Holy Week, The Easter Octave & Eastertide

Lent is a season that prepares us to enter into the Mysteries of Holy Week where we come face-to-face with our own part in crucifying Our Lord Jesus Christ. We could rightly say that the Mass is the centre of all these mysteries. Indeed, in Holy Week the Mass is unrolled like a scroll for us to ponder all the elements of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ what we call the Paschal Mystery. Holy Week unfolds for us the Paschal Mystery through the eyes and heart of Our Lady who is the memory of the Church.

Palm Sunday is like an overture for Holy Week. Jesus enters Jerusalem, and we are taken back to be there with the Jews who received him with palms and praise. The Procession of Jesus through the east gate of Jerusalem is something we do also in the Mass when we stand to greet the Priest, who acting in the person of Christ, processes into our church. Palm Sunday is also a day when we each participate in the Gospel’s account of the Passion and death of Jesus. Our Lord after the Last Supper on Holy Thursday descends into the depths of our sin through betrayal, rejection, ridicule, scourging, crucifixion, death on Good Friday followed by the entombment of his body and the descent of his soul into Hell on Holy Saturday. Truly Palm Sunday is an Overture for the week to come.

Spy Wednesday is the day we hear the story of how Judas planned to betray Jesus. He is the Spy the High Priest and the Sadducees needed so as to lay hold of Jesus. Consider how many times the leaders sought to lay hold, arrest, stone or throw Jesus off a cliff but he always eluded them! They needed someone on the inside to betray Jesus and Judas was that betrayer; but we too have betrayed Our Lord when we deliberately and knowingly committed sin.

Maundy or Holy Thursday celebrates the institution of three realities: the Priesthood, the Eucharist and the Call to love and Service. These are marked by:

firstly the Chrism Mass in Northampton Cathedral at 11am, when the priests renew their promises and when the Bishop blesses the Holy Oils.

Secondly, by the Mass of the Last supper at 7.30pm when we wash the feet of 12 men [just as the priests were washed as a Rite of Purification for priestly service in the Temple of Jerusalem], process with the Holy Oils during the offertory and celebrate the Holy Eucharist instituted at the Last Supper.

Finally, the Mass of the Last supper is followed by The Watching when we join Our Lord in the Agony in the Garden till midnight; where he thirsts and yearns for us to become aware of him gazing into each one of us and suffering for each one of us. It is his darkest hour for the enemy comes to tempt him with the knowledge that many will still choose to be lost despite his suffering and death.

Good Friday reveals how each of us must embrace the cross. We begin with the Divine Mercy Novena at 12noon at St Francis de Sales church. We come together again for the solemn hour of 3pm when we gather at St Mary Magdalene’s church for The Good Friday Service. During which the priests lie prostrate before the altar in silence, this is followed by the Passion of the Gospel of St John, thereafter comes the veneration of the wood of the Cross. We end Good Friday in the evening with the Final Stations of the Cross at 7.30pm in St Francis de Sales church which concludes with the taking down of the Crucifix and placing Jesus in the tomb laid out on the altar.

Holy Saturday begins with the tomb laid out on the altar wherein lies the body of Jesus. We have an Icon of the Anastasis which stands in front of but it is placed below the altar with two candles lit on either side of it. The Icon depicts the soul of Jesus descending among the dead to liberate the souls of the just all the way back to Adam and Eve. It is this mystery we contemplate on Holy Saturday morning with the Divine Office of Readings and Morning Prayer at 10.30am in St Francis de Sales church. This is followed by the 2nd day of the Divine Mercy Novena at 12noon and the Blessing of 1st foods for Easter at 12.30pm.

Easter begins at 8pm Saturday night when we have the climax of Holy Week which is the Easter Vigil which gives us what can only be called the Mass of Masses.

The Easter Vigil begins with the Service of Light when we bless the fire, the paschal candle, Holy Water and is followed by us listening to the Story of Salvation given in the Liturgy of the Word.

Following the homily we have the welcoming of the neophytes into the Catholic Church through the sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist.

This also includes the renewal of our Baptismal promises. Indeed, at all of the Easter Sunday Masses we will each personally renew our baptismal promises.

The Easter Octave is when we celebrate Easter Sunday every day for eight days. The Easter Octave finishes with Divine Mercy Sunday when we celebrate the climax of the Divine Mercy Novena at 3pm in St Francis de Sales church.

Then comes the Fifty days of Eastertide and the 14 accounts of the Appearances of the Risen Lord which is also found in the Stations of the Resurrection [Via Lucis].

We conclude Eastertide with Ascension Thursday where Our Lord ascends to heaven to be seated at the right hand of the God the Father Almighty.

For the next nine days we pray the Novena to the Holy Spirit as Novena means nine.

On the ninth day which is Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary, the Apostles and disciples in the upper room and this is the birth of the Church. Eastertide finishes with Pentecost Sunday.

See the Via Lucis - the Stations of the Resurrection: https://www.stgregoryspreston.org.uk/_webedit/uploaded-files/All%20Files/Stations%20of%20the%20Resurrection.pdf