Holy Week

Next week, we will enter Holy Week with Palm Sunday. At all the Masses at Oakhurst and North Fork, we will have the traditional Procession of Palms into the church. The palms this year are directly from a small village in Africa, where the local people cut these palms and make the crosses as a means of making a living. This is our small way of being connected to the larger Church, particularly in the light of the recent trip of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI to Africa. Another benefit is with regular palms, people spend the time during the proclamation of the Gospel making the crosses instead of listening.

Holy Week should be that, a HOLY WEEK. A time to pray, to reflect, to maybe attend Masses each day of the three days Masses are offered. I invite everyone to take this opportunity to plan to slow down one's schedule and plan accordingly.

This coming Tuesday evening, March 31, the parish will celebrate our annual Lenten Penance Service. The service will begin at 6:00PM. We at this time have four priests coming to assist us with individual confessions. They include Fathers Bulfer, Cardoza, Rude, SJ, and Msgr. Logan. Please plan on coming this Tuesday and invite others as well.

On Thursday, April 2nd, the Diocese of Fresno will celebrate the annual Chrism Mass at 2;00pm at Holy Spirit Church in Fresno. At this time, Bishop Steinbock will bless the new oils, (Oil for the Sick, Oil for the Catechumens, and the Sacred Chrism). Also at this special Mass, all the priests, deacons, Religious Men and Women, and the Bishop himself pledge to commit another year of service to the People of God. Every parish is invited to send people to bring back the oils to their respective parishes. All are invited to attend the Chrism Mass.

We welcome the young men and women of the Visalia Catholic Churches that will be making a Day of Recollection in our parish church in Oakhurst and Bass Lake. 50 young people will be preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation, and will be here on Monday, April 6, all day.

Again, you will find the Holy Week and Easter schedule in the bulletin. Please share it with others in our community who might be interesting in attending.

Holy Thursday: The Mass of the Last Supper

On this sacred night we remember the event that gave the Church it's basic form of worship, the Eucharist. Jesus gathered with his apostles in the Upper Room to celebrate the Passover Meal, one of the most important event in Jewish life. Here, after the traditional rites that are associated with the passover, Jesus took bread, blessed and gave it to the apostles, declaring that it was His Body. Then he took the cup of wine, blessed and offered it, and proclaimed it to be His Blood. He then commanded that it be done in his memory for all time. Since then, the Church, wherever she has gathered, has done the same in some form or fashion. Today's liturgy is certainly more elaborate, and if you go to an Orthodox liturgy, it is far more elaborate. In twenty centuries that Eucharist has celebrated, God's people have been fed with this heavenly food. Thus on Holy Thursday evening, we gather to remember the events. We once again hear the stories of Passover, break the Bread and drink from the Cup, and then following the Mass, we process to the Altar of Repose to adore the Lord in the Eucharistic Bread. Following the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the church is completely emptied of all items, anything is movable to prepare for the Solemn Day of Good Friday. This is to symbolize the emptiness of death.

Good Friday: The Liturgy of Good Friday

On this solemn and quiet day, all sacraments are forbidden to be celebrated with the exception of the anointing of the sick in case of emergency. No Mass may be celebrated today under any circumstances. It is the day that the God-man died on the cross. In the special liturgy of this day, there are three sections to the liturgy. The first is the Liturgy of the Word, where we hear of the word of God in both Old and New Testament. The Passion according to St. John is proclaimed. The entrance into the church by the presider and deacon is in silence. We will prostrate completely in the presence of the cross on the floor. No music. After the Word is proclaimed, we have the official Prayers of the Faithful for Good Friday. These special prayers, the same every year, reflect our praying for the Holy Father, the Bishop, the Church, for our Jewish brothers and sisters, for our President and all government, for the those who do not believe in Christ, or do not believe in God, and for the sick. these beautiful prayers are powerful ways to offer our deepest needs to God.

In the second section of the liturgy, we have the Veneration of the Cross. The cross, without a corpus, is brought into the church, with the words which states: This is the Wood of the Cross, Come let us adore. After the solemn, the priest, deacon, servers and then all the assembly come up the cross and show some kind of veneration, by a kiss, hugs, or a profound bow. The final liturgical event of the Liturgy of the Good Friday is the reception of Holy Communion, consecrated the night before at the Mass of the Lord's Supper. The deacon in procession brings the Blessed Sacrament, we distribute the Eucharist, and the Eucharist is returned to the Altar of Repose. Then a very simple prayer is offered, and the presider leaves the church without blessing or fanfare.

From the Desk of Fr. Mike

One of the great expenses of a beautiful building like Our Lady of the Sierra Church is maintaining the exterior elements of the edifice from the effects of summer sun and winter ice and snow. It was determined necessary recently to clean and apply new layers of lacquer to the large tree poles that decorate the church in the front and back. There are 8 poles that needed care, first time since the church was built in 1999 (ten years). The poles were powered washed, sanded down, and then given two applications of lacquer. The cost of this upkeep was $3000, done by Yosemite West Window Cleaning of Fresno. It was done very well and in a timely fashion. Such expenses are the types we do not always forsee, and can hit our budget quite hard, unexpectly. Please consider these factors in your parish donations. Every bit helps us maintain all our beautiful facilities.

We are soon coming to the time to change back our Mass times for Saturday afternoon at Our Lady of the Sierra and for Sunday afternoon at St. Dominic Savio in Bass Lake to 5:00PM. Beginning Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5, we will revert to summer hours for both these Masses. This will be on Palm Sunday weekend. Please mark your calendars as we approach the new month.

We will begin to announce our Holy Week and Easter schedule in the bulletin and in other venues that allow Catholics, both active and inactive to the holy season that will shortly be here. As you begin to receive the information, please pass the information to relatives and friends who attend normally only at this of the year. It is a great way to evangelize and to welcome back to the Church those are might need a gentle shrug. Palm Sunday is only two weeks away from now, Easter following. We are adding an extra Mass on Easter Sunday morning to accomodate more people this year.

We continue our Lenten practices of daily Masses, stations of the Cross on Wednesdays and Fridays, and encourage everybody to consider some kind of prayer, fasting or alms giving. These sacred forty days are a means to be in touch with the larger world that needs our attention, particularly those who are in great need. As the recession continues to touch more and more people, we are made more aware of our need to reach out to others.

Pope Benedict XVI Visits Africa

This past week, Pope Benedict XVI made a pastoral visit to Africa. In his visit, he was able to see for himself the state of the Church in Cameroon in other places that he visited. The Holy Father is in the midst of writing his next encylical on Social Justice. He is stress the need for conversion, forgiveness, dignity for human life, and changes in structures that continue to bind people to impossible situations.

On March 12, the Holy Father also published an incredible letter to all the bishops of the world, asking forgiveness for the mistake he made and the mistakes made by Vatican officials in not being more careful in receiving back into union with Rome the bishops that were ordained in the Traditional Latin Church. Bishop Williamson, deported from Argentina to his native England was advocating that Jews were not killed in the camps operated by the Nazi during WWII. The Holy Father apologized also to Jewish leaders that were offended. The remarkable aspect of this letter was a pope personally apologizing for personal and for the lack of oversight at the Vatican. He admitted that many things were already on the internet, and his people had not done their homework. The Holy Father truly models for all Catholics that we should admit our mistakes and ask forgiveness.

From the Desk of Fr. Mike

We are in the process of turning the old office space in Our Lady of the Sierra Church into a more lounge like environment that will be better suited for RCIA, for Youth Group, and Confirmation Class and other groups that need the use of the room. It will foster a more "hospitable' space, instead of a strictly "classroom like" atmosphere. The living room furniture from the old library at Bass Lake, and donated furniture from parishioners are enabling us created this welcoming space. We may need more living type furniture, and if anyone may have a couch, love seat, or chair they use to donate to the parish, you may call the parish office.

This Sunday we are pleased to welcome to our parish the Cursillo community that are visiting us at the 11:00AM Mass followed by a meeting in the hall. Cursillo is a movement in the Church that allows for people to experience a conversation process in their lives through a retreat and follow-up journey. The Cursillo movement, both in English and Spanish have touched the lives of so many people in our diocese. We welcome them with great joy today.

Again we congratulate the members of the RCIA who participated in the Rite of Election with Bishop Steinbock last Sunday afternoon at St. Anthony of Padua Church. We are blessed with those who look forward to joining our Catholic community this coming Easter Vigil.

Father Eric Swearingen of Holy Spirit Parish in Fresno is leading a group to Italy this coming November. The seven day pilgrimage will begin in Venice and will end in Rome with a Papal Audience. Anyone wishing more information regarding this pilgrimage can call Holy Spirit office in Fresno at 559-434-7701.

We are in the process of investigating the possibilities of turning our beautiful Bass Lake facility into a retreat center. There is a need for some of our parished for a place to bring their students to a place for one day retreat. Our office is looking at seriously evaluating the facility, updating what needs to be changed out so groups, Catholic schools, CCD groups, Confirmation classes, etc., might come and use the parish grounds. As more and more activities have moved to Oakhurst, we do not want to let the grounds there fall into disuse, and we are discovering the need for a place such as this. We also believe that we could weekend retreats at Bass Lake if we could make arrangements with a local motel for the overnight stay, with all activity otherwise taking place at St. Dominic Savio. Certainly young people could camp out there, but there are presently no showering facilities. We would appreciate any input or help with these plans. We have such a wonderful gift with St. Dominic's and we need to show it off to more Catholics in our diocese.