The Holiest Week

Dear Friends in Christ:

TODAY we celebrate PALM SUNDAY albeit a little different than perhaps we had planned. It will not be the normal but we CAN be together! That, in and of itself, provides some sense of normalcy in a year that has been anything but normal. We continue with the masking and the social distancing but being able to be together to celebrate this most holy of weeks is a true gift, especially since we were not able to be together in church this time last year. Please note that today from 10AM until 12Noon parishioners will be outside the South Entrance to distribute Palms to our Virtual Parishioners. Simply drive into the church lot and around the building, and receive your palm staying in your car and be on your way!

TODAY our celebration reminds us that we cannot get to Easter but by the way of Our Lord’s Passion and Cross. This is the week in which we remember and celebrate the foundations of our faith. These are the days of God’s grace and the days in which we are strengthened by the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This week’s liturgies bring out into the open our hope of resurrection, our entrance into Heaven, which, as Christ so clearly revealed, depends not only on His dying and rising, but also on us taking up our own individual crosses and following Him.

These are the days, above any other day of the year, when we are reminded that:

· if there is no cross, then there is no conquering death;

· if there is no suffering, then there is no rejoicing;

· if there is no faithful following in His path, then there is no spending eternity with Him!

Perhaps more than ever we can appreciate these statements. Perhaps the suffering of this past year has opened our hearts and our minds a little bit more to see the fruits that come from our sharing in the passion of Christ.

This is Holy Week when shouts of triumph and joy as we celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem quickly change to shouts of “Crucify him.”

We move today into the most solemn week, Holy Week, and prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection. We begin this week’s long journey with Christ, aware that each of us was in His mind and heart as He endured His suffering to be the sacrifice that takes away our sins. Through His wounds we are healed. Through His resurrection each of us has the hope and promise of sharing in that new life of the resurrection. The renewal of our Baptismal Promises on Easter Sunday will remind us of our hope of forgiveness and our hope in the resurrection!

We have many choices in life. The most important of these is our decision to accept Jesus Christ. But accepting the Lord means being united to him both in his glory AND in his passion. Accepting the Lord means being united to him in the joyful times of our lives AND through the challenges of our lives such as this pandemic we are in the midst of this very moment. Come! Follow Jesus! May this truly be a holy week for you and your families, and for our parish family as well.

As we approach the holiest week of the year for us as Christians, we look forward to the Paschal Celebrations of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. But how will these take place this year, and what will be different due to precautions being taken in consideration of the coronavirus pandemic?

First, I want to express how humbled and grateful to God I am that we are even able to gather for these celebrations this year. That we can come together, even with some modifications, is much better than where we were last year.

Yes there will be some differences from our pre-pandemic liturgies of holy week. As you are already aware, we will not be able to gather in large numbers as we have in the past for the Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Despite the loosening of some restrictions last week, we must still maintain proper social distancing which means we continue with the capacity of 200 for this week and on Easter Sunday we move to a capacity of 250 which we truly believe we can accommodate while still respecting the need for social distancing.

Everyone wishing to attend the Triduum and Easter celebrations must make a reservation online in advance on our website www.stbridgetcheshire.org. We likely will not be able to accommodate walk-ins, so please be sure to sign-up early! The Masses have all been added to the registration for Masses link on our website. We will also be opening our Saint Thomas Becket Church for Easter Sunday Masses only! This will allow us to accommodate 100 people in the Church for those two Masses and an additional 30 people in the Father Frisbie Hall. I thank you in advance for your understanding with this.

Some liturgical changes will have to take place too due to the restrictions. On Holy Thursday, we will not be able to celebrate the foot washing ceremony as part of the Mass, and there will be no altar of repose or Eucharistic procession.

On Good Friday, we will have the veneration of the cross, but without touching it or kissing it. We will provide the opportunity for those who wish to venerate the cross to approach as we do during communion in a single file, remaining properly distanced while in line, and then venerating the cross with a profound bow or genuflection.

The Easter Vigil, again to avoid the crowding that can occur with a procession, will begin with everyone seated in church and no outdoor fire or lighting of individual candles during the Service of Light. But we WILL be able to celebrate the Sacraments for those in our Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program so it will still be a beautiful, moving, and meaningful service!

Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday 10:30AM Mass will all be livestreamed for those still not comfortable attending in person.

SOMETHING NEW! Worth a try! One additional feature of the 10:30AM Mass this year will be the opportunity to join us from your car with the use of your car radio. Tune to station 89.5FM and join us for the celebration of Mass and then, at the time of Holy Communion, two Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion will come outside behind the Church building. Simply leave your car, and approach the Extraordinary Ministers to receive Holy Communion. Please maintain social distancing as you make your way to receive Holy Communion and please keep your mask on! Finally, please be sure to consume the consecrated hosts while near the Extraordinary Ministers. Do not carry the Lord back to your car with you!

Again, I thank you in advance for your cooperation with these procedures. And as we have been doing already, we will refrain from congregational and choir singing until it is determined it is safe to resume, and everyone in attendance is expected to wear a mask. With these necessary concessions, we will be able to celebrate these special liturgies this year in person, contemplating the Lord’s passion and death, and rejoicing together in his resurrection on Easter Sunday!

Another important message of the liturgies this week is our call to proclaim the message of Easter, He is not here, for He has been raised just as He said. This is a message of Hope for the world. This is a message that must be shared! And shared NOW!

THIS is our role in the Hope and Joy of Easter! We are not simply to walk this week with Jesus through His passion, death, and resurrection, nor are we simply to just celebrate these great mysteries of our faith, but we are called to be moved by them, to be motivated, to be empowered to then go out and find ways to proclaim this Good News to all the world.

We are called to find ways to proclaim that Jesus is NOT found among the dead, nor in an empty tomb! No, Jesus is alive: He is living, He has been raised from the dead, He is among you!

He is everywhere His people are, you will find Him where hope fights despair, where love battles injustice, where compassion dries the tears of the suffering.

Jesus is here in our parish family. He is in each of our parishioners who desire to spread His light in the darkness of our world, who desire to be instruments of His love and mercy in the lives of those around them. He is present in each of us who desire to share in the glory of the Resurrection!

Come and join us this Holy Week! Come join us in person or via Livestream!

FINALLY, PLEASE BE SURE TO PRAY! Utilize this time, as individuals and as families, to pray for an end to the spreading of Coronavirus. We will get through this together! Please keep in your prayers those caring for others throughout this pandemic especially healthcare providers, nurses, doctors, firefighters, police personnel, and EMT’s that the Lord will bless them, protect them from harm, and keep them healthy!

Lastly, a word of gratitude to the Knights of Columbus Santa Fe Council 2978 for helping to organize our Confession and Communion afternoon last Sunday. God gave us a beautiful day to celebrate this opportunity, and their assistance made it a very stress-free and smooth experience for all. We are so grateful to the Knights for their willingness to serve our parish in so many ways, such as this, throughout this time of pandemic.

As always, please remember to pray for our parish family and ask God’s blessings as we build His kingdom here.Please know that I am praying for you, and I ask for your prayers for me, that together through the intercession of Saint Bridget of Sweden, our Patroness, and Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney, and united in the Eucharist, we will reflect the presence of Jesus to the world.Have a Blessed Holy Week!

Don't Believe It....Or at least hear it all!

Dear Friends in Christ:

DON’T BELIEVE IT…or at least hear it all!!!

I cannot go anywhere without this question, “So, Father, you are finally going to open up fully Friday the 19th, how does that feel?” That would be awesome but it’s NOT TRUE. The Executive Order from the Governor of our State says that as of March 19, 2021, and I quote “capacity limits are eliminated for religious gatherings, providing all other health and safety measures, such as social distancing and face coverings, are observed.” So the Governor is telling everyone that he is no longer restricting those who wish to gather in our church and other houses of worship, but in reality he still is! By requiring social distancing we cannot fully open so there is a limitation of how many we can allow to gather for Mass.

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but those are the facts and, therefore, March 19th doesn’t change anything for us. The bottom line is I am more than content with moving slowly in reopening in order to keep our parishioners and priests safe. Do I miss a full church? Of course! Do I miss seeing everyone gathering together in prayer? Of course I do! Do I miss seeing young families gathering after Mass to talk to one another and build friendships? Of course I do! But I just keep reminding myself that it will come, some day!

We have also received a couple of calls in the past few weeks inquiring as to when we are going to open Saint Thomas Becket Church. As you are aware, it is not that simple given the social distancing required. Further, the chairs make sanitizing a nightmare not to mention finding volunteers for the Masses we have already is sometimes challenging never mind adding additional Masses we would need help for.

That said, we will open Saint Thomas Becket Church for two Masses on Easter Sunday then it will return to being closed for the foreseeable future. I realize some people are attached to a building when they think of Church, but I hope and pray that you will open your hearts to see that we are one family of faith and what building we are in does not matter, but what matters is that we are together to offer praise and fitting worship to our God!

UPDATE ON NUMBERS…effective on Easter Sunday we will expand our numbers at each Mass (in Saint Bridget Church) to 250. We believe we can safely accommodate this number and still provide proper social distancing. If after a couple of weeks it is determined that this number is not working, or not allowing for proper social distancing, we may have to go back to the limit of 200, but we believe it will be fine.

EASTER 2021…………Do I dare?...this is something we have prayed over for quite some time now and we have gone back and forth about how many Masses we should have and the times they should be. This is not something we decided on a whim. We have consulted other priests over the past weeks, asked advice and input from our priest friends, consulted the Parish Pastoral Staff, the chairs of our Pastoral Council, and have finally decided what we will do! In preparing a schedule, there have been many challenges as you might imagine: restrictions on the number of people allowed to gather, restrictions on communal singing, and other restrictions necessitated by COVID such as sanitizing. So, with that said, here is the schedule for Easter 2021:

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

March 27 & 28, Masses at 7, 8, 9, 10:30AM, and Noon,

in Saint Bridget Church

Holy Thursday

Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, April 1st, 7 P.M.,

in Saint Bridget Church

Good Friday

Service of the Lord’s Passion, April 2nd, 3 P.M.

in Saint Bridget Church

Stations of the Cross, 7 P.M.

in Saint Bridget Church

Holy Saturday

April 3rd

Blessing of the Food, 11 A.M., in Saint Bridget Church

The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night, 8 P.M. in Saint Bridget Church

Please note there is no 9A.M., 4P.M. or 5:15P.M. Mass on Holy Saturday!

Easter Sunday

April 4th

Masses at 7, 8, 9, 10:30AM, and Noon in Saint Bridget Church (250 capacity per Mass)

and 8:30 and 10:30 A.M. in Saint Thomas Becket Church (100 capacity per Mass in the Church and 30 additional in the Father Frisbie Hall)

UPDATE ON the building at 185 Main Street…as you may notice by looking in the windows back before the pandemic hit us we were working toward preparing the building for remodeling to make use of it in the life of our parish. As you may remember, when we sold the Church of the Epiphany the Parish Finance Council allocated monies to be reserved for the remodeling of the building to create new meeting space for our growing and active parish family as well as offices. That said, I was very excited in early 2020 when we began discussions on the potential needs we had and how that building might play into helping us to meet those needs. I even met with a designer and together created the concept for the first floor to include two meeting rooms that can be made into one larger room for small group meetings and programs, a kitchen, a handicap accessible ramp and bathroom, and an office. The second floor will offer more offices for our parish staff who right now are sharing office space in the school and alternating hours to utilize their office in some cases. Those plans were immediately put on hold when the pandemic hit as I did not feel it was prudent to spend such money when we did not know how the parish would do financially. Well, thanks to your amazing and continued generosity to our parish throughout the pandemic, we did amazingly well. Recently, the Parish Finance Council was in agreement to move forward with the plans for remodeling the building in the near future. We have come up with the specs for the project. At this time, we have solicited bids from three builders, but any other builder in the parish who wishes to put a number to the specs is welcomed to contact the parish office by THIS TUESDAY, March 23rd at Noon. The bids must be in to the parish office by Friday, March 26th, at Noon.

REMINDER!!! THIS SUNDAY, March 21st, you are INVITED to CONFESSION and EUCHARIST. This is similar to what we did in Advent, but this time the flow of traffic will be a little different and we will have six priests in the school parking lot for the Sacrament of Reconciliation from 2-4PM! THIS IS OPEN TO EVERYONE!

Enter through Cherry Street and follow the directions of the Knights of Columbus who will be directing traffic!

UPDATE if you are only coming to receive Holy Communion please enter through the Main Street entrance and follow around the Church building.

If you are alone in the car, you will be able to do a drive-up confession without leaving your car; and if you have more than one person in your car, you will be directed where to park to enable you to do a walk-up confession (please make sure you remain socially distant and wear a mask, for your safety and that of your confessor).

After you have experienced God’s mercy, then you will have the opportunity to receive Holy Communion near the South Entrance Door of the Church while still in your car and then leave by the south driveway out onto Main Street! If you are receiving Holy Communion please be sure to consume Holy Communion before pulling away from the volunteers! The whole experience will be as safe as we can possibly make it. You don’t even need to leave the car!

Parish Corporal Works of Mercy update…this past weekend the generous people of our parish donated $3,848 to Saint Vincent DePaul Shelter, of which $1,080 was in checks made out to Saint Vincent DePaul directly. Since some donations are still trickling in we will not send the checks (along with the parish check) until this coming Wednesday or Thursday.

This weekend we are placing white baskets next to the red ones on the communion rail for the homemade Easter cards that will be shared with our shut-ins and those in nursing care facilities as we are visiting the sick!

Next weekend we will be collecting donations to purchase the book The Road of Hope for use in the Cheshire Prison by their chaplain. Please make checks out to the parish and we will purchase the books via Amazon once we know how much was collected as we work to help in visiting the imprisoned.

As always, please remember to pray for our parish family and ask God’s blessings as we build His kingdom here.Please know that I am praying for you, and I ask for your prayers for me, that together through the intercession of Saint Bridget of Sweden, our Patroness, and Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney, and united in the Eucharist, we will reflect the presence of Jesus to the world.

Lent as a Journey

Dear Friends in Christ:

As we continue our journey of Lent…we should ask ourselves: “how is it going?” Has your practice of the spiritual disciplines attached to Lent helped you to recognize the more you want in the bottom of your heart?

It is never too early to take stock of how we are doing with our Lenten practices. Ask yourself:

· How am I doing with my prayer? Have I increased the amount of time I give to God each day? Have I made room for God, or more room for God, in my heart? If the answer is no there is still time!

· How am I doing with my fasting? Have I remained vigilant in fasting from whatever I promised God and myself that I would fast from? If the answer is no there is still time!

· How am I doing with my almsgiving? Have I sought out opportunities to help those most in need? Have I participated in the Parish Corporal Works of Mercy in these first days of Lent by bringing food for the hungry or drink for the thirsty? If the answer is no there is still time!

By fasting, prayer, and almsgiving we all renew and purify our hearts and are led to the fullness of grace. So how are we doing?

I have to be honest…each year we provide the little black books for Lent and each year I say to myself I am going to use the book as part of my own prayer each day…and each year we come to the end of Lent and I realize, yet again, I did not fully utilize the book. Well this Lent is going to be different, or so I told myself on Ash Wednesday! Here we are at the Second Sunday of Lent and I just picked up the book this past week. It wasn’t too late…there was still time! I caught up with the meditations I had missed since the beginning of the book and make this little resource a part of my daily prayer.

Now catching up on the meditations I missed, there was one that really spoke to me and for the sake of those who may not have the little black book at home here is the meditation from the Sunday before Ash Wednesday:

A Lenten thought…We can look upon Lent as a journey. Think about the trips we take—long ones that can take days, even weeks to complete. Journeys have their ups and downs. We don’t really expect them to go smoothly. If we are going to drive across the country, we expect a few care problems, some bad weather, some detours, some missed connections and so forth. We prepare for those things and we deal with them as they come. Oftentimes, when people go along the journey of Lent, and something goes wrong (for example, they break their Lenten resolution), they cash it in and think that their Lenten observance is ruined. But it would be a lot better to deal with Lent the way we deal with every other long and sometimes difficult journey. I don’t expect Lent to be a perfect journey. It will have its ups and downs. But I can make a good start and deal with the breakdowns and disappointments along the way. My goal is Easter, and right now it’s a long way off. I’m ready for a long haul, and I’ll deal with whatever comes my way.

This really spoke to me…well because I have been in that situation and often enough forget that I can start again. Giving up on the rest of this journey of Lent when something goes wrong would be wrong. Lent is a time of invitation from Jesus to be transformed. If we throw in the towel because we had one setback then we are throwing in the towel on the chance to be transformed. Seize the opportunity Lent offers.

· Pray more deeply. Be honest with God and yourself. Put yourself consciously in the presence of God who knows us in the most intimate possible way. Surrender your will to His. Express to God what is on your heart…the good…the bad…the ugly. Ask for His grace to be conformed to the image of His Son.

· Fast! As I offered last week in this article there are things we can fast from that are not food items! If we are being open and honest in our prayer with God then we will see the things in our life and in our relationships that need change and this is where fasting comes in to our Lenten journey. Fasting is certainly much more than a dietary practice. Fasting allows us to give up those attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors that are not in keeping with the command to love God with our whole being and love our neighbor as ourselves.

· Almsgiving…this spiritual discipline logically flows from the first two of prayer and fasting. Almsgiving is a foundational call of Christians to charity. This is a frequent theme in the Gospels. Simply put this old word means to give to those in need. Giving to those in need is a way of living out the great commandment of love. By giving to those in need we seek to see the face of Christ in those we are helping.

As Catholics we joyfully engage in these Lenten disciplines because we are disciples. We pray, we fast, and we give because we follow Christ, who loved us so much that He gave His own life so that we might share in Eternal Life. We do so remembering that our goal on this journey is Easter and there is still time to be transformed on this journey to that joy!

The Second Sunday of Lent always features the account of Jesus’ Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. As we hear in this Sunday’s Gospel passage, Jesus chooses Peter, James and John, his “inner circle,” to accompany him up the mountain and to reveal to them his true glory. On the mountaintop, they encounter who Jesus really is – the glorified Son of God. Mountains in the Scriptures are often places of encounter with God. The prevailing understanding that God dwells in the heavens, led the ancient people to believe that one could draw closer to God or even encounter God on a mountaintop. Scripture reinforces this belief when we see Abraham offering the sacrifice of his son on Mount Moriah (today’s First Reading), Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, Elijah encountering the presence of God in a whisper on Mount Horeb, and even Jesus “going up the mountainside” to spend a night in prayer with His heavenly Father. Mountains are often places one can go to experience the isolation and the peace that comes from being up high away from the busyness of life and enjoying the sights of what is below. This reminds us that in our spiritual life, to properly pray, we need to remove ourselves from the busyness of day-to-day life and find a mountain top experience of our own. This Sunday, as we contemplate the reassuring encounter of Peter, James and John with the glorified Lord, perhaps we can consider our own “mountains” where we sense a closeness to God and, if possible, find some time to revisit our mountain as we continue this journey through Lent to the glory of Easter.

Parish Corporal Works of Mercy update…last weekend the generous people of our parish family donated over 1,000 pounds of food to the Cheshire Community Food Pantry to give food to the hungry! Thank you!

This weekend we are collecting beverages to give drink to the thirsty and next weekend we will be collecting white socks for men, women, and children to help the clients at Saint Vincent DePaul Shelter in Waterbury, and onesies for babies at Carolyn’s Place to help clothe the naked. Thank you for all you do to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate and for recognizing that in serving them we are serving the Lord.

JOIN US THIS LENT:

JOIN US EVERY Tuesday of Lent from 5-6PM for Drive-Up Confessions! As we do every Saturday from 3PM until heard, Father Federico and I will be present in front of the school building for you to drive-up and celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation! What a great way to experience God’s mercy during this holy season!

JOIN US ON FRIDAYS DURING LENT FOR STATIONS OF THE CROSS! Signup through our website to join us each Friday of Lent for Stations of the Cross at 7PM. The Stations of the Cross are a beautiful way to reflect on the Passion and Death of our Savior Jesus Christ and to come to appreciate the great suffering He endured for our salvation!

JOIN US on our Social Media on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent as your pastoral staff and fellow parishioners share with us their own little “desert experience.” During the Lenten journey as we reflect on how we WANT MORE in life, and we come to recognize our need to TURN TO CHRIST, finding that place in our lives where we can have a desert experience in prayer is so crucial. I am sure we will all grow as we learn from the experience of others!

Archbishop’s Annual Appeal…back in December the Archbishop appointed me as the Chairman of the Pastor’s Advisory Committee for the Appeal. I served in this role a few years ago and I am honored to do so again. As you can imagine this is not an easy task in the midst of a pandemic.

I really believe in the Appeal and the many good works that are made possible thanks to the generosity of so many throughout the Archdiocese. Every single day our archdiocese is a support and a resource to the parishes of the Archdiocese, our archdiocese offers counseling services and health care ministries, our archdiocese educates young men for the priesthood, others for the diaconate, and lay people for ministry in their parishes. Every day, through the funds of the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal, the archdiocese supports organizations and non-profits in all our communities who provide services to the sick, the elderly, the addicted, the hungry, and the forgotten.

As you can imagine, as with all things during this pandemic, things are a little different this year as to how we effectively communicate the importance of the Appeal to the day-to-day life of the Archdiocese. We are very excited that we are hosting a first-ever virtual kickoff event with the Archbishop this coming WEDNESDAY, March 3rd at 7:30PM. Please join us for an enjoyable and informative program.

As always, please remember to pray for our parish family and ask God’s blessings as we build His kingdom here.Please know that I am praying for you, and I ask for your prayers for me, that together through the intercession of Saint Bridget of Sweden, our Patroness, and Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney, and united in the Eucharist, we will reflect the presence of Jesus to the world.