Holy Week

It is so hard to believe that Holy Week is already here. It seems like just yesterday was Ash Wednesday and now we are just a few days shy of the end of Lent and the start of my favorite season of the Church year The Triduum.

Remember: Lent ends Wednesday Night! Thursday begins an entirely new season of the Church. If you have been fasting or have given up something, that fasting can end on Thursday if you so choose. My parents when I was growing up made us wait until Easter morning to end our fast from television, or candy or whatever it was we had given up. But also remember that Friday is a day of solemn fasting in honor of the day that Christ died on the cross.

I was telling Fr. Bill yesterday after Mass that I could set up a cot in the back of church and just live in the church from Thursday until Sunday I love those liturgies so much. If you have never taken the time to explore the liturgies of Holy Week I recommend that you do. There is so much symbol and presence in the liturgies of the Triduum, from the Stripping of the Altar on Holy Thursday to the veneration of the Cross on Good Friday to the lighting of the New Fire on Holy Saturday and then, my personal favorite the singing of the Exultet which is an ancient hymn that recounts our need for salvation and our need for Resurrection.


I am offering you these links to the Three Holy Days so that if you choose you can prepare yourself and your family for these days.

Holy Thursday

Good Friday

Holy Saturday

I also want to give you a gentle reminder that Easter, dear children, is a Season of the Church year and not just a Sunday. We in the Church celebrate Easter for 50 days, from the Sunday of Christ's resurrection until Pentecost. Don't be stingy with your celebration.

We are an Easter People after all.

See you in Church.

Pax