Passiontide,
Holy Week, Easter
We come again to the holiest time
of year. As Lent draws to a close, it
draws us deeper into the depths of Jesus’ sorrows. Passiontide begins on
Sunday, April 6th, when we hear of Jesus’ exchange with his enemies,
who then took up stones to throw at him, but he hid himself, passing through
the midst of them. This mysterious
report bespeaks his divinity, and it also reminds us of how wondrous are his
ways among us. So we, in response to hearing
it, immediately veil our images. As soon
as this Gospel is read, we pause to veil the images. Now we enter the last two weeks of Lent,
which are a fasting also for the eyes.
The
St. Luke Passion will be heard on Wednesday evening, and the St. John Passion
on Good Friday. These are also important
times for reflection.
Indeed
every day during Holy Week there will be mass, at 7 pm, to consider some facet
of the Passion of our Lord.
Monday
and Tuesday will include important readings from St. John’s Gospel, and of course Maundy
Thursday will recount what happened in the upper room.
And
then, at last, comes the culmination of all, ushered in at the Vigil of Easter
on Holy Saturday. Here is another
opportunity for reflection and pondering in the heart. And during the Vigil we mark the end of Lent
and the beginning of Eastertide.
Then
we return at 7 in the morning on Easter to commemorate the discovery of the
Risen One by the women and the disciples.
Note
how many opportunities are set before us specifically for meditation. Do not shrink from these, dear Christians,
but embrace them. For, as the book of Proverbs would put it, they are your
life.
+
Pastor Eckardt
Schedule for Passiontide to Easter
April 6: Passion Sunday
Schedule for Passiontide to Easter
April 6: Passion Sunday
April 13: Palm Sunday
(no mass on
Saturday the 12th)
April 14: Holy Monday 7 pm
April 15: Holy Tuesday 7 pm
April 16: Holy Wednesday 7 pm
April 17: Maundy Thursday 7 pm
April 18: Good Friday 7 pm
April 19: Vigil of Easter 7 pm
April 20: Easter Sunrise
7 am
April
Ushers
Steve Peart, Grant Andresen, Larry Campbell
April Anniversaries
4/13/2002 Steve
and Sheri Kraklow
April
Birthdays:
4/3 Adam Shreck
4/11 Reggie Eckardt
(church mascot J)
4/19 Luke Wells
4/22 Grant Andreson
Catechesis
suspended beginning Holy Week
Saturday morning catechesis concludes on April 12th; a summer
catechesis class may be forthcoming; stay tuned.
First Tuesday
Vespers, etc.
April 1st, Altar
Guild is at 6 pm, Vespers is at 6:45, and Elders is at 7:15, as usual.
Altar Guild Notes
·
Parament color is VIOLET until Maundy Thursday.
·
Volunteers sought for Saturday, April 5th
veiling.
·
Parament color is WHITE for Maundy Thursday.
·
Stripping of the altar during Maundy Thursday
mass. This includes the stripping of the frontal.
·
Fair linen placed on bare altar for Good Friday;
black veil is used.
·
Paraments WHITE for the Easter Vigil and all the
rest of April.
·
Parament color is RED for Wednesday, April 30th,
on which we will observe SS Philip and James (May 1)
Our Shut ins
Mary Hamilton at home; Anna Baker at home; Emmy Wear at Williamsfield
Home.
Faithful Departed
Christian burial was accorded Mirilda Greiert on Tuesday, February 25th.
Easter Preparations
1) Volunteers sought to help clean the church especially this month: our regular first Saturday cleaning is
spring cleaning time! So try your very
best to clear the schedule for Saturday, April 5th, beginning at 9
am. Big day of preparatory cleaning.
2) If you have not yet signed up for Easter lilies, there’s a sign up
sheet at church. $12.00 is the cost.
3) Easter breakfast preparations are underway. Carol Eckardt is in charge. A sign-up sheet is posted in the
kitchen. This is going to be a potluck
of sorts. Everybody brings something.
But sign up for something in particular, so we don’t have everyone bringing the
same thing. Donations accepted too!
4) Easter bonnets! Ladies, do you
have your bonnet ready? Let’s have some fun!
No mass April 12th
As usual, there will be no mass
on Saturday evening the day before Palm Sunday.
For the special Palm Sunday mass, all members are asked to come Sunday
morning.
Coming Up In May
The annual Gottesdienst
– Chicago event is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th.
A one-day conference: “Justification and the
Sacrament” — with special guest speaker Rev. Rolf Preus
At Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
Also
featuring banter and discussion from among our editors:
Rev. Fr. Larry Beane, MDiv; Rev. Fr. Jason Braaten, MDiv;
Rev. Fr. Mark Braden, STM; Rev. Fr. Burnell F. Eckardt Jr., STM, PhD; Rev. Fr.
D. Richard Stuckwisch Jr., PhD; Rev. Fr. David H. Petersen, Mdiv
Registration:
$20 (Payable to Gottesdienst. Email the following info
to b.f.eckardt@gmail.com with
“Gottesdienst Chicago” in the subject line). You may pay the
registration fee when you arrive.
Schedule:
8:30-9:00 am Registration/Coffee, donuts/
Holy Absolution
available
9:00 am Matins
9:40 am Welcome
9:45-10:45 am
Justification and the
Sacrament,
part one -- Rev. Preus
11:00 am Holy Mass
12:15 pm Lunch
(provided)
1:30 – 2:30 pm
Justification and the
Sacrament,
part two -- Rev. Preus
2:30 – 3:30 pm
Panel Discussion
Response from the
editors
3:30 pm Vespers
4:00 pm
Gemütlichkeit
Lodging on your own.
Recommended:
Hampton Inn $169. 6540 S Cicero Ave , Bedford Park , IL Chicago 6520 S Cicero Ave , Chicago , IL Carlton 4944 S Archer Ave , Chicago , IL Inn Express Hotel & Suites $171. 6500 S Cicero Ave , Chicago , IL 6530 S Cicero Ave , Bedford Park , IL S Cicero Ave , Bedford Park , IL Inn $159. 6650 S Cicero Ave , Bedford Park , IL Inn $180. 6624 S Cicero Ave , Chicago , IL
In Our Prayers
In addition to our shut-ins, our current list of prayer intentions at
mass includes the names on the lists here following. Anyone wishing to update the lest by addition
or subtraction, please inform the pastor.
in our parish:
Ann Baker
Sara Bidni, who has cancer
Emilie Ricknell
Linda Rowe
John Sovanski
Don Murphy
Jean Russell
And our shut-ins.
and also:
Anna Rutowicz [re Harris]
Julie Ross [Svetlana Meaker’s daughter, cancer]
Caleb Cleaver [rre Ricknells]
Christian Johnson [re Kemerlings]
Madison Lindsay [re Andersons
Michelle Steuber [re Fisher]
Jill Matchett [re Shrecks]
Anthony Strand, [re Murphys]
Mark Elbus [re Kegebeins]
Edna Day [Chris Harden’s mother-in-law, cancer]
Carolyn Lewis [re Campbells
Barb Fornoff [re Russells]
Tilly Miller [Jennifer Madsen’s mother]
Lorene Foglesong [friend of the Kraklows]
Pastors Don Chambers, [Manito]
Brian Feicho [E. St. Louis ]
Glenn Niemann [Pekin
Arthur Baisch [cancer]
and Adam Jacobsen [Mattoon
in the military:
John Eckardt
Donny Appleman [re Ricknell]
Thomas Kim [re Shreck]
Jaclyn Harden Alvarez
Michael Creech
and Richard Heiden
in trouble:
especially any unborn
children in danger of abortion, and those suffering from unrest, persecution,
and imprisonment in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, North Korea, and elsewhere.
Here are some details Website: www.persecution.net:
SRI LANKA
On the evening of February 16th, a mob of approximately 250
villagers led by 11 Buddhist monks stormed a pastor's property in Asgiriya, Kandy
The pastor, in response, explained to the mob that he has the
right to religious freedom. However, the mob dragged the pastor and his wife
from their home and physically assaulted them. The couple's 18-year-old
daughter was also verbally abused.
Afterwards, the General Secretary of the BBS gathered the
villagers outside the pastor's house and warned them against such
"traitors." He threatened the same treatment for any villager
supporting Christian worship.
The appeal hearing for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman imprisoned for blasphemy, has been postponed "to a later date."
Initially scheduled for March 17th,
The high-profile case remains hugely controversial in
The New Testament in His Blood
This series contains brief
liturgical explanations which appear in Pastor Eckardt’s book The New Testament in His
Blood (Gottesdienst, 2010).
Communion (Distribution)
The distribution of
the Blessed Sacrament is the primary reason clergymen are sometimes called
ministers. They administer the Holy Gifts of God. It is uniformly traditional
and preferable that the celebrant administer the Blessed Sacrament to himself,
before he communes the congregation. Certain Lutheran orders arose in the
Pietistic era of the seventeenth century which forbad self-communion by the
celebrant (see Reed 372f for a brief commentary on this controversy), but the instruction
of Luther himself on the matter serves to contradict those proscriptions (see
Formula Missae, AE 53:30). Moreover, the chief reason self-communion is
salutary and ought to be retained is that the celebrant is here not only
receiving the Gifts for himself; he is at the same time serving to signify
Christ, who partook with His disciples in the other room. There is no valid
reason for the historically novel practice of having someone else commune the
celebrant, and it is
positively improper
that a lay assistant commune him.
The rise of the historically recent practice
of the use of lay assistants at all for the physical distribution of the
Sacrament is a most unfortunate development, and is to be discouraged in the
strongest terms. Besides being virtually unnecessary in that it scarcely saves
time, it is more importantly a practice which belies a failure to understand
the very nature and primary function of the pastoral office
The physical act of giving the Holy
Sacrament to the people of God is the central feature of the pastoral office.
For although it is also rightly said that preaching is central to the Office,
yet the very Christ whose Gospel is preached is Himself given to the people
here. The reality of the Gospel is that it is about a Savior who truly came in the
flesh and dwelt among us; and this Christ also just as truly gives His Body and
Blood to His people in the Supper. In the same way, the Office of the Ministry
is a real flesh-and-blood office: real duly ordained men carry out its duties.
Therefore although one may also rightly list many other duties that a pastor
does, this is the one which
most clearly
defines his office, by the very doing of the act. The sheep of Christ’s pasture
are fed from the hand of His under-shepherds here.
For this reason,
Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession declares that “no one should publicly
teach in the Church or administer the Sacraments unless he be regularly
called.” There are those who would say that a pastor who has a lay assistant
physically assisting him in the handing out of the Holy Elements is not thereby
relinquishing his own duty to oversee the administration of them, but this
point of view is problematic, since clearly “administration” here has to do
with a physical act, which would seem to entail the physical handing out of the
Elements.
If there should be a second ordained
clergyman present to assist in the distribution, it is always proper that the
celebrant distribute the Hosts, and that his assistant distribute the Cup. This
is because it is the celebrant’s duty, on the one hand, to be the chief and
therefore first person to bless each communicant by the administration, and on
the other hand, to see that no unworthy communicant receives the Sacrament.
Although the practice of receiving the Host
in the hand may be traced to early church usage, it is nevertheless better that
the Host be received directly on the tongue, as it emphasizes the purely
receptive character of faith, as well as eliminating any possibility of tiny fragments
of the Host remaining on the hand of the communicant after he communes. The
celebrant, by contrast, is careful to see that no crumbs are lost in the
distribution of the Host, as he holds his thumb and forefinger together except
when holding a Host, and, after the distribution, to take the ablutions, that
no fragments are lost.
No comments:
Post a Comment