He went away, yet remained... (Holy Thursday)

 

The Paschal Triduum begins with the Evening Mass In Cena Domini on Holy Thursday, continues through the Friday of the Lord's Passion, reaches its summit in the Solemn Paschal Vigil, and comes to a close with Sunday Vespers of the Lord's Resurrection - a full three days - evening Thursday through evening Sunday (According to the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar).

HOLY THURSDAY

Institution of the Sacraments of Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders

“Consider, on your knees, the mystery of God’s 

love for us, that He didn't want to leave us orphans.

 … For Christ knew our hunger for Himself.  

He knew that we would be walking around in the darkness 

of a thousand wars and miseries throughout this life. …

This is Holy Thursday.  This is when the Christ we are 

talking about took an ordinary piece of bread and a little wine 

and changed it into His Body and His Blood. 

… Remember this day always, year after year:  

the day of Christ’s infinite love, when He went away 

and yet He remained, in Bread and Wine, 

and in the priest. …

In His immense love, Christ chose men who would 

have His hands and His feet, in whom He could walk, 

in whom He could forgive sins, who could lift Him up, 

who could give us the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist 

– the Bread and Wine, 

which He said makes for everlasting life!  

The incredible love of God is visible to us! ..."

Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Painting above: The Last Supper - Nesterenko, Vasily Igorevich 

"Without the priest, the passion and death 
of our Lord would be of no avail.  
It is the priest who continues the work 

of redemption here on earth... 

Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest 
and they will end by worshiping the beasts there...

The priest is not a priest for himself,

he is a priest for you."

"O, how great is the priest!...

If he realized what he is, he would die."

St John Vianney
Patron of all priests

Pray, pray , pray for our priests!
They rely on our prayers - we rely on our priests!

As Father John Hardon, S.J., once said, “praying and offering God 

sacrifices for the priesthood are indispensably important,” 

because “there is no Catholic Church without the priesthood.”

______________

"When people want to destroy religion they begin by attacking the priest;

for when there is no priest, there is no sacrifice, 

and when there is no sacrifice, there is no religion."

St John Vianney

________________

Prayer for Priests to pray today...
and tomorrow ... and every day... 

 (Wriitten by St Charles Borremeo,
Patron of Bishops and Seminarians)

O holy Mother of God, pray for the priests your Son 

has chosen to serve the Church. Help them, 

by your intercession, to be holy, zealous, and chaste. 

Make them models of virtue in the service of God’s people. Help them be pious in meditation, efficacious 

in preaching, and zealous in the daily offering 

of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

Help them administer the sacraments with joy. 

+ Amen +

__________________________

Learn more about praying for priests... 

Seven Sisters Apostolate

Inquire through Apostolate 

about a FREE holy Card with this prayer (above)

of St Charles Borremeo

The humility of Jesus...

    Wednesday of Holy Week

I offered my back to those who beat me,

my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not 
hide my face from mocking and spitting. - Isaiah 50:6

"The humility of Jesus

can be seen in the crib,

in the exile to Egypt, in the hidden life,in the 

inability to make people understand Him,

in the desertion of His apostles,

in the hatred of His persecutors,

in all the terrible suffering 

and death of His Passion, and now ...

in His permanent state of humility 

in the tabernacle, where He has reduced 

Himself to such a small particle of bread that 

the priest can hold Him with two fingers. 

The more we empty ourselves,

the more room we give God to fill us."

St Teresa of Calcutta

Painting image:  The Flagellation of Christ - Guercino

Ten Ways to Prepare for Easter and Mercy Sunday - SpiritualDirection.com

Grant me today five graces...

 Tuesday of Holy Week

"If you can not soar up as high as Christ sitting on 

His throne, behold Him hanging on His cross. 

Rest in Christ's Passion and live willingly in 

His holy wounds." - Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ

"Oh, my God, through the precious
Blood of Jesus and His five wounds, 
grant me today five graces: 

the conversion of a sinner, 
the conversion of an unbeliever, 
the salvation of someone 
dying in peril of everlasting death; 
a vocation to the priesthood 
or to the religious life; 
 and, for some new soul, 
the grace of entering into and
savoring the mystery of the Eucharist." 

Prayer of Elisabeth Leseur (+1914)

Image above: Angels Bearing Instruments of the Passion (detail from altarpiece) ~ Rogier van der Weyden (+1464)

 

"The Body of Christ (Eucharist) will unite 

the Body of Christ (Church)." - Bishop Paul V Dudley

___________________________

Let us especially be mindful of and in prayer for 

the thousands of Catechumens and Candidates 

who are preparing to fully enter the Catholic Church on

Easter vigil and participate in her rich sacramental life!

Life in abundance! - John 10:10

Nothing held back...

 Monday of Holy Week

"There is only one anointing that is strong enough to meet death 

and that is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the love of God.  

There is, then, something that is both exemplary and lasting 

in Mary's anointing of Jesus at Bethany.  It was above all a concern 

to keep Christ alive in this world and to oppose the powers 

that aimed to silence and kill him.  It was an act of faith and love.  

Every such act can have the same effect." - Pope Benedict XVI

(Today's Gospel: John 12:1-11)  

"Nothing is held back, no drop is kept in reserve.

The house is filled with the fragrance, because 

the perfume is no longer hers; it has ceased any 

longer to belong to her as a personal possession. 

The excess of this gesture, its extravagance, 

expresses the essential truth about love. 

Neither love nor the perfume, in this case, can 

remain enclosed in a container, protected and saved.  

Instead, it must be all thrown away in the hour of love, 

wasted imprudently without a thought for 

tomorrow, poured out in its entirety."

Fr Donald Haggerty 

_______________

Prophetess and Penitent - The Catholic Thing 

Fr Paul Scalia

Painting above:  Forgiven ~ Daniel Gerhartz
Hat tip: Both quotes noted in Magnificat Magazine: Holy Week 2018, Vol. 20, No.1

This Holy Week let us together 
pour out our love before our 
Eucharistic Lord, Jesu Hostia...

Palm Sunday... (Wear RED today to holy Mass!)

 HOLY WEEK, the most solemn and intense period 

of worship in the Christian faith, begins with

PALM SUNDAY of the PASSION of the LORD 

(full name), the Sunday before Easter. 

____________________

In spite of the spiritual gravity of Holy Week, it begins with joy. 
The Church celebrates Jesus' triumphal entry 

into Jerusalem and her commemorative pilgrimage

with her Lord on His way to Calvary.

Wear RED today to holy Mass!
____________________________

The event is mentioned in all four Gospels:

Mark 11:1–11, Matt 21:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, John 12:12–19. 

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

All glory, laud and honor,

to Thee, Redeemer King.

To whom the lips of children 

made sweet hosannas ring.

Thou art the King of Israel,

Thou David's' royal Son, 

who in the Lord's name comest,

the King and Blessed One.

All glory... (Refrain)

The company of angels

are praising Thee on high, 

and we with all creation

in chorus make reply.

All glory... (Refrain)

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

Artist: James Tissot

"It is a fact that an age waxes or wanes

in proportion to the worship 

of the divine Eucharist.  It is there

 that is found the life and the measure

of its faith, its charity, and its vitality.

May the reign of the Eucharist

come about more and more.

For too long impiety and ingratitude have 

been allowed to hold sway over the world!

Adveniat regnum tuum. 

Thy Kingdom come."

St. Peter Julian Eymard

Adveniat regnum tuum.
Thy Kingdom come.