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Holy Week : Simple Ways to Walk with Jesus
https://www.simplycatholic.com
The week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, Holy Week, is the most sacred time of year for Catholic Christians. During this special time, we enter into the passion of Christ — his crucifixion, death, and resurrection — through liturgical celebration and personal conversion.
While the season of Lent is a very important time in the Church, it is helpful to remember that our Lenten practices (prayer, fasting, and almsgiving) are meant as preparation for the three days of the Triduum. The Second Vatican Council returned emphasis to the Triduum — Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil/Easter Sunday — as the center of our faith.
The three days of the Triduum are counted as the Hebrews counted their days, from dusk to dusk. Lent officially ends and the Triduum begins at dusk on Holy Thursday and continues through dusk on Easter Sunday. Because we cannot separate Jesus’ death from his resurrection, the Church teaches that the Triduum is really one celebration that lasts for three days. We do not spend all of the three days in church, of course, but at various times during these days we are called to gather together at church to celebrate and remember the saving action of Christ.
Holy Thursday
When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?” — Jn 13:12
The evening Mass on Holy Thursday begins the sacred Triduum. On this night, we remember the Last Supper and celebrate the institution of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Holy Orders. At the end of the liturgy, the sanctuary is stripped clean in preparation for the most somber of feasts, Good Friday.
The spirituality of the Triduum is centered on the accounts of the Paschal mystery in the Gospel of John. In John’s Gospel, the Last Supper is not the Passover meal; rather, Jesus is crucified at the same time the lambs are being slaughtered for Passover, as a sign that he is the Lamb of God, sacrificed for all of humanity. The last meal Jesus shares with his apostles in the Gospel of John is marked by the washing of feet. Jesus gets down in the dirt and washes the feet of his disciples and in this way connects the Holy Eucharist with service to others
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