From the Pastor&

      The three most important days of the Catholic Christian year are Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Great Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday.  It is one liturgical service spread over three days.  I hope you can mark your calendars now and make the services of these three days an important part of your spiritual lives.  Holy Thursday we celebrate the Mass of the Lord's Supper at 7:30 p.m.  On Good Friday there are two services at St. John's.  At 3:00 p.m. we celebrate the Lord's Passion and Death.  In the evening, at 7:30 p.m., there is a service based in part on the Orthodox liturgy of the Lord's anointing and    burial.  And, on Holy Saturday , at 8:30 p.m., we celebrate the Lord's Resurrection with Scripture, Fire, Baptisms and Eucharist.  Please, mark April 12, 13, 14, today.  These are our High Holy Days.  We were baptized into Christ's death and resurrection.  Our identity as Christians comes from these three days of the Lord's life, death and resurrection.  How can we skip them?  Please, come.  They are beautiful and powerful services& don't cheat yourself.
     On Holy Thursday we wash the feet of parishioners, as Jesus did at the Last Supper.  In John's Gospel, Jesus says:  "If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, your ought to wash one another's feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do."
     This command of Jesus reminds us that we are called to be a servant people in 2001.  But wash feet?  We let people like Mother Teresa or Mary Jo Copeland do that, don't we?  Can you imagine yourself washing the feet of a homeless person?  Feet!  They are not the prettiest part of the body at the end of the day.
     This Lent, our parish St. Vincent de Paul Society will have containers in the church for white athletic socks.  The one piece of clothing that the homeless really need the most are clean, white socks for their feet.  The homeless are on their feet all day.  This is one way of following the command of Jesus.  Encourage your children to take some of their money and buy a package of socks at Target or K-Mart, or wherever you shop. 
     This act of charity goes back to the very early church.  St. Basil the Great, c 365, was the Bishop of Caesarea.  He wrote to his Diocese:  "When someone steals a man's clothes we call him a thief.  Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not?  The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor."
     St. Ambrose, c 380, was the Bishop of Milan.  He wrote to his diocese:  "You are not making a gift of your possessions to the poor.  You are handing over to the poor what is theirs."