Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Maria Hayes • April 14, 2025

Blessed Palm Sunday to you. As we enter into to this Holy Week, I invite you to truly make it holy. Yes, I know you still have to go to work and school, the grocery and gas station, but really try to quiet down and cut out all those things that are not truly necessary. And we know the difference. Necessary means required to be done, needed, essential. Maybe one of the best exercises we can engage in this week, is to really evaluate the words & actions of our lives in terms of necessary and unnecessary. If the purpose of our life, our birth, our daily struggle, our sufferings, our successes, our whole life is to know, love, and serve God in this life so as to be with Him forever in the next, we must figure out here and now, what is necessary. Use the added holiness of this week to prayerfully discern over the various pursuits of your life in terms of necessity. For this week, set aside those things that are not necessary so as to be more faithful & focused upon that which is truly necessary. Allow this week to unite you to the necessity of your Catholic Christian Faith, of the Sacrifice of Christ, of His immense Love & Mercy, of our need for God in a godless world. If Lent is Catholic Christians at their best, then Holy Week should necessarily be Catholic Christians fully for Christ.


For much of the world and most people, this is just another week. They will go along as if nothing in particular is happening. They will follow their normal routines, engage in their normal activities, pursue their normal professions. Will that be us as well? Is this going to be Wholly a week for Christ and therefore a Holy Week, or will we just make a whole in our normal endeavors to admit Christ’s cross for a moment or to rejoice in the empty hole in the ground, known as tomb. If your faith is more than words upon our lips or a few pious thoughts from time to time, it should be manifest itself in the whole of your life, especially as we enter into Holy Week.


We all engage in unnecessary endeavors. I do to! Some unnecessary pursuits could, maybe should, just be abandoned altogether. Yet, unnecessary does not always mean unimportant. There could be unnecessary pursuits given the greater religious significance of this week, that simply allow those unnecessary pursuits to take their proper place, so as to justly recognized the real priority and right relationship with God, neighbor, and self. And learning to know the difference between distractions and definitives will help make you Holy.

 

Lenten Adoration of the Most Holy Eucharist

Didn’t sign up? Don’t worry. Just Show up & Pray!


 

Holy Week Schedule


Tuesday Mass at 8a 

Tuesday Stations of the Cross at 6:30p

 

Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7p 

  • Altar of Repose & time for quiet prayer with Christ in DAC until 10p
  • Compline & Night Prayer in community in DAC at 10p

 

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion at 3p

 

Saturday Confessions in the Garden from 8a to 10a

(in the church confessional if weather is incremental)

 

Saturday Easter Vigil with Sacraments of Initiation at 8:55p

 

Sunday Mass of the Lord’s Resurrection at 8a and 10:30a

[No Sunday 6p Mass]


Nothing Less than saints for the Holy Family of God.

Holy Family, Led by the Holy Spirit to the Lord’s Suffering, Death, & Resurrection, Pray for us.


~ Fr Jeremy M. Gries

18th Sunday In Ordinary Time- Letter from Abbi Harbeson, DMO

By Carolyn Kannapel • July 29, 2026
How Do You Share the Gospel? This weekend, the Holy Family Evangelization Team hosted an Evangelization Crash Course for the leaders of the ministries of our parish. This morning of training and learning was an awesome opportunity to remind our leaders of the Gospel mandate: “Go and make disciples of all nations…” And that mandate is not just for those who lead or volunteer for our ministries here at Holy Family. The Great Commission applies to each of us. As baptized Christians, we have taken on the role of sharing the Gospel with the world, just as Jesus commanded His disciples in Matthew 28 before He ascended into Heaven. For many of us, that command is overwhelming. Our minds may jump to the fear of what it means to share the Gospel with another. Perhaps we think that we must memorize Scripture or understand the Catechism and all of the Church’s teachings before we can evangelize. Allow me to remind you that is not the case. While we must immerse ourselves in Scripture and Tradition, these are meant to aid us in our discipleship, not to be prerequisites for it. The simplest way to evangelize? Live! The Catechism of the Catholic Church sheds light on this reality: “Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, ‘that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life .’ For lay people, ‘this evangelization…assumes a specific character and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world’” (CCC 905.) The Church herself tells us that while the mandate to share the Gospel is an incredible and necessary responsibility, its efficacy is dependent on the ordinary. This makes the task much less daunting! How do you live the “ordinary”? How do your day-to-day activities and responsibilities represent the Gospel? How can you make the Gospel more present in your daily life? This week I hope you will think of each moment–your drive to work, your grocery store run, your office, your coffee date with a friend, dinner with your family–as an opportunity to share the Gospel. No quotations of Scripture or a lesson on morality needed. Instead, LIVE the Gospel. Mother Mary, the first evangelist, pray for us. In His Joy, Abbi Harbeson, Director of Mission and Outreach

Parishioner Joseph Marguet Passes Away

By Carolyn Kannapel • July 29, 2026
Joseph Isadore Marguet, 94, passed away peacefully on July 2, 2026, at The Villages at Silvercrest in New Albany, Indiana . Born February of 1932, in New Albany, Indiana , Joe was the eldest child of Joseph and Esther Marguet, followed by his beloved siblings, Frank ("Frankie") Marguet and Miriam (Mimi) Paris. New Albany was home for most of his life and remained the community he loved deeply. Please join us at 11 a.m. on August 8, 2026, to celebrate Joe's long and full life with a Catholic mass at Holy Family Church, 129 W Daisy Ln, New Albany, IN 47150. Doors open at 10 a.m.

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

By Carolyn Kannapel • July 22, 2026
PASTOR’S NOTES for 26 July 2026 – Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

By Carolyn Kannapel • July 15, 2026
Pastor’s Notes for 19 July 2026 – Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Tuesday Apologetics

By Carolyn Kannapel • July 14, 2026
As Catholics, we often get asked questions about why we believe what we believe. People are searching for the truth, and sometimes this comes out as an argumentative question. As Catholic Christians, it is important that we know our faith, not only so we can defend it but also so that we can put it into practice in our daily lives. Join us on the second Tuesday of each month after Mass for Apologetics in the Cafeteria. We will dive into a “common questions” topic, looking at Scripture and the Catechism. Join us for our first Apologetics Session on Tuesday, August 11, from 6:45 to 7:45 pm in the Cafeteria . Our topic is the Three A's: Which one's which? (the Annunciation, the Ascension, and the Assumption). No RSVP is required . Contact Kristina Seipel at the parish office or kseipel@holyfamilynewalbany.org with questions. August 11 - Three A's: Which one's which? (the Annunciation, the Ascension, and the Assumption)- presented by Ryan Albers September 8 - LGBTQIA+: What the Church Teaches - presented by Fr. Jeremy October 13 - The Lord's Messengers: The Role of Angels - presented by Julie Benning November - "Have You Been Saved?": A Catholic Response - presented by Abbi Harbeson No need to sign up; join us for the presentation and discussion!

Grow Your Appreciation of the Mass

By Carolyn Kannapel • July 14, 2026
Grow Your Appreciation of the Mass Have you ever wanted a deeper understanding of the Mass? Why do we do what we do at the Mass? Join us for a six-session exploration of the Liturgy with Bishop Robert Barron. Together we will uncover why we pray and act as we do at Mass, how the liturgy lifts us from the brokenness of the world into the worship of Heaven, and how God’s call meets our response in every moment of the celebration. Together, we will also gain a clearer understanding of the Eucharist as our intimate union with the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. This series will equip you to participate more fully, consciously, and actively in the “source and summit” of the Christian life Join us on Wednesday nights, 6:30-7:30 p.m. from August 19 through September 23, 2026 , in the Day Activity Center to fall more in love with The Mass. Sign up online by August 9 . Please complete one registration per person. There is no fee. Contact Kristina Seipel with questions at kseipel@holyfamilynewalbany.org or 812-944-8283, ext. 4.

Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

By Carolyn Kannapel • July 8, 2026
Pastor’s Notes for 12 July 2026 – Fift teenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

By Carolyn Kannapel • July 1, 2026
Pastor’s Notes for 05 July 2026 – Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

By Carolyn Kannapel • June 16, 2026
Pastor’s Notes for 28 June 2026 – Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time

By Carolyn Kannapel • June 16, 2026
Pastor’s Notes for 21 June 2026 – Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time