This afternoon at 1:30 p.m., we live-streamed the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion. At that special service, we read the scriptures that speak about the suffering servant and we also read the Passion according to St. John.
The second part of the service are the intercessions that we pray for many people: our Holy Father and Church leaders, our world leaders, those preparing to enter the Church, the sick, the dying, and many more. The Church gives permission for an additional prayer to be added to the list of ten prayers if there is good pastoral reason. This year, our bishop gave us an eleventh prayer for the victims of COVID-19.
After the intercessions, the community is invited to venerate the cross, the symbol on which Jesus died. Generally, this is a long process as each person comes up to venerate on cross either by kissing it, touching it, bowing to it, or genuflecting before it. Because we could have no public service, we placed the cross in the sanctuary by the ambo and, while the camera focused on the cross for those watching in their homes, we sang two beautiful hymns.
After the veneration of the cross, we had a Communion service. Again, at the time of receiving Communion, we placed on the screen a prayer for Spiritual Communion. As I said yesterday, this is a hard Triduum for our people as they can only watch at home and are deprived of any of the in-person things at church, including Communion.
When the Communion service was complete, we walked out in silence as the Triduum is still continuing. We remember Christ’s being placed in the tomb and the world waiting in silence for the resurrection.
And so we wait. You are invited to join us tomorrow at our live-streamed Vigil Mass of Easter at 8:00 p.m. on our parish website, on our Facebook page, or on our YouTube page.