The long tradition of the Church is that we cover crosses and images from the 5th Sunday of Lent through to the Easter Vigil. When you come into the church on Saturday you will see the statues of Mary and St Martin de Porres, as well as the picture of the Divine Mercy hanging from the choir loft, covered in purple. This week we begin a time of intense preparation, getting the Holy Week liturgies prepared. We will have special readers rosters, extra practices for the altar servers, and volunteers preparing crosses for Palm Sunday as well as the CWL getting ready for the Paschal Meal. It will be a busy week or two before we can relax into Easter joy.
Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, when we begin our Passion or Holy Week. We celebrate the triumphal arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem, knowing that just a few days later we will be calling for his crucifixion. On Tuesday evening we will celebrate the paschal meal in a very similar way to how Jesus and his disciples did. We will recount the story of how God saved the Israelites from slavery, and how Jesus has become our very own Paschal lamb.
The Triduum liturgy itself begins on Thursday evening and only finishes on Saturday evening. Please note that there is NO mass on Thursday morning. All the clergy of the archdiocese will gather at the cathedral to celebrate the Chrism mass with our Archbishop, where he will bless the oils that will be processed into the Church at the beginning of the Mass of the Last Supper. At the end of our Thursday evening mass we will process to the hall where we will have an altar of repose for the blessed sacrament. Those who wish to stay in silent prayer and adoration may do so, up until midnight. The altar is stripped bare.
On Good Friday morning we will be doing the celebration of the 7 Last Words. We will solemnly hear the words that Jesus spoke from the cross, taken from each of the gospels. There will be music and an opportunity for reflection. The day concludes with the celebration of the Passion and the veneration of the cross.
On Saturday evening we gather around the bonfire and light the Easter candle, the symbol of the resurrected Christ. Usually a parish will sacramentally welcome new members of the community at this celebration. Next year we will be privileged to welcome 8 new members into full communion with the Church. They are the members currently in the RCIA / Adult confirmation class. We will celebrate the risen Christ with glorias and halleluiahs, and maybe, because it would be such a shame to waste a good fire, with hot chocolate and marshmallows.
