Holy Week is almost upon us! From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, the Catholic liturgy walks through the final days of our Lord’s ministry: his triumphal entry into the holy city, his Last Supper, his Passion and Crucifixion, and finally his glorious and triumphant Resurrection. We hope you’ll join us for as many of the Holy Week liturgies as possible!
Parking can be an issue, especially on Good Friday. We recommend planning ahead for what you’ll do if you can’t snag a spot in our parking lot or on the street near the church.
What follows is a blow-by-blow of the Holy Week liturgies and other events at St. Thomas. All the photos in this blog post were taken during Holy Week last year.
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion: March 28-29
At the beginning of Holy Week, we will mark the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the royal city of Israel. We will read St. Matthew’s account of this procession, then we will bless palms and have our own procession to honor the Son of David, the King of Israel. The Mass itself will focus on the suffering and death of the Christ, so the liturgical color is red. In a way, this is a preview of what we will commemorate in the Triduum. The first reading is one of the Songs of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah, and Gospel reading will be an account of the Passion taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It will be read or sung by multiple priests, deacons, and lectors.
At St. Thomas, we will have Palm Sunday processions and Masses at the usual times for Sunday Masses. The 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Masses will be livestreamed.
Early Holy Week: March 30-April 1
At the Masses for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week, we will hear more of the Songs of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah as well as Gospel readings that tell of the events leading up to the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot. We will return to the Lenten color purple for these Masses.
St. Thomas will have weekday Masses and Confession at the usual times in the early days of Holy Week.
Tenebrae: April 1-3
Tenebrae is part of the Liturgy of the Hours for Holy Week. Specifically, it is a combined service of the Office of Readings (Matins) and Morning Prayer (Lauds) for the last three days of Holy Week. It is anticipated on the evening before the day itself (e.g. on Wednesday evening for Holy Thursday). Latin for “darkness,” Tenebrae is a solemn and contemplative liturgy consisting of sung psalms, readings, and chants anticipating the betrayal and Passion of Christ. Candles will be gradually extinguished until darkness reigns. The service will conclude with Miserere Mei and an unforgettable strepitus, in which the congregation stomps on the floor or slams hymnals on the pews to make a loud noise symbolizing the earthquake that took place after Christ’s death.
Three Ann Arbor-area parishes will pray Tenebrae in the Extraordinary Form this year. English-Latin translations will be provided.
- St. Thomas the Apostle — 7:00 p.m. on April 1 (livestreamed)
- St. Mary Student Parish — 10:00 p.m. on April 2
- St. Mary, Manchester — 7:00 p.m. on April 3
Holy Thursday of the Lord’s Supper: April 2
Holy Thursday is also called Maundy Thursday; this name comes from the Latin mandatum or “commandment,” from the new commandment of love that Christ gave the apostles at the Last Supper. The Catholic Church will celebrate two different Masses on this day. The first, called the Chrism Mass, will be celebrated by each bishop and concelebrated by his priests as a sign of their communion and unity. At this Mass, the Holy Chrism and other Holy Oils will be blessed for use in the sacraments throughout the year. Bishop Boyea will celebrate the Chrism Mass with the priests of the Diocese of Lansing at 10:30 a.m. on Holy Thursday at St. Mary Cathedral. The Mass will be livestreamed for those unable to attend.
The second Mass of the day will be the Mass of the Lord’s Supper; it is celebrated in each parish church. It is actually the first part of the three-day liturgy of the Sacred Paschal Triduum, which runs from the evening of Holy Thursday through the evening of Easter Sunday. Lent will end as this Mass begins. The Triduum liturgy will include the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, the Easter Vigil Mass beginning after sunset on Holy Saturday, and the Mass on Easter Sunday.
At St. Thomas, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper will begin at 7:00 p.m. on Holy Thursday, and it will be livestreamed. This Mass will start with the reception of the Holy Oils that were blessed by our bishop earlier in the day. The readings will tell of Christ’s institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood at the Last Supper. The homily will be followed by the Washing of Feet, a rite based on Christ’s humble act of service for his apostles. Following the distribution of Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament will be carried in procession to a “garden of repose” where the faithful can watch and wait with the Lord, just as he brought his apostles to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray with him. At St. Thomas, we will repose the Blessed Sacrament on a special altar in the parish hall and adore the Lord there until midnight, with Night Prayer being prayed at 11:45 p.m.
Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion: April 3
Sometime in the night, our Lord was betrayed and arrested. Good Friday is the day of his trial, torture, execution, and burial. For an inside look at what happened to Jesus on Good Friday, visit our permanent exhibit on the Shroud of Turin, which will be open from 9:00 a.m. to noon.
On the day of our Lord’s ultimate sacrifice, the Catholic Church actually won’t celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass at all; that was done at the first part of the Triduum liturgy, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The Eucharistic Hosts present at the Good Friday liturgy will be processed in from the altar of repose. At St. Thomas, the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion will begin at noon, it will be livestreamed, and Confession will be available during the liturgy. (If you need help with parking, take a look at this map.) This quiet, somber liturgy will pick up where we left off on Holy Thursday. The ministers will enter in silence and prostrate themselves or kneel before the altar. The Liturgy of the Word will include the final Song of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah and the Passion according to St. John, read or sung by multiple readers as on Palm Sunday. With the Solemn Intercessions, we will pray for the entire world. Afterward, the solemn Adoration of the Holy Cross will take place, with everyone processing to the sanctuary steps to kiss the Cross or genuflect before it. Finally, Holy Communion will be distributed, the liturgy will end in silence, and the altar will be stripped. The Celebration of the Lord’s Passion will be repeated for our Arabic-speaking community at 4:00 p.m.
Following this celebration, there will be two opportunities to pray the Stations of the Cross at St. Thomas. The first will be a Stations of the Cross procession from our parish to St. Mary Student Parish. It will begin at 2:30 p.m. In the event of inclement weather, the Stations will take place inside our church. Your second chance to pray the Stations will be at 7:00 p.m. in our church.
Don’t forget that Good Friday is an obligatory day of fasting and abstinence from eating meat.
Holy Saturday: April 4
Holy Saturday is a quiet, solemn day to reflect on our Lord’s body lying in the tomb, but also his victorious harrowing of hell. The Church recommends that we continue the fast we began on Good Friday. The altar will be bare all day, with no Mass being offered. Yet, the joy of Easter will already be peaking through the gloom. At St. Thomas, we will offer the customary blessing of the Easter food baskets at 10:00 a.m. in the church. This blessing includes a Liturgy of the Word that reminds us of the connection between the Old Testament Passover, when the people of Israel sacrificed a lamb and miraculously escaped from slavery in Egypt by passing through the Red Sea, and the New Testament Passover, when Jesus sacrificed himself so that we could escape from slavery to sin and death because he has passed from death to life.
Later on Holy Saturday, the celebration of the Resurrection will begin with the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night.
Easter Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection: April 4-5
The mother of all vigil Masses and a particularly complex, beautiful, and meaningful liturgy, the Easter Vigil always begins after sundown. We will gather on the plaza outside the church at 8:45 p.m. to begin the vigil at 9:00; the liturgy will be livestreamed. It will start with the lighting of a fire that symbolizes the Resurrection. The priest will prepare, bless, and light a new Paschal Candle, which represents the light of Christ coming back into the world and leading his people. We will process into the church and light candles of our own. A deacon will chant the Exultet, a glorious hymn celebrating our salvation through Christ’s victory over death. This first part of the vigil is called the Lucernarium. An especially long and comprehensive Liturgy of the Word will follow, with seven Old Testament readings, each with a Responsorial Psalm and prayer, an Epistle, the return of the Alleluia after its Lenten absence, and a Gospel account of the Resurrection. The readings take us through all of salvation history from creation to redemption. Next will come the Baptisms and Confirmations of the elect and candidates, along with the Renewal of Baptismal Promises for the entire congregation. Finally, the Liturgy of the Eucharist will be celebrated, with the new members of the Church receiving their first Holy Communion. Expect the vigil to go past well past midnight, especially since we have 27 baptisms this year! A late-night reception will follow in the parish hall courtesy of the Altar Rosary Society.
Our joyful celebration of the Resurrection will continue on Easter Sunday morning with Masses at 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. (the latter will be ASL interpreted and livestreamed). Like the vigil, these will feature a Gospel account of the Resurrection and the Renewal of Baptismal Promises. They will also include the sequence Victimæ paschali laudes before the Gospel, which exults in Christ’s victory over death and our salvation. Our 11:30 a.m. Extraordinary Form liturgy will be an orchestral Mass, with our schola singing Missa brevis in D major by Mozart; it too will be livestreamed. There will be no 6:00 p.m. Mass on Easter Sunday.
There you have it! As a Christian community, we will participate liturgically in our Lord’s passage from a humiliating Death to a glorious Resurrection. We hope to see you at these liturgies!