From: kriz@skat.usc.edu (KRIZ)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Cath. Christianity 101 - This week is Holy Week
Date: 12 Apr 1992 21:57:27 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: skat.usc.edu



Hi all,

For those of you who are reading this ... if there are THREE
DAYS in the year that you could find your way to go to a Mass
**FIND** a way to go **THIS** THURSDAY, FRIDAY, and SATURDAY.
These three days constitute the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good 
Friday and for the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday) in the 
Catholic faith, and are the three most important days of the 
liturgical calendar.

Holy Week actually began today, with a commemoration of Palm
Sunday.  The three days of the Triduum are:

Holy Thursday - entailing a commemoration of Christ's Last Supper,
	on the night traditionally understood to be the night of
	the Last Supper.  Every Mass celebrated during the year 
	indeed celebrates the Last Supper through the Eucharist,
	but this evening *is* different.  Here the focus is not 
	only on the Eucharist, but also on the Gospel fo John.  
	Yes, we commemorate the second mandatum that Christ gave 
	on the Last Supper -- not only to remember Jesus in the 
	sharing of bread and the cup, but to do what Christ did 
	at the Last Supper, stoop down and wash our brethren's feet, 
	to underscore Christ's mandatum to be servants to one another.
	The evening's liturgy also is different, in that it has
	no formal ending.  The people are left to reflect, as 
	Christ did on that night at the Garden of Gethsemane to
	pray and reflect on the events that follow.

Good Friday - this is the only day of the year when Mass is not
	celebrated during the liturgical year.  Instead a 
	communion service is held, the highlight of which is the
	Veneration of the Cross.  On this day the priests physically
	put up the Cross at the alter or in place of the altar,
	and each of the those present during the service is asked to 
	physically encounter it on then ... to touch it, to genuflect 
	before it, to hug it, to kiss it, to make it a Real [TM] at 
	least on that day.  The Message [TM] is manifold.  The people
	are reminded of what Christ suffered for us on that day.  The
	people are reminded of Christ's call that as followers of His
	we are expected to put up our own Cross to to follow Him.  
	Finally, those who are suffering are reminded that Christ too
	suffered, and is present with them in their suffering as in
	the words of the Beatitudes:

	    Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

	    Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
		for they shall be satisfied.

	    Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,
		for theirs is the Kingdom of God.

	
The Easter Vigil (Holy Saturday) -- Again if there were to be a *single*
	Mass that you could attend this year, make it this one.  You will
	not get more theology crammed into two to three hours as you would
	on that day.

	The Mass is actually broken into four parts:

	(1) Liturgy of Light.  The Mass begins with the lighting of a fire
	outside the sanctuary.  The fire is blessed.  A candle is lit, and
	and dated -- alpha -- omega -- 1992.  And Christ is proclaimed as
	the Light of the World.  From the Easter Candle, each of the 
	parishioner's candles are lit, and the whole congregation processes
	into the Church, with the procession stopping at the Church's entry
	mid-way through the Church, and at the altar to each time repeat
	the proclamation that Christ indeed has become the Light of the World.

	(2) Liturgy of the Word.  Seven readings plus countless psalms are
	read on that night, covering the whole salvation history of humanity.
	Genesis 1, the story of Abraham and Isaac, the Exodus and the Crossing
	of the Red Sea, poems of promise and hope ... and then the Gospel of
	Christ's Resurrection.

	(3) Liturgy of Initiation.  Adults entering the Catholic faith, 
	by means of Baptism or Confirmation are entered into the faith
	on this evening.

	(4) Liturgy of the Eucharist.  The celebration of the Eucharist,
	as always, but for those who have just entered the Catholic faith
	a first time experience.

And thus the Easter season begins ... lasting 50 days (on the 40th day of
the Easter season, Christ's ascension into heaven is celebrated) until
the day of Pentacost, the day the Church is taken to have been born.

ONCE AGAIN, IF YOU CAN AT ALL MAKE IT TO THESE SERVICES (CATHOLIC OR NOT)
PLEASE TRY TO DO SO.  These are three very theologically intense days
in the Catholic litrugical calendar.  If you really don't know much about
the Catholic faith ... ask a Catholic friend about what goes on on these
days in the Catholic Church.  And if you still have questions (SERIOUSLY)
make it a point of stopping by a Catholic Church or Newman Center before
or even during the three days of the Triduum and inquire with one or a
couple of the priests.  THIS WILL BE WORTH YOUR TIME, regardless of 
whether you have interest in joining the Catholic faith or not. 
Just make it a POINT TO GO ! :-)

In Christ,

dennis
kriz@skat.usc.edu