Letter from the Pastor
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May 28, 2023This is a very important weekend. In the Church’s calendar it is the second highest feast day: the Solemnity of Pentecost. In the secular calendar, it is Memorial Day Weekend.
Today is the second most important feast of the entire Church’s year: Pentecost, 50 days after Easter. On this day, the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and our Blessed Lady after 9 days of prayer. Today completes the Easter Season, and it is the birthday of the Church.
To end the Easter Season properly, this afternoon, we will gather to pray the Vespers (Evening Prayer) of the Church at 4:00PM. We will pray 3 psalms, listen to Sacred Scripture and then extinguish the Easter Candle and place it back by the Baptismal font. The Candle will only be lit for baptisms and funerals for the rest of the Church’s year. Our wonderful choir will lead us in sung prayer. I invite all to come and end the Easter Season properly.
This weekend is also Memorial Day Weekend. Memories are important, our past is important, even the difficult and sinful moments. It is when we forget our past, good or bad that we find ourselves adrift. As in our personal history, there are proud moments and moments of shame in our national history. Yet through it all there have always been men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country. This is the weekend we remember.
On this Memorial Day Weekend, we remember in our prayers all those who died in service of our country and for the freedoms, which we enjoy. We are also grateful to the families who had their sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters sacrifice their lives for us.
Memorial Day was first known as Decoration Day. It was the day when the graves of the Civil War dead were decorated. The custom of placing flowers on the graves of the war-dead began on May 5, 1866, in Waterloo, NY. In 1868, Gen. John A. Logan, then president of the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that May 30th would be a day to decorate with “flowers the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” After 1971, the date was fixed to the last Monday in May.
Tomorrow we will celebrate this day. Many people see it as just another day off, the unofficial beginning of the summer season, a 3-day weekend. But for those who have lost someone because of war or military action, it means much more.
So, before the BBQ’s, parades and family celebrations, attend the 9:00 AM Mass on Memorial Day. Then go to the Pearl River parade to honor the fallen. The parade will start at 10:15 AM on North Middletown Road ending at Braunsdorf Park when at Noon the annual Memorial Day celebrations will take place.
Celebrate this weekend properly: For God and Country.
