Whirlwind April comes to a close

April is over and we are into the month of May...thank heavens. April was one of the busiest months at Prince of Peace. Of course we began the month with Palm Sunday, Holy Week, the Triduum and Easter. Those are the busiest days of the liturgical year for a priest. The planning and preparation just for the celebration of Holy Saturday is extensive. At Prince of Peace we also have *7* Easter Sunday Masses so both Fr. Frank and I celebrate back to back to back Masses (we have a 9:00am and 10:30am both upstairs in the church and downstairs in the parish hall).
Having completed the Lenten season, though, was only the beginning for us. We had 1st Communions. Our parish elementary school has 75 children in 2nd grade. Our SOR program (CCD) has roughly 175 2nd graders. So, we have *4* 1st Communion Masses to accomodate the shear number of children. So, on Divine Mercy Sunday we had our school 1st Communion Mass at 2:00pm. The following Saturday we had two 1st Communion Masses; at 10:00am and 2:00pm. Sunday, we had the fourth 1st Communion Mass at 2:00pm. These were all in addition to the regular weekend Masses.

That would have been enought to wear us out but we had one more sacrament to celebrate: Confirmation. We have roughly 250 teens in 8th grade receiving Confirmation (60 in the school and 190 in SOR). As such, it is impossible to have a single Confirmation Mass so we had two - one night after the other. Confirmation Masses take preparation as well, including server training and set up. We also have dinner with the Archbishop at the rectory prior to the Masses which also requires some major planning.

So, you can see why I am so happy May is here. Granted, there are graduations and ordinations to attend BUT I do not have to set up, organize or prepare them. They say April showers bring May flowers. Well, in April I got poured on so I am looking forward to 'smelling the roses' a little bit in May. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 01:24 | link | comments |
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