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Join us on Pentecost Sunday, June 8 for Solemn Vespers, following the 5pm Mass at 6:15pm. A most beautiful way to close the Easter Season celebrating the birthday of the Church.
The Filipino Catholic Community, with the diocesan Multi-cultural Ministries Office, invites you to join in celebrating the Flores de Mayo here, on May 17. The evening begins with a rosary procession at 6pm and Mass at 7pm, followed by a reception in the gym. For more information please email amaremusicministry.flores@gmail.com.
Join us for our monthly (third Monday) Taizé Prayer Service on Monday night, May 19, 8 - 8:45pm. Come for a peaceful moment of simple song, silence and prayer for unity.
Please join Fr. Don for three gatherings here at Saint Bernadette called SBSNRs: Let’s Talk - “Spiritual But Not Religious”, Tuesday nights in the Bradican Room, 7–8:30pm, on May 20, 27 and June 3. More information can be found in Fr. Don’s letter this weekend.
Come help us Rise Against Hunger – June 5-7Please plan to join Christ Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Saint Bernadette Catholic Church and School, Temple B’nai Shalom, Rumi Forum, American Turkish Friendship Association, Rise Against Hunger and volunteers from the community to purchase, pack and distribute life-changing meals. In the midst of much change, we want to continue the tradition of being a shining light for the world’s most vulnerable. OUR GOAL is to PACK 150,000 LIFE-CHANGING MEALS. Learn more about this event and sign-up for one of several volunteer opportunities available between June 5-7. To sign up click here: https://www.christchurchva.org/twrah/ Select Donate/Buy Merchandise or Pack Meals to help support this event. Please contact the parish office for more information.
FAITH FORMATION
Congratulations to those who have received their First Holy Communion!
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus gives us a new commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.” It is the greatest commandment to teach our children of authentic love of one another. One such activity that brings together the month of Mary and “the new commandment” is making Heart Rosaries. https://www.catholicicing.com/sacred-and-immaculate-heart-rosaries-a-fun-catholic-craft/
SPRED Mass and Reception: May 31
Registration for 2025-2026
Registration will open in June for next year. Continue your child’s growth in the faith by signing them up for classes in 2025-26! Our class sessions will be on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and we will again offer our Special Religious Development class on Saturday mornings for students with special learning needs and our Family Faith Formation classes once a month on Sunday afternoons (for grades K-5) where parents take a larger role in their child’s faith formation.
Registration information will be in the parish bulletin, on the website, and will be sent via Flocknote to all currently registered children in the first week of June. Who should register? All currently registered students, including all Confirmation 2025, Confirmation 2026, and students preparing to receive First Eucharist next school year. Questions about your child’s registration? Call the Religious Education Office or contact us via email.
WOMEN'S MINISTRY
Monday, May 19 is our next Dinner with Friends at 5pm, at Saratoga Pizzeria, 8050 Rolling Road. We meet for this casual meal on the 1st and the 3rd Monday of every month.
Thank you to all who supported our Baby Shower for our two guests at Mary's Comfort. The young mothers were as blessed as we were. Our prayer is that assured that they will be touched by the love of Christ through the gifts and witness you all provided by your service and generosity.YOUTH MINISTRY
We had 37 Middle School Youth members attend this year's BASH at the Diocese this past weekend.
Middle School Youth MinistryAll 6th-8th graders are invited to Middle School Youth Ministry every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month! Join us for games, snacks & fun from 6:45-8pm in the Gym. All middle schoolers are welcome, bring a friend!
Middle School Summer Drop-Ins
All rising 6th through 8th graders are invited to our Summer Drop-Ins! Join us July 2nd, July 16th, and July 30th for fun, games, friends, and of course, ice cream! We will meet from 6:45-8pm in the gym.
High School Girl's Bonfire
All 8th-12th grade girls are invited to join us for a bonfire and s’mores this Monday, June 2nd! Meet at the parish office and we will walk up to the Rectory Patio together. Contact Grace Mee (gmee@stbernpar.org) for more information and how to register!
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
With grateful hearts we thank God for our new Holy Father Leo. Let us continue to pray that he will be the instrument the world needs to know the true peace of Jesus and the unity and healing which we know is God’s will. Pope Leo described this peace as “unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering,” as only can come from God who loves all peoples unconditionally.
His first message to us on the day of election was so simple and sincere. He spoke of dialogue (in his very short first speech he uses the word three times), a synodal Church, a missionary Church that builds bridges and dialogue, with arms always open to receive everyone, all those who need our charity, our presence, dialogue, and love.
Maybe this is something that seems common in Italy, since so many popes have been Italians, but I can’t get over how many people have spoken of a personal connection with our new pope. “My mother-in-law’s mother taught him in grade school.” “In Peru, after a long day without stopping to eat, he would call, exhausted, late in the evening, and ask if we had any leftovers...” “He was principal at my high school in Chicago.” “I went to the seminary with him and have known him most of my life (Fr. Cedric).”
The fact that an American has been elected Pope by the universal Church is something astounding, something that nobody ever thought would happen. But the fact that he has touched so many people in his life – whether as a parish priest, administrator, Superior General of the Augustinians, missionary, archbishop and, finally, leader of the Dicastery for Bishops appointed by Pope Francis (photo, below left), is a powerful reflection on how we, too, have the ability to touch hearts.
Think of the many chapters of your life, from when you were very young to today. All the characters who populated those stories and the ways in which you have been there for others, and others for you. Think of the way in which you have brought all these people into your own story and the impact you had in their lives. It isn’t just for popes – you, too have many people who look back to times with you and treasure them.
You know a lot about a bishop by his motto. It is no surprise there is a strong theme coming out of all he says, that God is here for all people and unites us. “In illo Uno, unum.” In the One, we are one.
“God cares for us, God loves all of us, and evil will not prevail! We are all in God’s hands. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, let us move forward.
“To all of you, brothers and sisters of Rome, of Italy, of the whole world, we want to be a synodal Church, a Church that walks, a Church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always seeks to be close especially to those who suffer.”
His election has inspired people of all churches and religions to send messages of joy and congratulations, because they already know in Pope Leo a hopefulness that looks to the future.
The Lord be with you.
Worship Aid for the Fourth Sunday of Easter
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
Now accepting applications for PRE-Kindergarten in our school. Interested in joining our school community? We focus on faith formation, academic excellence, and community service. Visit our website: www.stbernschool.org/admissions-process/
Please join Fr. Don for three gatherings here at Saint Bernadette called SBSNRs: Let’s Talk - “Spiritual But Not Religious”, Tuesday nights in the Bradican Room, 7–8:30pm, on May 20, 27 and June 3. More information can be found in Fr. Don’s letter this weekend.
Join us for our monthly (third Monday) Taizé Prayer Service on Monday night, May 19, 8 - 8:45pm. Come for a peaceful moment of simple song, silence and prayer for unity.
Join the Filipino Catholic Community, with the diocesan Multi-cultural Ministries Office, invites you to join in celebrating the Flores de Mayo here, on May 17. The evening begins with a rosary procession at 6pm and Mass at 7pm, followed by a reception in the gym. For more information please email amaremusicministry.flores@gmail.com.
Congratulations to this years’ All Saints Car Raffle Winners. Ray Embree: $ 100, Roy Connor: $ 500, Mark Wise: $ 500, Vanesa Stafford: $ 1,000. A portion of the proceeds raised are diistriibuted back to the parishes in the form of grant. Saint Bernadette places these funds in our Tuition Assistance Fund. Thank you for your generous support with ticket sales and congratulations to our lucky winners.
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
At our priests’ convocation last week our speaker, Dr. Anthony Lilles of St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, CA, talked a lot about renewal in the Church and the virtue of hope during this jubilee year of hope named by Pope Francis. Pope Francis knew, he said, that hope is what our world needs most now. I thought I would include some of my notes from his talk on hope and memory, and the healing power of mental prayer.
Hope, he says, is our right relationship to the present. It heals the anxiety of the future as well as the regret or pain of the past. It is beatitude: blessedness, or the foundational gift of the Father in our creation. The Father loves us into existence all the time, and the meaning of our life is to come to terms with it. It lives in the personal dimension, not just a concept, but interpersonal pure life. It is the mutual delight of the Father and the Son which is the Holy Spirit.
Have you ever experienced a peace which comes inexplicably in the middle of the most hopeless, impossible situations? Hurdles in life that are just too high to jump? You pour out your heart completely to God. The peace which endures is only a moment for now in life, but it is also that moment in heaven that never ends. It is to totally love, and know love. With hope we can choose to love, anyway. It is the moment of Jesus on the cross.
This pouring out your heart is mental prayer, and healing comes. Dr. Lilles says that every time renewal happens in the Church, it is always preceded by a renewal of mental prayer in the Church. Based in hope, it is the remedy of discouragement. So many people today are discouraged and need to know a genuine solidarity of hearts.
To encounter the beauty of something meditated upon, you exercise your love desiring it (eros) and at the same time, in beholding it (agape), you know it and somehow become it. You become one with it.
This kind of prayer is anything but passive. (Too many people pray God! Entertain me!) Many people, he says, pray like they are watching TV.
The Psalms were the heart of Jesus, and he prayed them with his entire being, constantly in communication/communion with the Father. It is a kind of passive reception that at the same time requires tremendous attention and openness. John of the Cross calls it mystical wisdom, the living knowledge and love of the presence of Christ in the soul.
His divine indwelling makes us burn brighter, releasing greater charity. He saturates more and more of our humanity. Saint John says it leads us to the death of Christ – you want to go there – not simply a suffering that you must endure to get what you want. You want the cross knowing that life follows from encountering his wounds, and ours, together. Saint John Paul II said that this mystical wisdom is ecclesial, we also get caught up into the life of the Church that is the indwelling Trinity.
This word, this union of hearts with Christ completes his Creation through you and your prayer. Through your heart he makes all things new.
Movements of the heart in prayer shape our hearts, healing memories caused by our sins or the sins of others which affect us, healing our wounds. The mercy of the Father is the healing: literally his healing the misery of the heart (miseri-cordia) of the Church. It all begins with our pouring out our hearts to him, and he pours his into us.
Mental prayer is an intense conversation/sharing with the One who loves you perfectly. Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity says she prays by searching her heart for where Jesus is, and looks especially in all the corners where he seems least present
The Lord be with you.
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
My participation in the national Vaishnava Hindu—Christian Dialogue last week got me thinking. You may have heard me speak of it at Masses I presided over last weekend.
The topic was about spirituality and religious practice, in particular, what the Hindus referred to as “SBNRs,” those who self-identify as Spiritual But Not Religious. It is, of course, something that cuts across all religions and groups of society, but the Hindus seem particularly worried.
There was a time when you would hear Jewish people often refer to themselves as “culturally Jewish” but not practicing, and it would always seem somewhat shocking to me. Today, we have a growing culture of “cultural Catholics” (and, apparently, cultural Hindus) who identify as Catholics without the commitment to practice the faith. Maybe that explains how it is possible that, of about registered 4,100 families at Saint Bernadette, we have only about 1,300 who have given anything to the offertory at all during the past year. Registered, but not present.
Discussion in the dialogue was rich and fruitful. There can be, really, only two reasons why people can feel absolved of practicing their religion. Either they don’t believe it is really real, or they feel that others (usually clergy) are the ones to whom the practice of religion falls.
This could be for a number of reasons. First, the clericalism of the Church which gives an over-emphasis on the role of the priest and discounts the value and importance of lay people is growing in the Church. Pope Francis talked about this a lot. Lay people are too often talked down to, or made to feel unworthy to even be sinners in the Church. I have written so often: the reason we have a church is because we ARE sinners. Together we get better, helping each other with the crosses we carry. You can’t do it alone.
If you feel you have to do it alone, it is too easy to throw your hands up in the air and give up.
Another reason we considered was the group that might be called “Religious But Not Spiritual.” Having never received the proper formation in the faith, people just don’t know what they don’t know and it is too easy, then, to let go of something that might be your key to salvation. If the poll taken ten years ago is true where people said they decided to leave the Church at the average age of 12, it is probably likely true that those who don’t have greater knowledge of Church teachings—or even who God is—could make an uninformed decision to abandon a gift that they have never opened.
Another reason is because the Church can seem hypocritical, demanding burdens that they, themselves, are unwilling to carry or assist other in carrying, especially where abuse has been a part of peoples’ stories.
When people tell me they don’t believe in God, I ask them to describe this God they don’t believe in. Reality: literally every time I ask this question I affirm them in their lack of faith, because I wouldn’t believe in that god, either.
The best thing I gathered from the Hindu dialogue was offered by a Hindu priest: he said that, in the attempt to preserve and repeat a profound spiritual experience, the leader of the community of believers (maybe the person who had the experience) tries to create a context so that all believers might have that experience. What results is ritual, and ritual becomes systematized as religion. Spirituality and religion are not either/or. They are a part of the same mystery and seek the beauty of the spiritual life.
SO. I have decided to schedule some gatherings at Saint Bernadette called SBSNRs: Let’s Talk. I have scheduled three Tuesday nights in the Bradican Room, 7–8:30pm, on May 20, 27 and June 3. If you know any SBNRs please contact them and let them know that they should be here. There will be NO judgment. SBNRs should not be treated as outsiders! They are our brothers and sisters and probably just need to be heard. We should talk about how the Church has failed in the work of youth/adult formation in the past and set a course based on the days to come, not the days behind us. Come with your stories to share, and your optimism of what we might be able to accomplish together as the many and varied members of the one Body of Christ.
The Lord be with you.
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
The loss of Pope Francis has touched not only our Church, but Christians and peoples of all faiths. Tributes and messages of consolation have poured in to us from church leaders and leaders of other religions since Pope Francis’ death on Monday. I wanted to share a couple of messages from friends and dialogue partners I have worked with over the past years.
From Ibrahim Anli, Executive Director of the Rumi Forum (Muslim):
Dear Father Don,
I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Pope Francis. His gentle strength and unwavering commitment to peace, mercy, and the dignity of every human being left an indelible mark on the world. Even for those of us outside the Catholic Church, his message of love and inclusivity resonates powerfully.
Please accept my heartfelt condolences, we are mourning together after the departure of his saintly soul. I hope his legacy of caring and justice will endure and continue to inspire.
Presiding Bishop of the ELCA wrote a beautiful tribute:
On this Easter Monday, we of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America join with people around the world in heartfelt grief at the death of Pope Francis, and we celebrate his life eternal in Jesus Christ.
Pope Francis served Christ’s church with wisdom, courage and humility. Throughout his pastoral ministry, he served as an instrument of God’s justice and peace for all people and the whole of creation. His commitment to the poorest people, in his native Buenos Aires and around the world, was ever present, even in his simple living.
Pope Francis will go down in history as the first Jesuit bishop of Rome and the first from the Americas. His papacy will be remembered for his clarion call to action for climate justice, his bold engagement in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, his compassionate approach to several complex social issues, and his clear concern about the rise of extreme populism worldwide and its impact on the most vulnerable.
In particular, we will remember Pope Francis for his significant contributions to the dialogue of life between Lutherans and Catholics, advancing the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. We will recall with amazement his participation alongside the Lutheran World Federation in a joint ecumenical commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation on Oct. 31, 2016. I will never forget witnessing the procession of the pope and the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation down the aisle in red stoles during the prayer service that day. We give thanks to God for this witness to our visible unity in Christ.
We pray that God will strengthen the people of the Roman Catholic Church with the promise of Christ’s resurrection. We extend our condolences to all our Catholic siblings, including the bishops, priests, deacons, scholars and laypeople with whom we are in dialogue and partnership. We also pray that the Holy Spirit will guide the deliberations of the College of Cardinals as they begin the process of selecting a new pope.
Personally, I recall the two international dialogues with Buddhists in Rome and Taipei, representing the Holy See. In the Rome dialogue we had a private audience with Pope Francis. His message for us was simple: You are sowers of the seeds of unity and compassion. What you do is important. Don’t look for dramatic results. Just sow the seeds.
We have experienced a profound loss. As a national leader in ecumenical and interreligious affairs if feels like we have lost a most precious anchor who always calls us out to do the right thing and love one another. Not cause it is the right thing to do, but because it is who we really are.
O God, we remember with thanksgiving those who have loved and served you on earth and now rest from their labors, especially our brother, Pope Francis. Keep us in union with all your saints, and bring us with them to the joyous feast of heaven; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
The Lord be with you.
Worship Aid for Second Sunday in the Octave of Easter
Worship Aid for the Memorial Mass for Pope Francis
Now accepting applications for PRE-Kindergarten in our school. Interested in joining our school community? We focus on faith formation, academic excellence, and community service. Visit our website: www.stbernschool.org/admissions-process/
Adults who, for whatever reason, are catechized but have never received the sacrament of Confirmation are invited to contact the office. Fr. Don will be planning a series of classes during the Easter Season in preparation for Confirmation with Bishop Burbidge on Pentecost Sunday.
All Saints Church Multi-Car Raffle is still in full swing. Four vehicles will be raffled along with a $20,000 cash drawing, plus other cash drawings. The final deadline for ticket returns is April 29th. The drawings begin at 1:00pm Saturday, May 3rd, at All Saints Parish in Manassas. Please return all tickets by mail directly to All Saints in the envelope provided.
We will celebrate our parish, Saint Bernadette, Feast Day on Monday, April 28, with a bilingual Mass at 7pm.
Please join us Friday evening, 9 May at 7:30pm for our next in our series of Concerts at Saint Bernadette. Maritza Mascarenhas Sadowsky and David Mathers will perform "piano four-hands" (two pianists on one piano). For more information see today's bulletin.
Worship Aid for Holy Thursday
Worship Aid for Good Friday
Worship Aid for Easter Vigil
Worship Aid for Easter (begins on page 7)
Holy Week is here. Celebrate with us the most beautiful and meaningful liturgies of the year as we enter the Mystery of our salvation in the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Principal liturgies are the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday at 7:30 pm, The Passion and Veneration of the Cross on Friday at 4 pm in Spanish, 7:30 in English, the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday at 8:30 pm. The Easter Sunday Mass schedule will be the same except for NO 5:00 pm Mass. Please see the bulletin for a complete schedule of the Sacred Triduum. Join us as we approach the Joy of Easter.
Join us for “Tre Ore,” the Seven Last Words of Jesus, in meditation and song on Good Friday from 12 to 3 pm. Limited confessions will be offered during the Tre Ore.
The Blessing of Easter foods will be on Holy Saturday at 10:00 am and we will pray together Morning Prayer and Office of Readings at 8AM Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Remember no Masses on Thursday morning, Friday or Saturday, except for the Vigil at 8:30 PM.
Please return your Rice Bowls. We would appreciate it if you could change the coins and bills into a check, but we will accept coins.
The ECHO Yard Sale returns to the school gym on Saturday, April 26, starting at 8 am.
Now accepting applications for PRE-Kindergarten in our school. Interested in joining our school community? We focus on faith formation, academic excellence, and community service. Visit our website: www.stbernschool.org/admissions-process/
Adults who, for whatever reason, are catechized but have never received the sacrament of Confirmation are invited to contact the office. Fr. Don will be planning a series of classes during the Easter Season in preparation for Confirmation with Bishop Burbidge on Pentecost Sunday.
All Saints Church Multi-Car Raffle is still in full swing. Four vehicles will be raffled along with a $20,000 cash drawing, plus other cash drawings. The final deadline for ticket returns is April 29th. The drawings begin at 1:00pm Saturday, May 3rd, at All Saints Parish in Manassas. Please return all tickets by mail directly to All Saints in the envelope provided.
The Parish Office will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday.
Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,
He claimed he is the Son of God. They crucified him. He knew it was coming.
The Friday Gospel before Palm Sunday has stayed with me as I write this letter. They picked up rocks to stone Jesus. They were going to take care of this business themselves; Pilate was a last resort.
Jesus asks them what good works from his Father earned him this judgment? They replied that it wasn’t for good works that he deserved to die, but for blasphemy. “You, a man, are making yourself God.”
“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”’? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
“If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
The Apostles, on this day of resurrection, today, come to realize that what Jesus was saying was literally true. Is it possible that, knowing Jesus so well, that they wanted to believe this holy man but never really accepted the fact that he is the Son of God? I would imagine that came with a lot of hand wrenching and soul searching. It probably wasn’t just their persecutors whom they were hiding from in that upper room, it was from themselves.
Is this not the point to which we are confronted today? Do you really believe? Do we just take our parents’ word for it? Remember, God has no grandchildren. Or does it just seem to make more sense than all the other nonsense in the world, so we go with our best bet?
Do you really, deeply believe that Jesus is the Son of God and rose from the dead? He had raised others back to life, Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, Lazarus... these works might have been enough to bring people to faith. It would certainly be something no one had seen before. The Gospels and Epistles are filled with things that had never been seen or done before by men and women. Consider his transfiguration, for example.
Now we know his tomb is empty and he is again walking with us, appearing before us, eating meals with us. What part of this do we not believe?
It may seem I am belaboring this point, but if we truly, actually believed that Jesus is the Son of God, and that out of his unconditional love he has become one of us, and then offered himself in our place to the Father for the atonement of our sins – even if only we were partly able to grasp that this were true – would we not orient our every word, act, thought with Jesus at the center? Our study, activities, entertainments, occupations – wouldn’t they be led by this gratitude and joy because God has worked these wonders for us and for our salvation?
Jesus calls us to live faith authentically, with integrity. He is our life.
But, if I didn’t believe Jesus is the Son of God and I owe my life to him, it would make sense that the celebration of his resurrection on Sundays would be optional for me. I could choose the moments when I wanted to acknowledge him or not. I could lack generosity with my time, my talent and my treasure. I could live life some days as if he didn’t really matter to me, because maybe he doesn’t.
It was, after all, Jesus who said, “I came, not to be served, but to serve.” Imagine the difference Christianity could make in the world if it were used authentically, with integrity. To the people of Philippi Saint Paul writes:
Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Happy Easter!
The Lord be with you.
Dear Good People of St, Bernadette,
At the beginning of Holy Week, I thought I would provide a guide to parish liturgies so you figure out what you can fit in your schedules.
The Sacred Triduum is considered one continuous liturgy. It begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper (“As I have done, so you must also do”) on Holy Thursday night (7:30pm), and you will notice there is no blessing at the end: it continues. We process to the gym (the garden of Gethsemane) to pray with Jesus (“Father, let this chalice pass from me; your will be done”). At midnight he is taken from us, adoration ends, and Good Friday begins.
There are no sacraments celebrated on Good Friday. The Triduum liturgy continues with the reading of the Passion according to Saint John and the Veneration of the Cross and Communion service (7:30pm) with Eucharist that was consecrated at the Mass of the Last Supper the night before. The liturgy on Good Friday does not begin, it is a unity with the Mass on Holy Thursday, simply beginning with the symbol of the death of Jesus as the priests are prostrate on the floor and, after, simply disperses as the ministers randomly leave.
The liturgy of the Sacred Triduum continues with the Easter Vigil after sunset as we build a sacred fire with which we light the Paschal Candle, a sign of Jesus’ enduring presence with us. The light enters the church, and we listen to the ancient proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus, the Exsultet. In the ancient Tradition of the Church, we then sit in waiting, listening to the story of salvation throughout the Scriptures. In the ancient Church this would have lasted from sunset to dawn. Today we have seven readings and responses which represent that ancient vigil awaiting the resurrection. When we sing the Gloria (something we haven’t sung throughout the season of Lent), we witness the moment of resurrection and the Church rejoices with the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus and the celebration of the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. The Mass continues as usual and the liturgy of the Sacred Triduum ends with a final blessing and solemn alleluia.
Everything else we do during the three days are only supplemental to this one great observance of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus in three parts.
There are no Masses at any time between the Opening Mass of the Lord’s Supper and the Easter Vigil.
Extra things we include are Morning Prayer and the Office of Readings each morning (8am), and the Tre Ore, or Three Hours’ meditations on the the seven last words of Jesus in Scripture, song, and preaching from 12 to 3pm, the time we observe Jesus’ crucifixion. There is also a Stations of the Cross at 3pm on Good Friday (same as all the Fridays of Lent), but I wish there weren’t, because it seems like an alternative to the important service in the evening with the Veneration of the Cross and Communion. Some parishes have the Good Friday service at 3pm, but that would exclude all those who have to work on Good Friday, so we observe it in the evening at Saint Bernadette. Finally, there is a blessing of Easter foods according to the Eastern Rite tradition on Holy Saturday, something of an aberration, because the Easter holy water has not yet been blessed at the Vigil. In the Middle Ages, the Eucharistic fast from midnight was instituted, so the Easter Vigil was celebrated at 8am. At that point the Easter season began... so there would have been water. Vigils were restored by Vatican II.
The Lord be with you.