Holy Week 2018
Palm Sunday
The Holy Week begins with the celebration of Palm Sunday.
On Palm Sunday we remember the messianic entry of Jesus in Jerusalem; many enthusiastic people holding palms and olive branches flocked to acclaim him shouting: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the King of Israel!" (Jn 12:13). However, Jesus knows very well that in a few hours that shouting will become: "Crucify him!" He will go through a journey that will take him to loneliness and rejection: the Christ makes a gift out of His death for the salvation of men, He want to be recognized as the Messiah in the Passion and Death of the Cross. He is the King without a crown meeting the misery of his people to reopen the Heaven to all who will accept salvation.
On the occasion of this feast, our community is planning, as every year, a solemn Eucharistic procession that would rehearse the solemn entry of Jesus in Jerusalem.
The event is scheduled for Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 9:30 a.m.
Holy Thursday
On Holy Thursday we remember the institution of priesthood and Eucharist
"In this celebration we enact two great sacraments and the great commandment of love: Priesthood ù is a function of the Eucharist and the Eucharist gives strength to Priesthood. These two gifts are in fact somewhat protected and surrounded by the great commandment of Jesus: the Eucharist is love, and it is understood with love only. The Incarnation and Passion of Christ, Son of God, are understandable only in light of the great love of God for Man". (Homily of Mons. Claudio Gatti, 9th April 2009)
"I, Jesus, have instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist and the Order. If I had not had the victim next to me, my mother, my friend, my spouse, I could not have done it, as a man, on my own. Today, history repeats itself. If your bishop did not have a victim next to him he could not make it because trials are so many. God sends trials and gives strength and courage to endure them. Moral and physical trials are great, but are precisely those trials that bring men to Me, Jesus the Eucharist". (From the letter of God, 20th April, 2000 - Holy Thursday)
The event is scheduled for Thursday, March 29, 2018 at 7:00 p.m.
Good Friday
On Good Friday we remember the passion and death of Jesus, and with this celebration, "we want to be alert and keep company to Jesus", for the pain of Christ, that is renewed today, must not leave us unconcerned or sleepy like the apostles: they slept and Christ suffered.
Holy Easter
Jesus’ resurrection, the salvific event par excellence took place "in total silence and in the middle of indifference or hostility of men. Only Mary was keeping vigil, praying and waiting for resurrection; Jesus, glorious and triumphant, appears to her first. Subsequently He appears to the women, to the disciples of Emmaus, to the eleven and others who were with them. (From the glorious mysteries drafted by Mons. Claudio Gatti)
The apostles had been gathering in the upper room but were sad and suffering to the point that the fear and sadness of being left alone, without Jesus, had clouded their minds. However, Jesus himself had announced: "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life" (Luke 9:22).
When the women announced to the apostles that the tomb was empty, none of the apostles believed them. Indeed, Peter and John rushed to the tomb only because they feared that their enemies had taken away Jesus’ body. But they understood the situation when they entered the tomb: "Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed". (Jn 20:8). John says: "He saw and believed".
The apostle in fact had to believe, because he saw that the bandages and the shroud were limp and arranged in the same way as Jesus’ body was wrapped. The Christ had passed through the bandages and the sheet, leaving them intact and in the same position. John was the first to believe in the Resurrection. He was the apostle of love, therefore, to believe in the Resurrection, we must love Christ; it is not possible to believe in God and his works if we do not love him. He who loves God believes in His actions, those who do not love him do not believe in his works.
