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 links from Good Friday 2016 and the Easter Vigil 2016 from this parish community. Below is a video excerpt of the sung prayer of Psalm 31 enacted in beautiful gesture from 2016.

And here is the full celebration of The Great Vigil of Easter from 2018.

Finally be sure to visit their website for a recorded Easter Sunday Mass and other prayer resources for this Holy Week and future ones!