As we prepare to enter into the holiest days of our liturgical season known as the Holy Week, we especially look forward to three of the most solemn liturgies that we will have that week known as the Triduum, starting with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and Washing of the Feet on Holy Thursday. The start of the Triduum is also the end of the Lenten Season. The celebrations of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil are considered to be just one long Mass divided into three distinct celebrations. That’s why at the end of the Mass on Holy Thursday, the priest doesn’t give a final blessing, and the following day when the priest begins the celebration of Good Friday, he doesn’t begin with a sign of the cross because he continues or picks up where he left off on Holy Thursday. The Good Friday celebration also doesn’t end with a final blessing but, rather, it ends in silence, and that silence is picked up again the following night at the Easter Vigil with the blessing of the fire. It is only at the end of the Easter Vigil that the priest gives the final blessing because the Easter Vigil is the final three-part liturgy in these holiest of days. Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil are just ONE long Mass divided into three days. Our usual Sunday Mass is the abridged or short version of the Triduum, because we can’t be doing all the details in the Triduum every Sunday — it would take us forever, but once a year, we have that opportunity to partake and celebrate in an elaborate way the mysteries of our faith. I highly invite and encourage you to partake in these liturgies because they bring to light and celebrate the most profound mysteries of our faith. It is my prayer that these holiest days of the year be an occasion for us to commit ourselves more and more to the person of Christ who has given us new life.
Speaking of preparing our hearts for the Holy Week, I would like to invite you to seize the
opportunity to be reconciled with the Lord if you have not done so by attending our Lenten Penance Service this coming Thursday, April 11 at 7pm. At least ten priests will be available to hear your confessions. The best way to enter and celebrate Holy Week is by having a clean and joyful heart. As the Gospel acclamation proclaims this Sunday: “Return to me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful.” And, after receiving God’s unmerited mercy, may we also hear the same words of Jesus to the woman caught in adultery in the Gospel today: “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” – Fr. Cary