Auckland Bishop Patrick Dunn said this year’s Holy Week celebrations may be different but can be “a time of great blessing”.
“I’m very conscious that on Palm Sunday, we are moving into Holy Week. And it’s certainly going to be a different kind of Holy Week, with none of the large gatherings and the beautiful liturgies that we usually associate at this time of the year,” he said in a video recorded at the Pompallier Diocesan Centre and posted on St Patrick Cathedral’s Facebook page.
“But instead, it is going to be a personal private journey as it is for many people at different times. “
Bishop Dunn said on Palm Sunday Mass and a Good Friday liturgy, will be broadcast on Shine TV, channel 25 on Freeview (Channel 201 on Sky TV).
The Palm Sunday Mass will be shown on Sunday at 1.35 pm while the Good Friday liturgy will be at 8.30 am on that channel.
Bishop Dunn also announced there will be a 3 pm national Catholic liturgy available in all the websites of the different dioceses of New Zealand.
Each diocese had already linked resources such as prayers and reflections on their websites for Holy Week.
“I pray that Holy Week this year will be a time of special blessing and I wish you a very happy Easter even if we are going to celebrate it in our bubbles and in the middle of a pandemic. Our forebears in faith endured similar challenges and survived and flourished. And I’m sure, we will, too. So, God bless you all,” Bishop Dunn said.
Obviously, from the point of view of the flock, it is comparable to being a pioneering Catholic or one in cold war USSR or contemporary China, etc.
However the big point of difference, and utterly unprecedented in 2000 years, is the reverse perspective from the pulpit and altar – ALL the clergy, everywhere, have had their flocks removed from them.
Ponder that.