The Sacred Triduum, the holy Three-Days-in-One, is the celebration-event of the Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection. Check the schedule at your parish church so that you may pray with your brothers and sisters during these Three Days.
Here are the times for the major religious services at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral:
- Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, April 2 at 5:30 PM
- Good Friday Passion of the Lord, April 3 at 3:30 PM
- Easter Vigil in the Holy Night, April 4 at 8:00 PM
- Easter Sunday, April 5, at 10:00 AM
Services will be live-streamed at
- https://www.saintpatrickscathedral.org/live
- https://www.catholicfaithnetwork.org
- Catholic Channel on Sirius XM Satellite Radio 129
Since our society attempts to ignore it, each of us can make Good Friday a meaningful day of sacrifice and of reparation for the sins that led to the passion, Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. So, Friday needs to be a day of penance. Make it a day of less food and no meat. You can do other things as well, such as giving up entertainment, but remember that Good Friday is a day of fasting and abstinence.
- Fasting means eating only one full meal. Two smaller meals may be taken. Snacking is not allowed. This obligation binds all Catholics from the ages of 18 through 59.
- Abstinence means that you do not eat meat. This obligation begins at age 14 and has no upper limit. It continues for the remainder of our lives.
Be mindful that when you go to Mass on Easter Sunday, go early. There are many visitors. In some parishes, provisions have been made for overflowing crowds.
Coming home to worship at Easter is not just for those who have fallen away; also important is the effort to realize that many of us live as if we had only “one foot” in the church. We may not have opened ourselves fully to the grace of Christ to be His effective witness to the world. Perhaps during these holy days, we will truly “Come Home” to Christ and His Church, mind, heart, body, and soul.
In your prayer you might remember those who, in one way or another are still struggling because of the high inflation; others who are affected by violent crimes, natural disasters or war; and our brothers and sisters in Judaism who began their celebration of Passover with the First Seder on Wednesday evening, April 1, through the eighth day, Wednesday, April 9.
Happy Triduum and Easter.