HOLY WEEK 2022
Monday 11th, Tuesday 12th, Wednesday 13th April – Masses at 8am and 10am.
Monday 11th (7pm) – Prayer and Scriptural reflection evening on our parish ‘synod’ journey.
Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th April (7pm) – Stations of the Cross and Benediction.
HOLY THURSDAY – No morning Masses. Morning Prayer of the Church at 10am. Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper 7pm. Night Prayer – 9am.
GOOD FRIDAY – No morning Masses. Morning Prayer of the Church at 10am. Solemn Celebration of the Lord’s Passion at 3pm. Stations of the Cross at 7pm.
HOLY SATURDAY – No morning Masses. Easter Vigil Mass at 9pm. Please note that there is no 7pm Vigil.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be celebrated before and after Masses on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and before Morning Prayer on Thursday.
CELEBRATING THE THREE DAYS
Singing the Church’s Greatest Song – The Tridium in the life of the Parish.
From the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday until the Evening Prayer of Easter Sunday the Church is engaged in singing the most beautiful and most powerful song which she knows. Her song is the Tridium of the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection.
She can sing it and must sing it since the Risen Lord himself calls her to sing it and makes it possible through the living presence of his Spirit.
Like any song it can be performed in a variety of ways and the Church down through the years has celebrated this song with a multitude of different tones and backing.
When she first began to sing this song to the world, she did so only on one night and in the words of the night-long service of readings. Easter night encapsulated at that stage all the aspects of passion, death and resurrection. In the earliest days of her life, then, the Church was content, to sum up the message of the Paschal Mystery on the one night. It soon became the one night in the year when she would bathe, anoint, embrace, pray with and rejoice in sharing the eucharist with her newest members.
Along with Sunday which was the weekly celebration of the Paschal Mystery, this was the only feast that the Church celebrated in the entire year.
As time went on/forward, she began to find different ways of singing the song. She developed the days before the Easter Vigil into a time that was equally part of the great reality which is Tridium but she saw a need to begin to take more time to allow the different times of her song to be heard and appreciated.
So the Friday, from being an ‘a-liturgical’ day, became devoted to highlighting the aspect of the cross, through the reading of the Passion. But it was a glorious cross which the Church was able to speak of, a Cross which is a sign of victory and triumph, not of shame. From a liturgy that was only a celebration of the Word, it gradually became a time to venerate the Cross.
It was a day on which the festive paschal fast began, a fast which would be broken only at the end of the night-long vigil on the Sunday morning, a fast which allowed Christians to recognise and experience the Eucharist as the greatest nourishment that anyone could receive.
The tone of the song altered still further when the first day of the Tridium was fixed as Holy Thursday. From being the day when sinners were reconciled with the Church at a morning Mass and included once again among those voices would be singing of the Lord’s victory in their lives, this day came to a close with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Although the tone was slightly different, the central message of the Song could still be heard during this liturgy also. Tridium meant and means that three equals one. These three days could never be split up and celebrated independently of each other.
Holy Thursday is Easter: Good Friday is Easter: The Easter Vigil is Easter.
Unfortunately, the course of history meant that the development of the Tridium was not always authentic to its traditions and to its true meaning. The disappearance of adult catechumens led to the Vigil losing much of its significance and eventually even its place in the timetable of events of these days. The high priest of the Church’s year ended up by being celebrated in almost deserted Churches on Holy Saturday morning. Lent was still the liturgical season in force when the clergy emerged from carrying out their duties that day.
Good Friday saw the replacement of the liturgy of the Lord’s Passion by Stations of the Cross and Holy Thursday saw the triumph of Folklore and the unimportant over the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper. It was almost as though the Church had forgotten how to sing her song.
The reforms of the 1950s and the Second Vatican Council along with the restoration of the catechumenate have once again allowed the melody to be played loud and clear. However, there are still so many opportunities to be taken, so many dimensions to be opened up, so many aspects of these three days which can be brought to life so that the Church’s most beautiful song can be sung with all its vigour, beauty and meaning.
BAPTISMS
Our congratulations and best wishes to the parents and family of Dylan Munro who was baptised last Sunday (3rd April) – a warm welcome into our parish family.
R.I.P.
Our parish community extends our sympathy and prayers to the families and friends of William (Billy) Cameron (Shafton Road) and Matilda Power (Gorget Quadrant) whose funeral Masses and Committals took place on Monday (4th) April and Friday (8th) April. May they rest in peace.
UNION OF CATHOLIC MOTHERS
Our parish U.C.M. are holding a coffee morning in our parish hall on Saturday 30th April (10.30am – 12.30pm) – proceeds will go towards Ukraine relief fund – tickets £2.50 – table top sale, home baking and raffle donations most welcome – see Betty Barrie (President).
RECENTLY DIED
David Rankin, Jack Sutherland (formerly Athelstane Road), Grazyna Krol, Mary Boyd,
Tommy Montgomery (Drumchapel), Fr Jim Dean, (St Robert’s, Househillwood),
Monsignor Desmond Maguire (Retired), James Harvey (Truss Road) and James Hendry (Locksley Avenue).
ANNIVERSARIES
Kitty and Joe Foils, Lily and Walter Harold, Edward Callaghan, Winnie Canning, Charles
and Betty Brown, Elizabeth Armstrong, Tony and Rosemary Boyle, Thomas McMenamin,
James Malcolm and Isabelle Sanders.