samedi 4 avril 2020

THE HOLY WEEK


by Abbot Patrick Troadec FSSPX,

Holy Week, the heart, the “Holy of Saints” of the liturgical year! As the Church gradually prepared us before letting us in! Today, she lifts the veil of monkeys and symbols.  It enables us to contemplate the most sublime mystery of salvation and even to participate in it.

During this week, we will contemplate the sufferings that Our Lord Jesus Christ endured during his Passion.  Beyond the physical suffering, we will not forget to consider his moral suffering.  Indeed, his soul experienced fear as he approached his Passion: “Now my being is in turmoil” (Jn 12:27); he experienced sadness at the moment of his agony, going so far as to cry: “My soul is sad to die”(Mt 26:38); he endured shame by being condemned to an infamous torture between two robbers.  He also endured the mystical pain of his Father’s silence when he cried out: «My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?» (Mt 27:46)

In applying our minds to the consideration of his unspeakable sufferings, we will not forget to consider the heroic virtues that Jesus Christ manifested in these circumstances: the love of his Father and the love of our souls, humility and magnanimity, strength and meekness.

We will not fail to see also the wonderful effects of his Passion.  In fact, the whole liturgy embraces with one glance the Passion and Resurrection of Our Lord.  His work of redemption does not end at his death, but is prolonged in the victory of his resurrection.



 “The liturgy does not only want to be a lamentation of Christ’s death and a compassion for his sufferings.” No, throughout this week, we hear the accent of victory and joy.  We see in the Passion of Christ a transition that leads us to the glory of the Resurrection (…) There is not a day in this whole week when we did not hear, in a clear and distinct way, the themes of Easter and the songs of victory.  Let us think only of Palm Sunday with the royal tributes to the Lord, of Holy Thursday with the solemn Mass of the Last Supper and the blessing of Holy Oils, of Good Friday with the elevation of the cross as a sign of victory (…) Palm Sunday is the monumental door that brings us into the holy mysteries of Easter!” (Dom Pius Parsch, The Guide in the Liturgical Year, Salvator, 1939, vol. III, pp.-6)


Abbot Patrick Troadec FSSPX, Day-to-day Lent, daily readings and meditations to pray alone or with the family,  Via Romana, 2013

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