With the approaching of Easter, the Maronite archbishop of Damascus, Samir Nassar, recounts the Sisters’ humble evangelical service that still gives hope to the people

Good Friday commemorates the Passion of the Lord, the day of the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Nowhere in the world is Mass offered on this day. Reception of the Most Holy Eucharist is possible because hosts were consecrated the evening before at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The veneration of the cross, the instrument of Christ’s death that brought about our redemption, is a powerful reminder that each of us were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured (Council of Trent, I, 5, 11).

After Jesus died and his body was placed in the tomb, he could have ascended to heaven without appearing to anyone. But Jesus rose and he appeared to his disciples, and he did so for a number of very important reasons.

Triumph and Victory. The Resurrection was emphatic proof that Jesus had decisively and convincingly conquered sin and death.

“Like the prophets before him Jesus expressed the deepest respect for the Temple in Jerusalem.” (CCC 583)
Dave Armstrong

The “holy place” is a thoroughly biblical notion. Jerusalem was and is a holy city:

Matthew 4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, (cf. Neh 11:1, 18; Is 48:2)

Matthew 27:53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

The temple in Jerusalem (destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70) was a particularly holy place:

They trace their founding to the voyage to Alexandria of St. Mark, the apostle of Jesus and New Testament author. Just a decade or two after the original Easter, which Christians celebrate around the world, tradition states that Mark founded their church, one of the earliest in the Middle East and the first in Africa. It was to become a pillar of early Christendom.

Some 2,000 years later, Egypt’s Coptic Christians have become the preferred target of the Islamic State group, an apocalyptic cult seeking religious war.

Promoters of the “Prosperity Gospel” often have less to say during Holy Week. The Theology of the Cross is not their strong suit, especially when applied not simply to the God-man Jesus Christ, but to us mere human beings who are called to follow in the Savior’s footsteps. What to tell a Christian when profound suffering comes unexpectedly in their lives and/or lasts much longer than expected? How do such experiences square with hopes of prosperity?

Cuban bishops to the Vatican at the end of the month; behind the scenes of a complex, yet promising moment for the relationship between state and church authorities

When visiting a Catholic church for Sunday Mass, it is hard not to notice all the parishioners pause for a second as they file in through the various entrances. They stop, dip their fingers in a bowl of water and then make the sign of the cross over their body.

Why do they do that?

Besides remembering Christ’s passion and professing their faith in the Holy Trinity, Catholics bless themselves with holy water primarily as a reminder of our Baptism.
Read more: Why do Catholics make the Sign of the Cross before praying?

Mary, my Mother, you were the first to live the Way of the Cross.

You felt every pain and every humiliation. You were unafraid of the ridicule heaped upon you by the crowds. Your eyes were ever on Jesus and his pain. Is that the secret of your miraculous strength? How did your loving heart bear such a burden and such a weight? As you watched him stumble and fall, were you tortured by the memory of all the yesterdays — his birth, his hidden life and his ministry?

Holy Week

In the first centuries of the Church, the week preceding the solemnity of Easter was called the “Great Week.” Then as now, Holy Week is the commemoration of the successful conclusion of the work of salvation accomplished by our Lord, starting with Christ’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, and culminating with His glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Below is a brief summation of events.

Palm Sunday