By Dan Sherven
This Holy Week will be the first Holy Week in two years without Covid restrictions. The last two years saw virtual services held in many churches, as people were not allowed to gather in any great numbers.
But this year, priests Fr. Parker Love and Fr. George Thattuparampil are looking forward to celebrating Holy Week with their parishioners.
Fr. Parker Love serves at St. Augustine’s in Wilcox, and is also Chaplain at Athol Murray College of Notre Dame. He is newer to the Church than some priests and this will be the first Holy Week he celebrates as a priest without restrictions.
“I was more than happy to do what the government, experts, and the Archdiocese recommended.” Love says. “But it is true; I never imagined celebrating my first Easter Vigil alone in a cold church with people only being able to tune-in online.”
He’s particularly looking forward to more singing this Holy Week: “The last two years it was just me!” He is planning for, hoping for, and expecting more attendance than just himself this Holy Week.
Fr. Love says it was “long, cold, and lonely” celebrating the last two Lenten seasons by himself. In terms of how his parishioners handled the restrictions, he says “we were as diverse as the rest of the world has been. But thankfully…there were no extreme reactions I had to deal with.” Now that the restrictions are lifted, he says, “thanks be to God.”
Love will be celebrating Holy Triduum — three days of service — including Mass on Holy Thursday evening, their Good Friday Service, and the Easter Vigil on Saturday. He will also be celebrating Easter Sunday Mass, on Easter morning.
He says St. Augustine’s is a smaller parish so there are few preparations needed for Holy Week. But he does need to “gather some extra volunteers and (ideally) try to find someone to baptize.”
Fr. George Thattuparampil will also be celebrating Holy Week as he serves at St. Joseph’s in Moose Jaw. Additionally, Fr. Thattuparampil serves at St. Mary’s in Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation. He is planning, hoping, and expecting for people to be joyful this Easter.
“We are very happy to celebrate Holy Week as usual.” Fr. Thattuparampil says. “People are very vibrant and enthusiastic. Since everything is normal now, we are planning to do all Holy Week services as usual.”
He says over the last two years “only a few could participate” in the full services. But he finds the Covid restrictions were “God’s plan for us [and] an eye-opener for everybody.” Fr. Thattuparampil says his parishioners did a good job working through the restrictions and were “very patient, loving, caring, and cooperative.”
Now that the restrictions are lifted this Holy Week, he says he is “so happy to do everything for our people, (who are) so good and faithful.” He also expects more people in the church and says “we have to pray together so the Holy Spirit will guide us and sanctify us.”
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Dan Sherven is the author of three books: Light and Dark, Classified: Off the Beat ‘N Path, and Live to the Point of Tears. Here you can find his books, articles, podcasts, and more: https://linktr.ee/dansherven |
