Confessions
during Holy Week
I highly encourage all who wish to confess during Holy Week to do so early in the week, if at all possible. Expect very long lines during the Sacred Triduum.
First Friday & First Saturday
in Holy Week
Holy Week represents a difficult or even insurmountable challenge to satisfying the requirements of the First Friday and First Saturday devotions. On Good Friday, we enter into the disposition of loss of Our Lady at the foot of the Cross and, therefore, we do not receive Holy Communion. It is a singular day for the sacred liturgy. On the Vigil of Easter, only one Mass is said and – as it is quite long and begins at a later hour – it may not be possible for all of the faithful to assist.
Specific provision for First Saturday was made by Our Lord, in a conversation with Sr. Lucia on May 29, 1930. He instructed her, “The practice of this devotion will be equally acceptable on the Sunday following the first Saturday when My priests, for a just cause, allow it to souls.” In light of this, I am permitting all the faithful attached to St. Stephen’s to make their Communion of Reparation for the First Saturday devotions on Easter Sunday (April 5). Those who do assist on the Vigil of Easter are of course still free to make this Communion at that Mass. The devotion of First Friday is less clear. It seems that the faithful of previous generations were careful to begin the nine consecutive First Fridays after Easter in the midst of a year where Good Friday coincided with First Friday. We may easily imagine that Our Lord would be well pleased with a Spiritual Communion made on Good Friday, or a Communion made on some other day during Holy Week; however, this is not revealed to us and remains speculative.
Schedule
for Holy Week
Palm Sunday – Normal schedule. Procession at 1 pm.
Monday & Tuesday – Normal schedule.
Wednesday –
- 7 am & noon: Mass (confessions beforehand as usual)
- 5 pm – 5:45 pm: Confessions
- 6 pm: Tenebrae
Holy Thursday –
- 7 am – 8:30 am: Confessions
- 9 am: Mass of the Last Supper
- Adoration at the Altar of Repose overnight
- 5 pm – 5:45 pm: Confessions
- 6 pm: Tenebrae
Good Friday –
- 7 am – 8:30 am: Confessions
- 9 am: Mass of the Presanctified
- 5 pm – 5:45 pm: Confessions
- 6 pm: Tenebrae
Holy Saturday – Vigil Mass at 4 pm.
