Our Lady of the Assumption Announces Palm Sunday Instructions

Woodbridge, CT - Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church has announced plans for Palm Sunday coming up on April 5 , 2020.

“Blessed is He who comes in name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest!”

Palm Sunday is the final Sunday of Lent, the beginning of Holy Week, and commemorates the triumphant arrival of Christ in Jerusalem, days before he was crucified.

The suspension of public Mass, including the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter, have been extended through April 30th.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF PALM

Palm will be available all day on Palm Sunday. Tables will be set up on the west side of the Center
Road church with a single layer of palm. Please pull your up car to a table and pick up your palm.

The palm will be spread out so that you need only touch the palm that you are taking home for you and your family.

Please follow these instructions out of concern for the health of our community.

Best Lent ever?

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” This famous line by Robert Burns certainly describes how I felt when all our Lenten programs and devotions had to be canceled because of the coronavirus. I was pleased that we were off to a great start with excellent participation of parishioners in bible study, Simple Suppers and Stations, Holy Hours and significant increase in penitents experiencing the healing grace of God’s mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. So understandably, with many of you, I was very disappointed when it all came to a sudden end.Now I’m realizing more and more that Lent 2020, even in light of this dreadful pandemic, may prove to the most efficacious of my life. The three disciplines of Lent that we heard proclaimed on Ash Wednesday are prayer, penance, and alms giving. As we all shelter in place and stay at home, most of us have more time for prayer and we all certainly have plenty to pray about as we turn to God in our helplessness.In addition, we are all practicing some serious penance! For the most part we have not chosen it but rather it has been imposed on us by the virus itself. Nonetheless, we can benefit spiritually by choosing to offer up all the sacrifices we are making in reparation of our sins and for the good of others. Whether it’s the pain people who live alone are experiencing by being isolated physically from others or the added stress on family life as parents are attempting to work from home while supervising, educating and entertaining their children! I can’t even begin to imagine what that must be like! And yet, as challenging as we find daily life presently, most of our sacrifices are miniscule compared to the extraordinary sacrifices health care professionals and many others are making every day of behalf of the common good. LET US OFFER UP OUR SUFFERINGS INUNION WITH CHRIST’S FOR THEM, AS WELL AS, FOR THE SICK AND THE DYING. Bydoing so, we are sure to have the best Lent ever and experience a share in the glory of Christ’sResurrection in ways we never imagined.

Blessed Holy Week

Fr. Ford