This Year
in 2023 we will celebrate Holy Week and the Easter Triduum without restrictions.
It seems a long-ago experience of celebrating Easter in the lockdown of 2020 and with restrictions in 2021 and 2022.
The presumptions of Easter, the Triduum and Holy Week give us solace even while they are changing around us.
This year, we will celebrate the Chrism Mass. The Chrism Mass symbolises the gathering of the priests with their bishop and the giving of the oils to those who will use them in the sacramental rites of baptism, confirmation /chrismation and anointing of the sick. At a secondary level, the Mass is about the diocese and the people who will receive these “oil” sacraments. This we can celebrate as we wait for a bishop. Sadly, because we don’t have a bishop and the chair remains empty, the most profound symbolic meaning of the Chrism Mass cannot be shown.
The Triduum
The three days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday are a single liturgy. Ideally, it would be celebrated in one church and presided over by the same presider. Our current three interdependent parishes make the ideal more difficult to attain, so I consulted parishioners and parish leadership and decided that the Cathedral and Our Lady of Lourdes parishes will gather on Holy Thursday evening at Our Lady of Lourdes Church at 7 pm to begin the Triduum.
On Good Friday, there will be separate Services at Our Lady of Lourdes and at the Cathedral at 3 pm. Good Friday will begin with Morning Prayer with the city’s Anglican Communions at 9 am at the Cathedral and continue with 11 am Stations of the Cross at Our Lady of Lourdes.
The rest of the day is silent and restful.
On Easter Sunday morning, the Paschal Vigil for Our Lady of Lourdes, St Mary’s Foxton and the Cathedral parishes will be held at the Cathedral, beginning at 5 am.
The rest of the day will unfold from this first Mass of Easter.
Why 5 am?
Some ask about the timing; it is about rising early to greet the new day.
I have risen early to get an international flight, to “beat” the traffic to attend a dawn service and a whakanoa; there is something greater in celebrating the Lord’s resurrection. Making time at the start of the day gives the day to God.
The timing challenges complacency, comfort and convenience, which drive much of the conversation around Mass times. There are alternatives for those who cannot make an early start.
St Mary’s Foxton
Foxton parish will also celebrate the Easter Triduum, beginning with Mass on Holy Thursday evening at 5.30 pm.
On Good Friday, there are Stations of the Cross at St Joseph’s Church in Shannon at 10.30 am and the Good Friday Service at 3 pm at Foxton.
The Paschal Vigil for Foxton parish is at the Cathedral at 5 am on Easter Sunday morning.
Easter Sunday masses follow at Shannon at 9 am and Foxton at 10.30 am.
For the complete timetable, please check out the website.
Fr Joe