The ups and downs of Holy week can be a roller coaster experience. From “Hosanna, hosanna” to “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” the liturgies are so rich with joy and hope, grief and anxieties. But in the end, joy and hope are victorious! While each year Holy Week looks slightly different for our community, there is always a beautiful, simple, and prayerful rhythm to the week.
This year, Tuesday, Sr. Alicia represented our community at the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral. The Chrism Mass is when the priests, deacons, and representatives of a diocese gather around the Bishop to renew the unity of the Church under the authority of the Bishop, as well as receive the blessed oils that will be used the following year to welcome new members into the Church and sanctify the people in the Sacraments. St. Francis taught us to love our Lord by honoring his representatives here on earth, and in this way to honor His prayer that we are one, united around the table of His Body and Blood.
On Holy Thursday, our community has the tradition of having a special midday meal to celebrate the Institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood. This meal usually includes a roasted lamb and this year was no different! After the meal, we headed downtown to Holy Name Cathedral where Bishop Bob concelebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper with Cardinal Cupich. Some of the community stayed to watch and pray there at the cathedral; a few others adventured to the wild west suburbs to observe the tradition of the church tour. We kept it simple, visiting only Immaculate Conception in Elmhurst. But it was enough! The church was BEAUTIFULLY decorated- it truly felt like the garden of Eden! The connection was intentional: the tradition of decorating the altar of repose on Holy Thursday is to connect the garden of Eden with the garden of Gethsemane – whereas the garden was Adam’s place of disobedience to God, the garden was Jesus’ place of obedience to the Father, accepting His death so to conquer sin and death.
On Good Friday, everything is quiet and solemn on Iowa Street. On every other day of the year, our community prays the Office of Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours in private, but on Good Friday, we gather together in the chapel to pray the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer together before the stripped altar and empty tabernacle. The rest of the day is spent in silence and prayer, with a simple soup and bread available at meal times as needed.
For the past few years, we have had the tradition of attending the service of the Lord’s Passion at St. Hyacinth’s Basilica. The service starts very solemnly with four very serious altar servers carrying huge banners, processing in funeral tone down the aisle. The readings are ancient and somber, recalling the prophecy of the suffering servant that Jesus would fulfill. And then- the Gospel. Jesus’ part has typically been sung by Fr. Stan, who convincingly communicates Jesus’ peaceful surrender in his deep and melancholic baritone. The narrator is informative, and speaks simply her parts. But the charm of the solemn reading is the melodramatic choral accents, played by recording, of an innocent young girl’s voice singing “Jesus, you are truly the savior of the world” and echoed in choir. The recording supplies the extra characters in the Passion from the haughty Pilate to the defensive Peter; the quality of this drama is only heightened by the needling of the live organ that creates all of the background build-up of a scary scene to the tragic lyricism of a hero fallen. Truly stupendous. The last extraordinary highlight of the service is the liturgical use of tiki torches, handled by none other than the professional altar services, to accompany the Cross to the altar for veneration.
Holy Saturday is traditionally spent having a quieter work day in the morning – keeping busy and preparing our hearts for the great Vigil of Easter! For the Easter Vigil, we like to visit parishes where we have connections with those being baptized or received into the Church or where the parish or priests are good friends and supporters of the community. This year, Sr. Stephanie had a student who, along with his brother and mother, were being received into the church at Jesus, Bread of Life parish. She and Sr. Alicia attended the Easter Vigil there, while others of the Franciscans attended the Vigil at St. Pius X and St. Leonard’s in Berwyn. The Easter Vigil is truly the liturgical highpoint of the year, and each parish celebrated the mysteries with reverence and due honor.
Finally – on Easter Sunday we dispersed a bit, some attending Mass with their families – but the majority of the Franciscans attended Mass at Notre Dame in Clarendon Hills as a gesture of gratitude for all that they do to support the Mission. In recent highlights, they donated $20,000 to purchase 800 Easter hams for our neighbors! After Mass, the exodus was complete: most of us went our separate ways to visit family and friends to celebrate the festivities.
