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Let us bear the Cross so that may be worthy of wearing the crown He wore.What would it be like to walk with Jesus through Holy Week-the week between Passion or Palm Sunday and his resurrection? Each of the gospels presents a glimpse of the story, but to get a fuller picture you really need to piece the gospels together. Our minds and hearts should be fixed on Jesus and what He did for us. Holy Week is a time to clear our schedules of unnecessary activities. During these days, we suffer with Christ so that we might rise with Him at His glorious Resurrection.
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This is especially so of the Triduum which, standing at the heart of the Easter season, is an intense immersion in the fundamental mystery of what it is to be Christian. Those who engage themselves wholeheartedly in living the entire paschal cycle (Lent, Triduum and Easter's Fifty Days) discover that it can change them forever. Also on this night, persons who have spent months of preparation will be received through Baptism and Confirmation into the Catholic Church for the first time. By paying the price for our sins on the Cross, He gained for us our eternal salvation, and heaven was openedonce more. Up to this time, the gates to heaven were closed and no one could go there because of the original sin of Adam. This was the day He went down into the netherworld in order to bring back up with Him into heaven those who had died before His coming.
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We keep watch for the expectant rising of Our Savior. There is no consecration of the Eucharist on this day, and the Communion we receive will be from the night before, which has been reserved in the tabernacle. We go forward and kiss the Cross in order to show honor and respect for Christ's sacrifice for our sake. A service is held at three o'clock in the afternoon (the hour He is believed to have died) and another later in the evening. On Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion and death of our Lord, we have the veneration of the Cross. This is because, at the Last Supper, Jesus not only instituted the Mass (Eucharist) bt also the ministerial priesthood. Also on this night, priests all over the world will renew their sacred vows. At the Mass, the priest will wash the feet of twelve men, just as Jesus did. This is one of the most beautiful liturgies of the entire liturgical year. On Holy Thursday, we reenact the Lord's Last Supper, which He shared with His apostles on the night He was betrayed and arrested. This is the three days just before Easter. The other notable and very ancient feature of the present Palm Sunday service is the reading of the Gospel of the Passion by three readers.Įspecially important for Catholics is the Easter Triduum. The palms are blessed and are then borne in procession to the church, where an entry is made with a certain amount of ceremony, after which the Mass is celebrated. The central feature of the service proper to this day, as it was in the earliest times, is the procession of palms. It begins with Palm Sunday, which marks Jesus' triumhant entry into Jerusalem. Historical documents tell us that as early as the fourth century the Church celebrated this "Great Week" with a feeling of profound sanctity. The greatest focus of the week is the Passion (suffering) and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the events that led up to it. The Lenten season of sacrifice and self-denial is about to come to an end, but this coming week is extremely important for all Christians. These are the days leading up to the great Easter Feast. Holy Week is most definitely a very sacred time of the year, for it is now that we will commemorate and remember the last week of Jesus' life on this earth.