The liturgical services that take place during the Triduum are the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the Good Friday of the Lord's Passion and the Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord three Holy Days.

The single celebration of the Triduum marks the end of the Lenten season, and leads to the Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord at the Easter Vigil. Though chronologically three days, they are liturgically one day unfolding for us the unity of Christ's Paschal Mystery. The summit of the Liturgical Year is the Easter Triduum-from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday. The Catholic Bishops of the United States explain Those practices continue for forty days until the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, which officially begins the Triduum, a Latin word for three days. They serve as a sign of our sincere sorrow for offending God and our new commitment to living a lifestyle of repentance and conversion.īeing marked with those ashes begins our Lenten observances, practices and disciplines. Those ashes being rubbed into your head have been long associated with repentance, or turning away from wrongdoing.

Another form of the admonition is even more simple, ' repent and believe the Good news'. ' Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel' or 'Remember you are dust and to dust you will return'. The Order of the Ash Wednesday service offers exhortations to be said by the Priest or the Deacon as the Ashes, the burnt Palms from the prior year's Passion/Palm Sunday, are rubbed into the penitent's forehead. This witness is crucial in a world embracing its own forms of self imposed slavery and desperately in need of the freedom which Jesus Christ alone can bring.Â Â By embracing its practices of prayer, fasting and alms-giving voluntarily, we are joined to billions of other Christians in every Nation on the earth, in a bond of solidarity which bears witness to the truth of the Gospel. A time for reflection, repentance and contemplation, geared toward conversion. The purpose of this season is twofold to be freed from sin and disordered appetites in order to be freed for a New Way of living.Â Lent, for those willing to receive it, is meant to be a gift to each of us as individuals. Spiritually, by entering into the Desert with Jesus Christ, we find the way, through the Hill of Calvary and the empty tomb, to real freedom. We move out of the cold barrenness of winter and, as the days grow longer,long for the promise of New Life which comes with Spring. The term is derived from an old English word which meant the lengthening of days. Together we begin again the 40 day journey of repentance and conversion known as Lent. Keywords: Lent, Forty Days, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, sacrament of penance, ashes ash wednesday, conversion, penitent, Deacon Keith FournierĬHESAPEAKE, VAÂ (Catholic Online) - On this Ash Wednesday I stand alongside of the Priest to administer the ashes to the faithful who come forward.

Self imposition of ashes