Entering the Triduum
Laura DeMaria
The Triddum is here - tonight at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, everything felt surreal. Is it really real - I am inside a church, and there are four priests concelebrating? Are all these people really here; am I remembering who I am? Last year there was nothing.
We processed across the parking lot and into the parish hall, which I have also not been in in over a year. It was emptied of all but spaced chairs, dimly lit, and a beautiful, flower-framed altar where the closed tabernacle and host stood. It is unseasonably cold out and the walk across was silent. It was one of the most real things I have done in the past 12 months.
On the topic of this day, you may want to read the excellent Jimmy Aiken’s piece in National Catholic Register, 10 Things You Need to Know About Holy Thursday. FORMED is also granting access to their movie, “Triduum: A Spiritual Pilgrimage.'“ But there are many things to watch.
Good Friday begins in just a few hours. What will you do to observe it, and make it real? Isn’t that the case with these days - that they must be acknowledged as the most important in all of human history, and the most alive? Like looking at fire through a magnifying glass.