Throughout Holy Week, the final week of Lent and the holiest week of the year, Catholics pray and reflect on the events beginning with Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and culminating with his Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
One week before Easter Sunday, the Palm Sunday liturgy begins with palm branches symbolizing Jesus’ joyful entry into Jerusalem, but the the Gospel narrative tells the story of his upcoming Passion and Death on a Cross.
On Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus spends time in Bethany and Jerusalem while preparing for the Passover. He predicts Judas’ betrayal, Peter’s denial, and his own Passion and Death as He continues to teach his Apostles.
On Wednesday of Holy Week, Judas meets with the chief priests and agrees to deliver Jesus to them for 30 pieces of silver. This day of Holy Week is known as Spy Wednesday.
The three days from the evening of Holy Thursday until Easter Sunday is the Paschal Triduum. Also known as the Easter Triduum, it is considered a single liturgical day and the most holy time of the Church’s liturgical year.
Holy Thursday commemorates when Jesus celebrated the Passover with the Apostles and washed their feet. Jesus instituted the priesthood and the Eucharist, and issued a new commandment to love one another as He loved them.
Good Friday focuses on Jesus’ redemptive suffering and death. The story of the Lord’s Passion is read from the Gospel of John and the Cross is venerated. There is no Mass but the Eucharist is received from what was reserved from the night before.
On Holy Saturday, Catholics silently remember when Jesus descended to be with the dead. With the Blessed Mother, they wait for Jesus’ promises to be fulfilled.
The most important holy day begins after sundown at the Easter Vigil. The light of the Easter fire and the Paschal Candle symbolize Jesus’ victory over sin and death. Salvation history is recounted through a series of readings from Sacred Scripture.
Catholics continue to celebrate Jesus’ victory over death on Easter Sunday, joyfully reflecting on his Resurrection and his appearances to his Apostles.
The last week of Lent:
A week to be set apart:
Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; He had no majestic bearing to catch our eye, no beauty to draw us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain, Like one from whom you turn your face, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured. We thought of him as stricken, struck down by God and afflicted, But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed.
Isaiah 53: 1-5
An extraordinary journey for Christians:
A journey from false triumph to true triumph:
The week that holds everything together:
Therefore Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the “Feast of feasts,” the “Solemnity of solemnities,” just as the Eucharist is the “Sacrament of sacraments” (the Great Sacrament). St. Athanasius calls Easter “the Great Sunday” and the Eastern Churches call Holy Week “the Great Week.” The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time, until all is subjected to Him.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1169
All of Jesus’ emotions as He prepared for His struggle:
The exhortation to solidarity, on behalf of Christ, with all the tribulations and necessities of our brothers, and not only with those who enter the radius of our eye and our hand, but with all, even with the cries of tormented souls and bodies, is almost the very essence of living spiritually the period of Lent in the existence of the Church. In the last week of Lent—after this preparation (and only after it!)—the Church exhorts us to special and exceptional solidarity with suffering Christ Himself. Although awareness of Christ’s passion accompanies us throughout all the weeks of this period, this week alone, however, unique in the full sense of the word, is the week of the Lord’s Passion. It is Holy Week.
Pope John Paul II, General Audience, 11 April 1979
The holiest time of the year:
A week celebrated since the early Church:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
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