Holy Thursday 2026 - "Do this in memory of me"

 “In the Sacred Triduum, the Church solemnly celebrates the greatest mysteries of our redemption, keeping by means of special celebrations the memorial of her lord, crucified, buried, and risen.

Pastors are given special instruction on their responsibilities during these holy days. The instruction in the Roman missal itself says, “Pastors should not fail to explain to the Christian faithful, as best they can, the meaning and order of the celebrations and to prepare them for active and fruitful participation”

This evening we celebrate what is called the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. As normal, this mass includes the liturgy of the word, from which we read from the sacred scriptures, and also the liturgy of the Eucharist, which contains special orations unique to this day, particularly about the Lord’s institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Ordained Priesthood at the Last Supper. Between the two normal parts of the mass is a special ritual of the Washing of the Feet. After the distribution of Holy Communion, the Eucharistic fragments will be processed through the Church back to the Tabernacle.

Tomorrow morning we will celebrate the Church’s official Morning Prayer at 9am tomorrow. Followed by the Stations of the Cross at noon and the Good Friday Passion Liturgy at 3pm. It is a particularly solemn liturgy, beginning with the priest laying prostrate in the bare sanctuary. After readings from Isaiah and the letter to the Hebrews, the entirety of St. John’s Passion will be proclaimed. Special solemn intercessions are offered before we have the beautiful once a year ritual of the veneration of the cross. Holy Communion which is confected this even will be distributed tomorrow, and we then depart in silence.

That’s the order of things for Holy Thursday and Good Friday. The Easter Vigil, the Mother of all Vigils, will be celebrated at 8:30pm, and that Liturgy, well, you just have to experience for yourself. 

That’s “what” we are doing, but why are we doing it?

“Do this in memory of me”. Three times we heard it already. Twice in St. Paul’s description of what the Lord said at the last supper in our second reading. And the third time in the Gospel, when the Lord says that we must remember what he has done for us, and do it for others. 

During the Triduum, we remember how Jesus washed feet. We remember how Jesus took bread and wine and transformed them into his body and blood and how he made the Apostles the first priests of the Church, so that Sacrament could be repeated for all ages. During the Triduum we remember how he took up the cross. We remember how he spoke words of forgiveness from the cross. We remember how he gave his blessed mother to be the mother of all disciples. We remember how he gave up his life as a sacrifice. 

Why do we do, what we do? Why do we remember what we remember? Because he told us to. We celebrate and remember because he told us to. We eat his flesh and drink his blood because he told us to. We keep watch in prayer because he told us to.

In the first reading, we heard how the Lord commanded the Jewish people through Moses to keep the memorial feast of Passover every year, as a way to remember and celebrate what God did for them in delivering from slavery in Egypt. And now we too remember our deliverance by God over these three Sacred Days, by gathering in prayer, reading the scriptures, singing hymns, processing, venerating, prostrating. 

Personally, these are my favorite days of the year. I love being a Catholic because of these Sacred Three days. And I love being a priest because of these Sacred Three Days. For as a priest, not only do I get to speak such beautiful prayers in the name of the Church, I get to witness your faith and devotion as you have your feet washed, and as you venerate the cross, sometimes with tears in your eyes, and to witness your joyful fire on the easter vigil, and the sense of renewal on Easter Sunday. 

Holy Thursday in particular is a special night for priests. For we trace back our priesthood back to the Last Supper on that first Holy Thursday. This is the origin of the priests’ mandate to serve the Church, to put the needs of the Church before our own, to lift up the worries of the Church and the struggles of the Church in prayer. Please offer special prayer for priests tonight, that your priests may continue to put God and the Church first in our life, always.

And as a beautiful reminder of how priests must always be men of humble service, I now call forward those who have been chosen for the washing of the feet. May they be a reminder for us all, of the need to allow the Lord to wash every part of our lives, our bodies, our minds, our souls, of the filth of sin, and to pour ourselves out in humble service to the Lord always, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Ash Wednesday 2022 - Remember that you are dust

 “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. These words, spoken for the first time by God to Adam after he had committed sin, are repeated today by the Church to each of us, as ashes are imposed on our foreheads.

“Remember you are dust”, here is a truth that is difficult for us to grasp. Our inflated egos, our pride, our arrogance hate these words. For we spend an awful lot of time and energy trying to prove to others we are anything but dust. We want people to see how creative we are, how smart we are, how strong we are, how popular we are, how rich we are, how powerful we are. And today, the Church says, forget about all of that, “remember you are dust.”

Dust, the ashes which are placed on our foreheads, they are anything but powerful and significant. They can be dispersed with the lightest breath, brushed off absentmindedly. It’s the most invaluable of earthly substances. Less valuable than air. We need air to breath, we don’t need dust for anything.

“Remember you are dust” is a humbling reality and reminder of our past, present, and future.

It’s a reminder of our past, our creation. For Genesis tells us, that God made Adam from the dust of the earth. We wouldn’t even have life if God had not given it to us. Here is a reminder to not take our life for granted. Lots of people walking around as if their life belongs to them. No. You exist because God made you. And we have the utmost responsibility to make sure that we use that life according to God’s plans, and not just our own. And to be grateful for the life that we’ve been given.

Remember you are dust, is a reminder of our future. Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. Here is a reminder of our mortality. We will die. Our earthly bodies will return to the earth. And immortal souls we will face God as our judge. We get into a lot of trouble, we fall into a lot of sins, perhaps all of them, because we forget this fact, the fact that our actions have consequences, and that we will be judged for our sins.

And remember you are dust, is a reminder, that in the present we are to not allow ourselves to become inflated with sin. Ashes today are a pinprick to burst the balloons for our inflated egos. We were made from nothing, our finite lives and intellects are as nothing compared to the omniscience and omnipotence of God, the number of likes we received on social media are nothing.

But are nothingness is a good and holy thing to contemplate King David contemplated his nothingness before God in Psalm 38, when he wrote, “O Lord, my substance is as nothing before Thee.”  

Remember, too St. John the Baptist says, I must decrease, so that Christ may increase.

This imposition of ashes, in the end, is about Christ. The humility of Ashes helps us to become more like Christ, which is the aim of Lent, the purpose of Lent. We seek repentance and purification of our sins, so that we can become like Christ. We engage in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving so that we can become like Christ. We turn away from earthly vanity so that we can become like Christ. So that we can decrease in order for the life of Christ to increase in us. “God despises nothing that He has Made” and desires our salvation.

So, “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That this season of Lent may be a time of profound renewal for our parish and the Church as we engage in the penitential practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

For “an immediate end to the hostilities in Ukraine, for a restoration of peace and for the safety of all Ukrainian citizens. And for the Ukrainian community in Northeast Ohio, that their friends and family members in their beloved homeland be kept out of harm’s way.”

That God will rescue all those who live at a distance from him because of self-absorption or sin.  We pray to the Lord.

That all families will recommit themselves to fervent prayer this Lent so as to grow in greater love and holiness.  

That this Lent we will be faithful to fasting and to all the ways that the Lord sanctifies us.  We pray to the Lord.

For those preparing to enter the Church at Easter: that they will be profoundly blessed in their preparation for full initiation into the Body of Christ. 

For the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, or suffering from addiction, mental, or physical illness, and those most in need: that the Lord in his goodness will be close to them in their trials.  

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in the divine mystery may never be left without your assistance. Through Christ our Lord.

December 20 2019 - Angelus Bells and Remembering the Incarnation

One of my favorite features of St. Ignatius of Antioch church is our large bell tower. It is the tallest catholic church bell tower in the diocese of Cleveland, 240 feet tall. You can see the tower from miles
away, and you can hear it ringing from miles away as well.

Every day, as you might have noticed the Church bells ring at 12 noon and at 6pm. In the old days, they would ring at 6am as well. 6, noon, and six, to mark the day’s beginning, middle, and end, but they are also rung for a religious significance, for they are known as the Angelus bells. Angelus is the word in the latin language for Angel.

There is also a prayer that goes along with the ringing of those angelus bells, called, The Angelus Prayer, which calls to mind one of the most important events in human history, again, the event we just read about in today’s Gospel.

The Angel of the Lord announced unto Mary, and she conceived a child by the power of the holy spirit.

Why is this important? Well, it had never happened before and it will never happen again. It was an event that Isaiah had foretold, as we heard in our first reading, that a virgin would conceive a child through the intervention of God, and that the child’s name would be Emmanuel, which means “God is with us”. It was something God had been planning for thousands and thousands of years—His plan to save us from our sins.

I’ve been praying the Angelus Prayer every day for many, many years, and I believe it is a very important prayer for us Christians. For Christians need reminders of who God is, what God has done, and what God calls us to. And the Angelus does just that. It reminds us that God has done this amazing thing for us and for our salvation. And it reminds us that we are respond to God like Mary did, saying to God, “may it be done to me according to your Word…may God’s will be done in my life…may I respond to God with faith, always, daily, many times a day.” And the Angelus reminds us who Jesus is. He is God made flesh. He’s not just an ordinary baby, he’s not just another worldly teacher, he’s God, and we owe him our love, our devotion, our worship.

[Morning Mass] In the O Antiphon Today, Christ is called the Clavis David, the Key of David who frees us from prison and from the shadow of death. By calling to mind what our great Lord has done for us, may our minds and hearts be freed from selfishness and fear, that we may glorify the Lord in all we say and do today, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

[School Mass] You will notice something different at Mass today, we will be ringing bells during mass. The bells at Mass are very similar to the Angelus bells. The first time they ring, they are a sign of the holy spirit descending upon the altar, just like the holy spirit descended upon mary. And the second and the third time they ring, they call our attention to the fact that Jesus is now present in our midst, bread and wine have really and truly become transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, our Lord.

As you prepare for Christmas break, remember the reason for Christmas, that mary said yes to God, and that God became human to save us from our sins. May you and your families be blessed this Christmas with profound faith, hope, love and the peace of the Christ-Child, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.


 
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We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.

That the witness of the Church may help all nations come to believe in the Lordship of Jesus.

That our president and all civil servants will carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for the dignity of every human life.  We pray to the Lord.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, ward off every affliction, and strengthen all who suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

Memorial Day 2018 - Remember rightly to live rightly

Memorial Day was originally an occasion to remember and to decorate the graves of the soldiers who died in the American Civil War. Today’s Civil holiday, rightly so, has grown to encompass all those who died in war in the service of our country.

Memory is an important faculty of the human soul. Our memories contribute to who we are, the choices we make. As Christians, our memory of the life of Jesus Christ, his teaching, his sacrifice, his death and resurrection defines us. This is why every week, on the Lord’s Day, Christians gather at the altar, to remember. When we stop remembering, we cease to be who we are called to be, we cease to honor God as he is meant to be honored.

The same can be said for those our nation honors today. As a nation, we remember their sacrifice, that it not be in vain. And our memory of their bravery is meant to shape us, to shape the course and discourse of our nation. We are to remember what they fought for, that this nation may be a place where all people can come to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, free from the tyranny of oppressive governments. Failing to remember is to fail to be worthy of their sacrifice.

Today, we are to carry their memories in our minds and hearts. We thank God for them. We Pray for them. We Observe silence for them. Perhaps, we even weep for them. We allow them to inspire us, to make right use of the rights of life and liberty they fought for. We seek particularly to be free from the selfishness which can so easily dominate our lives.

As Christians, we recognize that only by living according to God’s plan, as enumerated in the beatitudes, as we heard in the Gospel today, that we can come to inherit the true life, the true liberty, the true happiness of God’s kingdom.

May we remember rightly, that we may live rightly, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Let us pray to our Heavenly Father, confident that He is generous to those who call upon Him with faith.

For Pope Francis, Bishop Nelson, and all the bishops: may they rightly lead the Body of Christ in faithfulness to all the Lord teaches and commands.

For our President and all elected government representatives, may the Holy Spirit grant them wisdom and guide them to promote authentic and lasting peace in the world, an end to terrorism, respect for religious freedom, and a greater reverence for the sanctity of Human Life.

For the protection of all those who serve in our nation’s military, and for all wounded servicemen and women, for all those widowed and orphaned because of war.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom for whom this mass is offered.

Gracious Father, hear the prayers of your pilgrim Church, grant us your grace and lead us to the glory of your kingdom, through Christ Our Lord.