Hello and welcome!
On Holy Thursday, I was visited by Jessica Hooper, the incoming head of the Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart. She will begin her new role on July 1, as Mother Rogers completes her term after 35 years leading the school.
Jessica studied at the University of San Diego and has spent her whole career in various aspects of Catholic education. Most recently, she served as President of Nativity Prep in San Diego. She is very happy to be able to begin this responsibility at Newton Country Day, which is one of the premier Catholic schools in the archdiocese.
That evening, we began our celebrations of the Sacred Triduum at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross with the Mass of the Last Supper. It was the only celebration we had at the cathedral that day, so we celebrated it bilingually with the Hispanic community and the English-speaking community together.
Two very important elements of the celebration are the Washing of the Feet, commemorating the way that Jesus washed the feet of the disciples of the Last Supper, and the Eucharistic procession taking the Blessed Sacrament to the repository in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.
Following the Mass, we have adoration in the chapel until midnight.
At 11:30, we had Night Prayer with about 200 university students in attendance, and I gave them a reflection on the Agony in the Garden.
It was very edifying to see those young people who walked in the rain to visit various churches and concluded their pilgrimage with us at the cathedral.
On Good Friday, we had three Stations of the Cross at the cathedral. The first, in the morning, was the Way of the Cross for Life.
Then, in the afternoon, we had the Stations acted out by the Hispanic community of the cathedral.
And finally, we were visited by those doing the Stations of the Cross with Communion and Liberation. They do the Stations through the city and end with the last Station at the cathedral.
I gave them a reflection on the Passion and they presented me with a copy of their annual Easter poster.
At 3 p.m., we had the full Good Friday service in English, with Father Michael Zimmerman as our homilist.
Then, in the evening, we had the service in Spanish, and I preached.
There were many hundreds of people passing through the cathedral on Good Friday with those five different activities that were held there during the day.
As has been my tradition for many years, on Holy Saturday morning, I went to have lunch with the Memores Domini of Communion and Liberation in Cambridge. Communion and Liberation is an apostolic movement in the Church that was founded by Father Luigi Giussani in Italy, but it has since spread all over the world. Out of that movement has come different entities, including the Priestly Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo for priests and the Memores Domini, groups of consecrated lay people who live in community according to the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience while carrying on their secular professions at the same time.
This year, several women Memores were with us because they are planning on opening a house in the archdiocese for women, and I am very pleased about that.
On the night of Holy Saturday, we had our Easter vigil, during which we received 17 people into the Church.
The Easter Vigil is the high point of the liturgical year in which we have the Blessing of the Fire, the chanting of the Exsultet, and the renewal of baptismal promises.
Because the Vigil is such an important moment in the life of the Church, I’m always very happy when we have a good crowd at the cathedral for it. I’m also very grateful that many people were able to participate virtually through CatholicTV, as well.
Then, on Easter Sunday, I celebrated the 11:30 a.m. Mass at the cathedral. There must’ve been about 2,000 people in attendance, and the cathedral was standing-room-only.
Once again, we had the renewal of baptismal promises and the sprinkling rite as part of the celebration of Easter.
That evening, I went to the Capuchin friary in Jamaica Plain to join them for a Holy Hour and Vespers followed by a lovely Easter dinner.
On Tuesday, I had dinner with a group of our seminarians. Father Michael Zimmerman from our Vocations Office also accompanied us. These men are in their propaedeutic year, and as always, we had Vespers together followed by dinner and a time of conversation.
We are very blessed to have these young men discerning a priestly vocation in our seminary programs.
Until next week,
Cardinal Seán