Sister Veronica Gross' Blog

What is Prayer?  St. Therese of Lisieux defines prayer as “a surge of the heart:  it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy”.  When we pray, we turn our mind and heart toward God.  He is the source of our life and all that we are and have.  We depend on Him for everything.

Our Mother of Divine Providence Prayer Corner will list the names of all those people that we pray for each Sunday at Mass -  the sick and the deceased.  Let us join in prayer as a community for all who are in need of God’s loving care.

For the Sick:  Terri Gillespie, Joseph Holly, John Keefer, Clarice Merritt, Ro DeRose, John Mahar, Patrick Quinn, Margaret Wahls, Mary Rose McDonnell, Kevin Mott.

For those who have died:  Pat Pasquarelli, Dale Baranick, Francis Kobialka, Tom Gibson, Peg Kraft, Angela (Dolly) Meyer, Josephine Ricci and Dawson Hoffman (relatives of Anne Fioravanti), Robert G. Baurely, Sister Ann Miriam Kennedy, Pasquale Daloisio, Denise Bellano, Mildred Grimes, Donald Peyton, Carol Starface, Albert Sbei, Shirley Tuffaha, Frank Sabatino, Gennero Tarrone, Cass Moser, Dorothy Ann Jackson, Jose Arechabala, “Pete” Peterson, Dorothy Leo, William Perry, June Dreslin, Grace Zona.

THE EASTER VIGIL – The Mother of all Vigils – It is wonderful that the church celebrates Easter for so long.  The Easter Season seems to last forever.  And rightly so.  This gives us the time to savor the experience of the Easter Vigil – the anticipation of the resurrection of Jesus.  Each year the vigil is celebrated in the same way, but it never gets old.  It is celebrated as if it is a first time experience and it is for some.  I do believe that my favorite part is the lighting of the fire and the preparation of the Paschal Candle.  The candle is lit and carried into the church in procession and the people enter behind it.  The church is in darkness except for the light from the Paschal Candle, that one flame.  As often as I enter the church and think I know my way, when it is dark, I stumble and hold onto the pews to find my way until all of the candles held by the people are lit.  Then, we become secure again in our journey forward — the following the Light of Christ — Jesus, the light of the world.  Once in church, we hear the readings from the Old Testament which relate to us the saving power of God which moves us into the salvation story.  All that was “lost” during or Lenten journey — the holy wanter, the bells, the candles, the alleluias return during theis celebration.  This year, we were blessed to have 7 people receive the sacraments of initiation — Baptism, Confirmaion and Holy communion.  The community grows in number and our spirit is strengthened.  The Paschal Candle is now lit for all of our liturgies as a reminder to us that Jesus is alive and lives among us.  May we never lose the excitement experienced during this Vigil.

CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S PASSION – With the all-night vigil with Jesus from the Last Supper to Good Friday morning behind us, we reflect on what Jesus would have experienced during those night hours.  Arrested and moved from place to place, questioned and finally lowered into the prison cell, weak, tired and afraid.  The morn comes and He is once again treated cruelly, he is condemned to die and begins his journey to Calvary.  Our celebration of the Lord’s passion remembers this with the Liturgy of the Word and the Proclamation of the Passion.  How our hearts skip a beat when we read that He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.   We kneel in reverence of Jesus’ total giving of self for our sins and love of His Father.  We then move to the second section of this liturgy and reverence the Cross of Christ.  The crucifix, draped in a red cloth with the symbol of His wounds visible, is carried in procession on the shoulders of our Deacon and Deacon candidate through the church with lighted candles.  The silence at this time is palpable.  Once at the altar, the crucifix is uncovered and placed before us in the stark reality of the death of Jesus.  We all process forward and offer a sign of respect and love for what Jesus has done for us.  During this procession, we sing “Were You There” – it does cause me to tremble realizing that my sins are part of Jesus suffering.  But, it also brings great joy to know that through this action of Jesus, our sin are forgiven – all sins are forgiven.  We then celebrate the Communion Rite and receive the broken body of our Savior, Jesus Christ.   Our celebration ends in silence with the crucifix before us as a reminder of Jesus gift of salvation to us on that Good Friday.  This action continues today each time Mass is celebrated.  Let us rejoice in the great love that God has for us, to give His only Son for our sake.  This is why this Friday is called “Good”.

CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER - Thursday of Holy Week is filled with varied experiences.  As we noted in the beginning of these reflections, the Chrism Mass opens the day.  The day ends with the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  Here, we are offered two graces – service and Sacrament (Eucharist and Priesthood).  Part of the celebration includes the “washing of the feet”.  It is here that Jesus calls us to service in His Church.  Before I came to Mother of DivineProvidence Parish, my ministry was at St. Charles Seminary in the Permanent Diaconte Formation Program.  The charism of the deacon is service and we used the washing of the feet to symbolize this.  We are all called to service — to wash each other’s feet – we do this in so many different ways.  We visit the sick, feed the hungry, comfort those who are grieving – any service, any kindess we offer to someone is how we “wash feet”.  The gift of the Eucharist remembered this night is perhaps the greatest gift.  Imagine, Jesus loves us so much that he found a way to be present to us in our Churches — present in the Blessed Sacrament.  Do we realize the gift that we have in this Sacrament?  Or do we take it for granted?  We  (the Sisters of Mercy) are blessed to have the Eucharist in our convent chapel.  But, on Holy Thursday evening the tabernacle is emptied and remains so until after the Ester Vigil.  The loss of the Eucharistic presence just for those 2 days left an empty space in our home for me.  May the celebration of the Lord’s Supper deepen our appreciation of the power of the Eucharistic in our lives and allow It to strengthen us in our ministry of “foot washing”.

With the Triduum behind us, we live now in the light of Christ.  We, as Christians, are called to bring the light of Chirst to our world.  The past three days of liturgical celebrations have given us much to be grateful for and much to reflect on.  These days always put me on sensory overload –  there are so may sights and smells and sounds that I am not able to absorb it all.  It will take days, perhaps weeks, to capture the meanng of this experience and how to live it in daily life.  THE CHRISM MASS –The celebrations begin with the celebration of the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul by our new Archbishop Charles Chaput.  If you have not had an opportunity to attend this Mass, I suggest that you try to be present next year.  It is at this Mass the the Archbishop blesses the holy oils used for the Sacraments — the Oil of the Sick, the Oil of Catechumens and the Chrism.  The oils are caried to the altar in solemn procession and blessed before the “whole church”.  Representatives of the entire Chruch are present — laity, religious, deacons, priests and bishops.  At this celebration, we also witness the priests of the archdiocese renew their priestly promises and commitment to the service of God’s people.  As lay faithful, we are then asked to support our priests in prayer for their ministry.  There was standing room only at this Mass.  The beauty of it for me is that everyone who attends really wants to be there.  The singing and the responses fill the Cathedral.  The people are on fire with their faith and love for the Chruch, the whole church.  It is at this celebration that we begin to move out of the sacrifice and “darkness” of Lent and the light becomes visible to us in the faith of the people of God.  Please stay tuned as we move forward in our reflections on the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the Passion of the Lord and the Easter Vigil, the Mother of all vigils.

The bakers in Mother of Divine Providence Parish are amazing!  I have never seen so many cookies in one place except for a bakery.  Homemade cookies have been delivered to 35 of our homebound parishioners.  It brings them great joy for many reasons.  They receive delicious cookies but even more important, a visit from the person who is doing the delivering.  There is something about cookies and tea that form a bond between people, even strangers.  Now they know someone new and can feel more connected to the people of Mother of Divine Providence.  Special thanks to all of our bakers and those who so generously gave their time to package and deliver this Christmas gift to our homebound parishioners.

On September 8^th, I had the privilege of being present at the Cathedral for the installation of our new Archbishop Charles Chaput. There is really only one word that I can use to describe it and that is awesome.   For me, it is good to experience all of that pomp in liturgy once in a while.  It takes a lot of energy to pray like that. 

This is a new era for us in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It is really hard to describe this experience, The Cathedral was electric – you could feel the excitement and the love of the Church as we moved through the Liturgy. If you would like to get a feel for this installation, click on the following link to hear the homily given by the Archbishop “live”. Take the time to listen and look. Once you do this, you may know why I am at a loss for words.  Let us pray for him as he begins his time with us. What have you seen this week? Archbishop Charles Chaput\’s Installation Homily