Kevin Mears sm
Two events added more than the usual interest to our Holy Week Triduum liturgies at St Joseph’s, Waitara.
Doreen and Dennis Hanover had designed an innovative tomb to fit neatly beneath the altar.
The sombre red and black colours of Good Friday were transformed into brilliant white surrounded by many candles for the vigil service.
During that service six adults were received into the church. Their 10 children had already been baptised during the months of RCIA preparation. If that wasn’t drama enough one of the RCIA candidates, Denise Welch, was struck down by ill health on Holy Saturday and ordered to bed. She was distraught! I went around at 5 pm to anoint her.
So that she could still participate in the vigil, we worked out the exact time of the baptisms – her sponsor picked her up from her own ‘tomb’ to be with us.
After Baptism and Confirmation she returned to her bed, but made a full recovery on Easter Sunday.
She received her fourth sacrament, the Eucharist, on Mercy Sunday.
The photo (left) shows the empty tomb beneath the altar, and some of the newly baptised adults in the background, on the floor of the original sanctuary.
Pahiatua Polish Children’s 75th Reunion
WelCom December 2019 Phil Cotter, a life-long parishioner of St Brigid’s parish, Pahiatua, remembers as a seven-year-old welcoming the three trains carrying the Polish children and their care-givers in 1944….
Care for our common home
Manaakihia tō tātou kāinga From Garden To Table WelCom December 2019 ‘Grow, harvest, prepare, share’ is the motto for ‘Garden to Table’. It’s a programme founded in 2008 to teach…
New Zealand Catholic Bishops Meet Pope
WelCom December 2019 The New Zealand Catholic bishops met Pope Francis for an 80-minute private audience in the Vatican on Monday 28 October during their Ad Limina visit to Rome. …