There will be no Mass in the Chapel beginning Tuesday, April 15 until Monday, April 28 at 9:00am. All Holy Week and Easter Services will take place in the Church or in Fellowship Hall. We will live stream Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday - 9am. Daily Mass will take place in the church the week after Easter.
the catholic community of st. francis of assisi
The Liturgy of the Church Year: The Easter Vigil
“The Easter (or Paschal) Vigil is THE liturgy of the Church year and is the most important Eucharistic celebration of the year. Its roots reach back to the Apostolic generation. In the Church’s earliest centuries, it lasted all night until dawn. In fact, in the earliest Church, there were no separate liturgies during Easter Sunday; the Vigil held ‘privilege of place,’” so says the National Catholic Register.
Father Jim Sabak, O.F.M., our resident Franciscan Friar, has published a book on the importance of Vigils in the early Church, with “‘Vigilemus et Oremus’: The Theological Significance of ‘Keeping Vigil’ in Rome from the Fourth to the Eighth Centuries.” The book is a journey through hundreds of years, and over 600 pages, of the liturgical practice of keeping Vigil in early Roman tradition and its theological significance in the Church. We asked Father Jim to briefly offer his perspective on the importance of the Easter Vigil as we prepare for this year’s Holy Week.
Volunteer Spotlight: Pam James
Pam James can weave, and not just a great story! Pam has been in Weaver’s Guilds, each with over 200 members, in three different states, Colorado, Texas, and North Carolina, and has been an avid weaver and mixed media artist for a long time. Every two years, there is a convention where she says, “Every well-known weaver attends and is probably teaching a class.” This past year, the convention was in Wichita, Kansas, where she entered a piece in the Mixed Media category and won 3rd Place!
How does this correlate to her work at St. Francis? She weaves her love of art with her leadership of the ‘Care for Creation’ ministry at St. Francis. “I’ve always been a bit of an ‘eco-freak,’” says Pam,” I grew up with the idea that you mustn’t waste. My sister-in-law is kind enough to call me resourceful, but I’m just cheap! I’ve always asked myself, ‘Why would I throw that away? I can use that.’” She exclusively uses ‘recycled yarn’ in weaving, embracing the ‘reuse’ principle of Care for Creation.
Migrant Ministry
As we enter the Spring and Summer growing season, the St. Francis Migrant Ministry is already preparing to welcome the migrant workers who travel here each year. Some of these guest workers have already arrived, but most come in May and June. They travel and work through H2A visas and are here to help out with working on farms and gathering the crops grown in the area, and the St. Francis Migrant Ministry is here to help make their stay a better experience.
“We are a spring and summer-focused ministry,” says Tom Carlson, one of the new ministry leaders, along with Carlos Panameño. The ministry has already collected clothing and toiletries to distribute to the migrant workers as they arrive at the camps in and around Louisburg and Our Lady of the Rosary parish. After they collected the supplies in early March, our TFS 7th graders helped sort and organize the donations to put together welcome bags for the workers. Those kits include chemical gloves, long-sleeved shirts, hats, soap, deodorant, shaving supplies, and towels. They will put together about 110 kits by May 10th and distribute them in the weeks after that as the workers arrive.
