Spiritual Reflections at, TX US - EASTER TRIDUUM  

EASTER TRIDUUM  
VATICAN CITY, 19 MAR 2008 (VIS) -   In the Paul VI Hall the Pope concentrated his remarks on the significance of the Easter Triduum in which, he said, "we relive the central event of our redemption".
 
  On Easter Thursday, "the Church remembers the Last Supper during which the Lord, on the eve of His passion and death, established the Sacrament of the Eucharist and that of priestly ministry. On that same night, Jesus left us the new commandment ('mandatum novum'), the commandment of fraternal love".
 
  Good Friday "is the day that recalls the passion, crucifixion and death of Jesus", said the Pope. On that day Christians "meditate upon the great mystery of the evil and sin that oppress humanity" and "adore the cross".
 
  Easter Saturday "is marked by profound silence" Pope Benedict explained. "As they await the great event of the resurrection, believers persevere expectantly with Mary, praying and meditating". The day "ends with the Easter vigil which leads into the most important Sunday in history, the Sunday of Christ's Easter. ... In the darkness of the night the new flame of the Easter candle is lit, a symbol of Christ arising in glory".
 
  At the end of the audience, the Pope made an appeal concerning the situation in Tibet. He spoke of his "sadness and pain at the suffering of so many people. ... Problems are not solved with violence", he said, "but only get worse. I invite you to join me in prayer. Let us ask Almighty God, the source of light, to illuminate the minds of everyone and give each the courage to chose the way of dialogue and tolerance".
AG/EASTER TRIDUUM TIBET/...VIS 080326 (400)
 
HOLY THURSDAY: CHRISM MASS AND THE LORD'S SUPPER MASS
 
VATICAN CITY, 20 MAR 2008 (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica at 9.30 a.m. today, Holy Thursday, the Holy Father presided at the Chrism Mass, which is celebrated on this day in churches and cathedrals throughout the world. Cardinals, bishops and priests present in Rome concelebrated with the Pope. Following the homily, there was the renewal of priestly vows and the blessing of the oil used for catechumens, the sick and those being confirmed.
 
  In his homily, the Pope explained how the Chrism Mass "encourages us to revive that 'yes' to the call of God which we pronounced on the day of our ordination as priests".
 
  The Old Testament describes the tasks that define the essence of priestly ministry as "standing before the Lord" and "serving", he said.
 
  A priest "must be on his guard against the threatening powers of evil. He must awaken the world to God. He must remain standing upright against the currents of the times".
 
  "To stand before the Lord must also mean, in the most profound sense, taking on responsibility for mankind before the Lord Who, in His turn, takes on responsibility for all of us before the Father. And this must mean accepting Him, Christ, accepting His word, His truth, His love".
 
  Secondly, the Pope went on, a priest must serve. "What a priest does ... in celebrating the Eucharist is to serve, to accomplish a service to God and a service to mankind. Christ's worship of the Father was His total giving of Himself for mankind. The priest must become part of such worship, of such service.
 
  "Thus", he added, "the word 'service' includes many dimensions". It implies "the correct celebration of the liturgy and of the Sacraments in general". In this context he highlighted how priests "are familiar with the Word, they love it and they live it; only then can they adequately explain it".
 
  Service, the Holy Father proceeded, "also means closeness, it requires familiarity" such as that of the servant to his master. However, "such familiarity also brings a danger: that continual contact with the sacred may become a habit for us. Thus we lose our reverential awe. Conditioned by habit, we no longer perceive the great, new and surprising fact that He Himself is present, He speaks to us and gives Himself to us".
 
  Service "means, above all, obedience" said Pope Benedict. "Humanity's temptation is always that of wanting to be completely autonomous, of following only their own will and of insisting that only thus will we be free, that only through such limitless freedom can mankind be fully realised and become divine. Yet it is precisely thus that we run counter to the truth". We are free, the Pope stated, if "we share our freedom with others, ... if we obey the will of God".
 
  Benedict XVI concluded by highlighting how priests "announce not ourselves but Him and His Word. ... Our obedience is believing with the Church, thinking and talking with the Church, serving with her".
 
  At 5.30 p.m. in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, Benedict XVI presided at the Mass of the Lord's Supper. During the celebration, imitating the gesture of the Lord towards His Apostles, the Pope washed the feet of 12 priests. At the presentation of the gifts, he was given alms collected for the "Edad de oro" orphanage in Havana, Cuba.
 
  Commenting in his homily on Jesus' gesture of washing His disciples' feet, the Pope dwelt on the need for interior purification as a necessary condition for living in communion with God and our fellows.
 
  "Day after day", he said, "we are, as it were, covered with dirt, with empty words, with prejudices, with watered-down and adulterated wisdom; multiple forms of semi-falsity or open falseness continually infiltrate our inner being. This clouds and contaminates our soul, it threatens us with an incapacity for truth and goodness. If we accept the words of Jesus with an attentive heart, they wash and purify the soul".
 
  The Gospel episode of the washing of the feet invites us "always to let ourselves be washed by that pure water, to allow ourselves to be capable of convivial communion with God and with our brothers and sisters".
 
  "The gift and the example that we find in the story of the washing of the feet are characteristic of the nature of Christianity in general", said the Pope. "Christianity is not some kind of moralism, a system of ethics. ... It is, first and foremost, a gift: God gives Himself to us. He does not give something but gives Himself. ... For this reason, the central act of being Christian is the Eucharist".
 
  We need the 'washing of the feet', the washing away of everyday sins. It is for this that we need the confession of sins". In the Sacrament of Penance "the Lord ever and anew washes our dirty feet so we can sit at table with Him".
 
  Benedict XVI concluded his homily by highlighting how "Easter Thursday calls us to this: not to allow rancour towards others to become, deep down, a poisoning of the soul. It exhorts us to continual purification of memory, forgiving one another from the heart, washing one another's feet, thus to be able to go together to God's banquet".
BXVI-HOLY WEEK/HOLY THURSDAY/.. VIS 080326 (890)
 
GOOD FRIDAY: LORD'S PASSION, WAY OF THE CROSS AT COLOSSEUM
 
VATICAN CITY, 21 MAR 2008 (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica at 5 p.m. today, Good Friday, the Pope presided at the celebration of the Lord's Passion. Following the reading of the Passion, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa O.F.M. Cap., preacher of the Pontifical Household, pronounced his customary Good Friday homily. The ceremony continued with the universal prayer, veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion.
 
  At 9.15 p.m., the Holy Father travelled to the Colosseum where he led the 'Via Crucis' or Way of the Cross. The meditations this year were prepared by Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun S.D.B., bishop of Hong Kong, China, and their central theme was the persecutions suffered by the Catholic Church in various parts of the world.
 
  On a cold and rainy night, Benedict XVI oversaw the ceremony from the Palatine Hill and carried the cross for the last station. Over the other thirteen stations, it was carried by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome, a religious from Burkina Faso, a Roman family, a woman on a wheelchair, two Franciscan friars from the Custody of the Holy Land and a young Chinese woman.
 
  At the end of the ceremony, the Holy Father addressed some remarks to those present. "The cross", he said, "is the source of immortal life, it is a school of justice and peace, it is a universal legacy of forgiveness and mercy, it is permanent proof of the oblational and infinite love which brought God to make Himself a vulnerable man like us, and to die crucified".
 
  "Unfortunately mankind does not always manage to perceive the profundity of this boundless love that God nourishes for His creatures" said Benedict XVI. "For Him there is no difference in race or culture. Jesus Christ died to liberate the entire human race from ignorance of God, from the cycle of hatred and revenge, from the slavery of sin. The cross makes us all brothers and sisters".
 
  "Many people, even in our own time, do not know God and cannot find Him in the crucified Christ. Many are those who seek a form of love and freedom that excludes God, many believe they have no need of God. Dear friends, having experienced the passion of Jesus together, let us this evening allow His sacrifice on the cross to probe us; let us allow Him to put our human certainties in doubt; let us open our hearts to Him. Jesus is the Truth that makes us free to love. Let us not fear! By dying, the Lord saved sinners, in other words, all of us".
 
  "This is the truth of Good Friday", the Holy Father concluded. "On the cross, the Redeemer gave us back the dignity that is ours, He made us adoptive children of God Who created us in His image and likeness".
BXVI-HOLY WEEK/GOOD FRIDAY/...    VIS 080326 (480)

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