Burying Time Capsule

Burying Time Capsule
1859 - 150th Anniversary of Parish - 2009 (photo by Scott & Debbie Travers )

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Fifth Sunday in Lent - Passiontide

    The following information comes from...

     "Since the revision of the Catholic liturgical calendar in 1969, Passiontide has been synonymous with Holy WeekPalm Sunday, the final Sunday before Easter, is now known as Passion Sunday, though in practice it is almost always referred to by its former name. (Sometimes you may see it listed as Passion (Palm) Sunday, reflecting the current usage.)
Before the revision of the liturgical calendar, 
however, Passiontide was the period of Lent that commemorates the increasing revelation of Christ's divinity (see John 8:46-59) and His movement toward Jerusalem. Holy Week was the second week of Passiontide, which began with the Fifth Sunday in Lent, which was known as Passion Sunday. (The Fifth Week of Lent was likewise known as Passion Week.) Thus Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday were (unlike today) separate celebrations.
The revised calendar is used in the Ordinary Form of the Mass (the Novus Ordo), which is the form of the Mass celebrated in most parishes. The Extraordinary Form of the Mass (the Traditional Latin Mass) still uses the previous calendar, and thus celebrates two weeks of Passiontide.
In both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Forms of the Mass, Passiontide is observed with great solemnity, especially because Passiontide includes the Triduum, the final three days before Easter. Under the older, two-week Passiontide, all statues in the church were veiled in purple on Passion 
Sunday and remained covered until the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night. The practice still largely survives in the Novus Ordo, though different parishes observe it differently. Some veil their statues on Palm Sunday; others, before the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday; still others remove the statues from the church altogether and return them to the church for the Easter Vigil."

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Women's World Day of Prayer

     Last Friday was Women's World Day of Prayer - every year many of the Alberton and Area congregations get together at one of the hcurches to celebrate - this year it was held at Gordon Memorial United Church.
The following information comes from Wikipedia...
     "The Women's World Day of Prayer started in the USA in 1887, as Mary Ellen Fairchild James, wife of Darwin Rush James from Brooklyn, New York, called for a day of prayer for home missions, and Methodist women called for a week of prayer and self-denial for foreign missions. Two years later, two Baptists called together a Day of Prayer for the World Mission. The Day of Prayer initiated by these two women expanded to Canada, then to the British Isles in the 1930s. The movements focus on ecumenism and reconciliation led to growth after World War II. Since 1927 the March day is known as Women’s World Day of Prayer. Catholic women were allowed to join the movement after the Second Vatican Council, beginning in 1967, and united what had been their May day of prayer with the March Women's World Day of Prayer in 1969.  Two other Christian denominations celebrate a World Day of Prayer in September. The Unity Church, a New Thought Protestant denomination headquartered at Unity Village, Missouricelebrates a twenty-four hour World Day of Prayer principally on the second Thursday in September (member churches may start at sunset on September 11, and the themes differ from those of the Women's World Day of Prayer set forth below).  Also, the terrorist events of September 11, 2001 prompted the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fellowship, to designate that date annually as a World Day of Prayer for Peace."