Our Easter Celebrations

OUR EASTER CELEBRATIONS – 2024

 Note that confessions will be heard for an hour before the services at St Benet’s on Thursday, Friday and Saturday – and also after each service if needed.

Palm Sunday – 24 March; Mass 09:00(OLPS); 10:30 (St Benet’s).

As Jesus enters the Holy City with his disciples, the crowds acclaim him as the Messiah who comes to set his people free.  Their faith in Jesus, together with their hope of salvation, echoes the aspirations of those who built the city and the Temple.

Uglier aspects of human nature are seen in the narrative of the Passion and in the terrible irony of the Roman inscription at the head of the Cross ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’. Today’s liturgy explains what happened during the last days of Jesus’s life on earth.

Maundy Thursday – 28 March; 19:00.

During the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7:00 p.m. we commemorate the washing of the feet of those who followed Jesus to Jerusalem.

After Mass, the procession takes the Blessed Sacrament to the Lady Chapel for adoration at the altar of repose.

Good Friday – 29 March; 10:00; 1045; and 15:00.

We follow the Stations of the Cross in St Benet’s at 10.00. and at 10:45 we follow the Cross from St Benet’s up Ballygate to Exchange Square for a short service, shared with the other Christian churches.

The Liturgy of the Passion, at 3.00 pm commemorates the death of Jesus: we listen to St John’s account of the arrest, trial and Passion of our Lord and his Life given for us is received in the Bread consecrated the previous evening.

Holy Saturday – 30 March; 10:00;and and The Easter Vigil; 20:00.

At Morning Prayer (10:00 am) we remember the great Passover of Jesus from death to Life.

The Vigil on Saturday evening at 8:00 pm in St Benet’s, presents the emblems of our Life in Christ, beginning with the Easter Candle representing the illumination given in Baptism.  During the baptismal liturgy we renew our Baptismal Promises. The readings recount the highlights of salvation history, and the Easter Eucharist reminds us that the Life of Jesus renews the lives of those who receive Him.

Easter Sunday, 31 March; Masses 09:00 (OLPS); 10:30 (St Benet’s.

The Life of the Resurrection, revealed by angels in the Gospel of Easter night, dawns upon the witnesses who approach the empty tomb on Easter Morning.

The Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke which we hear at the Easter Vigil, contrast with St John’s version, read on Easter Day.

The three witnesses, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John the Evangelist, discover the truth of the Resurrection on a profoundly personal level. Their faith is tested, then enhanced through the physical absence of the Lord’s body.