The CatholiCity Message

Volume XXI, Number 3 – April 13, 2017

Triduum Traditions

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

I hope you had an excellent Lent. Me? From a human point of view, I did not live up to that Best Lent Ever exhortation I gave you. Perhaps, from a divine perspective, my screw-ups helped more grace come into the world than ever before. God works through failure.

I will be brief today—we all celebrate the Triduum and Easter in our own ways. In college back in the 1980s I began staying up all Holy Thursday night until Good Friday sunrise to make up for apostles falling asleep. On Good Friday I follow the tradition of "fasting from talking" between Noon and 3:00 pm to commemorate Jesus's passion. I recommend this silence to everyone and every family. Of course there are the great services at Church! I also encourage you to watch The Passion of the Christ tonight or during this weekend—it is a perfectly wrought Stations of the Cross (here is my review after the premier in 2004).

What are your traditions? How was your Lent?

This year I'm focusing on the good news about Holy Thursday: Jesus gave us the Eucharist at the Last Supper, the permanent re-presentation of both his passion and his resurrection, the "bloodless oblation" of the Lamb of God, the Eternal Sacrifice attended by countless staggeringly-powerful angels in heaven as portrayed in the Book of Revelation! When I receive Holy Communion on Easter Sunday which I will offer for you and your family and everyone you know while holding my relic of the True Cross, I am going to imagine those angels.

QUOTATION

I have said this to you, that in me you have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
– Jesus (John 16)

Let us pray, tens of thousands of us together, with great hope, for miracles.

Dear Jesus, Overcomer of the World, I truly am sorry for every one of my sins that made your passion more painful while solemnly promising to avoid them and their near occasion. Please give me the grace to be sincerely thankful for every good and bad thing that has every happened in my life, because here I am, with You. That is where I want to be: with You, Jesus. Help me know you, want you, need you, consume you, love you and pray to you as I celebrate the Easter Season. With Mary whispering every word into your ear, kissing you on the cheek, for me, Amen.

Thank you for being a part of our Lent, our work, and our lives. You are the best.

Affectionately,
With the Risen Christ,

Bud Macfarlane
Founder