Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and Saint Rose,
Priests, religious, and deacons all pray all or some part of the Divine Office each day. These are prayers, mostly psalms, and readings from the Scriptures that are scattered throughout the day to help sanctify the day. If you have attended daily Mass here at Mary Immaculate, we generally pray Morning or Evening Prayer before the Mass. We use a one-volume version of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours for that prayer. Priests use a four-volume version of the Divine Office. The set I have was purchased for me by my siblings when I was ordained a deacon back in 1980. It is at deacon ordination that one takes on the obligation to pray the Liturgy of the Hours for the good of the whole Church. If you have done the math already, you know that my set of prayer books is forty years old. It has been rebound once, and even with that, most of the volumes are held together with duct tape. When I take them to priest gatherings, I often hear that comment that it is good that your breviary is worn out. I suppose that is meant to mean that I use them to pray a lot.
Within the pages of my prayer books are pictures, holy cards, notes, all sorts of bits of paper that remind me to pray for people, to thank God for different significant events, or just to remember something or someone special. At a place that I see every day during the Easter season is a little prayer card that is a picture of the interior of the tomb of Jesus. It reminds me of one of the most significant spiritual events of my priesthood. In 2012 I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Bishop Gaydos. While there I was able to concelebrate Mass with him in the tomb of Jesus. Only three people can fit inside the tomb and there are only two Catholic Masses a day inside the tomb. You can understand what a rare and wonderful privilege this was for me. No matter what day it is when you celebrate Mass in the tomb of Jesus, it is always Easter. How can I convey to you the amazing grace to celebrate the Eucharist in the empty Tomb! As I have already said, it is one of the most significant highlights of my spiritual life!
So as we are continuously reading about the disciples seeing the empty tomb and encountering the risen Jesus, my heart leaps within me as those events are described. Even if you have never been to the Holy Land, you are standing at the empty tomb. You hear the words of the angel, “He is risen. He is not here.” So may you, like the disciples, encounter the Risen Lord. May His Easter joy fill you with hope. Msgr. Cox