In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi April 3rd, 2012

I thought this Holy Week a good time to bring you the story of our outdoor Stations of the Cross…

About 15 years ago we received a set of bronze (?) Stations of the Cross from one of our Passionist mens’ retreat houses out in California. They had some pot marks and had lost their luster but they were still meaningful.  Over the years the pot marks got much worse.

Last fall two of Sr. Mary Therese’s brothers, a nephew and cousin came and helped beautify our Stations of the Cross trail by constructing and installing a cover over each Station.

When Lawrence (above left) saw the shape that the stations themselves were in he was determined to do something about it. He did some research and found a way to clean them.

The contrast is just amazing!

God bless Lawrence and Robert for installing all the Stations!

 We (or rather professionals we hired) continue to remove dangerous trees from this area. This trail has been hit badly by tornado-type winds on about 3 occasions over the years and had a lot of damage.

We have a number of guests and retreatants who come and walk this trail and now we feel they can have a much more prayerful and safer walk!

Tags: Family

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Holy Week
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Sponsa Christi April 2nd, 2012

Here are some EXCELLENT meditations
on the spirituality and history of Holy Week.

These were posted on the blog last year.

Holy Week

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Friday of the Lord’s Passion

Easter Vigil Mass

_________________________________

Tags: Liturgy, Pope John Paul II

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Holy Week , Monastery traditions , Passion of Jesus , Passionist Spirituality
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Sponsa Christi April 1st, 2012

Holy Week is upon us! I hope you are ready for this week so full of grace and mercy.

One of the Sisters shared with me a bit of her Easter letter that she is sending to her family…

“We are looking forward to Holy Week… I feel truly blessed to be living here at the Monastery and able to enter more fully into the mystery of this week. On Palm Sunday evening at supper, we set up a place at our table for Our Lord to join us, as we recall Martha, Mary, & Lazarus giving Him a place to rest away from the noise and pressures of the crowds who were divided for and against Him.

Some of the Sisters gather around our Lord’s image.
(How did the tall ones end up in the front?!)
You see we have a young woman here for a 4 day visit.
Keep her in your prayers as she discerns Passionist life!

“Wednesday of Holy Week (Spy Wednesday) we remember the day that Judas went to the chief priests to arrange to betray Jesus.

“Then, beginning on Holy Thursday morning, we enter into like a “mini-retreat” (the Sacred Triduum) as we are free to spend the whole day in prayer, with a nice meal at lunch to remember the Last Supper. Most of Good Friday we spend in prayer, although we do have some free time in the afternoon after the Liturgy to work quietly, etc…

“Holy Saturday is busy with an air of expectation in preparation for the great Vigil of Easter (setting up flowers, etc… in Chapel, preparing our meals for Easter, some cleaning etc…). Then on Holy Saturday evening, we begin the great Vigil, oh, what a glorious celebration this is!

“I am looking forward to these days, & I hope you, too, are able to enter into them at your own parishes or elsewhere.”

Tags: Liturgy

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Holy Week , Life as a Passionist , Monastery traditions , Vocation Discernment
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Sponsa Christi April 24th, 2011

    We pray you all are having a very blessed Easter. That’s correct – Easter is not over! It has just begun!  Although Easter Sunday 2011 is almost history, Easter is in the present tense! I hope you are celebrating the Easter Octave (the 8 days from Easter Sunday through the Second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday) and that you will celebrate the Easter Season for the full 50 days.

    Before entering the monastery I never considered Easter being 50 days long…and here I was fasting for 40 days and not feasting for 50!  Of course, that doesn’t mean feasting on candy for 50 days – as Sr. Mary Andrea’s brothers said they were going to do when I spoke with them about this topic last week!    Crazy guys…

    Of course food is involved but the liturgical feast is literally “out of this world”. I hope you will treat yourself and participate in the liturgy throughout the Easter Season.

    Getting on with this post…I thought you would appreciate the homily of our chaplain, Fr. Ray Clark. 

Fr. Ray’s Easter Vigil Homily
“I know you are seeking Jesus, the Crucified…”

    “I know you are seeking Jesus, the Crucified.” This statement of the angel to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sums up your life Sisters. And so I would like to reflect on the statement in the context of the gospel reading from Matthew, and in the context of your life.

    Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were introduced in the Passion account of Matthew. They were there among the women who looked upon Jesus crucified from afar- who had come with Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him.

    Mary Magdalene and Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb, as Joseph of Arimathea buried Jesus. And Mary Magdalene and Mary were there at the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week, at the end of the Sabbath. In one sense, their presence was pointless – the tomb was sealed with a stone and guards were stations outside the tomb. It would be impossible to see the body of Jesus.

    But they were there.

    And because they were there they witnessed great signs…an angel who ascended from heaven and rolled back the stone and sat upon it. At the sight of the angel, the guards fainted, like dead men. And Mary Magdalene and Mary received the good news: Jesus had risen. And they were given the mission to announce to the disciples the good news - that Jesus had risen and was going before them to Galilee.

    And as they ran to tell the disciples they encountered Jesus himself on the way…all this because they were there.

    The Catholic writer, Flannery O’Connor, once described her discipline: Each morning she sat at her writing desk with a sheet of paper and a pen, so that if inspiration were to come, she would be there.

    Sisters, you certainly keep the same discipline, like Mary Magdalene and Mary, you have been here for Jesus crucified, through this Triduum -

    You have been present for the Last Supper…

    You have sat with Jesus during the long hours of his agony in the garden, his arrest and captivity…

    Like Mary Magdalene and Mary, you have stayed with Jesus through his passion and burial, and you have continued to watch at his tomb.

    Many are the times when like Mary Magdalene and Mary there may seem to be no good reason to be there, but you are there, as you seek Jesus crucified.

    And like Mary Magdalene and Mary, your persistent presence is rewarded, and you encounter Jesus crucified, whom you seek. My guess is that you encounter Jesus not in an earth quake that shakes the world, but in little ways – perhaps a presence that assures you that He indeed lives.

    In signs such as bread and wine and water…and light amidst the darkness, signs that He is risen…a promise that He will be with you in all things.

+++

   Later this week I hope to post some “behind the scenes photos” from our Holy Week and Easter days here inside the monastery.

Tags: Liturgy

• Easter , Holy Week , Life as a Passionist
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Sponsa Christi April 22nd, 2011

Continued Holy Week meditations by Mother Catherine Marie, C.P.

The Easter Vigil

Historical Background

    The celebration of Easter begins on Holy Saturday any time after sundown.  This is the holiest night of the year, as the Church, the Bride of Christ, remains awake to celebrate the “mother of all the holy vigils”, as St. Augustine called it.

   During the first Christian centuries, believers gathered together throughout the whole Church to spend the entire night—from sundown to sunrise—in prayers, readings, singing.  They delighted in commemorating the great victory of Light over darkness that had taken place on this night, and greeting the Risen Lord at dawn of Easter day.

    This all-night vigil was the true celebration of Easter.  It was not merely a commemoration of a past event or even the celebration of a present reality.  In large measure, it was also an anticipation of future glory, because the early Christians expected Christ to come again during this night.

    St. Jerome says: “At midnight a cry arose: ‘Behold, the Bridegroom comes.  Go forth to meet Him.’” He says that Christians held fast to the tradition of the Apostles that during the Easter vigil no one was to leave before midnight, for all were waiting for the coming of Christ.  After midnight when they felt He would not come, they were then to celebrate the feast.

    This ancient apostolic tradition demonstrates that the mystery of redemption embraces the Final Coming.  No celebration of Easter is complete that does not include a commemoration of the completion of Christ’s redemptive work.

Keeping vigil on this night, and celebrating the Paschal feast during the night was a practice that Christians took from the Jews, along with the Paschal feast itself.  The Christian Easter fulfills the Jewish Passover.  An important part of the Jewish Passover was the night-watch commemorating the Exodus:

Since that was a night of vigil on the part of the Lord to bring them out of the land of Egypt, this night must be one of vigil for the Lord on the part of all the Israelites throughout their generations.

  (Exodus 12:42)

    God commanded them to observe the anniversary of this deliverance from Egypt as a festival day.The whole congregation of Israel was to take part in the Passover feast and in the sacrifice that commemorated it.  During the Passover meal the children asked the meaning of it and were told year after year: “It is because of what the Lord did for me when I left Egypt.”

   Scripture continues:

It shall serve you as a sign on your hand and a memorial on your forehead in order that instruction about the Lord may be in your mouth—how the Lord with a strong hand brought you out of Egypt.  So you must observe this institution at the proper time from year to year.

  (Exodus 23:8-11)

Through this feast the people of Israel kept alive the memory of all that God had done for them—their deliverance from the slavery of Egypt and their birth as a holy nation, the People of God.  It was on this night that Israel began to be.

    When the Christians took over the feast of the Passover, they saw all this fulfilled in Christ.  Like the Jews, they commemorated a deliverance but one mightier and more far-reaching than the Exodus from Egypt.  They commemorated the mighty act of God—the death and resurrection of Christ, that had drawn them out of darkness into the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son.

    This new and more glorious deliverance was associated with the night and with darkness.  The death of Jesus took place in the darkness of the eclipse, and the resurrection happened during the night.  When the women came to the tomb at dawn, it was already empty.

    The Jewish Passover also celebrated their birth as a nation.  The early Christians saw the resurrection of Christ from the grave as the birth of the Church.  The Christian Passover likewise became the commemoration of the birth of the new People of God.  This may be the reason why baptisms were celebrated during the Holy Saturday liturgy.

    The Jews who kept vigil each year on Passover were not only recalling the Exodus of the past.  They were holding themselves in readiness for the greater Exodus, the mightier deliverance that was to come.  They ate the Passover standing, clothed for a journey, with walking staff in hand.  When the Lord delivered them with outstretched arm, it was only the pledge of the future time when God would establish His Kingdom forever.  The Jews looked forward to that as the true and final Passover, ushered in by the Messianic King.

    So too the Christians not only commemorated past events, but they looked forward to the true and eternal Jerusalem, the Kingdom that would have no end.  They knew we are pilgrims and strangers on earth.  We seek the city that is above, the blessed hope and coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ who will establish us in glory with Him forever.  We too await the resurrection of the body and the life of the world that is to come.

    So we are not play-acting during the Easter vigil.  We are doing on this one night of the year what we should be doing spiritually at all times—awaiting the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the everlasting Easter festival of heaven.  At Easter the Church is visibly and openly what she always is in the depths of her being: the Bride waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom.

     The night vigil was celebrated for the first 1000 years of Christian history, but then abandoned in the West.  (It was never abandoned in the East.)  After the Council of Trent, it was actually put in the morning of Holy Saturday!  Happily, we live in a time when it has been restored to its rightful, traditional place—the night of Holy Saturday. 

The Blessing of the New Fire and Lighting of the Easter Candle

    In the Jewish Passover celebration, the father of the family, or whoever presided, began the service by “blessing the lamp” with a prayer of thanksgiving to Yahweh, the creator of light.  The early Church gave this Jewish custom a Christian meaning. 

    Ideally, this should take place outside the church, and in the open air.  The words of the priest explain the meaning of this rite:

Dear Friends in Christ, on this most holy night, when Our Lord Jesus Christ passed from death to life, the Church invites her children throughout the world to come together in vigil and prayer. This is the Passover of the Lord: if we honor the memory of His death and resurrection by hearing His word and celebrating His mysteries, then we may be confident that we shall share His victory over death and live with Him forever in God.

Then the fire is blessed.

Let us pray: Father, we share in the light of your glory through your Son, the light of the world. Make this new fire + holy, and inflame us with new hope. Purify our minds by this Easter celebration and bring us one day to the feast of eternal light. We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, Alpha, and Omega; all time belongs to him and all the ages; to him be glory and power, through every age forever.  Amen.

By his holy and glorious wounds may Christ our Lord guard us and keep us.  Amen.

As he lights the candle, the priest says:

May the light of Christ rising in glory dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.

    This is one of the most impressive of the Church’s sacramentals.  It has great power to compel our attention, evoking the awareness of the Risen and Glorious Christ in all His splendor and power. 

Procession with the Paschal Candle

    Ancient documents show that this candle was anointed with Holy Chrism in the form of a cross. By the 7th century, the Greek Alpha and Omega and the date of the current year were inscribed on it.  In the Middle Ages the grains of incense were inserted into the candle, as symbols of the five glorious wounds of the Risen Christ.

    The Paschal candle is the “pillar of fire” leading us into the darkened church, scattering the darkness before it.  The flame of the Light of Christ spreads from the Paschal candle to the candles of all present.  This a vivid dramatization of the resurrection, the complete victory of Light over darkness, comes to us from Jerusalem. 

    The pillar of fire in the Exodus guided the children of Israel through the desert on their way to the promised land, and safely through the Red Sea.  On this most holy night, we pass through the waters of baptism or commemorate our baptism, by renewing our baptismal promises:

This is the night when first you saved our fathers; you freed the people of Israel from their slavery and led them dry-shod through the sea.  This is the night when the pillar of fire destroyed the darkness of sin.

 (Exsultet)

    When we say “Thanks be to God!” in response to “Light of Christ”, we are thanking God for the resurrection of Christ in which we share, and for all the gifts of our redemption.  When all the candles in the church have been lit, we see a powerful symbol of the communication of the Paschal Mystery to the whole world.  The whole world is now bathed with the light of the Word Made Flesh.

Exsultet or Easter Proclamation – “The Most Solemn Sacramental”

    The candle is enthroned in its place in the sanctuary, and the whole church glows with the light of Christ.  Then the Exsultet is sung.  From the 5th century on, the same basic text that we have today was in use in the Latin Church.  It was long attributed to St. Augustine, and more recently to St. Ambrose, but it seems to have been composed in Gaul.

    This noble and extremely rich prayer is a blessing of the candle, that is, an offering and consecration of it.  The Church thus dedicates this light to God, sets it apart for Him and makes it holy.  This is why the candle is called a “sacrifice” – something offered and dedicated to God.

Readings

In our present rite, the Church has selected 7 Old Testament readings and psalms, with one New Testament reading (Epistle) before the Gospel. We inherit this part of the vigil service from the Roman Vigil.  Jerusalem documents from the 4th century, as well as documents from Gaul and Spain in the 7th century, show there were 12 readings, but by the 6th century in Rome, there were only 6.  St. Gregory the Great reduced the number to four.  The monks of Cluny in the Middle Ages had four, but 12 were restored in the Roman Missal of St Pius V in 1570.

   In our time, we have 9 readings in all.  The readings recount our Salvation History – the wonderful works and promises of God, that are all fulfilled in Christ.  When there are baptisms, fewer readings may be used.  It is truly a vigil of reading and prayer, as we wait for the return of our Risen Lord.

Blessing of the Easter Water

    Since in our monastery we do not celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism on this night, the celebrant blesses the Easter water, using the water in the water channel in the chapel.  This is used throughout the Easter season as a reminder of the grace of our baptism.

Renewal of our Baptismal Promises

   Pope Pius XII in the one who introduced this in the year 1951.  It is the occasion to attest our fidelity to the Risen Christ in an exterior and public act.

Our candles are then lit once again from the light of the Paschal candle, for the renewal of our baptismal promises.  The power of this rite is such that we can undergo an interior baptism in the Spirit.  The celebrant then moves through the assembly blessing everyone with Easter water.

The rest of the Mass is as usual.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

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• Holy Week
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Sponsa Christi April 20th, 2011

Continued Holy Week meditations by Mother Catherine Marie, C.P.

 The Friday of the Lord’s Passion

Historical Background

    Before the reform of the Holy Week liturgy, the liturgical books called today the “Parasceven” or the Day of Preparation, because Jesus died on the Jewish day of preparation.  But everywhere else, today was called by names more indicative of the Lord’s suffering and death.  St. Ambrose called it the “Day of Bitterness.”  In Germany it may still be called “Sorrowful Friday.”

    It is indeed a day of great sorrow, but also the day of our redemption.  This aspect has influenced its other names: “Holy Friday” and our own “Good Friday” (where “good” has the ancient meaning of “Holy”).

    The most striking manifestation of the sorrow and mourning is that today in both East and West, Mass was never celebrated.  The ancient Christian writer, Tertullian, gives the reason: “It is not fitting that we should celebrate a feast on that day when the Bridegroom is taken from us.”

The Good Friday Service

The liturgy of Good Friday is made up of three distinct parts:

• the Liturgy of the Word (readings, responsorial psalm, solemn reading of the Gospel of the Passion, oration, brief homily, the ten Intercessions)
• the Veneration of the Cross
• Holy Communion

The Reading of the Passion

The proclamation of the Gospel of the Passion is perhaps one of the most dramatic rites in the liturgy.  We are doing much more than reading of a past event.  We are taking part in an action, an event.  We are entering with mind and heart into the Word of God, and absorbing its saving power.

    When the Church proclaims the Gospel, especially the Passion narrative, she is not merely recalling past events out of loving gratitude.  She is doing much more than that. The Church is describing present realities.  Through the reading of the Gospel, we are made present at the events it describes.  What is read in the Gospel is happening to us.

   The Church’s worship proclaims the death of the Lord until He comes.  The Church proclaims it sacramentally but no less really in the Eucharist.  She proclaims it as though for the first time in the Gospel.  For the Passion narrative is not only the narrative of the event, but the commentary upon the meaning of that event.  It takes us back to what Our Lord did and confronts us with it.

    Through the sacred texts we are carried back in time, and placed in immediate contact with the Word of God–both the word that came from His lips and the Word in Person. Louis Bouyer wrote that had we been on the side of the road where He passed doing good, we would not have been nearer to Him, to each of His miracles, to each of His acts of mercy than we are when we hear His Church recount them to us.

    Jesus Christ speaks to us and acts before us as directly as He did to the people who heard His words.  The contact is no less real.  In fact, because of grace, it is even more real than it was to the people in the Holy Land when He walked in their midst.  Through the holy Word of God, we are associated with the mysteries of His life; we come into contact with the saving mystery of redemption.

    From beginning to the end of the Passion narrative, the Person of Christ dominates the sacred narrative.  He is in our midst as He was in the midst of His disciples.  We contemplate the eternal High Priest and feed by faith on the Paschal Lamb.  We look on Him whom we have pierced, and we draw the power of His saving Passion into our hearts that we may contemplate it not only from the outside, but reproduce its spirit in our lives.

    This is the whole point of the reading of the Passion Gospel: to bring about its accomplishment in us, as it was once accomplished in the Head of the Mystical Body.

    St. John’s Gospel account of the Passion has always been read on Good Friday in both East and West, because it is the most theological and meaningful of all the Gospels.  No one has so penetrated the significance of these events or described them with all their richness as has St. John.

The General Intercessions 

    In these prayers, we are begging God for the full accomplishment of the work of human redemption.  We gather around the Cross and plead for all classes of people, in union with the very prayer of our Divine High Priest who on this day “entered the Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption for us through His Blood” and “who ever lives to make intercession” for us.  (Hebrews 7:25)

    These prayers are a work of mercy.  The very prayer of the Heart of Jesus is ours, as with the entire Church we pray for all people everywhere, “for the sake of the sorrowful Passion” of Jesus.  We truly stand before the Father in union with the prayer of the Divine Priest and Victim:

Jesus, because he remains forever, has a priesthood which does not pass away.  Therefore he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he forever lives to make intercession for them.

 (Hebrews 7:24-25)

The Veneration (Adoration) of the [Relic of the True] Cross

    (Note:  The Catholic Church allowed the use of the word “adoration” of the true Cross because it was impregnated with the most Precious Blood of Jesus, and was as it were one with Him who had suffered upon it.  Of course, the adoration was given to the Person of Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  All other crosses or crucifixes, which are only images of the true Cross, are venerated while we worship the One who died on a Cross.)

    The ancient Roman rite had merely the liturgy of the Word and the General Intercessions.  The veneration of the Cross came from the Church in Jerusalem, and this devotion arose from the discovery of the true cross in the 4th century by St. Helena.

    An ancient pilgrim who left us a diary, says that the veneration of the true Cross took place on Good Friday morning at Golgotha in Jerusalem and was extremely simple.  A chair was placed for the bishop behind the Cross at Golgotha.  When he had taken his seat, a table covered with linen was placed before him.  Deacons stood around the table and a silver casket containing the wood of the Cross was brought in.  Both the wood of the Cross and the title Pilate wrote were placed on the table.  The bishop held the wood in his hands, while the deacons stood guard lest anyone attempt to remove a piece of it.  The faithful, along with the catechumens came one by one, and bowing touched the Cross and the title, first with their foreheads, then with their eyes.  Then they kissed the Cross and moved on. All was done in complete silence.  No hymns or prayers were said.  

    In time, other Churches imitated this pious custom, especially those who had a relic of the true Cross.  Those who did not, used a wooden cross instead. The practice seems to have reached Rome in the middle of the 7th century.  The first description of this veneration of the Cross occurs in an 8th century Ordo.  By the end of the 8th century, the Veneration of the Cross was part of the Good Friday liturgy in Rome.  “Behold the wood of the Cross” was sung by this time, while the people venerated the cross.  By the 10th century, in Germany the Reproaches were sung.  During the 12th century, the showing of the Cross to the people was added, and not long after this, the showing took the three-fold form as we know it today.  In our own time, it involves the change of place with each singing of the Ecce Lignum Crucis.  This was introduced in the 14th century.

    As we respond three times, “Come, let us adore!” we are truly looking by faith upon the One whom we have pierced.  We are contemplating the overwhelming love of God who did not spare even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.  We are also learning the enormity of sin that exacted such a price of redemption.  Truly, the redemption of the world is a greater work than the creation of the universe! It is fitting that we should adore the divine design of our salvation, and that we should fall down before Him who laid down His life for us.

    The Reproaches (“O My People”) are of ancient Greek origin.  More than any other part of today’s liturgy, they come closest to expressing the intense compassion for our Savior, and sympathy for His sufferings that marks the high Middle Ages.  The singing of the Agios O Theos, (Holy God, Holy Strong One, Holy Immortal One), compels our awe-struck reverence at the terrible sight of God Incarnate dying on a cross of shame.

    Yet the Church always sees the Cross with the glow of the resurrection upon it.  “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and so enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26) is the commentary of Christ Himself on the true meaning of His Cross. The Church and every member of it must go through the experience of the Cross.  The experience of the Head is continued in His members.  This is the Paschal Mystery which each of us must make our own.  (cf Colossians 1:24 and Acts 14:22) 

The Communion Service

    As a sign of mourning, there was no Mass throughout the ancient Church on this day, nor did anyone receive Communion.  In the reformed liturgy of Holy Week, this has happily been changed. We are now privileged to eat the Paschal Lamb who has been sacrificed.  We are now united around the altar where Christ Himself, alive and glorious, is present under the sign of bread.  The Church on earth now prays the perfect prayer, the prayer of the beloved children of God, the Our Father. As there is no Mass on this day, the hosts are those that were consecrated on Holy Thursday, thus demonstrating that Holy Thursday and Good Friday are one redeeming Sacrifice.

• Holy Week , Passion of Jesus
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Sponsa Christi April 20th, 2011

Missionary of the Passion: James Kent Stone

    A rich life of sacrifice, praise, sorrow, and joy is lived under the crucifix, and focused on the Passion of Christ.

    As Christians celebrate Jesus’ Passion, death, and Resurrection, Pat McNamara focuses this week’s column on a religious community dedicated to proclaiming “Christ’s crucified love.” During the Passionists’ early years in America, one of their preeminent figures was James Kent Stone (1840-1921). Before age 30, he had been a Harvard graduate, Civil War veteran, minister, professor, and president of two colleges. One Passionist historian refers to him as “this illustrious man.” Read the rest of the story…

   God bless you Mr. McNamara for featuring such a great American Passionist!

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• Holy Week , Passionist Saints
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Sponsa Christi April 19th, 2011

Continued Holy Week meditations by Mother Catherine Marie, C.P.

Holy Thursday

Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

    Today, the daytime hours are an immediate preparation for the Easter Triduum which begins during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.  Lent is over.  And those who have lived in the rhythm of the liturgy have been prepared during the long weeks of prayer and penance to celebrate the Paschal Mystery in deep faith and love.  The daytime hours of Holy Thursday complete our spiritual preparation.

The Washing of the Feet

    In our monastery, preserving the ancient monastic tradition even of women’s monasteries, the superior  washes the feet of the community members during a Mandatum ceremony.  Then at the evening Mass, the priest washes the feet of 12 men in the sanctuary.  

    This ancient practice of the washing of the feet gave Holy Thursday the name, “Maundy Thursday”.  Maundy is a corruption of mandatum (command), referring to the words of Christ: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.”

The washing of the feet is a sign and symbol of servant love, the love Jesus told us to imitate: “If I washed your feet–I who am Teacher and Lord–then you must wash each other’s feet.  What I just did was to give you an example.  As I have done, so also you must do.”  (John 13:14-15)  The whole point of the washing is that the love of Christ for us should prompt our love for one another.

    The custom of washing the feet was of Jewish origin, dictated by dusty roads and dirty streets.  The early Church which developed outside of Palestine, did not continue this practice.  It is recommended for the first time at the Council of Toledo in 694, and after this not again until the 9th century.

    The practice came into the monasteries which observed it with solemnity from the 12th century on.  Then it passed over into cathedrals and royal courts.  In the reform of 1955 it was inserted for the first time into the Mass of Holy Thursday. 

Historical Background of Holy Thursday

    Although the celebration of Holy Thursday is very ancient, it did not originally form part of the Triduum. The original Triduum was Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.  Together they made one feast, as St. Augustine referred to them.  Holy Thursday was seen as a day of preparation, a day for the reconciliation of the penitents, so they could celebrate the Paschal mystery.  And the holy chrism was consecrated on that day.

    But very early in Church history this day was associated with the institution of the Eucharist.  Already by the 4th century it was called “in coena Domini” – that is, the “Thursday of the Lord’s Supper”.  An even older name in some places is: “Natale Calicis” – the “Birthday of the Chalice.”

The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the end.  Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father, in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them the commandment of love.  In order to leave them a pledge of this love, in order never to depart from his own and to make them sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as the memorial of his death and resurrection, and commanded his apostles to celebrate it until his return; thereby he constituted them priests of the New Testament.

(CCC #1337)

    The custom of the solemn celebration of the Eucharist on the evening of Holy Thursday seems to originate in Jerusalem.  St. Augustine himself speaks of celebrating such an evening Mass, at which all, even those who were not fasting, went to Communion.

    By celebrating it in the evening we relive the Passover meal Our Lord shared with his disciples on the night when he was betrayed.  It marks the final observance of the Pasch of the Old Testament, and the first celebration of the “new and eternal Covenant” in his blood, the blood of the true Passover Lamb.

Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had announced at Capernaum: giving his disciples his Body and his Blood….By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning.  Jesus’ passing over to his Father by his death and resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the kingdom. 

(CCC #1339-1340)

    The Church, the Bride of Christ, lingers over these hours, gratefully honoring Our Lord as He leaves us the legacy of His love in the Holy Eucharist.

This sacrifice is so decisive for the salvation of the human race that Jesus Christ offered it and returned to the Father only after He had left us a means of sharing in it as if we had been present there. Each member of the faithful can thus take part in it and inexhaustibly gain its fruits. This is the faith from which generations of Christians down the ages have lived.

(EE #11)

    The Paschal Triduum….

is gathered up, foreshadowed and concentrated forever in the gift of the Eucharist. In this gift, Jesus Christ entrusted to His Church the perennial making present of the Paschal Mystery. With it, He brought about a mysterious oneness in time between that Triduum and the passage of the centuries. This thought should lead us to profound amazement and gratitude. In the Paschal event and the Eucharist which makes it present throughout the centuries, there is a truly enormous capacity which embraces all of history as the recipient of the grace of the redemption. This amazement should always fill the Church assembled for the celebration of the Eucharist.

(EE #5)

    Holy Thursday helps us realize that we receive the living Bread that has come down from heaven, from a table which is first of all an altar.  Like the Israelites of old, we eat the Paschal Lamb.  By eating this food, we are associated in Our Lord’s sacrifice and it becomes our own.

The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the making present and the sacramental offering of his unique sacrifice in the liturgy of the Church which is his Body.

(CCC #1362)

    Every Mass is the Paschal Mystery, the Lord’s Passover (transitus Domini).  We are united with him in his dying in order to be united with him in his resurrection.  This is why in this Mass, emphasis is placed on the cross:  “Let us glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ….”  Our recalling of him is the recalling of One whose life was poured out in a supreme gesture of love.

In the sense of Sacred Scripture the memorial is not merely the recollection of past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by God for men.  In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a certain way present and real.  This is how Israel understands its liberation from Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to them.  In the New Testament, the memorial takes on new meaning. 

When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ’s Passover, and it is made present: the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever present.  ‘As often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out.’  Because it is the memorial of Christ’s Passover, the Eucharist is also a sacrifice….The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it applies its fruit….The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice.

(CCC #1362–1367) 

    The Gospel introduces not just a foot washing, but the very work of redemption which is symbolized by the foot washing.  Christ cleanses us of sin, and if he does not wash us through his Passion, we can have no part with him.  (cf Titus 2:14 and I Peter 1:18-20) Holy Thursday’s great lesson is this: the fruit of the Eucharist is union with our neighbor.

Procession and Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament

    Until after the year 1000, there was no worship of the reserved Sacrament nor any special symbolism attached to the transfer of the Holy Eucharist away from the altar.  During the Middle Ages this transfer took on much importance and was conducted with an elaborate ritual.  The Churches of Spain and France, under influence of the Church in Jerusalem, began the practice of the nocturnal vigil in honor of the Passion of Our Lord.

    In Jerusalem the faithful could visit the places where the events of the Passion took place.  In the West this was impossible, so they centered this nocturnal vigil around the reserved Blessed Sacrament instead.  In true medieval fashion they imitated certain details of the Passion, so that St. Paul of the Cross will refer to the place of reservation as the “holy sepulchre,” the customary name in use in his time.  The sacred Species was wrapped in what they called “the linen shroud” and so on.  

    Receiving Holy Communion on Good Friday became increasingly rare, and so only one large host was reserved for the celebrant, and this was placed in a chalice covered with a silken cloth.

    The procession with lights and incense at the end of the Holy Thursday Mass began in France in the 11th century.  In the late Middle Ages, the adornments proper to Corpus Christi became attached to Holy Thursday, and this is when the singing of the Pange Lingua came in during the procession.  Also elaborate floral arrangements around the tabernacle became the rule.  These practices, praiseworthy in themselves, tended to distract attention from Holy Week to what was secondary. 

    In the reformed rite, the solemn transfer of the Blessed Sacrament has been retained, and there is no question of returning to the austerity of the early Roman ordos.  The Pange Lingua is retained, and it provides a commentary on the rite itself.  The adoration is to be prolonged at least until midnight.

   In our monastic practice, at midnight the flowers are removed and the candles extinguished, although our Sisters continue the adoration two by two until the hour of the community’s private prayer in early morning.  In early morning, the altar itself is dismantled, and the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in a more discreet place.

Tags: Pope John Paul II

• Holy Week , Life as a Passionist , Passion of Jesus , The Holy Eucharist
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Sponsa Christi April 18th, 2011

    Wherever you live I hope you will attend the Sacred Triduum Liturgies this year…

    …I am thinking especially of you…my Catholic brothers and sisters who have not darkened the doorstep of a Church in a while…please be cleansed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and return to the Fullness of Truth.

    Those of you who live near our monastery – join us if you can for these powerful Holy Week Liturgies!

Holy Thursday – 7 p.m. Mass of the Lord’s Supper followed by Night Prayer and adoration

Good Friday – 3 p.m. Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion and Death

Easter Vigil Mass – 8 p.m. 

Easter Sunday Mass – 10 a.m.

(We are in the Central Time Zone.)

    Be nourished and strengthened in your Faith and make reparation to His Heart so wounded by indifference and infidelity.

• Holy Week , Life as a Passionist
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Sponsa Christi April 16th, 2011

Continued Holy Week Meditations by Mother Catherine Marie, C.P.

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Commemoration of the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem

    Since Holy Week is not a mere commemoration of past events, but a true celebration that demands our participation in the great mystery of our salvation, we should desire to take an active part–with our minds and hearts open to all the graces being offered, and our bodies ready and willing to take part in the rituals.

    The whole Church enters into the Passion, death and resurrection of her Bridegroom Jesus Christ, by celebrating the liturgies of Holy Week.  These rites are not only of unique and singular dignity, but they have a sacramental power and effectiveness all their own (Maxima Redemptionis Nostrae).

    This greatest and holiest week of the Church year is begun by one of the most impressive of these rites–the solemn procession with palms in honor of Christ the King.  This is a triumphal proclamation of the Church in honor of her Messianic King, who on this day enters his holy city to begin the work of redemption.

    Note: Scott Hahn explains that this was the day when the lambs for the Passover sacrifice were being brought into the city of Jerusalem!  This is “Lamb Day.”  Other scripture scholars explain that it was “politically incorrect” and dangerous for the disciples of Jesus to be shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David” – the title which everyone knew belonged to the rightful Davidic heir to the throne, the Messiah.  To proclaim Him King was to spark a revolution.  Ironically, within 6 days, the Jews themselves would cry out: “We have no king but Caesar!”

    The Palm Sunday liturgy is not a mere dramatization of the historical event known as the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Christian liturgy not only recalls the events that saved us but actualizes them, makes them present…..In each celebration there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that makes the unique mystery present.

CCC #1104

The Palm Sunday liturgy is the anticipated celebration of his victory on the cross and his glorious resurrection from the dead.  We are truly proclaiming and honoring Jesus Christ as the Messiah King as we take part in this liturgy.  By his Paschal Mystery, Jesus won a kingdom for himself.  The procession interprets the inner meaning of this event.

    The reformed liturgy gave back to this Sunday its ancient name: “Passion Sunday.”  This reminds us that the contemplation of the Passion is the first theme not only of this Sunday but of the entire week.  One who takes part in the Palm Sunday liturgy, becomes aware of an abrupt and sharp transition occurring as the procession moves into the Mass. 

• The procession is marked by triumphant joy–an anticipation of Easter.
• The Mass is filled with an atmosphere of majestic somberness, heavy with the thought of the imminent Passion of Jesus.

    For instance, in the responsorial psalm we cry out with Jesus, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  And the Gospel is the solemn reading of the Passion which we also do on Good Friday.  Today prepares us to celebrate Good Friday in the proper manner.

History of Palm Sunday

    The procession of the palms dates back to 4th century Jerusalem where it began as a commemoration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to inaugurate the last phase of his redemptive work on earth.  It was a dramatization of that entry.  The bishop took the part of Jesus, while the people took the part of the crowd that once acclaimed Jesus with “Hosannas”.  The Christians would go out to the Mount of Olives where they sang hymns and read appropriate scripture passages.

Then the bishop led them back into Jerusalem.  Note that this is the one procession of the Church year when the priest leads the procession.  This is to remind us of Our Lord going ahead of his disciples to Jerusalem.  The people followed the bishop, waving palm branches and singing, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  (Psalm 118) When they reached the Holy City, it was already evening, and so they gathered in the Church for a simple service.  The procession formed the major part of the entire ceremony. 

    From Jerusalem, this pious custom spread to other parts of the Church.  By the 7th century it had reached the West.  There during the Middle Ages, it developed into an elaborate ceremony, and gradually the people’s active participation was lost.

The Procession

    One of the aims of the reform of the Holy Week liturgy (1955), was to restore the active participation of the faithful, and by this participation to make them aware that the liturgy is truly the activity of the entire Church in which each has a part to play.  “As the work of Christ, liturgy also…involved the conscious, active and fruitful participation” of the Church..  (CCC #1071)

    Palm Sunday is the great doorway into Holy Week.  During the days of this week, we will relive the saving events of the first Holy Week.  The procession of palms is a triumphal march in honor of Christ the King and Redeemer.  The priest wears red vestments, the royal color of Christ the King who won redemption by His most precious Blood. 

“As I looked, a white horse appeared; its rider was called ‘The Faithful and True.’  Justice is his standard in passing judgment and waging war….He wore a cloak that had been dipped in blood, and his name was the Word of God.  The armies of heaven were behind him, riding white horses and dressed in fine linen, pure and white.” 

(Revelation 19:11-14)

    The procession is a powerful proclamation that Christ Crucified shows us the way to the Father, the rough and narrow road to life (cf Matthew 7:14).  The way to victory is to follow a Crucified Messiah. (cf Matthew 10:38)  The very palms in our hands are symbols of that eternal victory.  (cf Revelation 7:9)  The procession gives public witness to our faith that the way to the new and eternal Jerusalem is to follow Jesus through death to glory.  In the procession, we commemorate his triumph and associate ourselves with it. 

    By taking part in the procession, we profess our commitment to follow Christ Crucified.  We make our grateful memory of the Passion especially visible today.  To follow in his footsteps is to follow the way of love.  True Christian love is always marked by cross-bearing in some form or other.  True discipleship is inseparable from the cross.  “If anyone wishes to be my disciple, he must take up his cross and follow after me.”  Our crosses are symbolized by palms today, foretelling the victory over suffering and death that one day will be ours.  Our sorrow and suffering will be turned into joy.

    Matthew 7:13 – Satan too has those who follow in his footsteps along the wide and easy way that leads to damnation.  By taking part in the Palm Sunday liturgy, we proclaim to the world whose side we are on.  We honor our King who won a kingdom for himself through obedience and sacrifice.  We express our willingness to share his lot, to follow his way of love, obedience and sacrifice.

    This is no play-acting or mere pageantry.  This procession is a sacramental.  We are reliving this mystery with Jesus, entering with our Messiah upon the accomplishment of the redemption of the world.  We are the people of God on the march to the promised land, to our Father’s house in heaven.

The Mass  

    Once the Mass begins, there is a stark change in mood.  The Mass on this day is penetrated through and through with the thought of the imminent Passion of our Redeemer.  The whole atmosphere of the Mass contrasts sharply with the joy of the procession.  In the readings and psalm, we contemplate the Son of God who goes forth to meet his destiny, his “Hour.”

    In the 2nd reading (Philippians 2:6-11) we learn the great aim of Holy Week—that we would acquire the mind of Christ.  Identification with Christ, sharing his attitude, his spirit of sacrifice and obedience—nothing less than this is asked of each of us.

    We are not merely to gaze upon the Passion from the outside, as spectators, but we are called to identify ourselves with it and live it in our own lives.  The 2nd reading assures us of the happy ending of our personal sharing in the Passion: “Because of this, God greatly exalted him….”  Because of our sharing in the Passion, God will one day exalt us with Christ in heaven.  It will have a happy and glorious ending.  Suffering is not the last word.  It will end.  Our sorrow will be turned into joy.  God will wipe away all tears from our eyes.

    The austere, somber tone of the Mass is intensified even more during the solemn reading of the Gospel of the Passion.  There, we find ourselves active participants in the story of his great love.  We enter into and become one with Jesus, in mind and heart.  In the sacrifice of the Mass we become sharers in his Passion by joining the sacrifice of our lives to his great redeeming sacrifice.  The mind of Christ becomes our mind. (Philippians 2:5) The chalice of his sufferings becomes ours.  (Matthew 20:22) Our will to accept the Passion of our daily lives is merged with his, becoming one.  Our daily prayers, works, joys and sufferings thus become part of the redemption of the world.

And now, brothers, I beg you through the mercy of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship…

(Romans 12:1)

Conclusion

    The more we open ourselves to the meaning of the sacred rites of Holy Week, the more they can sanctify us.  Reading over them in the missalette beforehand can steep us in their meaning and help us enter into the liturgy in the way the Church desires.

    During Holy Week, the Church wants us to enter more deeply into the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, and to grow in sharing his mind, his love, his desires, his commitment to the Father’s will.  And the fruit of this will be a deeper union with him, a greater likeness to him in attitude, behavior, speech and values.

    Holy Week is a very special grace for all of us.  Let’s truly enter into the liturgy with all our hearts and souls, recommitting ourselves to be authentic disciples of the Lord.

A Practical Consideration for the Ritual

    Hold the palm upright resting on your right shoulder. Palms are not held during the reading of the Gospel at Mass.  The palms are used only during the procession.  They are sacramentals then to be used in our homes.

• Holy Week , Life as a Passionist
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