Diocese of Tyler

The Legacy of Bishop Strickland

Sheryl Collmer4 Comments

It’s been a few weeks since our good bishop was taken and we are continuing to suffer “firsts.” The first Friday he was not there for Friday morning Mass and adoration, when the cathedra had already been stripped of his coat of arms and looked like it had been vandalized… that was hard.  

Tomorrow is the first monthly potluck breakfast since Bishop Strickland was taken. The First Friday potluck began when Fr. Joe was pastor, but it faltered during covid. Celeste relaunched it in the Bishop’s honor last year. Tomorrow he will not be there to bless the food, move around from table to table, talking to everyone and making us laugh.  

And the biggest and hardest first is still to come, when another bishop is assigned.  

It’s inevitable that we all thought, even if just for a moment, “What’s keeping me in Tyler if the Bishop is gone?” We moved here for the Bishop, or rather, for the way the Bishop held up Christ clearly and without making our glorious Faith subservient to political nonsense. So are we staying or going?  

We’ve drawn closer to each other, more like family as we weather this storm together. If community was rated on a scale of 1 to 10, we just skipped right over a few levels, gunning for a 10. Even that is hard, though. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to get through this with grace, doesn’t want to find the good, as though it is somehow disloyal to the bishop to soldier on. If we can get along without him, does that somehow mean that he wasn’t vital to us? I felt the same way after my father died, not wanting to admit that my world could go on without him. 

And yet, we have to honor the Bishop by trying to be as good at what we do as Bishop Strickland is at what he does. That’s why we’ve loved him: he set an example for us, showing us how to be the kind of Catholics we want to be: bold and brave and true. Indeed, if we don’t take this adversity as a spur to grow in virtue and prayer and joy, we dishonor the Bishop.  

Perhaps there are some factions happier now that the Bishop is gone from Tyler. We can’t change that, but we can demonstrate what a difference a good bishop makes. Somehow in this time when up is down and good is evil, the witness of one humble bishop who won’t give up, has become something extraordinary. Anyone should be able to look at the laity of Tyler and see the reflection of our extraordinary bishop in us.  

The three things I think are most critical to his legacy (and it is purely coincidental that they are A, B and C) are adoration, believing the best, and courage.  

Adoration. In every diocese I’ve lived in before, Eucharistic Adoration was, at least publicly, a devotion of the laity. Rarely did I see a priest in adoration, except on Holy Thursday. When I did see a cleric in an Adoration chapel or at a Holy Hour, it was strangely exciting, like “Look! Our pastors are with us, we are not alone before the Lord!” It gave us assurance that our priests were Eucharistic, rather than worldly. Some priests have private chapels in their residences where they adore Jesus in seclusion, away from the eyes of the laity, but if they knew how significant it is to us, they might come to the public adoration chapels more often. Seeing a priest in adoration binds the laity to the priests in a completely unique way.  

We watched Bishop Strickland in Adoration every week before Friday morning Mass, and at many events and conferences. It is likely the supernatural source of our fierce loyalty to him. Yes, we like how friendly and approachable he is, we admire his forthrightness and willingness to suffer blows for the truth, but perhaps what binds us most powerfully to him is that he led us in Adoration; we came before God like an arrowhead, with the Bishop at the point. To watch him kneel on hard marble for an hour without flinching was to cowboy up and quit making excuses.  

The Bishop has his own Eucharistic chapel in his home, and had one in the Chancery office as well, but his willingness to humble himself before Jesus in front of us and as one of us, has reinvigorated my Eucharistic devotion. I’m named for a Eucharistic saint (Clare) and it was the Eucharist which brought me home to the Catholic Church; my adult life has been formed around the Eucharist. And yet, watching the bishop kneel before the Lord shakes me as though I’m encountering the Eucharist for the first time. It’s a heartrending picture of the Body of Christ. 

Bishop Strickland brought a “tiny adoration” into each celebration of the Mass, at the elevation of the consecrated Host. He stood for long moments in adoration, and implicitly invited us into adoration by drawing out the moment. People attending Mass with the Bishop for the first time would always remark on that, and I never stopped being moved by it. The elevation was often so prolonged that a person could lose himself in the contemplation of Christ and forget where he was. This was one of the great gifts of attending Mass with our good bishop. 

Believing the Best. Some people have criticized our bishop as being naïve. But I think it’s actually his willingness to believe the best about other people that is interpreted as naivete. He notably refuses to take offense at slights or even outright attacks, using humor and self-effacement to deflect anger.

The bishop’s openness to the potential holiness of every person colors his interactions, even on Twitter, where nastiness makes its home in the Comments sections. If you persistently see Christ in others, it’s impossible to demean or dismiss them. Mother Teresa notably practiced this attitude, and the Bishop is getting quite a good workout at it himself. 

You only have to watch the video of his remarks at the USCCB meeting in November 2018 to see what I’m talking about. He was clearly correct to bring up the elephant in the room (homosexuality at the heart of the abuse scandals) and clearly the bishops were aligned to do nothing about it, and yet the Bishop’s manner is open and you can see he still believes the bishops can do the right thing.  

 I have noticed a laissez-faire attitude on the part of the bishop, a willingness to let things take their course, with respect for the rights and duties of laypeople. I’m familiar with several situations in which laypeople disagreed, and went to the bishop for support of one side or the other. While the bishop might be willing to share his opinion on some matters, he respected the lay people enough to allow them to come to their own decisions about affairs proper to the laity. In this way, he forced us to mature in our thinking and charity as adult Christians in community. He would not play the autocratic father who settles every squabble for the children. He believed the best of us, and expected us to take up our duties as baptized Christians.  

The bishop is without guile, like Nathanael, but he’s no simpleton. He is, in fact, quite astute, the result of much reading and study taken into prayer. When Bishop Strickland infamously tweeted, “I believe Pope Francis is the Pope, but it is time for me to say that I reject his program of undermining the Deposit of Faith,” the phrasing indicated a process of thinking and considering. It was not said impetuously. His words, “it is time” show that he’d been wrestling with it for who knows how long, attempting, as we all have, to believe the best about the Pope. And then he couldn’t. That’s when courage came into play. 

Courage. Does anyone really believe that May 12 tweet was casual on the part of the Bishop, that it didn’t cost him dearly in his soul? It is in the deepest part of the Catholic heart to love and honor the successor of Peter, the vicar of Christ on earth. It’s not in our Catholic nature to not love the Pope. This pope has done violence to our souls by forcing us to admit that there is something desperately wrong in Rome. 

I believe Bishop Strickland knew the price he would pay for saying what he did, and had already accepted it before his fingers ever hit the keyboard. That is courage.  It may be the thing we most admire about the Bishop, perhaps because it is the hardest to emulate. What do we stand to lose that compares to what the Bishop lost for the sake of truth? Where does our duty lie? We are all called to discern our proper place in the fight for Truth. The Bishop has gone ahead of us. 

There will be a cost to speaking the Truth. We are already beginning to pay, with the loss of the Bishop, but we’re still early days. The Bishop is only part of the plan for which God brought us to Tyler. Courage will be demanded of us as we hold up the truth of Jesus Christ and His Church. This diocese, and indeed the world, is not going to fall back to some standard of normal without a crisis point. The fight is not going to pass us by. We must defend our Faith with the knowledge that there will be a cost, and we must have prayed our way to acceptance, the way Bishop Strickland did.  

The Bishop could do nothing other than to hold up the truth of Christ, which is for the good of the sheep. We must now conduct ourselves as worthy of the price. We must be as open and approachable as our good bishop, believing the best of others, pressing ourselves to adore the Eucharist at every opportunity, and speaking the truth with courage and love. 

We are the legacy of Bishop Strickland in Tyler, Texas. Let’s make it shine.  

All the best insights about moving forward come from the kind witness of Fr. Steven Chabarria.

Novena for Bishop Strickland Begins Today!

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November 13 through November 21, 2023

We begin today to pray for Bishop Strickland.
In his humility and obedience, he leaves his position as Bishop of Tyler.

We also pray for all the bishops of the United States as they gather on November 13 – 17, 2023 at the USCCB Plenary Assembly.

The Catholic Faithful in Tyler Texas have been doing Novenas for Bishop Strickland regularly for the last couple of years. Join us from wherever you are to pray for America’s Bishop!

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Day 1

November 13th

Novena to
St.  Michael
the Archangel 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

St. Michael the Archangel, I honor you as a powerful protector of the Church and guardian of my soul. Inspire me with your humility, courage and strength that I may reject sin and perfect my love for our Heavenly Father.

In your strength and humility, slay the evil and pride in my heart so that nothing will keep me from God.

St. Michael the Archangel, pray that I may be blessed by God with the zeal to live my life in accordance with Christ’s teachings.

St. Michael the Archangel, you are the prince of angels but in your humility you recognized that God is God and you are but His servant. Unlike satan, you were not overcome with pride but were steadfast in humility. Pray that I will have this same humility.

It is in the spirit of that humility that I ask for your intercession for Bishop Joseph Strickland.  I pray for you to accompany and protect him as he lives out  the mission given to him by God and the Church. 

May Bishop be surrounded by all the Holy Angels. May they tend to him during this time of great loss. May they inspire, protect and strengthen him as he finds his way without his beloved Diocese of Tyler.   

I pray for our Blessed Mother to comfort Bishop in this time of uncertainty. May she continue to assist him as he seeks the Will of God and continues to defend the true faith.

May a fire of love burn in the hearts of all the bishops of our country. May their hearts  be ignited by the Holy Spirit and purified. May they be consumed with a burning desire to live only for Christ and fulfill their God given Apostolic mission. 

May the bishops of our country be given the same courage as the first apostles were given; a willingness to lose everything for love of Jesus. May they even be willing to lose their lives to defend the Truth as handed down to them through the ages. 

(Add your own intentions)

With grateful hearts, we thank you St Michael.  

“Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.”

Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary,  pray for us.

Sacred Heart of Jesus,  have mercy on us. 
Sacred heart of Jesus,  have mercy on us. 
Sacred Heart of Jesus,  have mercy on us.  

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

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Our Particularly American Civil War

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Why is the Civil War the most interesting period in American history? Why has a book like Gone With The Wind been translated into dozens of languages around the world (including Korean, where it comes already loaded onto new tablets)? Why are Civil War battles re-created all over the country, with re-enactors investing thousands of dollars in their kit? Why do millions of tourists visit Gettysburg, and why is that battlefield featured in movies like Remember the Titans as a turning point in the lives of those who come? 

The Civil War is ours, for one thing. We didn’t fight it in Europe or the Pacific, but in Richmond and Atlanta and around Washington DC; New Orleans, Baltimore and Nashville. It was fought in the towns, woods, swamps, prairies, rivers, churchyards and neighborhoods of America, our homeland.

As a thought exercise, imagine war breaking out in the United States today. It would likely be about personal liberties, the power of the Federal government, the Constitution’s primacy, the berserker sexual activists and traffickers, and abortion. In other words, it might be ignited by any number of issues, but eventually it would come down to the meaning of life, and its protection. 

In the 1850s, there were tensions about the rights of states, equity in Congress, sectional tariffs and imports, and slavery. After a few years of war scoured away the details, it became a more single-minded war for the abolition of slavery. One could say that the Civil War came down to the meaning of life, and its protection. 

The primary lessons I draw from the War are these: nothing less than the meaning of life is worth a war, as it costs more than one can possibly imagine in peacetime; extraordinary leadership is required to make effective the sacrifices of soldiers; and moral authority is absolutely necessary to prevail over a stronger enemy. 

The Cost

In the 1850s, Americans weren’t thinking, “We’re living in the run-up to a war that will destroy us for generations to come.” There were sectional conflicts, journalists fanning the flames, and speculators eyeing the profit potential of war, like today, but most people were engaged in their daily pursuits, hoping the conflicts could be settled reasonably. Without the agitation of social media, you’d think there’d have been a better chance of peaceful resolution, but whenever influencers manipulate emotions, civil war can be lurking. If the issues concern your livelihood, your family, or your religious convictions, the kindling is dry. 

The caning of Charles Sumner on the Senate floor in 1856 is a perfect picture of the descent into chaos. Sumner, a Republican from Massachusetts, had given a violently angry speech in the Senate, lasting two days, calling his enemies things like “drunken spew and vomit.” And then he got nasty. Senator Stephen Douglas remarked quietly, “That damn fool is going to get himself killed by some other damn fool,” and that was nearly the case. 

Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina entered the Senate chamber and issued a sort of a medieval challenge: you’ve slandered my countrymen, and honor demands a reprisal. He then struck Sumner over and over with a gold-tipped cane to the point of unconsciousness. Sumner suffered injuries that lasted for years. Brooks was fined $300, re-elected to his seat, and received canes from appreciative supporters all over the South, which enraged the North possibly more than the actual incident.

It would be several more years before the first shots were fired, but in retrospect, it was clear that the conflict had moved from philosophies to passions, from the oratory to the boxing pit. More and more people were starting to anticipate war, even desire it, as a way to redress grievances that weren’t being otherwise resolved. 

Once the shooting started in 1861, the veil was torn. Actual war far exceeded anyone’s expectations of the human cost. In 1861, as the first full battle was shaping up at Bull Run, near Manassas Junction, Virginia, Washington’s elites rode out in buggies with picnic hampers to watch the match. Women with their parasols, men with their cigars, were not expecting to see entrails and severed limbs. It was meant to be an afternoon’s thrilling entertainment, capped off by the spectacle of upstart Rebel soldiers fleeing at first glance of the imposing Federal army. There was a grave awakening that day, as the Rebels stood their ground and fired back rather insistently, causing the buggies to careen back to the city. 

It was a nasty surprise to the Southerners, too, though they held the field that day. They had similar illusions of a war easily won against a sissified opponent. In one of the opening scenes of Gone With The Wind, a young man from Georgia boasts, “Everyone knows one Southerner can whip ten Yankees!” That sentiment was widespread, even used to bolster Southern soldiers before battle, according to an eyewitness at Bull Run. 

Bold words took a mortal hit in that first battle. There were 4,500 casualties at Bull Run, which shocked both armies and civilians. No one yet realized that future battles would dwarf that, in numbers of killed, wounded and missing men. The horror to come was like a hurricane forming in the Atlantic, spinning ashore with a punch no one expects. 

Battle of Antietam, Antietam National Cemetery

Leadership

What kept the war going as long as it did was probably leadership. Both North and South had skilled, courageous, persevering soldiers, but they could not have effectively deployed their strengths without good leadership. You may have citizens itching for war, eager to fight a clear evil, but without fine leadership, that passion can’t be productively mobilized on a grand scale. 

Everyone knows the names of great Civil War leaders, even if they don’t know exactly what they did: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, and William Tecumseh Sherman, in addition to many lesser-knowns who performed magnificently. 

The South, with far fewer resources, and a smaller population pool to draw from, nevertheless performed well at the beginning of the war, quite likely due to superior leadership. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was a standout from the very first battle, where he gained his nickname from his stern refusal to back down when others fled in confusion.

Robert E. Lee didn’t command an army until a year into the war, but his presence was mightily evident once he did. His unconventional battle plans that triumphed by sheer audacity made him a symbol of canny genius and sober courage. Faith in his leadership kept the Southern armies in the field long after ultimate defeat had become inevitable. Even as he negotiated the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, his starving, barefoot men pledged to fight on, if he wished it. 

The Union armies, in contrast, were plagued by poor leadership in the first few years of the war. President Lincoln initiated five changes of military leadership before giving overall command of the US Armies to General Grant in 1864. Northern soldiers, bitter that their sacrifices in battle kept being undone by the bad decisions of their leaders, were eager to exact retribution from the South. General Sherman’s troops pillaged Georgia and South Carolina, under orders to demoralize and impoverish the civilian South, to cripple their will to fight. Though Grant was called “the Butcher” in the press, for feeding men into battles to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers of bodies, he produced victory after victory, proving to be a leader worthy of his men.   

Moral Authority

Starting a war is somewhat easy; it takes the sustained inflammation of emotions and an outraged sense of justice, hopelessness, and a perceived threat to one’s family. To carry on a war, though, over a long period of time when the casualty lists grow longer, a people must hold moral authority. You have to know that the cause you’re fighting and suffering for is just, and that God fights with you. 

Both sides in the Civil War were initially convinced of God’s favor, but when opposite principles face off, God can only be found on one side, the side of Truth. For the early years of the war, when Northern soldiers were being poorly used by their leaders, their endurance was fortified by the sense of being on the side of right. By the time the war reached the long, sad slugfest of 1864-5, the Union was well convinced of the morality of their cause. While the determination of the South had not flagged, the supernatural power that accompanies God’s overarching will was absent. 

The Civil War proved that secession is possible, and even Constitutionally defensible. Secession itself is a non-violent act; it’s like leaving a party when the drinking gets out of hand. But once the Federal government acted to forcibly retrieve the seceding states, they had to build from scratch an army, navy, communication system, currency, constitution and law. States that remained bound to the Federal government had those institutions already in place. With such a disadvantage, a seceding state had best be on the side of Truth.

Given the evil rampaging through the world right now, searing a jagged path straight through marriage and the family, with every sign of accelerating, there will be a fight. Evil does not retreat, unless it is to give its opponents time to grow complacent before the next onslaught. It would be prudent for us to plumb the wisdom that our particularly American Civil War left us, as we contemplate what is to be done. The meaning and protection of life is at stake, and the kindling is dry. 

The Nativity of Mary Novena for Bishop Strickland

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Beginning on Wednesday August 30th, 2023

Join the faithful of the Diocese of Tyler and become a Prayer Warrior for our Good Shepherd, Bishop Joseph Strickland. Our prayer intentions will be offered at the tomb of Bishop Fulton Sheen in Peoria IL. Let’s unite to pray and show our love and support for Bishop Strickland, Defender or The Catholic Faith!

“Please assure all those who join in this Novena that I will offer Mass for them.”

~ Bishop Joseph Strickland~

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The Nativity of Mary Novena

Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O sacred Virgin and ask of you the following; give Bishop Strickland strength against his enemies, and against the enemy of the whole human race. Give him strength humbly to pray to thee. Give Bishop strength to praise thee in prayer with all his powers, through the merits of thy most sacred nativity, which for the entire Christian world was a birth of joy, the hope and solace of its life. 

When thou were born, O most holy Virgin, then was the world made light. Happy is thy stock, holy thy root, and blessed thy fruit, for thou alone as a virgin, filled with the Holy Spirit, did merit to conceive thy God, as a virgin to bear Thy God, as a virgin to bring Him forth, and after His birth to remain a virgin. 

Have mercy therefore upon me a sinner, and give me aid, O Lady, so that just as thy nativity, glorious from the seed of Abraham, sprung from the tribe of Juda, illustrious from the stock of David, didst announce joy to the entire world, so may it fill me with true joy and cleanse me from every sin. 

Pray for me, O Virgin most prudent, that the gladsome joys of thy most helpful nativity may put a cloak over all my sins. O holy Mother of God, flowering as the lily, pray to thy sweet Son for me, a wretched sinner and for my dear Bishop Strickland your faithful priest son.

Amen

We pray for the intentions of  Bishop Strickland: 

  • The Sanctity of Life from conception to natural death.
  • The Sanctity of Marriage as God established it between one man and one woman for life and being open to children.
  • The sanctity of the human person created male and female.
  • The sanctity of the Church as the Bride of Christ.
  • The sacred role of bishops as successors of the apostles and guardians of the deposit of faith.

  Our Father…  Hail Mary… Glory Be…

Letter to the Faithful from Bishop Strickland

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Original Letter posted here: https://bishopstrickland.com/

Defending Our Catholic Faith Conference

September 1st and 2nd, 2023

A Two Day Spiritual D-Day, shattering the supply line of the enemy through authentic teachings, our reparation of sins and the power of Eucharist. Bishop Strickland Keynote Speaker. This is a National Event in Tyler, TX endorsed by Terry Barber and Lifesite News. Event Details and Tickets

Sound of Freedom

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A must see this week!

No one wants to see child trafficking. We have a duty to acknowledge it, but one imagines that looking too closely might deliver a blow to our psyches from which we couldn’t recover. 

Go see Sound of Freedom anyway. It’s a grand adventure, spanning several continents, that keeps you drawn like David’s slingshot. The good guys working for God are few and small; the bad guys that freeze your corpuscles are savage Goliaths; the mission to save the children is biblical. And, as in every story graced by God, there is hope. 

Jim Caviezel stars as the real-life Tim Ballard, a federal agent pursuing child sex predators. When Ballard extricates a young Honduran boy being trafficked over the Southern border, he learns that the boy’s sister has been left behind. The plaintive eyes of the boy beg him to save her. Time is short, since kidnapped children are shipped around the world without a paper trail; when they’re gone, they’re long gone. Ballard quits his government job and journeys deep into the Colombian jungle to save one little girl sucked into a massive, darkened network. 

Continue Reading…

Buy Tickets Here

Novena for Bishop Strickland

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Begins June 28th and ends on July 6th the Feast of St Maria Goretti

The Catholic Faithful of Tyler have been doing Novenas for Bishop Strickland regularly for the last couple of years. Join us for the next Novena!

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Novena to St Maria Goretti for Bishop Strickland

St. Maria Goretti, your devotion to God and Mary was so strong that you were able to offer your life rather than lose your virginal purity.  Help all of us, beset by so many temptations in this modern world, to imitate your youthful example.  Intercede for us all, especially youth, that God may give us the courage and strength we need, to avoid anything that could offend Him or stain our souls.  Obtain for us from our Lord victory in temptation, comfort in the sorrows of life and the grace which we sincerely ask of you (personal intentions). 

  • Dear Heavenly Father, we pray for our Bishop, Joseph Strickland. May he always know the guidance of Your great love through the power of Your Most Holy Spirit.
  • Fill him with the Spirit of Courage to follow Christ and proclaim His truth as found in Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
  • Fill him with the Spirit of Wisdom, that he may in confidence lead his flock through times of confusion, doubt, deception and fear.
  • Father, bless his apostolic ministry in Your Church. Protect and defend him as he stands in the person of Jesus Christ, offering his life for the sake of Your Holy Church.
  • We offer our prayer to You Father, and invoke our Blessed Mother’s intercession to Your Beloved Son on behalf of Bishop Joseph Strickland.

May we one day enjoy with you, St Maria Goretti, the everlasting glory of Heaven.  Amen.

Our Father…

Hail Mary…

Glory be to the Father…

Sacred Heart of Jesus, be my Love!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, be my salvation!

St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr, pray for us!

Our Passover Seder

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Make Holy Week unforgettable.

The Cathedral Parish will celebrate the Passover Seder this year on Sunday, April 2 at 6:00 pm. 

To participate in the Seder, you must attend the Preparatory Session on Sunday, March 26 at 5:00 pm in the Cathedral Center.

Passover, the longest continually-celebrated feast in human history, begins this year at sunset on April 5, which means it falls one day before Holy Thursday. But in eternal time, Passover is always on Holy Thursday, because they are the same event: the last supper of Jesus was the Passover on Thursday evening, the fourteenth day of Nisan, in 33 AD. 

Our parish will celebrate Passover on Sunday, April 2, which is three days early and not at all kosher! But since we’re observing the feast as Christians, we can take liberties. 

The date of Passover is governed by the law given in Exodus 12: “Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of the month of Nisan, they shall take, every man, a lamb… and they shall keep it until the fourteenth day, when the whole assembly shall kill their lambs in the evening.” The month Nisan is “Abib” in Hebrew, which means “green ears of grain,” an obvious reference to Spring.

So Passover is always on the first full moon of Spring. It had to be a full moon; God would not have sent the whole nation of Israel on a night march with no light. Spring begins at the equinox, March 21, the day on which day and night are equal in duration. After the Equinox, the days get longer… and that is Spring! The first full moon after the Spring Equinox falls on April 5 this year.

Have you wondered why the date of Easter changes from year to year? Easter is set as the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon (Passover). It’s what is called in the Church a “moveable feast” and the dates of those feasts for the coming year are read every year at the Mass of the Epiphany.

The three pilgrim feasts of Israel are each associated with an agricultural season: the barley harvest around Passover; the wheat harvest around Pentecost; and grapes in the fall around the feast of Tabernacles. Yahweh required that the men of Israel should journey to worship at the Jerusalem Temple on those three days. 

That’s why Jerusalem was so packed with people on Palm Sunday in 33 AD, when Jesus rode into the city on a donkey; it was the tenth day of Nisan. Jews from all over the world had to be in the Holy City for the pilgrimage feast, to procure a lamb without blemish for the Passover sacrifice four days later, on the fourteenth day of Nisan.

In essence, Passover is the memorial of that miracle by which God saved the people of Israel from bitter slavery in Egypt. He brought them through the ten plagues which struck Egypt, but left Israel unharmed, then led them through the Red Sea on dry land, toward the land that had been promised to their fathers. Miracle upon miracle upon miracle!

Despite the cartoon movies that have been made about the Exodus, the plagues were truly frightful. The food crops of the Egyptians were completely destroyed, their animals covered with boils and infection, the waters of the great Nile river turned to blood, the light of the sun was extinguished, and finally, every Egyptian first-born was found dead in his bed. 

Try to imagine the complete contamination of our water, all our wealth destroyed, no food to be had, and the sun withdrawing its warmth and light. Wouldn’t you pretty much agree to anything at that point? But no, Pharoah continues to hoard his power over his slaves, until finally the death of the Egyptian children breaks him down. He practically begs the Israelites to leave his country. But after they’ve left, he changes his mind again and goes after them. It is a drama about evil and its persistence; evil will risk even its own destruction to stay in power.

At churches all over the country this spring, Christians will celebrate the Passover. It has become a popular “living Bible study.” But for Catholics, it has the most poignant meaning because we have been celebrating the Passover our entire Catholic lives, mostly without realizing it. 

All our lives, we have heard the “Paschal Mystery” proclaimed: the suffering, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus. “Pascha” is Greek for Passover. We’re about to hear that word much more often, throughout the Easter season. In the Sequence on Easter Sunday, we will hear proclaimed, “Christians, to the Paschal Victim offer your thankful praises!” The Alleluia verse will be, “Christ, our Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed.” All the Easter prefaces will refer to “Christ, our Passover.” He is the Paschal lamb, the Passover sacrifice.

And so to learn more about Passover is to enter more deeply, more consciously into the Passover sacrifice of Jesus that we celebrate at every Mass. 

When Catholics encounter the Jewish celebration of Passover for the first time, there are flashes of recognition, gasps of wonder. Because what Yahweh commanded to Moses 3000 years ago is what we say and do at every Mass. 

It’s like discovering ancestral stories that give you a clue about how you came to be the way you are. My grandmother grew up at switching stations on the Santa Fe railway, and now my heart goes thump whenever I hear a train whistle. My grandfather was Irish, and the sound of Celtic flutes makes me cry.

When Catholics celebrate the ancient Passover rite, with words and actions that are part of the fabric of us, we are suddenly whooshed into the 3000-year river of salvation history. We encounter the proof of God’s eternal plan, set into motion in antiquity, still alive today.

As the Cathedral Parish celebrates Passover this year, watch and listen for all the prayers and gestures that you are so familiar with.

In the Old Testament, God is very particular about the way in which He desires to be worshipped. He is very specific. The lamb must be a year-old male, spotless, with no broken bones. The bread must have no leavening agents. The herbs must be bitter. The celebrants must tuck up their tunics, and be ready to travel. 

And the blood of the spotless lamb must be sprinkled on the doorposts of the houses of Israel. Skepticism or disregard of this command resulted in the death of the oldest child of the household, and even the first-born of the animals. There were no innovations, no nods to the spirit of the times. The people must do precisely as God commanded.

It’s part of God’s divine pedagogy, that is, His way of teaching. His ways are incomprehensibly glorious; we can’t understand them at first glance. So God has to prepare His people to receive His plan.

All the steps God took with Israel were “teaching moments,” no matter how bizarre they seemed. The unbelievable command for Abraham to slaughter his long-awaited, only beloved son? It was a teaching on the radical nature of the sacrifice that would be required to save us. That strange and not-so-appetizing manna that fed the Israelites in the desert? Preparation for the day that Jesus would tell his disciples they had to eat His flesh to have eternal life.

You could practically trace the whole story of salvation through bread. Melchizedek, the primordial priest, brought out bread and wine to bless Abram, the chosen of God and patriarch of Israel. When God issued His precise commands for the building of the temple, He commanded that “the bread of the face” must be before the Holy of Holies at all times.  The Savior was born in Bethlehem, the “house of bread” in Hebrew; Jesus multiplied bread for the crowds following Him. He delivered a difficult-to-swallow teaching on the bread of life, and He blessed the bread of the Passover to show exactly what He meant by those words. 

An even richer history could be taken through the figure of the lamb, from Abraham’s substitutionary sacrifice, to the daily sacrifice at the Jerusalem Temple, and the entire symbolism of the Lamb of God, the Lamb that was slain but not dead, who appears at the Throne of God in Heaven. 

And consider wine: commanded by God for the joyful feast days, Jesus’ miraculous changing of water to wine at the beginning of his ministry, the four cups at wine at the Passover supper, the chalice of the New Covenant consecrated by Jesus.  

Passover brings all those threads, bread, wine and the lamb, together in one grand event, commanded by God as an everlasting ordinance. The long millennia of celebrating Passover was the key that allowed the apostles to, finally, understand Jesus’s enigmatic words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. 

Passover plays the central role in God’s divine schooling, preparing us for the sacrifice of the Eucharist. At every seminal moment in Israel’s history, the Passover was front and center. The original Passover was the evening before Israel was delivered from slavery. When Israel finally entered the holy land, they celebrated Passover. When the exiles returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, they celebrated Passover. When Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem for three days, to the consternation of his parents, it was Passover. When He multiplied the bread, it was Passover. Passover is the key. 

The central place of the Passover in the life of Israel has flowered into the central place of the Mass in the life of the new Israel. So much preparation, so many millennia of teaching, all so that we would understand Jesus’ gift to us at the last Passover of his earthly life. God has been preparing us for the moment of Communion for thousands of years. Passover is that preparation.

This year, make your Holy Week unforgettable with the Passover Seder.

Join us this year on Sunday March 26 at 5:00 for the preparatory session and on Palm Sunday, April 2 at 6:00 pm for the celebration.

Prayer on the Square One Year Anniversary

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A group of us have been praying the Holy Rosary every week on the Square in Downtown Tyler. We gather as Mary’s Army to fight evil and seek the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart! We pray the rosary for our county, community, and Church. We pray for all souls to know the true love of our Savior Jesus Christ!

To document this year in history and our dedication to prayer,
our dear friend Sheryl has created this video. Enjoy the show!

To learn more about Prayer on the Square, Click Here!