Holy Thursday- March 28

Tonight we participate in the beginning of the one liturgy that comprises the ritualization of the dying and rising of Jesus Christ. The three liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil are three but one, distinct but the same. All three make tangibly present the death and resurrection of Jesus. In each we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ and we ourselves became the Body of Christ. The reality is present at every Mass throughout the year and in every place, but it somehow seems that this night is the most special, the most precious. For me it’s the “extras,” the sung “Glory to God” absent for weeks, washing of feet, the annual hymns like “Pange Lingua,” the once-a-year solemnity, the altar of repose, the color and pageantry that conclude with stripping the altar and the feeling of emptiness and longing.