I wish a blessed Easter to all members and friends of the Sodality of Charity. Thank you to all of you who helped to make this year’s Holy Week a success. Palm Sunday was, as usual, a very solemn and happy event, and was made joyful also by the appearance of the mule in our procession with palms. We had a record attendance at St. Gertrude the Great on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Our next big event is the priestly ordination of SGG’s four Deacons. Recently our church bulletin included a short biographical sketch of each of them, and I prepared a separate PDF document where you can read their stories. It is a very special blessing that many of the members of our Sodality are related to the two American ordinands. Be sure to attend the ordination on the First Wednesday of May, May 4, which is also the Solemnity of St. Joseph.
Thank you also to all our members who contributed in making our recent Seminarian Sunday such a great event. We collected some $17,000 for our Seminarians. Ms. Colleen Eldracher prepared a massive decorative monstrance, which is now on display at Helfta Hall, and she also inscribed the names of all the benefactors there. In this post you can see some pictures from our March monthly meeting, where we prepared the dinner which was served at the Seminarian Sunday. You can also see how our younger members prepared Easter eggs for our parish’ Holy Saturday Easter Egg hunt. And as you see from the photos, that egg hunt was a very joyous event.
Our Fr. Valerii has now safely arrived at Knock, Ireland. His home country Ukraine is being destroyed by Russians, and he now lives out of charity of a faithful Catholic in Ireland. Please continue to pray for Father, and that his sad exile could be turned into a blessing, and that he could start a fruitful apostolate in Ireland.
Have a happy Easter week.
Yours in Christ and Mary,
Fr. Lehtoranta
