Letter from the Pastor
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April 10, 2022Blessed Palm Sunday! Passion Sunday in the Palms (today’s correct title) was also called the Pasch of Flowers in European countries. In the Middle Ages flowers were blessed on this day along with palms and olive branches. The State of Florida gets its name because Ponce de Leon landed there on Pasqua Florida Domingo.
Ever since the Fifth century Palm Sunday Mass was celebrated in Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. After this the people were invited to meet again in the afternoon at the Mount of Olives, where they proceeded to the Church of the Ascension for a service consisting of hymns and antiphons, readings and prayers, where at five o'clock in the afternoon the Gospel of the palms was read and the procession set out for the city. The people responded to the antiphons with the acclamation, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," as we say even today.
Holy Week, it was also called, The Great Week, or Painful Week, has been held in great reverence since the very early years of the Church. Early Christian kings issued decrees forbidding not only festive activities but also work in trade, business, and the courts. Holy Week was to be spent in prayer and meditation. The faithful were to be free from worldly concerns.
In the Triduum, or The Three Days, the Church gives us a singularly dramatic, intense and richly symbolic liturgy, it is considered one liturgy, beginning with the sign of the cross on Holy Thursday, ending with the blessing and dismissal on Holy Saturday. The liturgy of Good Friday picks up where Holy Thursday ended, and it is concluded in the Great Vigil of Easter.
This year we are returning (almost) to pre-pandemic Holy Week Services. In anticipation of the Triduum, we are going to have Tenebræ on Wednesday evening, starting at 7:00PM. Tenebræ (=darkness, or shadows) is a very ancient service of prayers, which takes place during the darkness of night; it is basically a wake service for Jesus. This extraordinarily beautiful service consists of three Psalms and the haunting chants from the Lamentations of Jeremiah.
As each psalm and lamentation is chanted two of the candles are extinguished until only one, representing the Light of Christ remains. Then this will be extinguished, leaving the church in darkness. The ministers and cantor leave the sanctuary, and a loud noise like a thunderclap (representing the earthquake during the Crucifixion) is heard; after which a single candle representing the Light of Christ is brought in, placed on the altar and the people leave in silence. This is a very impressive service, and I hope you are able to attend with your children at least once during the Triduum. On Friday and Saturday morning we will pray Tenebræ as well.
I strongly encourage you to attend the continuous Holy Week Service, beginning with Tenebræ, on Spy Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM (this day gets its name because Judas spied on Jesus and betrayed Him). The Lent Season ends as The Sacred Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday at 7:00 PM, this year there will be no washing of the feet, then the custom of visiting 7 churches. At Midnight, the Church will be locked and everything will be stripped bare for Good Friday.
The next day, at 10:00AM, we will have Tenebræ: Morning Prayer and the lamentations. The Solemn Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion begins at 3:00PM. That night we will have the Choral Stations of the Cross at 7:00PM: the 14 Stations of the Cross with short choral music by the Masters will be sung by our choir after certain Stations. Then the Church will be locked until Holy Saturday morning, when we will gather once again to chant the lamentations at 10:00AM, and bless Easter Food. The church will remain empty until we gather outside by the bonfire to celebrate the Great Vigil of Easter beginning at 8:00PM. We shall wait in the darkness for the light to shine once again on Easter.
And once again this year, on Easter Sunday we will have Mass at Sunrise at 6:30AM, along with the regular schedule of Easter Masses: 7:30, 9:00, 10:30, 12:00 and we added the 1:00PM.
We have been preparing during the 40 days of Lent. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of these days. As a parish, we need to be together for these days. The “normal” Thursday, Friday and Saturday does not exist this week. So what we do normally, if possible, should be different as well.
It is important that we bring our young people to experience these great Catholic moments of prayer. None of these services will be extraordinarily long, so they are more than welcome to be with us, we are family, and these days are our family days.
So, come, let us enter into the prayer, the ritual, the High Holy Days of the Church, it is time to celebrate our faith to enter into the mystery of God’s love for us. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. Just don’t start this week and then disappear from us, experience the whole thing for it is the Great Week, the Holy Week, the Week that changed the world forever.
See You in Church.
