One Holy Week

A message from Vice President Father Anthony Casamento csma:

Over the last few weeks, we have observed the rituals and traditions of the Christian season of Lent. This annual time of reflection and renewal affords us the opportunity to focus inwards on our relationship with God and with each other.

Lent paves the way for the celebration of Easter which takes place next weekend. However, before we get to celebrate Easter, we gather as a Christian community to celebrate Holy Week and the Triduum – the liturgical commemorations of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

As Holy Week begins, let us all take the opportunity to empty our hearts of the attitudes that keep us from being true to the image of God within us. St. Paul advised us to take on the attitude of Jesus, who emptied himself, humbly accepting death - death on a cross.

The passion of this Holy Week, found in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, is the passion to forgive and be forgiven. Holy Week invites us to tap into this passion inside our hearts.

It is the passion to hollow out resentment toward those who have hurt us in life. It is the passion to let any residual guilt or shame be wiped clean and redeemed from our souls.

During this week, we remember how we are redeemed and reclaimed as God’s beloved through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

In these holy days, may we know God’s passion and rediscover our own.