Bishop Kettler gathers with diocesan Church online for Holy Week, Easter

Since the onset of the coronavirus in the United States, many parishes and diocese have been pre-recording or livestreaming Masses, Stations of the Cross and other devotions. And this Holy Week was no exception.

While churches in the Diocese of St. Cloud remain closed to public celebration of the Mass until May 15, Bishop Donald Kettler invited area Catholics to join him for his private celebration of Palm Sunday and the Easter Triduum via livestream from St. Mary’s Cathedral in St. Cloud.

In this screenshot, Bishop Donald Kettler celebrates Easter Sunday Mass.

“Although we cannot be physically together, this is a way for us to gather as a diocesan church and pray together during these challenging times,” Bishop Kettler said in a taped introduction to each day’s liturgy. “The Lenten season is always a time to reorient our lives to Christ, and we’ve been called to make extra sacrifices this year as we await the promise and hope of Easter.”

Stringline Motion Picture Company, a St. Cloud-based video production agency, handled the camera work and livestreaming logistics, collaborating with the diocesan offices of worship and communications.

The events, which drew as many as 1,052 live viewers on Good Friday, can still be accessed on the diocesan website at www.stcdio.org/liturgies.

Each of the Masses included a downloadable worship aid. During the Holy Thursday Mass, Bishop Kettler invited viewers to participate by washing the feet of family members using items they gathered from around their homes, including a lit candle, Bible, basin, towel and pitcher of water. For the Good Friday service, viewers were encouraged to gather a candle, Bible and family cross. They were invited to venerate the cross during the service.

Lights, microphones and cameras were set up before the Holy Thursday Mass.
(Photo courtesy of Stringline Motion Picture Company)

The following are excerpts from each of Bishop Kettler’s Holy Week and Easter homilies:

PALM SUNDAY

“Living our faith in a separated and remote fashion and not sharing the palms this year does not lessen Gods presence, care and healing for us. This liturgical celebration of Palm Sunday and all the private Palm Sunday Masses being offered around our diocese and being offered around the world continue to keep us connected to God — God with his healing power. And it actually keeps us together with each other, but certainly in a different way.”

HOLY THURSDAY

“We must celebrate and give thanks to God tonight for the gift of the Eucharist. We must celebrate and give thanks for the Word of God and the full and active presence of Jesus Christ in his precious Body and Blood. We do this even though in most cases we cannot tonight physically receive Jesus’s body and blood in Communion. In this time of sickness, death and isolation . . . though we cannot do this in our usual way tonight, nevertheless the Eucharist still comes to us and always brings us healing, hope and nourishment for the journey we are presently on.”

GOOD FRIDAY

Deacon John Wocken, left, venerates the cross as Deacon Mike Benda holds it in this screenshot from Good Friday.

“When we experience things like pain and brokenness, hurt and loneliness, even despair, it can be summarized into one word: suffering. Suffering is part of our existence. Jesus died on the cross to help us understand and deal with suffering. We can and should bring our suffering, all of its darkness and confusion, sinfulness, pain and anger, despair and defeat, to the cross of Christ. The cross of Jesus Christ will bring peace into suffering. It might not bring immediate resolution and healing, but it will bring peace, and it will enable us to endure it because we know at some time it will be overcome.”

EASTER VIGIL

“Tonight, Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, shines in the darkness with the lighting of the Easter candle and the singing of the Exsultet, the Easter proclamation. We sang of the sanctifying power of this night, which dispels wickedness, washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen and joy to mourners. All this happens because Jesus is risen from the dead and God is with us. With wonderful readings from the Word of God we heard again how God cared for his people and saved them, and does this in our day.”

EASTER SUNDAY

“When the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles at Pentecost, just as the Holy Spirit comes to us in

Shawn Lewis, right, and George Sirbasku, of Stringline Motion Picture Company set up and monitor the livestream.
(Photo courtesy of Stringline Motion Picture Company)

the sacraments, the Holy Spirit turned the apostles’ uncertainty and doubts into the certainty of faith. Despite all the pain, sickness, hurt, sin and despair that creeps into our lives and the lives of those around us, we know with certainty that, in the end, all of this is dead. This Easter message, this good news brings us hope today. The Risen lord fills us with purpose and hope for he conquered death itself. We know that with God all things are possible.”

Note: The TV Mass and ministries of the offices of worship and communication are funded by the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. For more information, visit this link.

Author: Dianne Towalski

Dianne Towalski is a multimedia reporter for The Central Minnesota Catholic Magazine.

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