PASSION (PALM) SUNDAY
I once attended a Mass in El Salvador. The worship space was a small aluminum shed with rows of wooden benches and a space for the priest, and wooden altar at the front. It was a wonderful experience. I do not…
Category Holy Week
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR DEATH TO KEEP ITS HOLD ON HIM
The event that dominates the world’s history surely has to be the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is mind-boggling. The fact that the eternal Word of…
WHAT OUR SAVIOUR SAW FROM THE CROSS
A significant part of our worship on Good Friday is the veneration of the cross. The cross is solemnly processed through the congregation, then we are invited to express our devotion to it. The cross may be the most recognizable…
“DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME…”
It was a most memorable Holy Thursday celebration. About forty of us – students, faculty and visitors – had gathered in the campus chapel to begin the annual journey through the Easter Triduum. The liturgical features and the rituals of…
PASSION (PALM) SUNDAY
Passion Sunday is particularly meaningful this year. As we listen to the passion narrative from the Gospel of Mark proclaimed in our churches we can imagine the streets of Holy Land, the crowds, the violence and the despair. Here we…
GOOD FRIDAY
The Good Friday service, with its sombre hymns, silence, bare altar and empty tabernacle, is one of most moving liturgies of the year. There’s something about knowing that around the world at this particular moment on a Friday afternoon, as…
HOLY THURSDAY
Can you imagine the tension building during that last Passover that Jesus celebrated with his friends in that upper room? The rejoicing of the crowds welcoming Jesus on that Palm Sunday may have quieted some of the threat, but the…
CHRIST IS RISEN!
For the first time in two years, Easter feels like Resurrection! As we emerge from the pandemic to spring flowers, visits with family and friends, and something more like the life we knew, our everyday lives offer a material counterpart…
GOOD FRIDAY
Jesus asks: Will my death mean anything in two millennia? Will it give home to those who must flee their country because bombs are falling on their homes?” Will it give courage to youth who see adults not able to…
SERVICE WITH A SMILE
For me, the Holy Thursday liturgy not only sets the stage for the Easter Triduum that begins this evening but offers us a wonderful model for living as Christ’s followers. At supper with his disciples, Jesus shocks them by kneeling…