Chrism Mass
I am writing this note immediately before heading to the Chrism Mass at St. James Cathedral in Seattle. This is a lovely (and ancient) annual Mass at which the bishop blesses the holy oils to be used at each diocesan church at Easter and throughout the year.
This Mass is traditionally held on the morning of Holy Thursday (the day on which Christ instituted the Eucharist and therefore also the Priesthood), so the Chrism Mass is also when the priests of the diocese renew their priestly promises in front of the bishop and people of the diocese. I took my promises gravely seriously on my way to ordination, so this renewal is deeply meaningful to me each year.
PFAC Report
The PFAC has been working overtime this week to get our Viability Metrics report published before this weekend. Please keep an eye out for a separate e-mail from our parishes with this report. Please also make sure you click through on many of the links. They hold vast, hidden resources, like this facilities report from the Archdiocese.
Please also do not forget to register for a listening session at this link! We had almost 500 people participate in our previous sessions, but only about 75 are signed up for this round. I would also encourage you to sign up for a session at a church you do not normally visit. These sessions are most fruitful when we have parishioners from different churches talking with each other.
Holy Week Confessions
Every year, we cancel confessions on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday (because we have rather a lot going on those days), leaving us without scheduled confessions for two full weeks. To remedy this, we are trying an experiment of offering a bunch of extra confessions during Holy Week. Please look for a calendar at your local churches or use our online calendar here.
I suspect that we have scheduled too many hours of confessions for this year, so the priests are going to evaluate which times and locations were most popular and make a more realistic schedule for next year.
No Announcements or Bulletin
As a reminder, we do not make parish announcements on Palm Sunday (because of the way the liturgy begins) or Easter. And our Easter bulletin is a special edition, listing our parish ministries for visitors and returning parishioners. So read this week’s bulletin carefully, since we are cramming in three weeks’ worth of information.
I hope you all have a holy and blessed Holy Week and Easter!
Fr. Moore 