All children and families are invited to join us for an Easter egg hunt this Easter Sunday after 8 a.m. Mass on the Church lawn in front of the Church office. There will be a special appearance from Peter Cotton Tail and bunch of prizes! All children must bring their own baskets.

Please view below for the Holy Week and Easter Mass schedule.

Holy Thursday:

7:00 p.m. Mass

Good Friday:

Good Friday Liturgy at 3:00 p.m.

Stations of the Cross at 7:00 p.m.

Holy Saturday:

Blessing of the Easter Food at 11:00 a.m. in the St. Joseph’s Chapel (in the Church)

Easter Mass Schedule:

Easter Vigil (Saturday): 8:30 p.m.

Easter Sunday: 6:30 a.m., 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., NO 5:00 p.m. Mass

Feast day and liturgical season traditions help our kiddos understand the Faith in their everyday space in their everyday life. The symbols and colors of the Church during each liturgical season can be brought home in many ways. Foods, activities, crafts, the options are vast.

This a big month, LOTS to celebrate!

*What season?  Triduum, Easter

*Home altar color? Red/Violet through Holy Week, White once Easter

Upcoming Feast Days:

April 2- Palm Sunday and HOLY WEEK: Holy Week is our most revered week of the year. They are days of encouraged quiet and extra chores in our house, offering it up, and preparing for the big weekend to come. Wear RED to Palm Sunday mass, and if you haven’t already, cover your main crucifixes/statues in purple fabric as the Church does these last days of suffering in the desert of Lent.

April 5- Spy Wednesday: The night we remember that Judas chose greed over Jesus. A good activity is hiding 30 pieces of silver (dimes or quarters), having the kids find them, talking about greed, and then donating the coins to the poor box together.

*Triduum*

                Holy Thursday: The night of the Last Supper. Sometimes we’ll try to recreate some of the dishes Jesus might have eaten that night of Passover, with sparkling juice for the kids instead of wine. This is a great opportunity to discuss the importance of that supper in instituting the Eucharist as a Sacrament, and the gift of the priesthood. We will also wash each other’s feet and talk about Christ doing that with His Apostles.

                Good Friday: During Lent I hang bare sticks on the front door and tie a purple cloth to them. On Good Friday I exchange the purple for black, and we try to wear black this day too. The night before I try to prep Hot Cross buns, and they are baked this morning as our Good Friday breakfast. We will either attend Stations of the Cross, or do them around the house together using printable station markers. Starting at 3pm, we also turn off any electric lights in our house, and use candles instead until Saturday evening. A simple meal of beans and rice will feed us at dinner, to conclude our day of fasting.

                Holy Saturday: This day we begin to decorate for Easter, which includes dyeing eggs and I will start to prep Easter food (being Italian I like to make Italian Easter bread, specifically). I opt for lamb decor in lieu of bunnies around the house, personally. We also have a Resurrection version of a Nativity we put on the altar, and the kids get to roll away the stone the next morning.

April 9- EASTER: Mass is the single most important part of the day! The phrase “Alleluia” gets to be spoken and sung again, especially our wonderful Catholic tradition of greeting others by saying “Alleluia, He is risen”, which is responded to with, “He is risen, indeed, Alleluia!” We continue to say this the entirety of Easter’s 50 days after our daily meal prayer. Assumption usually holds an Easter egg hunt Easter morning, so we attend that when we go to mass, in addition to the one with our own dyed eggs when kids first wake too. The Sacrifice Beans get replaced with jelly beans! We do a family Easter basket with goodies for everyone to celebrate our joy in the Resurrection as a family.

Something I like to frequently remind the kids is that Easter is longer than Lent, being 50 days long instead of 40. Each day we will hang a plastic egg from our mantle, which turns into 50 beautiful pieces of decoration, reminding us that it is STILL Easter. The octave of Easter is also special, which are the first 8 days, and we are encouraged to feast on all of them as if they are all Easter Sunday itself!

April 16- Divine Mercy Sunday: The first Sunday following Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday. We make Divine Mercy “sundaes” this day, and talk especially about the gift of mercy and St. Faustina.

Being in His presence brings forth an inner peace and joy that can never be taken away. The Lord wants to share so many graces with us in the adoration chapel. Sign up to spend an hour a week with Jesus in adoration by visiting the adoration page: https://assumptioncatholicchurch.org/worship/adoration/ Please call the Office if you need an access card.

Stations of the Cross will be every Friday of Lent at 7:00 p.m. in the Church.

The Stations of the Cross are a 14-step Catholic devotion that commemorates Jesus Christ’s last day on Earth as a man. The 14 devotions, or stations, focus on specific events of His last day, beginning with His condemnation. The stations are commonly used as a mini pilgrimage as the individual moves from station to station. At each station, the individual recalls and meditates on a specific event from Christ’s last day. Specific prayers are recited, then the individual moves to the next station until all 14 are complete.

After the announcement of my appointment as Vicar General, I have had numerous questions regarding what a Vicar General is/does. According to Canon (Church) Law the following canons pertain to the Vicar General:

Can. 475 §1. In each diocese the diocesan bishop must appoint a vicar general who is provided with ordinary power according to the norm of the following canons and who is to assist him in the governance of the whole diocese.

Can. 479 §1. By virtue of office, the vicar general has the executive power over the whole diocese which belongs to the diocesan bishop by law, namely, the power to place all administrative acts except those, however, which the bishop has reserved to himself, or which require a special mandate of the bishop by law.

And from our Diocesan website:
The duty of the vicar general is to assist the bishop in the governance of the Diocese of St. Augustine. “A vicar general and an episcopal vicar must report to the diocesan bishop concerning more important affairs which are to be handled or have been handled, and they are never to act contrary to the intention and mind of the diocesan bishop” (Canon 480).

In short, the Vicar General must maintain a broad view of the work of the diocese and assist the bishop in shepherding the diocese. This will be a challenging assignment, but I think it will also be an exciting one! I hope this description helps. I again ask for your prayers as I take on this responsibility and please know of my continued prayers for all of you!

Love,

Fr. Jason

Thank you to everyone who stepped back in time and partied with us at our 70s themed Youth Stock fundraiser on Saturday, February 25. All proceeds went towards covering expenses for the summer encounters that we have scheduled. Our buses and fees for the summer are more expensive than ever, so every contribution helps and it is still not too late to sponsor or make a donation!

Please pray for our teens, young adults, and core team as they prepare for these summer programs. That they encounter the Lord and receive all that He has in store for them!

Thank you to all of our generous sponsors:

Featured Artist

Lighthouse Construction

Band Managers

Mollie O’Neill, Sharon Dover, & Ed and Charlotte Manson

Roadies

John and Ashley Robinson, St. Gianna Circle, Angiolillo Family, Patelli Family, Milton Family, Kriss & Rick Hartley, Bishop Kenny KofC, Helen O’Neal, Women’s Club, Terry Miller & Tom Hughes, & iLoveKickboxing

Youth Stock Sponsorship Levels

Headliner: $10,000 giving level

Featured Artist:$5,000 giving level

Opening Act:$2,500 giving level

Band Managers: $500 giving level

Roadies: $250 giving level

Dear Floridians, The Florida Constitution needs to be amended with the addition of life-saving language which would recognize and protect the God-given right to life of the preborn individual. The Human Life Protection Amendment aims to do just that!

We need your help gathering the signatures needed to get this important amendment on the ballot in 2024!

Here’s how you can help:

· Sign the petition and mail it to the address listed on the petition today.

· Ask your like-minded friends and family to sign.

· Volunteer on a county team (click here to sign up).

· Coordinate a petition drive at your church for Sanctity of Life Sunday.

· Click here for other ways your local church can participate.

To learn more about this effort to protect the most vulnerable people group in Florida, watch the 1-minute video below, then visit HumanLifeFL.com today.

Thank you to all of our generous donors for making this such a successful campaign. We are now able to begin repairing our bell tower and restore it to its previous glory. Stay tuned for updates as we begin the restoration!

Erected in 1973 as a gift from Casper and Bernadine Fechtel, this iconic bell tower has been used daily to inform all about the beginning of Holy Mass as well as a commemoration of our dearly beloved at the end of a funeral service.

Who remembers when our bell tower had bell chimes years ago? We have decided to reinstall the chimes and restore our iconic bell tower to it’s complete original glory. The chimes will enhance our bell tower and be able to play various liturgical hymns such as the Angelus, funeral tolls, wedding hymns, and more!

You can donate through the offertory via cash/check in a labeled envelope or through PayPal using this link: https://www.paypal.com/giving/campaigns?campaign_id=LFQ597EUZT92Y/campaigns?campaign_id=LFQ597EUZT92Y

Thank you to all who have donated thus far! We greatly appreciate your support and generosity.

This year we welcomed 17 new altar servers! These new servers were trained over the last few weeks and we are excited to have them start serving at Mass. We welcome the following:

Kyle Bednar, Raegan Contois, Owen Crane, Cole Flint, Griffin Flores, Valery Flores, Lily Gordon, Garrett Jardine, Christian Leggett, Cing Muan, Thaddeus Mochowski, Julian Kallivayalil, Luke Kallivayalil, Landon Samuel, Brenna Sarka, Grace Winkler, and Wyatt Zilla