Imagine you’re watching the latest blockbuster movie, thoroughly captivated by the storyline, the scenery, and the actors. Right at the best and most important part, your cell phone rings. As much as you hate the interruption, you have to take the call. After a long time on the phone, you only catch the last few minutes of the film. You see how the story ends, but you’ve missed so much of it that the ending doesn’t quite make sense. You cannot understand it as much as if you watched the story from start to finish. 
 
Something like that will happen this week for many Catholics. The holiest week of the year begins today, Palm Sunday. We bless and process with palms in commemoration of our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Many Catholics return to church today; Welcome. Holy Week is a grace-filled time enriched by beautiful liturgies that commemorate the last days and hours of Jesus’ earthly life. Yet many Catholics, including those who would never dream of missing Sunday Mass, do not attend the Holy Week services. That’s a disappointment and a pity. Just as we cannot fully appreciate the outcome of a movie if we’ve missed the key events leading up to it, so we cannot really appreciate Easter if we miss the rest of the week. Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection form a unified whole, and that whole is the mystery of our redemption. 
 
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are quiet days of sadness and betrayal. We will hold a “wake service” for the Lord on Wednesday evening at 7:00PM, the Service of Tenebrae, with its haunting chants and lamentations and large candelabra. If you never experienced the service, it is quite beautiful. 
 
Then come the three holiest days of the year, the Paschal Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, the first celebration of which occurs at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night. The word “paschal,” means “passage”, and refers to the mystery of the Lord’s passage from death to life. 
 Lent ends with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday at 7:00PM. On that bittersweet night, at the Passover meal with His Apostles, our Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist by changing bread and wine into His own Body and Blood. Then, by saying to His Apostles, “Do this in memory of me,” He instituted the sacred priesthood, without which there can be no Eucharist. 
 
 
The celebration of the Eucharist literally re-presents—today the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. That’s why we speak of the “Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.” Come to Church on Holy Thursday to thank God for the inseparable gifts of Eucharist and priesthood. Adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament as He is carried in solemn procession from the altar to the place of reposition in Toner Hall. Unite yourself spiritually with Peter, James and John in the garden at Gethsemane. Hear the Lord say to you, as He said to them, “Remain here and keep watch with me” (Mt. 26:28). Spend time with Him, on the eve of His Passion and sacrificial Death. Our Lord is the paschal lamb, to be sacrificed the following day on the cross. 
 
Come back the next day, the Friday we call “good.” The Church vividly remembers Christ’s historical Sacrifice on Calvary. Instead of Mass, we will have a Solemn Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion beginning at 3:00PM, consisting of Scripture; prayers of petition; the unveiling and adoration of the cross; and finally, a Communion service. The liturgy begins and ends in silence. Everything bespeaks of mournfulness and desolation. As you take part in the reading of the Passion according to St. John, stand beside the Beloved Disciple and Jesus’ mother at the foot of the cross. Approach and kiss the cross on which hung the Savior of the world. Receive the sacred Host in Holy Communion, recalling that the word “host” comes from the Latin hostia, meaning “victim.” Communion is the fruit of the Sacrifice: no sacrifice, no sacrament. Then at 7:00PM, we will have choral Stations of the Cross with veneration of the Cross. 
 
 
Finally, return on Holy Saturday night at 8:00PM to celebrate what St. Augustine called the “Mother of all Vigils.” The Easter Vigil is the Church’s most splendid liturgy: it is the climax of Holy Week. We could do without Holy Week but we couldn’t do without the Easter Vigil. 
 
The Easter Vigil begins with the blessing of the Easter fire and the solemn carrying of the Paschal Candle into the dark church, which is slowly brightened as the light of Jesus Christ is passed from taper to taper. Listen to the chanting of the stirring Exsultet and learn the joys that await us on this wonderful night. Hear salvation foretold and its history unfold in the prophecies of the Old Testament. Welcome the return of the bells and the Gloria and Alleluia, announcing the triumph of the risen Savior. Share the joy of those who will be baptized, confirmed, and given their first Holy Communion on this night; then, renew your own baptismal promises with a determination never to take the Faith for granted. 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 with Choir and orchestra, 12:00PM and we added the 1:00PM.
 

 
By participating devoutly in the rites of Holy Week, you will be better disposed to experience Easter joy. The greatest drama of all, the story of the love is about to unfold, and you are invited to enter into it, to relive the saving events of your redemption and make them your own. First, turn off your cell phone!