Friar’s Corner: Staying close to Jesus as his friend

Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14 – 27:66

This year Holy Week and Easter will be very different since most churches across at least the northern part of the planet are closed to public gatherings. Priests can celebrate shortened services without the people being present and the opportunity of receiving Jesus in Holy Communion. There are no processions, washing of feet and reposition of the Sacrament on Holy Thursday. Bishops will likely bless the oils on Holy Thursday yet have them distributed later. There will be no veneration of the Cross or Communion on Good Friday. The Easter Vigil service will have no blessing of the fire or procession into the church. The Easter Candle will be lighted and the Exsultet will be proclaimed. There will be no baptisms, but the baptismal promises will be renewed and the Mass will go on.

This will be a very sad time for most of us. These Liturgical prayers and services lead us to the center of our faith, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Easter. There are many places now on the web for daily Masses and other services.

What can we do?

We can take advantage of so many services being offered on TV, EWTN regular daily programming all day over much of the world. They have daily Mass three times a day. Check your local diocese to see what they are providing.

• Pray the Divine Office, Christian prayer, a form for daily scripture prayer. You can get “Shorter Christian Prayer” from Amazon or get Liturgy of the Hours on an app. Try the update on the Divine Office.org App.
• Doctor Scott Hahn’s web center at StPaulCenter.com, has many helps for growth.
• Get Bette Myers painting of the face of Jesus as she was sent back to earth to paint him. I get lost looking at him and allowing him to fill me with more of his love and peace.
• You can get on St. Francis University web page and see the Holy Week Masses live-streamed from the friars in our retirement house here at St. Francis Friary. Or you can check out our Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH, web site. Peace and all good.

There are many ways to grow our faith during this pandemic. We can look at the face of Jesus and sing songs we know of praise and worship, like “Praise God from whom all blessings flow;” “Praise the Name of Jesus,” “Give glory to God in the highest, “Spirit of the living God, fall afresh upon me.” St. Augustine told us a long time ago that when we sing we pray twice. We give back to God the voice he gave us and we praise him with the angels around us.

As we tune our satellite dish to Jesus, tell him how much we love him and want to follow him, we can be assured that he will bring us to be with him in his eternal glory of heaven. If he does not call us now, we still have more work to do down here to spread his love, hope, peace and joy as evangelists and ambassadors.

Have a safe and good week sealed in the protective light of our Risen Lord Jesus,

+  Father Bob Hilz
fbhilz@gmail.com

(© 2020 Father Bob Hilz, TOR)