Scottish Catholic Observer

CATRIONA WARD: Holy Thursday (above)… Altar of repose. Easter vigil… Easter fire.

GAERAL BONNER: Where to begin? The ringing of the bells during the Gloria on Holy Thursday and their silencing thereafter, singing Pange Lingua at the Altar of Repose, the Veneration of the Cross, the hymns in the Divine Office for Holy Week (especially Good Friday), hearing the deep poetry of the Exsultet (a plea to deacons, priests, cantors—please, please sing the Exsultet as it is given in the Missal, it is heartbreaking to come to the Vigil and find it replaced by some verse and refrain adaptation that lacks so much of the richness of the text!), the gradual unfolding of salvation history in the readings of the Vigil, the illumination of the sanctuary along with the Gloria and the bells as we move from the Old Testament into the New, the triple Alleluia, the Regina Caeli…

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Celebrate the spiritual treasures of Holy Week

By Aidan Michael Cook

The Liturgy is always a wealth of spiritual treasures, but even more so in Holy Week. From the Palm Sunday procession and solemn proclamation of the Our Lord’s Passion, to the Chrism Mass, to the great Easter Vigil—the crowning glory of the Liturgical year—Holy Week is an unmissable experience.

The Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper recalls Christ’s institution of the Eucharist and of the priesthood but also of ‘that love by which the Lord loved us even unto death’ (Ceremonial of Bishops). It is a celebration but it does not pre-empt the joy of Easter for this is the night He was betrayed and His Passion began. At the Gloria, the bells ring out for the last time until Christ rises from the tomb. After Mass, the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession to the altar of repose to be adored, and the altar is stripped bare: the stark emptiness of the church is striking.

Good Friday is the only day of the year when no Mass is celebrated. Instead, all gather at 3pm—the hour of Christ’s death—to commemorate His Passion. St John’s account is proclaimed (to hear it sung is breathtaking), followed by the unveiling and veneration of the Cross: ‘Behold, the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.’ ‘Come, let us adore.’ Holy Communion is distributed with Hosts consecrated at Mass the previous evening. It is a day of fasting and abstinence, and prayer to Him who gave His life for us on the Cross.

Holy Saturday begins with the body of Jesus still in the tomb and we are encouraged to continue our fasting and prayer. At nightfall, we gather for ‘the mother of all holy vigils,’ (above) as St Augustine put it. The Ceremonial of Bishops calls it ‘the supreme, most exalted of all solemnities in the Liturgical year.’ Basically, don’t miss it!

Amid the dark of night, fire and candles bring the Light of Christ, ‘a fire into many flames divided, yet never dimmed by sharing of its light.’ The Exsultet is sung—a beautiful hymn of praise and of blessing of the paschal candle—linking the Liturgy with salvation fulfilled in Christ: ‘Let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples… O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer! O truly blessed night, when things of heaven are wed to those of earth, and divine to the human…’

This history of salvation is fleshed out in a series of Old Testament readings, the Gloria is sung once more with bells and music, the Gospel of the Resurrection is proclaimed, and Christ is Risen! Baptisms and the reception of converts follow, bringing the fullness of new life in Christ, which is in all the Baptised. The Eucharist is celebrated and Holy Communion: the living Body and Blood of Christ, who died and rose again that we might enter into Communion with Him, enter into the Divine Life of the Trinity. With joy, the deacon sings the dismissal: ‘Go in peace, alleluia, alleluia!’

Just imagine how different the world would be if everyone experienced the Holy Week Liturgy: the worship given to God and the revelation of God to us would be truly life-changing—world-changing. Have a blessed Holy Week.