‘Commemorations, conversations, Easter cake!’
“I really loved this hour. The silence and Fr. Niall’s soulful music were beautiful, it created a space where I could really get a sense of Jesus’ anguish in the garden at Gethsemane. I felt that it helped me to prepare for the Good Friday services too”. So said one parishioner referring to the Holy Hour held in the Sacred Heart Chapel, Gardiner St Chruch on Holy Thursday as part of their Holy Week and Easter celebrations, April 2023.
The following day, Good Friday began with a public ‘Way of the Cross’ at 12 noon. Fr Richard led parishioners through parish streets and estates in the city centre area, stopping at designated points to pray the stations of the cross. Fr. Niall Leahy SJ, PP, accompanied him on his guitar with music at each station.
The Holy Week liturgies and the Easter Triduum at St. Francis Xavier’s Church, Gardiner Street, were very well attended this year, according to Christine O’Halloran of the church’s faith development team. “The increased numbers seemed to indicate that finally, parishioners have a renewed sense of trust and hope following the Covid-19 pandemic,” she says. Read her full report below of how they celebrated the highlight of the church’s liturgical year.
Conversations, conversations, easter simnel cake!
The blessing and distribution of palms at the Passion Sunday Mass on 2 April marked the beginning of Holy Week services in Gardiner St Church. A service of reconciliation followed on Wednesday evening, 5 April, with those attending being led through an examination of conscience and then availing of individual confessions in the church.
On Holy Thursday at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, six parishioners three women and three men, had their feet ritually washed by Fr. Richard O’Dwyer, SJ.
Mass was followed by the ‘Watch and Pray’ holy hour in the Sacred Heart Chapel. One parishioner commented, “I really loved this hour. The silence and Fr. Niall’s soulful music was beautiful, it created a space where I could really get a sense of Jesus’ anguish in the garden at Gethsemane. I felt that it helped me to prepare for the Good Friday services too”.
Good Friday began with ‘The Way of the Cross’ at 12 noon. Again, Fr. Richard led parishioners through parish streets and estates, stopping at designated points to pray the stations of the cross. Fr. Niall Leahy SJ, PP, accompanied him on his guitar with music at each station. This was a wonderful opportunity for local communities to join together in prayer and song as they walked in solidarity with Jesus, remembering the long and painful journey to Golgotha. The Liturgy of the Passion followed in St. Francis Xavier’s church at 3 pm. Singing by cantor Roisin O’Reilly was beautiful, yet so powerful, and created a genuine atmosphere of solemn grief, which actually moved some of those present to tears.
The Vigil mass at 9 pm on Holy Saturday was concelebrated by Fr. Shane Daly, recently appointed Jesuit Provincial. Mass began in total darkness before the lighting of the Paschal candle, it ended with a church flooded in radiant light. Afterwards the church’s “Easter people” now bathed in the energy of the resurrection, chatted over tea, coffee, and homemade simnel cake in the Pope Francis hallway. Easter Services ended with the annual children’s Easter egg hunt in the community garden after the 11am mass on Easter day.
Iva Beranek, the parish manager, commented, “One of the highlights for me during the Holy Triduum & Easter liturgies was music, in particular a few songs that touched my soul on a deeper level. From “I see His blood upon a rose” on Good Friday, to “The Deer’s Cry” on Easter Sunday, the singers really helped me to enter into the atmosphere of each day.
I never would have thought of singing Saint Patrick’s Breastplate (The Deer’s Cry) on Easter, and yet singing “I arise today” was so appropriate! I love St. Patrick and this little ‘Easter gift’ was a true blessing.
Christine O’Halloran
Easter 2023.
