Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 13 April 2025

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.