Ash Wednesday 2024 is on Wednesday, March 4th. There will be Mass in the morning at 9:00 a.m. and in the evening at 7:00 p.m. Ashes will be distributed at both Masses.

Soup and Stations returns!

Soup and Stations will be held every Tuesday during Lent. Stations of the Cross will be prayed in the church at noon followed by a soup lunch in the Parish Hall.

All are welcome.

 If able, please sign up to contribute a soup or a dessert on signup sheets located in the church foyers.

Please note: Stations of the Cross (without shared meal following) will also be prayed at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday evenings.

Youth Stations of the Cross will be held on Good Friday, April 18th, at 3:00 pm. All are invited to attend. If your child would like to read one of the stations, please contact the Faith Formation Office: [email protected] or (508) 485-0141, Ext. #103

Confessions will be heard between Sunday Masses (9:30 to 10:15 a.m.), Saturday at 4:15 p.m. and by appointment from Monday to Thursday.

There will be a Communal Penance Service - date TBD!

Adoration will be held on Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. As of now, we have the Blessed Sacrament exposed on Wednesdays from 9:30 to 6:00 p.m. The adoration will be live streamed on our website page for all those parishioners who are unable to be in person.

Lent

• Lent lasts for 40 days...and it doesn't count Sundays.  Lent lasts 40 days to help us remember the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert, fasting and being tempted just before he began his public ministry. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends the evening of Holy Thursday.

• In A.D. 325, the Council of Nicaea set the date of Easter as the Sunday following the paschal full moon, which is the full moon that falls on or after the vernal (spring) equinox. In practice, that means that Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls on or after March 21. Easter can occur as early as March 22 and as late as April 25, depending on when the paschal full moon falls.  The paschal full moon is important because we know Jesus was celebrating Passover with his Disciples at the Last Supper (Holy Thursday), and the Passover date is set by the paschal full moon.

• The church color during the season of Lent is Violet or Purple. The church cloths and the priest and deacon will wear purple robes called chasubles and dalmatics for most of Lent.

Ash Wednesday

• Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. We begin 40 days of turning our hearts more toward Jesus. We try hard to be the people Jesus wanted us to be all the time.

• On Ash Wednesday, blessed ashes are put on your forehead in the shape of a cross. The Sign of the Cross made with ashes reminds us of Jesus’ great love for us and that he died on the cross so that we could live with him forever in heaven.

• These ashes are made by burning palm leaves saved from last year’s Palm Sunday.  At St. Anne's, the parish community burns the palms in a special ceremony.

Holy Thursday

• Holy Thursday is the oldest of the celebrations of Holy Week.

• Holy Thursday is the day on which Catholics commemorate the institution of three pillars of the Catholic Faith: the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the priesthood, and the Mass. During the Last Supper, Christ blessed the bread and wine with the very words that Catholic and Orthodox priests use today to consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ during the Mass and the Divine Liturgy. In telling His disciples to "Do this in remembrance of Me," He instituted the Mass and made them the first priests.

• Near the end of the Last Supper, after Judas had departed, Christ said to His disciples, "A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another." The Latin word for "commandment," mandatum became the source for another name for Holy Thursday: Maundy Thursday.

• Holy Thursday is also the day that priests in each diocese gather with the bishop to consecrate holy oils, which are used throughout the year for he sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick. This is known as the Chrism Mass.

• Mass on Holy Thursday is held after sundown at each parish, and is the "Mass of the Lord's Supper".  There is a ceremony at the end of mass, in which the Body of Christ is removed from the tabernacle, processed out of the main church.  Everything is removed from the altar, and no bells ring in the church again until the Gloria is sung during Saturday's Easter Vigil.

Good Friday

• The liturgical observance of this day of Christ's suffering, crucifixion and death has been in existence from the earliest days of the Church.

• No Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist is celebrated. Therefore, there is no Mass on Good Friday. In some parishes, consecrated Host from Holy Thursday are distributed.

• We gather to pray the Stations of the Cross, which is always the Passion from the Gospel according to John.

• Parishioners venerate the Cross by coming forward and kissing it. 

• Good Friday is a day of Fasting.

Easter Sunday

• Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead.

• It is celebrated on Sunday, and marks the end of Holy Week, the end of Lent, the last day of the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday), and is the beginning of the Easter season of the liturgical year.

• Since Easter represents the fulfillment of God's promises to mankind, it is the most important holiday on the Christian calendar.

• Traditionally, in Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches on Easter, Christians greet each other with cries of "Christ is risen!" and respond "Indeed He is risen!" 

• The Alleluia is sung for the first time since the beginning of Lent.

• The Catholic Church requires that all Catholics who have made their First Communion receive the Holy Eucharist sometime during the Easter season, which lasts through Pentecost, 50 days after Easter.