Friday, April 06, 2007

Holy Thursday: The Triduum Begins

Yesterday was Holy Thursday and Chris and I went to the 7:30pm Mass last night. This year for the first time since I've been attending Christ the King that I didn't play with the choir. So I got to sit with the congregation and see more of what was going on.

For the most part, this is a normal Mass. However, after the homily they have the washing of the feet. Our church has 12 stations set up for this and people come up just like for communion and get their feet washed. After this the Mass continues as normal, we receive Holy Communion, and then begins the retirement of the Eucharist in the Chapel. At this point the Eucharist is removed form the church entirely until the Easter vigil on Saturday night. In other words it remains out of the church for as long as Jesus was in the tomb, before the resurrection.

I'm not entirely sure where it is at the moment. I went to church this morning for the sacrament of Reconciliation and their was a prayer service going on in the chapel that the Eucharist had been retired to, but it looked like the Eucharist had been removed. So Jesus presence is now definitely absent from the church. The church did feel quite empty this morning.

So now today is Good Friday. I've been to confession (as noted above) and we're abiding by the rules of fast today. Chris and I are both taking a half day from work and we're going to the 2:00pm service today. Tonight we're going to have dinner (our one meal of the day) and watch a movie.

I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend and a wonderful Easter!!

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