Port Chester: Holy Week at St. John Bosco Parish

By Fr. Eddie Chincha, SDB, CYM, St. John Bosco Parish

(Port Chester, NY – April 8) – Holy Week was a major event at St. John Bosco Parish in Port Chester.

We started with Palm Sunday, when the parish offered two extra Masses to accommodate the large number of people who attended Mass. During Reconciliation Monday, the Salesians heard confessions from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; we only stopped for evening prayer and dinner together.

Additionally, the community had a two-day parish mission. Each day after Mass, our new brother in our community, Fr. Felix Levin, preached to hundreds of people who attended this Tuesday and Wednesday mission.

St. John Bosco Parish’s pastor, Fr. Franco Pinto, SDB, and I attended the Chrism Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Tuesday, March 31, in midtown Manhattan.

Holy Thursday featured a packed liturgy, at which all St. John Bosco Parish’s altar servers and eucharistic ministers processed in together. We had 12 apostles represented by men from different groups of the parish.

On Good Friday, the parish welcomed a large crowd of people at a 3:00 p.m. liturgy. After the service, we processed through the main streets of Port Chester, acting out the way of the cross. Our young adult group prepared these live stations of the cross for months. They practiced every Wednesday and recruited parishioners as actors and support crew. The procession lasted for four hours and ended with the Veneration of the Cross. Thousands of people of all ages came out of their homes to walk with us, witnessing publicly to the faith in the village of Port Chester in a dynamic way. Our actors gave a very realistic performance. The whips were very real and the sincerity and devotion of the actor who played Jesus was extraordinary.

The Easter Vigil was majestic. We had 13 adult baptisms that night in a multilingual liturgy. One of the most moving moments of that service was the renewal of baptismal vows. Our people shouted “I do” with loud voices that shook the building.

On Easter Sunday, our Masses were packed, and we celebrated the baptism of 20 children. After the Masses, we held Easter egg hunts for the small children.

This was indeed a packed week filled with devotion and love for our Lord. We hope that next year our Holy Week celebrations will be even bigger!