June 16, 2025
Lent/Easter
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15 Things You May Know About Easter...A Gift from "the Nuns for Fun"
* In Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of Jesus, before being blessed and distributed to congregants.* Most adults prefer milk chocolate to dark. Adults are twice as likely to buy milk chocolate when offered a choice.*Americans will consume more than 16 million jelly beans on Easter, and dentists around the country will cheer when fillings get pulled out. Sixteen million! That's enough jelly beans to circle the globe not once, not twice, but three times, or to fill a plastic egg the size of a nine-story building. According to the website candystore.com, the most popular jelly bean flavor is buttered popcorn. Yuck!* Pretzels are linked to Easter, too. Supposedly, it's because the twists of the pretzel look like arms crossed in prayer. But what does dunking them in mustard stand for?* Buying a new outfit for Easter stems from a superstition. Back in the mid-1800s, people believed that buying new clothes to wear on Easter would bring them good luck for the rest of the year. That was especially true if their family owned a clothing store.* Back in 1933, composer Irving Berlin introduced the Easter bonnet into American pop culture with his ballad "Easter Parade." Today, it's still one of the most popular songs for the holiday.* During medieval times, a very different game was played with eggs. The priest would throw a hard-boiled egg to one of the choir boys, then the choir boy would continue to toss it to his peers, and whoever was holding the egg when the clock struck 12 was the winner and got to keep it. Even if they didn’t want it after all those people touched it!* Congress once outlawed Easter egg rolling. One of the most well-known Easter traditions in America is the annual Easter Egg Roll, which dates back to President Andrew Johnson. By 1876, the game had ripped up the Capitol’s landscaping and they didn’t have enough money in the budget to fix it. Sound familiar? So the following year, instead of appropriating more funding for the gardeners, U.S. Rep. William Steele Holman of Indiana introduced the Turf Protection Act, “to prevent any portion of the Capitol grounds and terraces from being used as play-grounds."* In 1878, little kids and their parents headed over to the White House, to see if they could do an egg rolling game there. Rutherford B. Hayes was the president then and he had a soft spot for Easter. That's how the White House Easter Egg Roll was established in 1878. We didn't need the old, stinky Capitol egg rolling! Now we had the White House south lawn.But it was President Nixon who first included a bunny in the festivities in 1969, with a member of his wife's staff as the lucky person who got to wear the costume. Little known fact: President Trump's former press secretary Sean Spicer was the Easter Bunny during George W. Bush's presidency. Not the whole time, just at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.* Easter is the second biggest candy-consuming holiday. It comes in second only to Halloween.* It used to take more than a day to make a Peep. Back in 1953, when each candy Peep was handmade with a pastry tube, it took 27 hours to make a Peep. Today, machines speeds it up to about six minutes. And that's good since we eat more than 600 million Peeps during Easter.* Peeps are the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy. The Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, factory where they’re made makes an impressive one billion Peeps a year, or 4 million a day.* Most Americans bite off the ears of a chocolate bunny first. A whopping 76% say that's where they take their first mouthful, followed by 5% who eat the feet first, and 4% who eat the tail first.* Brits celebrate Easter with fruitcake. The Easter simnel is a fruitcake dessert filled with apricot jam and topped with marzipan balls, which are meant to symbolize Jesus and his 12 apostles.* Easter Island got its name because Dutch explorers in the 18th century found the shores of Easter Island on Easter Sunday. Thank goodness it wasn't on St. Patrick's Day. That would be very confusing. -
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Beliefs & Practices
CATHOLIC BELIEFS AND PRACTICES
PALM SUNDAY
PURPLE CHASUBLE – Garment worn during Lent or Advent, purple represents penance, preparation, and sacrifice. It is may also be worn, at times, during funerals because of its connection to mourning.
GREEN CHASUBLE – is worn during Ordinary time. Green symbolizes hope and life.
WHITE CHASUBLE - is used for a number of feast days, including the feasts of the Lord (except for feasts of the Passion) as well as many saints who were not martyred and angels. The white or beige color in the chasubles also represents Easter joy, happiness, purity, life and light. The white or beige chasubles are worn during the Christmas and Easter celebrations which are dates full of joy for the Birth and resurrection or our Lord Jesus Christ.
RED CHASUBLE – The red represents Christ’s Passion and the bloodshed in martyrdom by Him and the saints. The red is seen on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Pentecost when commemorating the Lord’s Passion and feasts of the Apostles, Evangelists and Holy martyrs.
ROSE CHASUBLE – Worn by priests on the third Sunday od Advent (Gaudete Sunday) and the fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday). The rose color symbolizes joy and hope in the midst of the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent.
CASSOCK – Black robe-like garment with a Roman Collar at the top. In a Roman cassock, the significance of those 33 buttons represent the 33 years of Jesus life. Monsignors wear a black cassock with purple buttons and purple piping and a purple sash. In addition, bishops wear a purple zucchetto (yarmulke-like cap) and a pectoral cross around their neck. Cardinals wear red cassocks and red zucchettos and a pectoral cross. The red is a symbol for their devotion to the church and the pope.
ROMAN COLLAR – is a white band that goes around the neck of a priest and remains one of the most distinctive and symbolic elements of any clergy ensemble. It speaks more loudly than any words and clearly identifies clergy members in a crowd of any size. The Roman collar also symbolizes obedience. The Roman collar identifies bishops and priests (and often deacons and seminarians) and manifests their proximity to the Divine Master by virtue of their free consent to the ordained ministry to which they have been called.
SURPLICE - From the Latin superpelliseum “over” and “fur garment”. It is a form of a tunic of white linen or cotton fabric, worn over the cassock, reaching to the knees with wide or moderately wide sleeves. It is worn in religious services and, sometimes, during Mass when distributing Holy Communion.
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The "Rules"
LENTEN REGULATIONS FOR CATHOLICS
Time for us to prayerfully consider our spiritual preparations for the season of Lent is upon us. The Lenten Season begins with Ash Wednesday, this year [2025] that is March 5th.
ABSTINENCE forbids the eating of meat. Abstinence obliges from the 14th birthday throughout one’s life. All Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat.
FASTING prescribes that only one full meal be taken a day. Two smaller meals may be taken to maintain strength, but these taken together should not equal another full meal. Fasting obliges from the 18th to the 59th birthday.
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the two days of Fast AND Abstinence from meat.
There is a serious obligation for Catholics to observe these penitential practices in a substantial way. Those whose work or health would be impaired are excused from fast and abstinence. Individual conscience should decide proper cause for excuse.
Lent, in a very special way, points out that we are pilgrims. For seven weeks we walk with Christ, in response to His invitation, “Let us go up to Jerusalem.” The penances, the fasting and all the other aspects of Lent are the hardships of the journey. -
Stations of the Cross - Every Friday during Lent
Via Delorosa – Way of Sorrows
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed Him to a tree? Were you there when they laid him in a tomb? Please try and make this traditional and very beautiful form of worship a part of your Lenten practice.
(Streamed recordings.) -
Mite Boxes
THE HOLY SEASON OF LENT ALMS GIVING
AND MITE BOXES
Over the forty days and forty nights of Lent, please consider depositing some coins and/or cash into the box as an ongoing, conscious Act of Charity on behalf of our needy brothers and sisters right here in Rockland. When you are ready, please bring the box to Mass with you and deposit it into the receptacle located in the lobby of the Church.
“Whatsoever you do for one of these least ones, that you do unto me.”
Please consider incorporating the “Mite Box” into your Lenten Alms giving efforts. All of the parishes in our county have been asked to join together in support of the charitable efforts of Catholic Charities Community Services of Rockland (CCCSR). -
Easter with the Arch...
There are several ways to join with St. Patrick’s Cathedral for Holy Week:
- Listen to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral Holy Week Services on the Catholic Channel on Sirius XM.
- Please note: a subscription to Sirius XM is required.
- Via livestream on the St. Patrick’s Cathedral website.
- Via livestream on the St. Patrick’s Cathedral YouTube channel.
- Live broadcast on the Catholic Faith Network.
- Via livestream on The Good Newsroom website.
Please check back here for the complete schedule of Masses at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, along with downloadable programs.
A CATHOLIC'S GUIDE TO HOLY WEEK:
https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/lent/holy-week.html?gad_source=1 - Listen to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral Holy Week Services on the Catholic Channel on Sirius XM.
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Lent, can I get it right this year?Here we go again! Another Lent, another “that time of the year,” where we strive to convert our hearts to God in a deeper way than the Lent before. “Can I get it right this year?” might be question many of us will be asking. And as much as this question denotes a high sense of commitment to this season, it is worth clarifying that Lent is not a solo trip to the desert. Jesus was never alone during his 40 days in the desert. The Father and the Holy Spirit were with him at all times, and the angels as well when the enemy tempted him. This Lent let us invite the three persons of the Trinity to accompany us on this journey. Let’s also spend time in community with our brothers and sister of the Faith, encouraging each other.Perhaps we must reflect on why we are even going into the desert in the first place. What are our Lenten goals? What indulgences are we giving up? Our Lenten sacrifice is meant to sanctify us, to help us break free of what may be keeping us from growing closer to Jesus, and from relying entirely on Him. We must do our best to focus not on ourselves, and our Lenten sacrifice, but on Jesus, whom we are preparing for. In this recognition we will find it is easier to distinguish between giving something up and surrendering something, which by all means requires the grace of God to be accomplished. God sees our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and sheds His grace on us, transforming us. Every Lenten “transformation”, every Lenten conversion is a success. So let’s pray, fast and give alms. Let’s get Lent right this year.
---Archdiocese flocknote 2021 -
from the Office of Adult Faith Formation - March 2nd
“We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
2 Cor 5:20-21
A blessed Ash Wednesday to you. As we enter this season of Lent, let us reflect on the gift of reconciliation, and the love of the Lord that is poured out in each reconciliation. Whether it is reconciliation between each other or the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which our relationship with the Lord is mended, the Lord is present. In the Sacrament, the priest acts “in persona Christi” or “in the person of Christ,” through which Jesus forgives us of our sins. In our relationships with each other, we all know how challenging it can be to forgive each other. It is only with the grace of the Holy Spirit that we can truly forgive.
With thanks to the Lord for all the ways He works, let us thank the Lord for our priests, and let us pray for each other that this Lenten season may be a time where we open our hearts more fully to the Lord. Let us also keep our brothers and sisters in Ukraine in prayer.
Here are some resources for our Lenten journey:
Watch: Ready Reasons: What’s the Deal with Ashes on Ash Wednesday
Listen: My Beloved Son: Meditations for Lent
Watch: Ready Reasons: Was Jesus’ Sacrifice Enough?
Listen: https://watch.formed.org/meditations-for-lent-by-jacques-benigne-bossuet
USCCB Daily Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/
To read more about the sacrament of Reconciliation:
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c2a4.htm