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The Sacred Triduum 2022
In-person and Livestream
Livestream link or at facebook.com/BasilicaMpls.
Holy Week
Monday through Wednesday
9:15am Morning Prayer
Tuesday
5:30pm Holy Week Taize Prayer*
Holy Thursday (April 14)
9:15am Morning Prayer
Noon Noon Prayer
7:00pm Celebration of the Lord’s Supper*
Good Friday (April 15)
9:15am Morning Prayer
Noon Stations of the Cross*
3:00pm Celebration of the Lord’s Passion*
7:00pm Tenebrae*
Holy Saturday (April 16)
9:15am Morning Prayer
Noon Noon Prayer
7:00pm Celebration of the Resurrection*
Easter Sunday (April 17)
*livestream and/or ASL interpreted
Greetings once again from The Basilica of Saint Mary. I hope this message finds you and your family continuing to stay well during these challenging times.
Today, I would like to talk with you about three things. First, I want to invite you to join us for our liturgies during the Triduum and Easter. The schedule of liturgies for these days is available on our website.
The celebrations of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter help us to remember anew that Jesus Christ suffered and died for us and rose, that we might have life eternal. This is the essence of our faith, and the cause for our hope. I hope you will be able to join us for these celebrations.
As always, though, if you are not able, or don’t feel comfortable joining us in-person for any of our liturgies, we invite you join them via live-stream. A schedule of our livestreamed liturgies is available on our website. Joining us at Easter is a wonderful way for us as a people of faith to celebrate and thank God for the many ways God has blessed us in our lives.
The second thing I wanted to mention is that as we re-open and renew our various ministries, services and programs here at The Basilica, we are in need of volunteers to help us with this. In our weekly newsletter/worship aid we have created a space listing the various areas where we need volunteers. This list is also available on our parish website.
If it has been a while since you have volunteered, or if you are looking for a way to get involved, please check out these various volunteer positions.
Third, I want to thank those of you who continue to support The Basilica financially. Please know your financial support is greatly appreciated. Parishes rely on their collections at Christmas and Easter to help them balance their budget. The Basilica is no exception to this. Given this, I would ask you to be generous to The Basilica at Easter. Please know your generosity is greatly appreciated.
Your financial support makes it possible for to continue to offer the many ministries, services and programs that are at the heart of our Basilica community.
In closing, as we continue to transition to a new pastor, I want to let you know of my ongoing prayers for our community. The Basilica is indeed a very special place—made so by our parishioners and staff.
As always, I would like to close today with a prayer.
God of Love and Compassion, You are always with us.
As we enter into this time of transition and change we do so with excitement and perhaps some anxiety.
Help us to know of your presence and be open to your grace in this time.
Help us to recall your deep compassion, your presence, and your abiding love.
We thank you for the gifts, talents and skills with which you have blessed us.
We thank you for the experiences that have brought us to this moment.
We thank you for the work of others that gives breadth and depth to our own work.
Be with us as we move forward, rejoicing with you and supporting one another.
We ask this in your Holy Name.
Amen.
This Lent, some parish members are sharing their Lenten practices and stories with us. Xander Broeffle shares his experiences with our Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) process, plus his Lent and Easter observations, first as a candidate joining the Catholic church and, later, as a sponsor for other candidates and catechumens.
Fasting, Praying and Acting during the Sixth Week of Lent
“Love your Neighbor as Yourself.” (Mk. 12:31)
“Building Bridges that Foster a Culture of Caring.” Pope Francis
In his message on the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2021 Pope Francis invited all people to “make every effort to break down the walls that separate us and, in acknowledging our profound interconnection, build bridges that foster a culture of encounter.”
He went on to say that “Today’s migration movements offer an opportunity for us to overcome our fears and let ourselves be enriched by the diversity of each person’s gifts.”
He summarized his hopes on immigration by stating that “if we so desire, we can transform borders into privileged places of encounter, where the miracle of an ever wider “we” can come about.”
During Holy Week, we invite you to: mend your heart by fasting from Individualism and Exclusion; bend your knees while engaging in Visio Divina on the Passion of Christ; and lend your hand through acts of courage.
- Mending our Heart by Fasting from Individualism and Exclusion
- Putting ourselves first as an individual and even as a nation is rather popular these days, here and abroad. Individualism and nationalism are celebrated by many, also by some Christians even though both are antithetical to Christianity.
- Christianity is rooted in Jesus’ willingness to give his life for others. This is as far removed from individualism and nationalism as one can possibly imagine. Followers of Jesus are called to do the same. In the words of St. Francis: “…it is in giving that we receive…and in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
- Lent is the perfect time to practice fasting from putting ourselves first by putting the needs of others before our own. The end goal is to embody in our own lives the sacrificial life of Jesus.
- Bending our Knees by engaging in Visio Divina on the Passion of Christ
- As we try to live out our Christian calling Holy Week is the perfect time yto meditate on the Passion of Jesus. One way of doing that is through Visio Divina or Divine Seeing. This is an intentional and prayerful contemplation of an image of the crucifixion. The objective is to allow God to speak through the art in a most profound way.
- As you prepare for Visio Divina select an image of the crucifixion.
- Visio: Spend some time contemplating the art you selected. What is it you see? If you are using a figurative representation, ask yourself who and what is represented in the image. If non-figurative, consider the shapes, the forms, and the colors. Feel free to write down any words that come to mind.
- Meditatio: Let your imagination dialogue with what you see. There is always more to an image than what the eyes behold. Is a deeper story forming in your imagination? Are you experiencing any specific feelings or emotions? Again, feel free to write down any words that come to mind.
- Oratio: Formulate a prayer response. This can be a prayer of gratitude, or it might be a prayer of intercessions. Feel free to use the words you have written down in step 1 or 2.
- Contemplatio: Let go of all words and to quietly rest in prayer. Give yourself over to God who will mold you in prayer.
- Actio: did any action come to mind you might take after
- An example of a semi-guided Visio Divina may be found on the University of Portland website: https://www.up.edu/campusministry/resources-for-spiritual-growth/viso-divina.html
- Lending our Hands through Acts of Courage
- The Joy of Christianity gives us the courage to speak and act on behalf of those in need without any fear as we strive for a better world, the kind of world God has dreamt for us.
- This week as we contemplate the suffering of Christ, let us think about the many injustices and concerns that plague our world and ask ourselves how we can make a difference in terms of racial justice, adequate housing, mental health funding, the care for the unborn, health insurance for all, immigrants and asylum seekers, the death penalty, endless cycles of poverty, gun violence…
- As the world is experiencing yet another mass migration as the result of the war in Ukraine let’s learn about ways to engage with The Basilica Immigrant Support Ministry at www.mary.org/immigration or with the Minnesota Interfaith Coalition on Immigration at https://mnicom.org/
And please remember to be patient with yourself and others. Lent is neither an endurance test nor a time to prove our Christian heroism. Rather, Lent is a time to slow down and ponder what is essential to our faith and thus to our life as Christians. So please pace yourselves. Give yourself and others the necessary space. And above all be patient with yourself and others.
At The Basilica of Saint Mary, the ministries of St. Vincent de Paul are varied and many. All seek to build relationships, respond to basic needs, and advocate for dignity for all.
Our work is as basic as ensuring our neighbors who are homeless have a bathroom available, and as complex as establishing long-term mentoring relationships. We are completing our eighth year mentoring Minneapolis College students who experience homelessness or generational poverty. We assist Basilica parishioners who are struggling and families in the broader community who reach out to The Basilica seeking life-saving assistance.
Most recently, we are supporting refugee families from Afghanistan. We provided furniture, food, clothing, household items and rent assistance. Our Basilica volunteer "Circle of Welcome Teams" develop relationships with the families, helping them as they acclimate to life in America.
A recurring gift to St. Vincent de Paul makes outreach like this possible. Your partnership is crucial and offers hope to those who need it most. To make a gift commitment, please visit mary.org/svdpgive. If you have questions about how to make your gift, please contact Nicole at 612.317.3472.
Fasting, Praying and Acting during the Fifth Week of Lent
“Be rich in good works, be generous and ready to share.” (1 Timothy 6:18)
“Living in Solidarity with Those who are Poor.” Pope Francis
In 2017 Pope Francis inaugurated the first World Day of the Poor to be held every year on the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.
During his homily on the most recent World Day of the Poor marked on November 14, 2021, the pope decried the poverty into which people are often forced, “victims of injustice and the inequality of a throwaway society that hurries past without seeing them and without scruple abandons them to their fate.”
He went on to say that “unless our hope translates into decisions and concrete gestures of concern, justice, solidarity and care for our common home, the sufferings of the poor will not be relieved, the economy of waste that forces them to live on the margins will not be converted, their expectations will not blossom anew.”
He concluded by encouraging all people to improve the world by “breaking bread with the hungry, working for justice, lifting up the poor and restoring their dignity.”
During this Fifth Week of Lent, we invite you to: mend your heart by fasting from greed; bend your knees while engage in praying the Stations of the Cross; and Lend your hand by embracing generosity.
- Mending our Hearts: Fasting from Greed
- All of us, to some extent suffer from greediness. Greediness is the tendency to hold on, to claim or to demand something or even someone just for ourselves.
- Fasting from greed is more difficult than fasting from meat or sweets. Ridding ourselves of this sinful desire requires a complete change of attitude which does not happen in a day or even a week. This is a difficult task which requires commitment and tenacity.
- As Christians we are to live as Jesus lived. His generosity, even unto death knew no bounds. Let us contemplate and emulate Jesus’ generosity this week as we rid ourselves slowly of our greediness.
- Bending our Knees: Praying the Station of the Cross
- Praying the Stations of the Cross is an ancient Christian devotion which invites us to meditate on the mystery of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. A history of this devotion is offered in our series Art that Surrounds Us: https://www.mary.org/blog/202102/art-surrounds-us-stations-cross#.YDU4dNhKiJA.
- On Fridays of Lent, we pray the Stations of the Cross in The Basilica at 5:30pm. You can join us in person or via livestream. Each Friday we pray a different version of the Stations of the Cross using new texts and images.
- If you would like to pray the Stations of the Cross at home you can use the weekly recorded livestream or you can find a narrated slideshow of our Scriptural Stations at https://vimeo.com/403088034.
- Lending our Hands: Embracing Generosity
- During Lent we give thanks for Jesus’ willingness to die for us on the cross. This act of ultimate generosity has deep sacrificial meaning and great theological implications for all of us. Not only are we saved by Jesus’ self-sacrifice, but we are also called to make sacrifices in turn.
- On the fifth Sunday of Lent, we have a second collection for our St. Vincent de Paul Ministry. This is our opportunity to be generous to the programs our St. Vincent de Paul Ministry supports and the people it serves. We can also volunteer in our St. Vincent de Paul Ministry at The Basilica. You can find more information here: https://www.mary.org/ministries-education/charity-service#.YhFFgujMJPY
- One of our strategic directions at The Basilica is to work toward ending homelessness. You can learn about the realities of homeless in our community and ways to advocate and get involved by visiting the following websites:
- https://www.mnhomelesscoalition.org/about-us/who-we-are/
- https://www.mnhomelesscoalition.org/policy/2021-legislative-agenda/
- https://www.alignmpls.org/
- https://www.alignmpls.org/campaign
And please remember to be patient with yourself and others. Lent is neither an endurance test nor a time to prove our Christian stamina. Rather, Lent is a time to slow down and ponder what is essential to our faith and thus to our life as Christians. So please pace yourselves. Give yourself and others the necessary space. And above all be patient with yourself and others.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda invites the faithful of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, priests, deacons, consecrated women and men and all people of good will to join him and Bishop Joseph Williams for a special Holy Hour and Consecration. The event will occur simultaneously with Pope Francis’ prayer for peace, and consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which will take place during the Celebration of Penance at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
From the consecration prayer by Pope Francis:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, hear our prayer.
Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.
Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths to reconciliation.
Queen of Heaven, restore God's peace to the world.
Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge and teach us forgiveness.
Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.
Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and love.
Queen of the Human Family, show people the path to fraternity.
Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.
Let us pray for the people in Ukraine,
and in all war zones of the world,
for those who have fled the dread of violence
and have been deprived of their homes,
for all women and men who stand up with their lives
to ward off evil and to protect the weak and the persecuted.
Almighty and eternal God,
you have compassion for the lowly and the poor,
but you throw down oppressors.
As you guided Israel out of slavery in Egypt,
so in our days save all victims of war and violence.
Change the hearts of evildoers,
and let peace be victorious.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen