Mar 28 - Apr 3, 2021
Blake Billings, Ph.D.
The liturgical events of Holy Week have a history rooted in biblical history, focused on the culmination of Christ’s salvific mission. A fourth century account called the Pilgrimage of Ætheria (Egeria) shows us how the practice of Holy Week had developed by that time in Jerusalem. The Catholic Encyclopedia relates that it “contains a detailed account of the whole week, beginning with the service in the Lazarium at Bethania on the Saturday, in the course of which was read the narrative of the anointing of Christ's feet. Moreover, on the next day, which, as Ætheria says, ‘began the week of the Pasch, which they call here the "Great Week", a special reminder was addressed to the people by the archdeacon in these terms: 'Throughout the whole week, beginning from to-morrow, let us all assemble in the Martyrium, that is the great church, at the ninth hour.’ The commemoration of Christ's triumphal entry into the city took place the same afternoon. Great crowds, including even children too young to walk, assembled on the Mount of Olives and after suitable hymns, and antiphons, and readings, they returned in procession to Jerusalem, escorting the bishop, and bearing palms and branches of olives before him.” Beginning with Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the week contains the highest moments in the liturgical year, the celebration of the Holy Triduum, a single feast spanning several days and commemorating the Lord’s Supper, His passion and death, and His resurrection.
Portsmouth Ordo, March 28 - April 4
Holy Week
Sunday, March 28: Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
Monday, March 29: Monday of Holy Week
Tuesday, March 30: Tuesday of Holy Week
Wednesday, March 31: Wednesday of Holy Week
Thursday, April 1: Thursday of Holy Week / Maundy Thursday
Friday, April 2: Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord
Saturday, April 3: Holy Saturday / Easter Vigil
Sunday, April 4: Easter Sunday
FRIDAY BEFORE THE HOLY WEEK
Summary of the homily of Pope Francis (Friday, April 3, 2020)
On this Passion Friday, before Holy Week, which commemorates Mary's sorrows, Pope Francis dedicated his homily to Our Lady of Sorrows. Today, he said, “it will do us good to think about Our Lady’s Sorrows and to thank her because she accepted to be a Mother.”
“Our Lady never asked anything for herself”, Pope Francis underlined. “She only agrees to be a Mother.” She accompanied Jesus like a disciple, because the Gospel shows that she followed Jesus: with her friends, pious women, “she followed Jesus, she listened to Jesus.” The Pope issued an invitation to “Honor Our Lady and say: ‘This is my Mother’, because she is a Mother. And this is the title she received from Jesus, right there, at the moment of the Cross… Our Lady did not want to take away any title from Jesus; she received the gift of being His Mother and the duty to accompany us as Mother, to be our Mother. She did not ask for herself to be a quasi-redeemer or a co-redeemer: no. The Redeemer is one and this title does not duplicate." Concluding his homily, the Pope invited the faithful to thank Our Lady for being a Mother, and to “stop a little and think about Our Lady's pain and sorrows.”
Link:
Pope Francis’ Passion Friday homily (begins at 13’17”)
March 1
This year, Sunday supersedes the commemoration of David, Patron of Wales. A native of Wales, David’s life history is intertwined with legend. He lived in the 6th century, a pious and ascetic monk known for preaching and miracles. The famous story has a dove resting on his shoulder, as a hill miraculously rises beneath the preaching David, to make him more visible to his congregation. He is associated with Glastonbury Abbey, either as founder or re-dedicator. He worked to combat Pelagianism Saint David’s Day is celebrated in many Welsh towns and cities.
March 7
These Roman Christians, martyrs at Carthage under Septimus Severus (193-211), who was said to have forbidden all imperial subjects from becoming Christians., are remembered regularly in the Mass. Perpetua was a noblewoman, Felicity a slave. Perpetua was a young mother, Felicity pregnant, able to give birth two days before her martyrdom, her newborn child adopted by a Christian woman. We learn of the witness of these two young women in a document which may well have been written in part by Perpetua herself. Notable n their story is the strength of their faith to supersede family obligation, as Perpetua resists her father’s demand that she apostatize, and the two both give up their lives despite having young children. From the account of their martyrdom: “The day of their victory shone forth, and they proceeded from the prison into the amphitheater, as if to an assembly, joyous and of brilliant countenances; …with joy, and not with fear. Perpetua followed with placid look, and with step and gait as a matron of Christ, beloved of God; casting down the luster of her eyes from the gaze of all. Moreover, Felicitas, rejoicing that she had safely brought forth, so that she might fight with the wild beasts; from the blood and from the midwife to the gladiator, to wash after childbirth with a second baptism.”
March 8
The life of John of God provides one of the most remarkable stories of saints that one may hear. The recurring theme one finds is his seemingly impulsive commitment to those in need, regardless of risk to himself. He was born March 8, 1495 in Montermor-O-Novo, Portugal, and died on his birthday 55 years later. Those decades saw him leave home at the age of eight, inspired or kidnapped by a priest whom he had heard speak of “great adventures,” which soon included begging from town to town. He was eventually adopted in Oropesa by a farmer who later sought to have John marry his daughter. John fled this situation, becoming a soldier in the armies of Charles V fighting the French and later the Turks. He later sought his purpose by traveling to Africa to assist Christians enslaved there, and along the way joined a family of Portuguese nobility being sent into exile, who were robbed of all of their money along the way, and then fell ill. John helped to care for them, indicative of what was to become his life’s work, following a life-changing encounter with John of Avila. Thought to be insane after his extreme reaction to his call to repentance, he was eventually liberated from a mental hospital by John of Avila, committing his life to work with the poor and the sick. He famously and selflessly saved many from a fire in a hospital, leading to his patronage of firefighters.
March 9
Frances of Rome is one of the patrons of all Benedictine oblates. Born in Rome in 1384, Frances was a dedicated spouse, mother, and servant of the poor. With her husband Lorenzo’s approval, she founded the Oblates of Mary in 1425, a community that lived in their own homes under the Rule of St. Benedict, without vows but sharing in Frances’s mission to the sick. They were known from 1433 as the Oblate Congregation of Tor de’ Specchi, and upon her husband’s death in 1436, she became their superior, joining them in the building she had acquired for them to live in as a community. Frances endured much hardship in her life: the loss of two children to the plague, a forced exile during papal conflicts, the loss of much of her husband’s property and possessions, his being wounded by Neapolitan forces, so severely that he did not fully recover. A church at the Roman Forum, formerly known as Santa Maria Nova, was later dedicated to her and contains her relics, which were deposited there on March 9, 1649.
March 17
A fifth-century Roman citizen of Britain, Patrick first made his way to Ireland against his will, captured by pirates and sold into slavery. Eventually escaping, he made his way to France where he was trained as a priest and missionary. He returned to Ireland by choice, or by vocation, believing God had called him there. Though encountering significant opposition, he succeeded in converting many to the Christian faith, utilizing the knowledge of Irish culture that he had gained in captivity.
March 18
This 4th century theologian underwent several periods of exile, ultimately producing catechetical works leading to his elevation to Doctor of the Church in 1883. “His life is woven of two dimensions: on the one hand, pastoral care, and on the other, his involvement, in spite of himself, in the heated controversies that were then tormenting the Church of the East. …The basis of his instruction on the Christian faith also served to play a polemic role against pagans, Judaeo Christians and Manicheans. The argument was based on the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises, in a language rich in imagery.” Benedict XVI, General Audience (2007).
March 19
Joseph is visited by the messenger as ‘Mary's spouse,’ as the one who in due time must give this name to the Son to be born of the Virgin of Nazareth who is married to him. It is to Joseph, then, that the messenger turns, entrusting to him the responsibilities of an earthly father with regard to Mary's Son. ‘When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife’ (Mt 1:24). He took her in all the mystery of her motherhood. He took her together with the Son who had come into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this way he showed a readiness of will like Mary's with regard to what God asked of him through the angel.” Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos (1989)
(image from Saint Ignatius Church, San Francisco)
March 21
From the Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great, Book II:
"CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: HOW VENERABLE BENEDICT DID PROPHESY TO HIS MONKS THE TIME OF HIS OWN DEATH.
In the year that was to be his last, the man of God foretold the day of his holy death to a number of his disciples. In mentioning it to some who were with him in the monastery, he bound them to strict secrecy. Some others, however, who were stationed elsewhere he only informed of the special sign they would receive at the time of his death.
March 25
For the Christian faith, the Annunciation marks a moment unique to human history, pivotal to salvation history. In a homily from Santa Marta in 2018, Pope Francis remarked: “The passage from Luke’s Gospel that we have heard tells us the decisive moment in history, the most revolutionary. It is a turbulent situation, everything changes, history turns upside down. It is difficult to preach about this passage… It is the moment that everything changes, everything, from the root. Liturgically, today is the day of the root. The Antiphon that marks the meaning today is the root of Jesse, ‘from which a shoot will be born.’ God lowers himself, God enters history and does so in his original style: a surprise. The God of surprises surprises us (again).” In 2019, visiting Loreto, he called the Holy House a “home of the young”: “because here the Virgin Mary, the young woman full of grace, continues to speak to the new generations, accompanying each one in the search for one’s vocation… Mary is the model of every vocation and the inspirer of every vocation to ministry. Young people…wondering about their future, can find in Mary she who helps them to discern God’s plan for themselves…”