The 90+ days of Lent, Holy Week and Easter – from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost, a quarter of the year – are the most significant in the life of the Church.
During Lent, we enter into the life-giving Passion of Jesus, as he begins his public ministry and
heals the sick
gives living water
restores sight to the blind
raises the dead to life.
Holy Week
On Palm Sunday, he enters Jerusalem, acclaimed by the crowds desperate for a Messiah to save them from the Romans.
Easter Triduum
Soon to be betrayed by a friend, Jesus instigates an extraordinary act: washing the feet of his disciples (the role of a servant).
He shares his life with them in the institution of the Eucharist: taking bread and wine, breaking the bread and sharing them:
“this is my body, broken for you” “this is my blood, shed for you”
They sing hymns and psalms, before going to the Mount of Olives, where he is betrayed by one his disciples and captured.
After a show trial, he is sentenced to death.
Waiting…
…From the darkness of the tomb, new life.
Mystagogia
In the Easter season the Church rediscovers what this new life means for each of its members and for the wider world.
Ascension: where he has gone, we hope to follow.
Pentecost: We are enabled to witness to the power of new life
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