Dear Parishioners,

We may be entering into our worst week for Coronavirus victims. We pray for those afflicted and for those caring for those afflicted and for those who have died. We can’t help but relate this time with Holy Week. We know that the Passion and Death of our Lord leads to His Resurrection. We can look with hope toward the resurrection of our lives and of society after the passing of this pandemic.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Today should be filled with the hustle and bustle of decorating the church and preparing for the Masses. Beginning tomorrow, I, and all of us, will feel most acutely the lack of our ability to come together to worship God. The Archdiocese is working to fill this void as best we can during this time. Archbishop Gregory will celebrate all the Holy Week liturgies in the Cathedral. They will be live-streamed on the Archdiocese YouTube channel. They have set up a website with all the resources for Holy Week. Here is the link to this website.

Maryland has a website where you can track the latest information on the coronavirus in Maryland. They have expanded the categories of reporting. In additon to the number of cases they show the increase from day to day, the number of deaths, the number hospitalized, the number who have recovered, and the number of negative tests. The number of new cases is decreasing while the number of deaths and hospitalizations is increasing. This is the crest of the wave. The first flat line will be the new cases, then the number of hospitalizations, then the number of deaths. During these weeks of April we will see these number crest, and, God willing, fall. I am still hoping and praying that we can get back to something like normal life, with some light social distancing, as we had at the beginning, by the end of April. Here is the link to the Maryland Government Coronavirus website.

One thing you may want to do, especially if you’re with you family, is read the Passion narrative from Matthew out loud, with different people taking different parts. You can find the scripture readings for Palm Sunday here.

Have a blessed Holy Week. Fr. LaHood