My dear people in Christ:

It is customary to write you on Easter -- about Easter, because this is the Feast of Feasts. “If Christ not be risen,” St. Paul asks, “our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins.” And St. Peter urges the people of God to thank Him because He has “begotten them again, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unto a living hope.” Easter is the day that the Lord has made.

But it stands clear only when we grasp its context. Since Ash Wednesday we have been encouraged by the Church (in the new Constitution on the Liturgy) to think of our baptism and keep our Paschal fast. “With uplifted and clear mind” then “the joys of the Sunday or the resurrection may be attained.”

In more intimate yet more social-minded prayers during Lent, in practices of denial, in works of goodness to others and of the generosity of sacrifice to the Church, you have progressed in the spirit during these past weeks. It is the prayer of all our priests that you are ready to live once more the stirring times of Holy Week.

The beloved ritual of the past will still take place -- the blessings of the palms on Sunday, the Eucharist on Thursday, the veneration of the cross on Friday, the renewal of baptismal vows on Saturday. We must remember, with Pope Paul VI, that the liturgy grows as a tree; it loses none of its vital energy even when it changes.

Now, as to Palm Sunday’s ceremony with its palms and the reading of the Passion (in English), there has been added the procession of clergy, religious and laity bearing palms. Surely it is that participation which is “full, conscious and active.” And when all of dispositions with mind turned to voices, the Church is confident that the faithful are “fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite, and enriched by its effects.”

On Holy Thursday, the principal Mass will be at the Cathedral at 10 a.m. This is the Mass of the Chrism celebrated by the bishop and a group of his priests (Concelebration) surrounded by the rest of the clergy, the religious and the laity. At this Mass, the materials for certain of your sacraments will be consecrated: the oils of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders and the Anointing of the Sick. But it is more than this; it is a “truly priestly celebration on the day of the institution of the priesthood.” The lesson and gospel have been changed to stress the priestly mission of service. On the first Holy Thursday, Our Lord not only instituted the Eucharist for all, but He gave His Church the priesthood when he empowered the apostles to “do this in memory of me.”

In evening Masses in the parish churches, the rite will be different. This is the Mass of the Last Supper, and our memories of earlier Holy Thursdays will be renewed again. We will live once more in the Upper Room as Jesus takes the bread and wine and blesses them saying: “This is my Body...This is the Chalice of My Blood.”

The Good Friday liturgy still retains its four parts: (a) the Bible-readings including St. John’s account of the Passion of Our Lord; (b) the Solemn Prayers (for the Church, pope, faithful rulers of states, those to be baptized, the needs of the faithful, the unity of the Church, the Jews, and those who do not yet believe in Christ; (c) the Solemn Veneration of the Cross, and, (d) the Communion.

In a recent article by Father A. Burgnini, C.M. secretary of the post conciliar commission (L’Osservatore Romano, Mar. 19), the changes made in the Solemn prayers are called simply “retouchings.” But they bring the prayers alive with the spirit of Pope John XXIII. The beloved pontiff in 1959 eliminated the offensive word “perfidious” from the prayer for the Jews. The last three prayers are renamed and said in ecumenical tones. In the first prayer, “For the Church,” one phrase that might hint at temporal power has been suppressed. Father Bugnini’s comment about this is, “real in other times, but now out-of-date.”

Saturday’s focus remains shifted away from the early morning service we remember from the past. It is the Vigil of the day the Lord has made, and we await it at a proper hour -- Saturday evening. We are present at the ritual of fire, the Paschal Candle (“The light of Christ”), the difficult to sing but glorious Exultel, the Easter Message: the Lessons about Baptism, the Litany of the Saints, the blessing of Baptismal water, followed by the Mass of the Vigil.

Easter Sunday has its own joy and glory, but unless we live the events of Holy Week, it can be lost in a welter of old hymns, old memories, and new clothes. All the events from Lent on, and especially this last sacred week, bring us to Easter and we are poor pilgrims if we come without the provisions and experiences gathered on the days before.

Almost all of our Catholic people, certainly representatives of all of our families, can take part in the liturgy of the week. The times are scheduled to fit the American working day. The churches are, for the most part, easily near by. The parishes are providing booklets to help you follow and understand, respond and sing.

It is a precious time of year for the growth of the spirit in Christ just as nature takes her rebirth in the same spring. It is discouraging that some think more of elaborate hats and clothes (and the bills that come with them) than of their baptismal robes. And it is sad that there are Catholics whose longing for the old ways keeps their minds closed and their hearts cold to the historic rebirth of the Church in our times. We ask that as people of God they pray for better vision and more heartfelt fidelity to the Church which is Christ’s Body.

And we ask of all our Catholic people a new intensity, a quiet confidence and a refreshed loyalty. May the Risen Christ find us waiting in prayer, not wanting in faith!

Sincerely in Christ,

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta

(Part II of this Holy Week message will explain the two new elements which will become a regular part of our liturgy next week: Communion under the appearance of Bread and Wine on occasions like weddings, jubilees, the Mass after conversion, etc.) and concelebration (more than one celebrant of the Mass).