Immaculate Conception  & 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

As we move into Holy Week this week, we draw closer to the most central of all Christian feasts. Still, we all have to admit it is in the most unique and difficult of circumstances, and in many respects doesn’t feel all that “holy” at all. As I was meditating on all of it this past week I was struck by a memory from my pilgrimage to the Holy Land during my time in Seminary. We were in Jerusalem at the time and I was walking the Stations of the Cross through the streets of the city. We had done it before at 5:30 a.m. when the streets were clear so that we could have a more prayerful experience, but I wanted to do it again on my own. I came midday, not realizing the difference a few hours would make, and found the experience to be completely different. The Arab merchants were selling their wares and people were thronging the streets and, around the 4th station, I was beginning to get fairly frustrated because this didn’t seem all that holy and I wondered if there was any spiritual merit to the whole thing because I couldn’t concentrate and kept getting pushed into and knocked over or having someone try and sell me something. It was then that I realized that this was more akin to the actual Stations of the Cross than anything I had ever experienced.

When Jesus had walked through those ancient streets, few realized the true gravity of the moment. It was just another day for them and there would have been people selling their wares and going about their daily lives. Few would have even noticed Him walking with the cross, because Roman persecution was just part of the backdrop of daily existence. I realized that to truly immerse myself in the mystery at hand was to experience what Christ would have experienced, and take the moment for what it was without my own preconceived notions. Thus it is for us, brothers and sisters. We stand in this moment in unique circumstances of what feels like spiritual darkness, if not absence, and it hurts. It’s not what we want or how any of us would have imagined it, but it is what stands before us. Yet wasn’t this the case over 2,000 years ago when Christ walked the earth? Those people literally sat in darkness and human depravity waiting for the redemption of all humanity. Until Christ suffered and died, the gates of heaven were still closed to each one of them and us as well. We have the opportunity to experience that in a small way, and in many respects can say that this year our Passiontide is more authentic than ever and, as hard as that is, it is a gift. Let us not overlook that.

We have been severely restricted on the number of people that can be present for our sacred liturgies, so the vast majority of you will have to join us via our live-stream or recorded versions. But as I brought up at Mass on Thursday, I would love it if as many of you as possible would send in a “Selfie” or copy of a picture so that you could still be present in the pews. I got the idea from a buddy of mine in the Midwest. You can send them to parish@ic-olph.org. We decided to keep our previously schedule Holy Week schedule for live-streaming of Holy Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Good Friday Stations will be prerecorded for a better experience and available all day, but I recommend participating between the hours of 12-3 when Christ traditionally suffered on the cross. Veneration of the Cross will be at 7:00 p.m. and I request that all of you find a special cross at home that you will present for veneration in your home during the live veneration. I’ll say a special blessing for them all during the service itself. Finally, Easter Vigil will be at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, but many of the pieces will have to be omitted to fit our unique circumstances. Each of the Holy Week liturgies will include pieces from all our language communities so an Order of Worship will be distributed via flocknote. If you’re not yet signed up, make sure to do so. Easter Sunday live-stream will be at 10:00 a.m.

As we come to week three without public Masses it seems to be a good opportunity to check in and see how we are doing as communities. Thankfully, as of this writing, I haven’t heard about anyone in our communities having contracted the virus. If this isn’t accurate please let me know as I would like to be praying for you in a much more direct fashion. So far the biggest three questions I have been asked are 1) What does it mean for the Church to be closed? 2) What does Holy Week look like? 3) How are our communities doing financially, since you were talking about that a lot before all this happened? I figured I would answer each in its turn.

The first two questions have a much more slippery answer because they are contingent on what the government and Archdiocese say, and thus shift according to how things go in society and “from above” in both my forms of governance. As of right now, what it means to be closed is that we can hold no sort of formal services of any kind. This does not mean that we cannot have our doors open and people can’t pray. I am still working through a plan to have the church open certain hours each week for opportunities to pray. We are required to have someone present to clean areas that people use though, and so a list of people to assist with the cleaning process would be helpful. Just a reminder that no one who is at risk should be venturing out; we are taking all these precautions to keep you healthy, so if you’re at risk please stay home and let your prayers rise up through us. Right now I plan on doing my personal prayer from 1-4 on Thursdays and Fridays and I’ll probably be praying at 9:45 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturdays so, for sure, Our Lady of Perpetual Help will be open for prayer at those times unless I get an emergency call. I’m keeping the larger area at Immaculate off limits so that livestreams can continue because I have already had a few buddies lose their churches entirely once there was a confirmed case of Covid-19 in their parish because the whole church needed to be sealed off and cleaned.

In terms of Holy Week, as of right now all services will be live-streamed and we will be able to have 7 other people present.  That means things will be very different, but we will do our best to keep things dignified. We have also been instructed that there will be no Palm Sunday distribution of palms, though we can keep some for later distribution once the virus passes over. I am encouraging all of you to be ready to help with the public reading of the passion narrative by participating at home and using the readings provided online or in your various prayer aids like Magnificat or the St. Joseph’s Missal. Stations of the Cross can also be found there, though I’m hoping to come up with a way to live-stream that on Good Friday at 3 p.m. Thus far our live-stream schedule will mirror the original Holy Week schedule we put out weeks ago Holy Thursday at 7 p.m., Good Friday 3 p.m. Stations and 7 p.m. Veneration of the Cross and 9 p.m. for the Easter Vigil. Easter Sunday will be live-streamed at 10 a.m. unless God lifts everything and we are all able to be back together.

Finally question 3, which is the only one we have any real participation in. We had two of the best weeks in my time here financially right before all of this happened. Immaculate was still a little behind where it needed to be on a week-to-week basis and Perpetual Help was actually a bit ahead of what was necessary on a weekly basis. The last two weeks didn’t go so well, and I need to see how the month ends and how April starts before I know a real trend but as of right now, Immaculate is behind where it needs to be but has some money in savings that can carry us through this difficult patch. Our Lady of Perpetual Help, as I told you all at Masses, didn’t have much in savings aside from what was restricted for the Perpetuate campaign, so at this point I have needed to utilize some of that to pay bills because it was the cash on hand. The intention is to put the money back into that fund as soon as possible once we get back to normal life. At this point though, we need to be realistic and recognize that neither parish can survive long term on what we have in savings so it is imperative that we each do our part to try and give even in the midst of what is going on. As I have told you before, you can mail your envelopes; drop them off at the office or, my personal favorite, sign up for electronic giving. This last form helps us the most because it allows us to set a stable budget for the future as well. Apart from all of this though, remember to stay in the presence of God because He is with us in the midst of affliction. He is leading us somewhere, though we may not know where quite yet. We need to trust in His goodness because hope is what gives us the strength to conquer.

Prayers Always,

Fr Joseph Altenhofen

March 23, 2020 - 7:15pm
Good evening,
Thank you for your understanding, as we navigate the many liturgical changes that Covid-19 has created. Following the news from the Governor this evening Archbishop Etienne has decided that churches will be able to stay open for prayer.  Father Joseph will be available for confession on Saturdays at 9:45 am & 3:00 pm at Our Lady of Perpetual Help   

March 23, 2020 - 5:06pm
I talked with the Archbishop earlier today and in light of the request of the mayor of Everett we have been directed to close both our churches to all visitors. This means that if you want to pray you need to go to St Mary’s Marysville, St. Michael's in Snohomish or other area parishes. Confessions will only be available on special request and not at the previously scheduled times. I will be available for sacramental ministry by means of the emergency line. With a view that information changes frequently. The bishop asked that I tell all of you that this could very well be a temporary measure but also could be in place for a longer period so make sure to pay attention for updates.

Thanks,
Fr Joseph Altenhofen