CTK Observes Lent
The 2018 Lenten Season has begun. Over the past five weeks, Catholics have been preparing to celebrate the Paschal Mystery: the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord. Ash Wednesday, which opens the Lenten Season, a season of fasting, prayer and alms-giving, came early this year, on Valentine’s Day, February 14, compared to last year’s March 1
Between Ash Wednesday and the Holy Week, which starts on Palm Sunday, March 25, there had been five Sundays of Lent. Christ the King also scheduled several ‘Way of the Cross’, every Friday at the main church, and on scheduled dates for the different villages
Holy Week kicks off with Palm Sunday, when parishioners come to mass with newly acquired palm fronds to commemorate the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem, which they will wave during the mass for blessing by the officiating priest. The Palm Sunday masses are marked with the dramatization of the Passion of the Lord. Holy Week will go until the morning of Holy Thursday when there will only be one mass in the whole diocese, at 6:30 am at Immaculate Conception Cathedral, which is the annual Chrism Mass where the chrism or holy anointing oil, is consecrated and blessed by the bishop for use by the parishes throughout the next 12 months.
Although by popular understanding, Holy Thursday is part of Holy Week, the evening of Holy Thursday and all of Good Friday and Holy Saturday are, by liturgical definition, no longer part of Holy Week but considered belonging to the ‘Easter Triduum’. Holy Thursday is marked by an afternoon ‘Mass of the Lord’s Supper’, at 5:30 pm. This is followed by the Eucharistic Vigil when the Blessed Sacrament is brought down to the Divine Mercy Chapel for the Eucharistic Vigil, which will last till midnight.
The last Way of the Cross will be on Good Friday, March 30, when ‘the Passion of the Lord’ is celebrated at 3 pm. Though not a full mass, it will still have the Liturgy of the Word, Veneration of the Cross, and Holy Communion. This is followed by the Procession of the Images of the Santo Entierro, the Madre Dolorosa, and various other saints, at 4:30 pm.
Holy Saturday, March 31, the last day of the Easter Triduum, will see the Solemn Easter Vigil which will start at 8 pm and last till 11 pm. The Vigil will include the Service of the Light, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of Baptism, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. At the end of this long vigil comes the much awaited ‘Salubong’, where the Image of the Risen Christ which will come from the Acropolis gate and the Image of the Blessed Mother which will come from Giraffe corner GreenMeadows Streets meet in front of the CTK Formation Center.
The next day, Easter Sunday, April 1, marks the formal start of the Easter Season, where each mass will have a Renewal of Baptismal Promises. There will be eight Sundays of Easter. The seventh Sunday, May 13, is the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, while the eight and last, is Pentecost Sunday, on May 20. Pentecost Sunday will mark the end of the Easter Season, after which the liturgical calendar reverts back to ‘Ordinary Way of the Cross at Enclave-Ivory Court, Time’.
