April
15, 2007
What
a Week!
Where's
Father Ralph?
Today he’s in Poland at the church of the Divine Mercy. This is
part of a pilgrimage tour of several European countries that Father
Ralph is on with his uncle (Father Ralph Besendorfer) and over 50 other
travelers. Check out his travels
online.
Our
Easter Fund
Thank you to everyone who has given in our Easter Fund Collection.
To date over $90,000
has been contributed. This collection helps us especially these days
since we still don’t have a renter for our convent building. Tick....tick....tick...
Keep praying! (I’m bringing this need to the various holy sites
we’ll be visiting on the pilgrimage : the Chapel of Mercy in Altötting,
the Infant of Prague Chapel, the Jasna Gora Shrine in
Czestochowa, etc.)
Online
Masses
We are now going to be able to stream masses and other events live over
the internet to homebound folks and to relatives who live in other lands.
If you’re interested in this, in this, click
here.
Away
at College?
Are you or your child away at college? At St. Brigid’s we like
to stay in touch via occasional e-mails as we send photos and news from
“home”. College students wishing to be connected through
our “Letters from home” can sign up online here
or you can mail or
e-mail thecollege names and e-mail addresses to Father Ralph and he’ll
put them on the list.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
April 8: Alleluia! Alleluia!
April 1: Holy Week
March 25: Climate Change
March 18: Take A Step
March 11: Cold Enough for
You?
March 4:Stocking the Shelves
Feb 25: Basket Case
Feb18: Ashes and Desert
Dust
Feb11: Get Ready, Get Set,
REST!
Feb.4: Lent Lurking
Jan.28:Catholic Schools
Week
Jan.21:Crying in Church
Jan.14: Love ahead
Jan.7:
So How Was Your Christmas?
Columns
from 2005
Columns
from 2004
Columns from
2003
Columns from 2002
I can only say “thank you” to all who made this past Holy Week so spiritually powerful. Hundreds of people were involved in some way...young people and their families gave time to staple booklets...many of our faithful senior volunteers helped with the booklets too...people volunteered their time to decorate Code Auditorium for Palm Sunday and our holy week celebrations... others came to church to decorate for the different holy days... students on vacation gave hours to preparing the Holy Week mailing...and our office staff worked hard hours to do the printing of the mass booklets and handle the countless inquiries about the upcoming celebrations... there were many music practices with the different choirs and bands and groups and cantors....teens re-enacted the Passion on Palm Sunday...young children did the same for Holy Thursday and Good Friday...middle school students helped on Holy Thursday night...there were seven powerful witness presentations at the seven last words of Christ...our maintentance staff worked many hours to prepare and repair...celebrating Masses in Holy Rood Cemetery and Code Auditorium involved extra logistical support....prayer booklets were designed....the music ministry worked non-stop: we had a wonderful combined choir for Holy Thursday and Easter Vigil made up of members of the English Adult choir, the Spanish folk group, the Italian Choir, the Haitian choir and members of the youth choir ...the music of Palm Sunday and the Truduum and Easter Sunday was led by our folk group, the rock band, our cantors, the youth@saintbrigid group, our children’s choir and the aforementioned choirs. There were processions through the streets and we’re grateful to the Nassau County and Auxiliary Police for accompanying us along the way. Thanks to all who participated in the processions: despite the cold weather we processed into “Jerusalem” with the children on Palm Sunday....we processed from the school to the church with the Eucharist on Holy Thursday night (the candle-lit altar was a work of love)...on Good Friday, the Italian community led us through the outdoor living stations of the cross...the Spanish community carried Jesus sepultado through the streets to the church where they met up with the Youth Stations of the Cross...many of our services in church were sent onto the internet by our video ministry team so homebound folks could stay in touch. Thanks to those who took photos (we’ll be putting them on the website soon). Oh no! I’ve run out of space for this week...more to come. What a week!
