During this time of physical distancing due to Covid-19, I hope and pray all of you are able to maintain spiritual and social connection beyond your immediate families and households. We are fortunate to live in an era which enables those connections virtually through technology. I am aware that many of us who are Christian, especially Catholics, are likely going through an especially difficult time as the moral requirement to sustain the health of others and our own health requires this Eucharistic fast for an unclear duration, including this week – Holy Week – our most sacred time of the year. I hope you will take advantage of the many options to find a spiritually nourishing celebration of the Eucharist through live streaming from various parishes. The website withyourspirit.org is a good crowd-sourced national list.

In the meantime, I am taking the time to go back through my own consultation work with St. Mary of Mt. Carmel / Blessed Sacrament Church in Utica, NY, where I have celebrated and helped M.C. the liturgies of Holy Week. This is the first time in 20 years that I am not with that parish community for Holy Week. While this is sad for me, I know that there will be future opportunities and it is important to be spiritually nourished by these deep connections. As a result, I am posting here a link to my reflection of the experience from 2016 from this parish community, You can also check out a playlist of various YouTube videos featuring recordings of the music from that liturgy as well as the concert which followed, performed by other artists and composers.

Finally, I include this beautiful liturgical dance / gesture that was part of the Psalm for the 2015 Holy Thursday liturgy there.

The parish also has many prayer resources for celebrating at home for this year.

May the beginning of the Easter Triduum be blessed for you as we join spiritually with those throughout the world to remember the deep and abiding service