For Christians, Holy Week is the most important week of the year. Holy Week lasts from Palm Sunday until Easter Sunday and reaches its highpoint in what we call the Easter Triduum – those three great days from the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper to Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday. Reflecting on the Scriptures and turning to ritual and symbols, Christians throughout the world journey with Jesus through those final days of his life, his passion, his death and resurrection. In the process, we experience God’s redemptive presence, our faith is deepened, our hope is renewed and our commitment to living a life of love of God and one another is strengthened.
This year our celebrations will be very different from anything that has gone before. The restrictions in place because of the Covid-19 Pandemic mean that as a Christian Community we cannot gather together for our usual religious services. This will not prevent us from uniting spiritually and taking time to pray, to reflect and to make this Holy Week a truly enriching experience of the presence of God in our lives. Although we will not be able to celebrate our Holy Week and Easter liturgies as usual in our churches with our parish congregations, I have added here some pages with links to information and other resources you could use at home with your families to make these days meaningful, and to help us all celebrate the great Feast of Easter as joyful Christians, even though we are separated at this time. Remember we are people of the Resurrection and Alleluia is our song (Yes, even in these uncertain times!)
We are lucky to have the use of a webcam in Portmarnock Parish. Log on to www.portmarnockparish.ie to access the webcam and many of the traditional ceremonies associated with Holy Week will be livestreamed from there. Our ceremonies will be as follows:
Holy Thurs Mass of the Last Supper 7.30pm
Good Fri The Passion of the Lord 3.00pm
Holy Sat Easter Vigil 9.00pm
Easter Sunday Mass 11.00am