Sacred Triduum

The Crucifixion from the Stations of the Cross in our church.

Dear Friends,

As we approach the Sacred Triduum in these uniquely difficult circumstances, be assured of my prayers for you as I offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass each day in our little church, holding you all before the Lord.

From our parish.

Please remember in prayer Aleksander Chodasiewicz - Margaret Rooney's Father-in-law. Alek died in his nursing home in Lytham last week aged 100; the cause of death has been recorded as Covid 19.

Please also pray for Lily Clayton, a long-time parishioner, though housebound for many years, who also died this week. Requiescat in pace.

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Other things of interest this Holy Week:

The Crown of Thorns, saved from the fire in Paris Cathedral, is to be displayed for veneration during a Good Friday broadcast. See HERE.

The Holy Shroud of Turin is also to be displayed for veneration on Holy Saturday. See HERE

https://shroud.com/latebrak.htm

Please do try your best to spend a few minutes in prayer each day - most especially during the Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. As we walk with Our Blessed Lord in His sufferings let us also accompany in prayer all those suffering at this time. We walk not blindly but on the road to glorious resurrection and new life. 

Good Friday remains a day of fasting and abstinence and perhaps our efforts are even more important in marking the day this year when we cannot gather together as God's family in His house.  Particularly at 3pm stop if you can and mark the moment of Our Lord's death.  You might read the Passion Gospel if you have a Missal or Bible or pray the Stations of the Cross. You might use one of the prayers below:

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FROM THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee.
Because by Thy holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world.

Consider how thy Jesus, after three hours’ Agony on the Cross, consumed at length with anguish, abandons Himself to the weight of His body, bows His head, and dies.

O my dying Jesus, I kiss devoutly the Cross on which Thou didst die for love of me. I have merited by my sins to die a miserable death; but Thy death is my hope. By the merits of Thy death, give me grace to die, embracing Thy feet, and burning with love for Thee. I yield my soul into Thy hands. I love Thee with my whole heart; I repent of ever having offended Thee. Never permit me to offend Thee again. Grant that I may love Thee always; and then do with me what Thou wilt.

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PRAYER BEFORE A CRUCIFIX

Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus,

while before Thy face I humbly kneel and,

with burning soul,

pray and beseech Thee

to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments

of faith, hope and charity;

true contrition for my sins,

and a firm purpose of amendment.

While I contemplate,

with great love and tender pity,

Thy five most precious wounds,

pondering over them within me

and calling to mind the words which David,

Thy prophet, said of Thee, my Jesus:

"They have pierced My hands and My feet,

they have numbered all My bones."

Amen.

The Relic of the True Cross enthroned on our High Altar last year.

" Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God; whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises."
Isaiah, 53