Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Dear Epiphany Family,

Holy Week is here! The Sacred Triduum – Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil are such powerful and beautiful liturgies. In an intimate way we enter into the most important events of Jesus’ life on earth, the Paschal Mystery – his suffering, passion, death, and resurrection. These three liturgies in reality fit together as one and encompass the Paschal Mystery. Holy Thursday does not end with the usual blessing and dismissal/sending forth, but with the procession of the Blessed Sacrament followed by Adoration for a time, when we wait vigil with the Lord in the garden of Gethsemane. Good Friday is the only day of the year the Church does not celebrate Mass, but the Scripture readings, prayers, and veneration of the cross take us deeper into his passion and also the silence of the tomb. Easter Vigil completes the Triduum, which begins with the Easter fire breaking through the darkness, the blessing of waters, the Scriptures telling of salvation history, the blessing of water and more. The Easter Vigil is so beautiful and is the high point of the whole Church year as it “rings” in the Resurrection. I hope you will be able to join us for at least part of the Triduum. There are so many parts of the Triduum that invite us to connect our lives to Jesus’ life, whose life is lived out in us as we are members of the Body of Christ, in addition to us being reminded of the great depths of his love and self-gift for our salvation. May you have a blessed and fruitful Holy Week!

In Christ,
Father Eric