Holy Week 2013

Happy Easter!! I have been meaning to write a post about last week for several days now... and it took until Friday for me to get the time to do so. It has been a beautifully busy week here at UMD, but I wanted to take some time and reflect on last week: Holy Week.

In the Catholic Church, the week proceeding Easter is called Holy Week. Beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday), this week is a beautiful time to really reflect on the love God has for us, demonstrated in the Passion and Death of His Beloved Son, Jesus. This year, Holy Week landed right after UMD's spring break. It was an absolutely incredible week for many reasons.

On Monday of Holy Week, I was able to attend my first ever Chrism Mass. This is the mass where the Bishop blesses the holy oils to be used in the diocese for the year. Also, all the priests in the diocese renew their vows. It was absolutely beautiful to have this opportunity to pray with and for the priests of the Duluth diocese. I am so thankful for the vocation of the priesthood. God has blessed me with some wonderful priests to be spiritual fathers over the years, especially through my uncle Fr. Austin, the priests at my parish of Sts. Anne and Joachim, Fr. Cheney at the Newman Center at NDSU, and Fr. Mike here at UMD. It is through His priests that Jesus brings us the sacraments... the new life of Baptism, the forgiveness of Confession, the reality of the Eucharist, just to name a few.

Tuesday was our Lenten Confession service on campus. It was a great opportunity to clean up my soul before the Triduum and Easter. Wednesday was our last RCIA class before the big night on Saturday... more on that later. Holy Thursday was awesome. We celebrated the Mass of the Lord's Supper on campus, followed by the Seder meal (traditional Jewish Passover meal). I learned a lot about the Passover, which was great. We then had an hour of Adoration back at Newman to spend that hour with Jesus during His Agony. Good Friday was filled with the Good Friday liturgy, Stations of the Cross, and a viewing of the movie the Passion of the Christ.

Then came the high point of it all: Holy Saturday! If the weather in Duluth was beautiful (we topped 50 degrees!) the Easter Vigil Mass was 100x better! It's been a while since I've attended a Vigil mass, and I LOVED it.

UMD RCIA Group 2013 with Bishop Sirba and Fr. Mike

Kelly and I

While the fire, candles, music, and Scripture were all really great, my favorite part was the celebration of sacraments. We had 16 UMD students get Confirmed... half of whom were not Catholic until that night! I was honored to be Kelly's sponsor for the night and be right in front to watch as other students I have gotten to know this year were fully received into the family of the Church. Some of them have really grown closer to Jesus by their search for truth. As they each were sealed with the Holy Spirit, I seriously felt like a proud parent. Their joy just overflowed. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for each of these amazing men and women now!

Tessa and Nicole

Alyssa and Kate from my bible study

Easter Sunday was really wonderful. My friends from Fargo, Kelsey and Josie, came up for the weekend. They were here on Friday, but it wasn't really until Sunday that I had a chance to show them Duluth. After spending the morning with my teammate Rosalin cooking brunch for our team, we headed out to Park Point to walk on the beach. It was cold, but beautiful. After some coffee at my favorite Caribou, we drove up the North Shore. It was so fun to just spend some quality time with these two. That night, we watched Les Mis and enjoyed some snacks before an early Monday morning Holy Hour when they hit the road. I'm so glad they came to visit and helped make my first holiday away from home a little easier. See pictures of our adventures below.

As we now celebrate this Easter season, I hope that you may experience the joy of the Resurrection! Alleluia!

Kelsey and I at Caribou

NDSU ladies at Easter Party Saturday Night

Josie and I on a Lake Walk walk!