Moments from Holy Week 2019

The preparatory season of Lent, culminating in the exhaustive, yet thoroughly edifying and glorious week that we call Holy, the Sacred Triduum, being behind us, these are some moments captured. Let your Paschaltide be equally memorable.

The Gloria, Holy Thursday

Having fasted from the Gloria of the Mass through most of Lent, we are given a gesture of good things to come in the Mass of Maundy Thursday, so-called for the mandate Our Lord gave to the Apostles to imitate Him, as He washed their feet.  

The Mandatum, Holy Thursday

Pange Lingua, excerpt, Holy Thursday

In anticipation of Good Friday, a liturgical day that does not see to the Consecration of bread and wine, Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession to an altar of repose. 

Genitori Genitoque, Holy Thursday

Stripping of the Altar, Holy Thursday

As was said, no Mass with Consecration is offered this day. Rightly said, no Mass is offered on Good Friday. The altar, being stripped after Mass, quite simply reminds us that the altar represents Christ, and that He was stripped of His garments, having fallen into the hands of the Jews and exposed to vicious insults. See the Catholic Encyclopedia. 

Behold the Wood of the Cross, Good Friday

The Adoration of the Cross is essentially unchanged from the way it was celebrated as far back as the 4th century. Thanks be to God, a relic of the True Cross, along with other precious pieces of salvation history, were saved from destruction by the fire at Notre Dame. 

Adoration of the Cross, Good Friday

Consecration, Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil

Christ is Risen, indeed, and offered again, in an unbloody manner, to the Father. 

Ite Missa Est, Alleuia, Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil