April 1st 2010 this year also happens to be part of Holy Week.
This morning the Pope carried out a mass known as 'Mass of the Chrism', in St Peter's Basilica. The chrism is a mixture of balsam and olive oil that is used in some of the sacraments after it has been blessed.
Pope Benedict XVI
This evening there will be another Mass in honour of The Lord's Supper which commemorates Jesus bathing the feet of the Apostles.
Holy Thursday according to Wikipedia
On this day the private celebration of Mass is forbidden.[2] Thus, apart from the Chrism Mass for the blessing of
the Holy Oils that the diocesan bishop may celebrate on the morning of Holy Thursday, but also on some other
day close to Easter, the only Mass on this day is the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, which inaugurates the period of three days, known as the Easter Triduum, that includes Good Friday (seen as beginning with the service of the preceding evening), Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday up to evening prayer on that day.[3]
The Mass of the Lord's Supper commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus with his Twelve Apostles, "the institution of the Eucharist, the institution of the priesthood, and the commandment of brotherly love that Jesus gave after washing the feet of his disciples."[4]
All the bells of the church, including altar bells, may be rung during the Gloria in Excelsis Deo of the Mass. The bells and the organ then fall silent until the Gloria at the Easter Vigil. In some countries, children are sometimes told: "The bells have flown to Rome."
The Roman Missal recommends that, if considered pastorally appropriate, the priest should, immediately after the homily, celebrate the rite of washing the feet of an unspecified number of men, customarily twelve, recalling the number of the Apostles.
A sufficient number of hosts are consecrated for use also in the Good Friday service, and at the conclusion of the Mass the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession to a place of reposition away from the main body of the church, which, if it involves an altar, is often called an "altar of repose".
The altars of the church (except the one used for altar of repose) are later stripped quite bare and, to the extent possible, crosses are removed from the church or veiled. (In the pre-Vatican II rite, crucifixes and statues are covered with violet covers during Passion time, but the crucifix covers can be white instead of violet on Holy Thursday.)
Orthodox icon of Christ washing the feet of the Apostles (16th century, Pskov school of iconography).
Interesting about the bells... I learnt when I lived in Belgium that children there look forward to seeing what the "cloches" (bells) have brought them on Easter morning (like children in the US look forward to the Easter bunny). I guess on their way back from Rome the "cloches" load up on chocolate somewhere because it definitely "rains" chocolate on Easter Sunday in Belgium! ;o)
ReplyDeleteIn Spain the main procession on Holy Thursday (and the most moving one of the week) is called the "Procesión del Silencio" and is basically a funerary procession. All the lights along the path of the procession are out, only the people's candles light their path. They walk in complete silence, to the beat of a drum, while groups of costaleros carry the figure of the Virgin in tears (La Virgen de los Dolores) and others Christ on the cross. It is an incredibly moving experience, even gave me goosebumps the first time I saw it in a really small town (always better than in cities)! I wrote about seeing it in another small town here:
http://criscrossing.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/semana-santa-procesion-del-silencio-en.html