Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Holy Week 2021
Dear Friends,
We have reached the end of a year of long suffering. I, for one, remain grateful that so few of our members have contracted the virus and its devastating effects. For those of you who have contracted the virus, we continue to pray for your recovery and for the few that have succumbed, we will continue to pray for your eternal reward. Under the patronage of St. Joseph, guardian and shepherd of the boy Jesus, we pray for his continued protection.
This weekend we celebrate Palm Sunday and the beginning of the most holy time of the year. Those who believed in him called out to one another as they cut palm branches from the surrounding trees and laid them in his path. Why palms? Because that was the way conquering heroes were acclaimed when they entered a city after a great conquest. Looking back, we see that Jesus entered the city to confront the powers of sin and destruction. His great battle was about to begin and ended in his triumphal death on the cross and resurrection. He transformed the evil cross of torture and death into the triumphal sign of God’s love and our salvation. On Holy Thursday he gave us an everlasting presence of his love by instituting the Holy Eucharist and on Good Friday he suffered excruciating pain and death, taking humanity with him through the torture of sin, evil and death to the glory of the Resurrection. Alleluia! Please come and celebrate these days with us.
Because of the ongoing threat of Covid, we will issue tickets for the Easter Masses. These will include the Easter Vigil at 8:30PM on Saturday evening, the 8:30AM, 10:30 AM and Noon on Easter Sunday. We will also have the traditional Sunrise Mass at 7:30AM Easter morning at the parish hall. We will not need to issue tickets for that event because it will be outside and you are free to bring your own chairs, if you prefer, and set them up on the lawn. Tickets are available any day at the main office.
We are sorry to announce that Donna Pierson, our faithful pastoral assistant, bulletin publisher, Safe Environment Manager and front desk helper is retiring. She is going to spend the next year visiting and enjoying her grandchildren. I can’t blame her one bit for that. We will miss her and wish her safe travel and the very best.
I am happy to introduce to you, Marianne Cano, who is taking over as director of Lay Ministries and Pastoral Care. She comes to us with much pastoral experience, theological training and chaplaincy experience. She is also a Consecrated Virgin in the church, who has dedicated her life as a lay woman to the service of the church. We are blessed to have her as a member of our staff.
Thank you very much for your Easter gifts to the parish. You are a very generous community and your fidelity to financial assistance during this pandemic is reflective of your great love for the parish and the Church. While some parishes are struggling to pay their bills and have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars during this past year, we have been able to stay on an even keel. I am most grateful for your blessing.
I look forward to seeing you at our Easter celebrations and I offer my Easter Masses for your intentions, for those present and for our snow birds who didn’t make it to Osprey this year but are a valued part of our parish family.
God’s Easter blessing be upon you all.

Fr. Fred