Even as the liturgical shutdown of most of the Western church approaches the one-month mark, in a particular way, this is the night when the hit really sinks in.
With a disorienting Lent now completed on this Holy Thursday afternoon, the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper opens the Paschal Triduum – always the summit of the Christian year, but this time with an even greater intensity and range of emotion due to circumstances without precedent in modern times.
Again, here’s hoping you and yours are all getting through OK – as ever, all prayers from here toward that end. While the livestreams abound for tonight’s rites, we return to the focal point of this one Body: an empty St Peter’s Basilica, as the Pope leads the Evening Mass at the Altar of the Chair from 6pm Rome (Noon Eastern).