases, crosses. They can be overwhelming, almost unbearable. Let us seek to embrace them, as Jesus did and he will come to us, as Simon of Cyrene did for him, to help us bear our cross. They are our badge of discipleship.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,* take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matt 16:24)

Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord

By

Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord

When we think of Good Friday the image that immediately comes to mind is the cross, which is the most common Christian symbol. There was a time when Catholics in America were called “cross backs.” We begin our prayers with the Sign of the Cross, which not only professes Jesus crucified but the Holy Trinity.

In the Roman Missal, Good Friday is called Friday of the Passion of the Lord, and the liturgy, like all the Triduum liturgies, recalls the events that culminated in the Resurrection. Good Friday is the only day of the year when no Mass is celebrated and the only other sacraments that may be celebrated are Penance of the Sacrament of the Sick.

St. Ambrose referred to Good Friday as a “Day of Bitterness.” The desolation felt by Christians on this day is represented by the barren altar and open tabernacle – the altar having been stripped after the conclusion of the Holy Thursday. There is no cross, there are no candles and no altar cloths, and no music or bells may be used.

The Liturgy of the Word consists of Isaiah’s account of the Suffering Servant, who “was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins.”It is followed by Psalm 31, a penitential psalm with the antiphon from Psalm 23, which Christ spoke from the cross, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” The second reading is the passage on Christ the High Priest from Hebrews, Chapter 4, “Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.” John’s Passion narrative is preceded by a short verse from the Letter to Philemon, emphasizing that were saved by Jesus’ obedience, “Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Following a number of intersessions, the cross is unveiled in procession and public adoration begins after the priest and the ministers have reverenced the cross. When the adoration has been completed, the priest chants the ancient reproaches of God speaking to us for our commissions and omissions.

Although there is no Eucharistic liturgy, the Eucharist that has been reserved on Holy Thursday is distributed at the Good Friday liturgy, which used to be called the Mass of the Pre-sanctified. Distribution of Holy Communion is preceded by the Lord’s Prayer.

The liturgy concludes in silence as the priest and ministers leave and we are left to reflect prayerfully on Jesus in the tomb.

Image Credit: Parish Church of St. Barbara (Ramersbach), stained glass windows depicting the Man of Sorrows, Wikimedia Commons

Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord

By

As our journey of remembrance brings us to the day of the Crucifixion, we might ask ourselves what can be good about Good Friday? There are many theories but we do not really know the origin. It is unique to English with other cultures referring to it as Suffering Friday, Long Friday or Holy Friday.

Whatever name you choose, the liturgy reminds us that it was the time when Jesus’ human nature was most demonstrated. It is the day He drank the cup He prayed would pass, it is the day He took upon Himself our sins. It is the day he experienced the ultimate human experience…death.

In the liturgy, which is not really a Mass because there is no consecration, we begin with Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 52-53) where we are reminded that “it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured”…and that, “upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.”

We are then reminded in Hebrews (4:14ff) that we may seek forgiveness with confidence because “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.”

Then we hear of John’s Passion which begins after the Last Supper when Jesus suffers His agony at Gethsemane and betrayal by Judas, the kangaroo court at the home of Caiaphas and His interrogation and scourging by Pilate and finally His handing over by Pilate for crucifixion. John alone tells us that Mary is given to the care of the Beloved Disciple by Jesus, before surrendering His Spirit. Finally he is buriedl by Joseph of Arimathea in his personal tomb.

Following a series of intercessions, the crucifix which has been veiled is gradually uncovered with the Antiphon, “Behold the wood of the cross upon which hung the salvation of the world.” This is followed by adoration of the cross by the people.

After a series of reproaches in which God challenges His people about their multiple rejections of his outreaches to them, the priest retrieves the Eucharist consecrated on Holy Thursday for distribution.

When Communion is over, a short prayer is said and a final blessing given. Then without ceremony, and in silence, the priest and ministers leave the altar. Only the cross, a bare altar and an empty tabernacle remain to remind us of Jesus in the tomb.

No ceremonies of any sort are permitted until the Resurrection is celebrated.

And so, our journey of remembrance pauses in silent reflection on the incomprehensible love that in Paul’s words “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped,” but rather “humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:6,8)

Good Friday: A day of solemn reflection

By

On Good Friday the priest enters the church in silence and prostrates himself before the altar signifying the grief and sorrow of the Church. It is a day of solemn reflection on the mystery of the cross.

As we meditate on the Lord’s Passion. We are confronted with two images from the Hebrew Scriptures that pre-figure the sufferings of Jesus as vicarious and redemptive.

Once again we are confonted with the Suffering Servant from Isaiah 52 and 53, the mysterious figure who suffered for the offenses of others. “It was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured … he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.”

In the Liturgy of the Hours, St. John Chrysostom returns to the image of Jesus as the new Paschal Lamb from Holy Thursday’s liturgy: “If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. ‘Sacrifice a lamb without blemish’, commanded Moses, ‘and sprinkle its blood on your doors’”.

It is not surprising that the Church turns to these separate but complimentary Old Testament images to explain the mystery of Jesus’ sacrificial death. Just as the early church looked to the Hebrew Scriptures for enlightenment, the Church continues to see the Old Testament images as relavent to the mystery of the Incarnation: “God, the inspirer and author of the books of both Testaments, in his wisdom has so brought it about that the New should be hidden the Old and that the Old should be made manifest in the New.” (Dei Verbum 16)

In the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (4:14-16; 5:7-9), we are reminded that Jesus is not only the source of eternal salvation but that we are confident of his mercy because he can sympathize with our weakness because in his humanity he was “tested in every way, yet without sin.”

So we are prepared for the reading of John’s Passion which is shorter and less anecdotal than those of Matthew, Mark and Luke. John stresses Jesus’ obedience to the father. At Gethsemane Jesus does not pray to be delivered from suffering but accepts it as a duty. John also recounts in greater detail the interrogaton by Pilate during which Jesus emphasizes his kingship with the result that Pilate has nailed to the cross the statement, “Jesus the Nazorean, King of the Jews.”

John alone tells of Jesus commending his mother to the beloved disciple: “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” It is never stated, but tradition has it that John himself was the beloved disciple.

There is no Liturgy of the Eucharist on Good Friday, only the Liturgy of the Word which is followed by the very ancient traditon of the veneration of the cross. The earliest account of this observance comes from the diary of Egeria, a fourth century pilgrim, who describes the ceremony as it took place in Jerusalem. A portion of the diary may be found at http://www.ccel.org/m/mcclure/etheria/etheria.htm. The elevation and veneration of the cross points to the most important act in the history of salvation.

Following the veneraton of the cross, the Lord’s Prayer is recited and Communion is distributed using the hosts that were consecrated on Holy Thursday and reserved for use on Friday.

After Communion, the priest leaves silently and the altar is stripped once again with only the cross remaining.

The Lord is lying in the tomb.

The Resurrection of the Lord

By

On this great feast we celebrate more than the Resurrection of the Lord, we celebrate our Redemption, the effect of the Lord’s Resurrection upon each of us. The opening prayer of the Easter liturgy expresses it beautifully. “God our Father, by raising Christ your Son you conquered the power of death and opened for us the way to eternal life. Let our celebration today raise us up and renew our lives by the Spirit that is within us.”

We are remindd by Peter’s words in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles that our Redemption is a beginning and not an end. They are taken from his baptism of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, and his family. It is the Apostle’s first outreach to the gentile community and presages the ready acceptance of the gospel by the Greco-Roman world. Peter sends us a clear message as to what our task is. Like Peter, we are impelled by the Christ event to share it, to mediate it to others. “We are witnesses to what he did.” We must proclaim Jesus as Savior and “bear witness that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Our Redemption does not mean that we should rest in satisfied self-righteousness, but rather, that we must set about continuing and completing the work of Christ and the Apostles. Just as the Light of Christ dispelled the darkness of death, by our words and our actions, we must raise up Christ in our communities, in our place of work, in our families, in our world where the darkness of sin and selfishness needs to be dispelled. In the words of the responsorial psalm, because of the Resurrection “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

As members of the Body of Christ we continue the saving work of Christ, not on our own but by the power of “the Spirit that lives within us.”

I wish you all a very blessed Easter.

The Easter Vigil of the Lord’s Resurrection

By

The Easter Vigil is not a Holy Saturday service, but is celebrated Easter Night, as each day begins with the previous evening’s vigil. It is the solemnity of solemnities, the pinnacle of the liturgical year. It is a waiting for the coming of the Lord.

No liturgy is richer in symbolic acts and gestures. There are four parts to the vigil liturgy: The Service of Light and the Easter Proclamation; the Liturgy of the Word, a prolonged meditation on the wonderful works the Lord has wrought for his people; reception of new members reborn in baptism and the celebration of the Eucharist, the high point of the vigil.

Properly, the Easter Vigil begins in total darkness which is dispelled by the light of the new fire that is blessed outside the church, recalling “…this most holy night when our Lord Jesus Christ passed from death to life…the Passover of the Lord.”

The new fire is blessed as a sharing in the glory of God “through your Son, the light of the world.” The new fire is used to light the Paschal Candle , symbolizing Christ. The Paschal Candle then leads the congregation in procession into the church, where “Christ our light” is intoned three times. The fire is then passed from the Paschal Candle to the congregation further dispelling the darkness in the church.

Concluding the first portion of the vigil, the deacon or priest chants the Easter Proclamation or Exultet , a poetic text that tells the story of the Easter mystery, including the “Felix Culpa” or Happy Fault, the “necessary sin of Adam which gained for us so great a redeemer.”

There follows the Liturgy of the Word, which includes seven readings from the Old Testament which give an account of the outstanding deeds of the history of salvation. The Gloria is then sung, the lights of the church turned on and the bells joyously rung after which we are reminded that God has “brightened this night with the radiance of the Risen Christ.”

Anticipating the baptism of new members, Paul’s Letter to the Romans reminds us that “we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” so that “just as Christ was raised from the dead…we too might live in newness of life.”

The Gospel reading returns to Luke for the story of the women of Galilee visiting Christ’s tomb and finding it empty and being asked by the angel “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised,” the first proclamation of the Resurrection.

Baptism and confirmation of new members follows the homily, including the blessing of the baptismal water wherein the priest recalls the important role of water in salvation history and prays that the Father will “by the power of the Spirit give to the water of this font the grace of your Son.”

Catechumens and candidates have spent a year in preparation for this night when the celebrant prays to God to “send your spirit of adoption on those to be born again in baptism.”

After the baptism of new members, the members of the congregation renew their baptismal promises and are sprinkled with water, recalling in gestures and words the baptism they had received.

Finally, for the first time the newly baptized and confirmed participate fully in the Easter Sacrament by joining in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the commemoration of the sacrifice of the cross and the presence of the risen Christ.

The vigil concludes with the great Easter Allelulia