St. John Neumann Catholic Church
8451 Idlewild Road  
Charlotte, NC   28227                      Location & Directions

 HOLY WEEK & EASTER SCHEDULE

Holy Week Is A Chance To Walk With Jesus
We are in what many consider to be the most sacred week of the liturgical year — Holy Week.   We remember and celebrate some of the pivotal moments of Jesus’ life — the Last Supper, Christ’s death, and His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday.  Here at St. John Neumann, we invite you to join with us for any or all of some special liturgical services. Here is a schedule of events, plus some other things to remember:

Fast and Abstinence
Good Friday is a day of fasting, for all Catholics ages 18 to 59.
FASTING ...this means we can consume only one full meal, with two lighter meals during the day.
ABSTINENCE: All Catholics 14 or older must abstain from meat. This does not include eggs or milk products.
 

Blessing of the Baskets
Food baskets and Easter baskets will be blessed at noon on Holy Saturday (March 22).

Scheduled Events

Holy Thursday: No morning Mass;
                         Liturgy of the Hours at 9:15 a.m.
                         Mass of the Lord’s Supper,  7:30 p.m.

Good Friday: No morning Mass; instead,
     Liturgy of the Hours at 9:15 a.m.
     Stations of the Cross, 3 p.m.
     Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, 7:30 p.m.

Holy Saturday: No morning Mass; instead, Liturgy of the Hours at 9:15 a.m.
                      Blessing of the Baskets: Food baskets and Easter baskets will be blessed at noon on Holy Saturday (March 22).
                      No 5:30 p.m. Mass.

Easter Vigil (Mass of the Resurrection), Saturday at 8 p.m.

Easter Sunday Masses:
   At "sunrise" ... 6:45 a.m. on the baseball fields in the back
     7:30 a.m. in the main Church
     10 a.m.  
     Noon
     3 p.m. en Espanol
     
      No 5:30 p.m. Mass Easter Sunday

Why Is Easter So Early This Year?
Easter is a full two weeks earlier this year than last. Why does the
date wobble around the calendar so?

The way of calculating the date was set by the Emperor Constantine
in 325. The decision ended a very bitter controversy in the church. Some
people wanted to synchronize the Pasch with Passover on the fourteenth
day of the Jewish month Nissan, and their opponents wanted it after the
Passover was complete, on the Sunday after the first full moon of spring-
time.

The ecclesiastical rules do not exactly connect with the astronomical
rules. The emperor squashed the hopes of the quartodecimans, as the
fans of 14 Nissan were called, and chose Sunday. The traditional rule is
that Easter is the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon that
occurs on or after the vernal equinox, the fourteenth day of the new
moon, and later than March 21.

Thus, Easter wobbles between March 22 and April 25.

The actual tables and methods for computing the date are extraordi-
narily detailed, with subtle variations and mind-bending exceptions and
charts with “golden numbers,” “dominical letters,” and “epacts” measuring
leap years. In 1954 and 1962 the ecclesiastical calculations actually over-
rode the astronomical new moons and bumped Easter back a month!

Today, there is a movement in the World Council of Churches
(Protestants and Orthodox) for all Christians to combine their celebra-
tions, based on the star charts for the Jerusalem skies. The last time all
Christians celebrated together was at the dawn of the millennium in 2001.

In principle, the Catholic Church is open to an ecumenical agreement
on a fixed date for Easter, but we desire a unanimous decision from the
World Council.