Message from Parish Priest
Fr Michael Trainor
28th March/29th March 2026 ~ Palm Sunday of The Passion of the Lord
Our week of Holiness
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
This weekend we enter into the holiest week of the year. This is the week that we have been preparing for over Lent, through our contributions to Project Compassion, our thoughtfulness to those in need, our prayer life, acts of penance and other ways that we adopt to draw ourselves more closely to Jesus and each other. How we have been in this way in Lent will shape the way that we are with each other in the week that is about to unfold. This is truly a week of holiness.
With you, I walk into Jerusalem this weekend, carrying my greenery and welcoming Jesus into our parish. This is about drawing close to Jesus in his final days. And I do it with you. Then…
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On Thursday evening we gather to begin the Sacred
Triduum—the three most important days of our liturgical year. We listen about the First Passover from Exodus and how Jesus, on Passover night, washed his disciples’ feet. Then we shall repeat Jesus’ symbolic action of washing each other’s’ feet, as our commitment of service to each other and the poor.
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On Friday our prayerful Stations of the Cross in the morning prepare us for the 3pm Solemnity of the Lord’s Passion. It is a solemn liturgical commemoration of Jesus’ death centred on John’s story of Jesus passion. Last year, Pope Francis reflected on the meaning of this day:
“By embracing the wood of the cross, Jesus embraced the nakedness, the hunger and thirst, the loneliness, pain and death of men and women of all times…he suffers in them and deeply identifies with each of them. He is so closely united to them as to form with them, as it were, ‘one body.’”
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Saturday evening is the highlight of the year. The Light of the Risen Christ bursts into the darkness of our church and world. This is our celebration of Easter. The Easter celebration continues with our Mass on Sunday morning.
I look forward to being with you, dear parishioners, over this week.
May we grow in holiness together with Jesus.
Your brother,
Michael