Happy Holy Triduum! Attached are the worship aids for the liturgies over these next four days: Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion, Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday.
All of these liturgies will be livestreamed. Two Easter Sunday Masses will be livestreamed – 9am at ICC and 11am at OLL.
If you are attending the Mass of the Lord’s Supper this evening (OLL at 7pm), we will end with the procession of the Blessed Sacrament into the parish hall where we have set up an altar of repose with a tabernacle on it. Everyone should remain kneeling while the priest, deacon, and servers process around the church. Once we enter into the parish hall, all are welcome to come into the parish hall to adore our Lord. The church doors will remain unlocked until 11pm. After we have reposed the Blessed Sacrament in the parish hall, we will then “strip the altar.” Parishioners are welcome to help as we carry items from the sanctuary into the parish hall. Please refrain from having conversations at this time as some will be in adoration in the same space.
Good Friday has the Stations of the Cross at ICC at 3pm and the Mime Stations of the Cross at OLL at 3pm, put on by some of the high school students, led by Rachel Klear. We will have the Passion of the Lord at OLL at 7pm which are the readings, the Passion narrative, the solemn intercessions, veneration of the cross, and distribution of Holy Communion (no Masses celebrated anywhere on Good Friday and until the Easter Vigil).
The Easter Vigil will be celebrated at OLL at 8:30pm. The Easter Sunday Masses will be celebrated at 9am and 11am at both parishes.
Reminder that Good Friday is a day of fasting for Catholics age 18-59 (as long as you have no medical restrictions). “When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal. If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the "paschal fast" to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection” USCCB. Good Friday is also a day of abstinence from meat.
I hope in these next few days, you can enter deeply into the Passion of our Lord, remembering what he has done for you out of love. One year while I was in seminary, I had come down with the flu during Holy Week. By Good Friday, I started to recover but I felt exhausted so I could do nothing but lay on the couch. At 3pm, I realized that it was the hour that Jesus died, so I started to pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. When I got to the “Scourging at the pillar,” I imagined myself being scourged like Jesus. All it took was one scourge in my imagination, but it seemed that I felt it on my body. I felt the horror of it. I suddenly realized the depths of my sins and how I had done this to Jesus. My sins were the cause of Jesus’ immense suffering. I broke down and wept in sorrow for the next 30 minutes, continuing to tell Jesus, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” I struggled through the rest of the rosary, but once it was done, there was a silence outside, and I was at peace. I was left with the feeling of how much love Jesus had for me and that he would do it all over again for every single one of us. I hope that if you’ve been struggling, you will unite your suffering to Jesus in His passion, to realize that you are not alone, and to realize that He suffered much more for you. Jesus loves you. Know that your suffering is not in vain. Suffering has to come because without the cross, there is no resurrection. With the resurrection in view, we can suffer and still have hope! Praised be Jesus Christ!
God bless! Fr. Ed