+ Parish Schedule for the Week of March 24, 2024+
Sunday, March 24: [Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord]
8:00 am + Sophie H. Fritz – int. Phyllis Dunn
10:30 am + Walter J. Gochinski, 25th Aniv. – int. Evelyn, Debra, Paul, Jonathan, Christopher, Page, Anna, Jack, Ike & Kitty
1:30 pm – Gorzkie Żale
Monday, March 25: [Mass of Mary’s Extravagance]
8:00 am + Mary Ann Dean – int. Kathy Eichorn
Tuesday, March 26:[Mass of Love’s Last Appeal] [Novena to St. Peregrine & Camillus]
5:30 pm – Living & Deceased Members of the Zamojski & Hanley Families
Wednesday, March 27: [Mass of the Thirty Pieces of Silver] [Novena to St. Jude]
5:30 pm + Sophie H. Fritz – int. Family
Holy Thursday, March 28: [The Last Supper]:
7:00 pm – Living & Deceased Priests of Our Lady of Czestochowa
Good Friday, March 29: [The Passion and Death of our Lord]:
8:00 am – Tenebrae (The church will remain open for private prayer)
3:00 pm – Stations of the Cross and Veneration of the Relic of the Cross
4:00 pm – Via Crucis
7:00 pm – Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified & Holy Communion (church open until 9:00 pm)
Holy Saturday, March 30:[Waiting at the Tomb]:
8:00 am – Tenebræ (The church will be open all day for private prayer.)
11:00 am, 12:00 pm, 1:00 pm – The blessing of Easter food – Święconka (undercroft)
8:00 pm – For our Parish and Parishioners
Easter Sunday, April 9: [THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD]
8:00 am – Ceremonies at the Empty Tomb & Procession – For the Parish
10:30 am – Benefactors of Our Lady of Czestochowa Church
THE SANCTUARY LAMP
will burn this week in supplication for
The Holy Souls in Purgatory
at the request of the Shaughnessys
THE LAST LENTEN CHANTING OF GORZKIE ŻALE will take place at 1:30 p.m. this Sunday, March 24th. Bilingual booklets are available so that everyone can follow this beautiful service following the loving sacrifice of Jesus in His final days. You are invited to the complimentary lunch before the service. All are welcome.
PLEASE, PLEASE, VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED! on Palm Sunday (after Gorzkie Żale). Please come help set up the side altars for Holy Week.
STATIONS OF THE CROSS will be prayed on Good Friday in English at 3:00 pm in Spanish at 4:00 pm. This devotion follows the path of love Jesus walked to His crucifixion.
PALM SUNDAY IS CELEBRATED AS FLOWER SUNDAY in Polish parishes. In Polish churches it is the custom to bless pussy willow and Forsythia blossoms (which were forced into bloom during Lent rather than palms which often were impossible to obtain). A beautiful Polish custom involves the creation of great staffs of flowers, ribbons, pussy willows and greens to use as palms in the Blessing and Procession proclaiming Jesus Christ the King and Messiah. These “palms” are often eight to ten feet high and create an imposing and solemn picture.
PARENTS OF CATECHISM CLASS STUDENTS please note that there will be no classes on Easter Sunday, March 31st. Because Religious Education is so important to the salvation of the souls of our children we only have three days off each year: Christmas and New Year’s weekends and Easter Sunday. Eternal life is too important for days off!
OUR LADY’S HOLY ICON will visit the home of Terry Dempsey for a week of prayer and petition for the needs of our Parish. We thank you for this holy work of power and love.
PRO-LIFE: Bishop Byrne will join 40 Days for Life outside of Planned Parenthood on Watson Ave in Springfield on GOOD FRIDAY AT 10am for our Annual Stations of the Cross and Rosary. Please plan to join us and witness to the sanctity of life!
THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE is sponsoring an Open House for High School Juniors: April 11-14. Call the Rectory for more information.
THE FOLLOWING MASS INTENTIONS have been sent to various Missionaries. They will be offered as follows and you may unite your prayers to the foreign Missionaries who offer the Masses
Sunday, March 24: 8:00 am + Sophie Pieuch – int. niece, Carol
Sunday, March 24: 10:30 am – Conversion, Healing & Deliverance for Emily Garmalo – int. Mark
Monday, March 25: 8:00 am + Leslie & Gertrude Phillips – int. granddaughter, Tina
Tuesday, March 26: 5:30 pm + Frederick Speckels – int. Helen Speckels
Wednesday, March 27: 5:30 pm + Rose Gloski – int. niece, Carol
Thursday, March 28: 7:00 pm – Graces & Blessings for Sean Driscoll – int. Kate
Friday, March 29: No Mass
Saturday, March 30: 8:00 pm + Maryann Tremblay – int. Cathy & Al Becklo
PLEASE NOTE: The above Masses not only assist the souls for whom they are offered, but they also help you and the Missionaries who often times receive very little.
PRAY FOR VOCATIONS to the Priesthood from our Parish and for our Parish so that we might always have a Priest here to celebrate the Mass and administer the Holy Sacraments! Please join in the Divine Mercy Chaplet to pray for vocations to the priesthood every Friday at 4:45 p.m.
PRAY FOR OUR CLERGY: Please join us in dedicating every day to one of the clergymen
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Fr. Pierz | Deacon DeCarlo | Bishop Byrne | Deacon Leary | Our Deanery Priests | Clergy who are sick | Vocations |
WHAT DO YOU DO with the palm branch received last year? Any religious object, once blessed, should be disposed of properly. This means the palm branch or other object should be buried in the earth or burned in a “clean” fire . . . not a trash fire. If you have children, this is a good way of teaching them the importance of respecting religious objects. The new palm branch you will receive this week may be placed on your crucifix at home or over a religious icon or picture.
DIVINE MERCY NOVENA PRAYERS START ON GOOD FRIDAY – From 1931 to 1938 Our Lord revealed the secrets of His great mercy to St. Faustina. He designated the first Sunday after Easter as the Feast of the Divine Mercy of God. In preparation of this Feast, He asked that a Novena be started on Good Friday, a Novena which asks for prayers each of the nine days for a different group of souls in order to immerse them in the sea of God’s Mercy! Mass, Confession, Communion are required on Mercy Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter. Our Lord promised to the souls who follow these requests a complete remission of sin and punishment! Our Lord thus instructed Sister Faustina: “My daughter, speak to the whole world of My Incomprehensible Mercy. I desire that the Feast be a refuge and a shelter for all souls, especially for poor sinners. The very depths of My Mercy will be opened on that day. I will pour out a sea of graces upon those souls that will approach the font of My Mercy. Those who go to confession and receive Holy Communion on Mercy Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, will obtain complete remission of sins and punishment. Let no soul fear to come to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. Tell ailing mankind to draw close to My Merciful Heart and I will fill it with peace. Mankind will not find peace until it turns with confidence to My Mercy.”
INSTITUTION OF THE REAL PRESENCE
Father John A. Hardon, SJ
We reserve our meditation on the Real Presence after reflecting on the Mass and Holy Communion. Yet the Real Presence is logically prior to the Eucharist as Sacrifice and Communion.
The reason is obvious. Christ must first be really present on earth in the Eucharist, before we can intelligently speak of His offering Himself in the Mass and coming to us in Communion. Our focus here, as before, is on the institution of the Real Presence.
What do we mean? We mean that what Christ did at the Last Supper, He now is doing every time that Mass is offered.
Why? Because on Holy Thursday He ordained the Apostles as priests and thus gave them a share in His own power of transubstantiation. What had been bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ. How? By words of consecration. What is the Real Presence?
The most authoritative teaching: on the Real Presence is the solemn definition of the Council of Trent. The body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist.
What is the Church saying? She is saying that the same identical Jesus who was conceived at Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, crucified on Calvary; who rose from the dead on Easter Sunday and ascended into heaven on Ascension Thursday – this same Jesus, the whole Christ (totus Christus) is now on earth in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Why the Real Presence? It is not hard to see why Christ is now on earth, in the fullness of His humanity and divinity. He promised to be with us all days, even to the end of the world. He wanted us to profess our faith in His Incarnation, our hope in His omnipotence as the Incarnate God, and our love for Him, the Creator who became a man, and who now dwells in our midst, no less truly, although invisibly to our bodily eyes, than He lived visibly among His contemporaries in first century Palestine.
How to Respond to the Real Presence. We commonly and correctly speak of Eucharistic Adoration. We should, because in the Eucharist is present the whole Christ, the Incarnate Son of God.
During His visible stay on earth, He received the adoration of those who believed in Him. What did they believe? They believed that one who looked like a man, spoke and acted like a man, was really the living God. We believe it is the same Jesus Christ now present in the Holy Eucharist.
What do we see? Only what looks like bread and tastes like wine.
What do we believe? We believe that this is no longer bread and wine, but Jesus Christ, the man who received His humanity from His Mother Mary, but who is the Second Person of the Trinity who existed from all eternity. Adoration, therefore, is the primary response of our faith to the Real Presence.
But that is only the foundation. On this worship of adoration, we should build the whole edifice of the spiritual life.
We should express our love for Him since He is now on earth as the proof of His love for us.
We should ask Him for what we need, since He promised to give us everything that we ask for in His name.
We should talk with Him, since that is why He is present. He wants us to be present too, by communicating with Him our deepest thoughts and receiving from Him the illuminations and inspirations that only He can confer
We should not hesitate to ask Him to work miracles, now, as He had performed wonders during His visible stay in Palestine. All that it takes is faith on our part: faith in His Incarnation, faith in His Real Presence, and faith in His power to do what is humanly impossible, because He is the Almighty One.
SUNDAY, MARCH 24th IS PALM SUNDAY and commemorates Christ’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. For this reason, the Church blesses palms to remind us of the multitude which accompanied Him carrying branches and strewing them in His way, while they chanted: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!” The ceremonies for Palm Sunday and the reading of the Passion Gospel of St. Mark will take place on Saturday, March 23rd at 4:00 p.m. (English) and 6:00 p.m. (Spanish), and Sunday, March 24th at 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
THE MASS OF ST. MARY’S EXTRAVAGANCE on Monday, March 25th, at 8:00 a.m. will commemorate the anointing of Jesus by Mary, the sister of Lazarus, as a prelude to the anointing for the burial of Jesus. Following an old Polish tradition, the congregation will be anointed with aromatic oil, blessed at this Mass, in remembrance of “St. Mary’s Extravagant Act of Love.”
THE MASS OF LOVE’S LAST APPEAL on Tuesday, March 26th, at 5:30 p.m. is a remembrance of the last appeal of Jesus to Judas and of the betrayal of Judas.
THE MASS OF THE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER on Wednesday, March 27th, at 5:30 p.m. will recall the price of betrayal and of the final days of Jesus.
HOLY THURSDAY, MARCH 28th – THE “MASS OF THE LAST SUPPER” at 7:00 p.m. will commemorate the institution of the Holy Eucharist by Jesus at the Last Supper. The bells and organ will play for the last time at the Gloria of the Mass and the Eucharist will be transferred in solemn procession to the “Altar of the Holy Prison” recalling the arrest and imprisonment of Jesus. The Altar of Sacrifice will then be stripped and the tabernacle emptied to underline the grief of the Church. The church will remain open until 9:00 pm for private adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in the Holy Prison Altar. The Mass will be bilingual in English and Spanish. Confessions will be heard before the Mass.
GOOD FRIDAY, MARCH 29th – The church will be open all day from 8:00 a.m. for private adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in the Holy Prison Altar.
THE OFFICE OF TENEBRAE will be chanted at 8:00 am. This service, unique to Holy Week, is the combined services of the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer. The service gets its name, which is Latin for “darkness” or “shadows”, from the custom of extinguishing candles during the chanting of each of the Psalms, reflecting the darkness of the world at the death of Christ. Interspersed between the Psalms are readings from Scriptures and the Church Fathers.
THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS will be prayed at 3:00 p.m. on Good Friday, following the path of love Jesus walked to His crucifixion.
VIA CRUCIS – (Stations of the Cross in Spanish) will be prayed at 4:00 pm on Good Friday.
THE GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE OF THE LORD’S PASSION, 7:00 P.M. will commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus on the Cross. The Passion Gospel of St. John will be read followed by the unveiling and veneration of the Cross. This year all the faithful will Venerate the Cross during the Liturgy and not afterwards. People should approach the altar rail, genuflect or reverently bow, and return to their seat. The Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified will follow with Holy Communion. The Holy Eucharist will then be transferred to the “Altar of the Garden Tomb” where it will remain until Easter morning. The church will remain open ALL NIGHT for private prayer before the Altar of the Garden Tomb. The service will be bilingual.
HOLY SATURDAY, MARCH 30th – The church will remain open all day from 8:00 a.m. for private adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar of the Garden Tomb.
THE OFFICE OF TENEBRAE FOR HOLY SATURDAY will be chanted at 8:00 a.m. This service is the combined services of the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for Holy Saturday (please see Tenebrae of Good Friday, above, for more details.
THE TRADITIONAL BLESSING OF EASTER FOOD called the Święconka will take place in the church undercroft on Holy Saturday at 11:00 a.m., 12:00 noon, and 1:00 p.m. All are welcome and encouraged to bring their Easter baskets with their Easter dinner for the beautiful ceremony of the blessing.
THE HOLY SATURDAY MASS OF THE NIGHT WATCH – 8:00 P.M. March 30th, will begin with the blessing of the new fire and the Paschal Candle, the “Remembrance Readings” from the Old and New Testaments, the Blessing of Water, and the Renewal of Baptismal promises. The evening will end with the celebration of the Liturgy of the Eucharist with the ringing of the Gloria Bells sounding the praise of the Resurrection. The Mass will be bilingual.
EASTER SUNDAY, MARCH 31st – The “Resurrection Mass of Dawn” will take place at 8:00 a.m. beginning with the Service at the Empty Tomb followed by the Eucharistic Procession of the Risen Lord around the church. The first Mass of Easter will follow.
THE 10:30 A.M. MASS OF EASTER DAY will celebrate the Resurrection with the solemn reading of the Gospel of St. John and the enshrinement of the statue of the Resurrected Christ.
Beacon of Faith Campaign Prayer
Heavenly Father,
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, all things are possible
and without Him we can do nothing.
May we seek Your kingdom above all, knowing that all things
work together for the good of those who love You
and are called according to Your purpose.
Grant us that we, united through Your Son in one faith
and by the strength of the Holy Spirit, may be generous in our support
of the Beacon of Faith Campaign
which seeks to strengthen parish life in the four counties of our diocese.
All this we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Eternal rest grant unto them o Lord,
And Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Them
Zofia M. Bescek 3/24/2004
Francis Gesiny 3/24/1932
Jean E. Simanski 3/24/1973
Joseph W. Zak 3/24/1977
Chester. T, Plodzien 3/24/1992
David A. Moylan 3/24/1998
Walter J. Gochinski 3/24/1999
Andrew J. Seremeth 3/25/1985
Patricia J. Smith 3/25/1988
Rose Gloski 3/25/2018
Andrew Koyzel 3/26/1931
Walerja Traczewska 3/28/1932
Anthony Szott 3/28/1962
Elizabeth Warszawski 3//28/1976
Bronislawa (Blanche) Garanin 3/28/1989
Walter C. Traceski 3/28/1990
Dorothy A. Piecuch 3/28/1992
Dorothy Sazama 3/28/2017
Elizabeth MacEachen 3/28/2021
Anthony Makowski 3/29/1935
Alfons Olchowski 3/29/1942
Alexander Gembicki 3/29/1944
Anna Lazarz 3/29/1969
Genevieve Grader 3/29/1992
Claire M. Zak 3/29/2018
Walter Bialecki 3/29/2018
Ignacy Glinka 3/30/1924
Joseph Brzozowy 3/30/1930
Francis D. Poliatis 3/30/1997
Stacia N. Gaines 3/30/1998
Adam P. Sokolowski 3/30/2012
Mary A. Mleczko 3/30/2019
Mary Skworzec 3/31/1946
Joseph Oginski 3/31/1947
+ Remember to pray for the Holy Souls+
This bulletin is sponsored by the St. Stanislaus Society.
Chronicles of Czestochowa 