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Christians in Sri Lanka will be caught between two very different celebrations on Good Friday which is also their New Year's Day.  Observed not only by the Sinhalese people but by most Sri Lankans, Aluth Avurudda  or the Sinhalese New Year celebrates the traditional Lunar New Year, which this year fall on April 14.  Amidst the sound of firecrackers, drums and family celebrations, it will be tough for Christians to rein in with Good Friday prayer, fasting, the Way of the Cross and visiting churches, to commemorate the passion and death of Jesus.

However, Ajitha Ranjani, a Catholic teacher, has a compromising solution. "Even though the New Year falls on Good Friday there will be no change in the way we will experience the passion, suffering and death of Jesus. We will celebrate the New Year with our Buddhist friends the following day," she said.  

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo said that when Catholics celebrate Good Friday this year they should be aware that it is also a time of joyous celebration for Buddhists, who make up most of the population. Cardinal Ranjith said in Messenger, a Catholic weekly, that it would be necessary to conduct Good Friday services in a manner that would not hurt the feelings of the Buddhists.

Bishop Justin Bernard Gnanapragasm of Jaffna, who is based in the former epicenter of the civil war between Tamil and Singhalese, said he was delighted to wish all his Tamil and Singhalese friends a happy and prosperous New Year. "May you all receive God's grace abundantly this year and may His grace help you in your task to be good citizens," he said.  In a New Year and Easter message the bishop observed that "three decades of war are now over and the government has to work hard to bring back normalcy to the lives of Tamil people.”  "People who are still in internally displaced people camps should be resettled and political prisoners must be released.  Responsibility has to be taken for the rehabilitation of ex-combatants and justice has to be sought for war crimes," he added.

Sri Lanka's 20.5 million people are approximately 70 percent Buddhist, 15 percent Hindu, 8 percent Christian and 7 percent Muslim.    (Source: UCAN)

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In what is becoming an annual tradition, priests gather during Holy Week across Indonesia for a two-day spiritual retreat with their bishop to prepare for the Chrism Mass during which they celebrate thier priesthood and renew their priestly promises.  During the Chrism Mass, traditionally celebrated on Holy Thursday morning, the Bishop of a diocese joins his priests in renewing their priestly ‎promises and blesses the oils of the infirm, the catechumens and the holy Chrism used in various ‎sacraments.

The ‎Chrism Mass of Jakarta Archdiocese was observed on Holy Thursday with  hundreds of priests and religious joining Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo in the capital’s cathedral.  Other dioceses held it earlier, to give time to their priests to return to their local communities to celebrate the solemn Holy Week liturgies.  

In Semarang, more than 330 priests attended the Chrism Mass in the local cathedral on Tuesday, with great participation of the local community.  Fr Sukendar Wignyomartaya told AsiaNews that ahead of the service, the archdiocese’s priests took part in a retreat whose central theme was Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, “Amoris Laetitia”.

"Spreading the Word of God in the contemporary social context" was the topic the priests discussed in the Diocese of Malang during their retreat along with their Bishop Henricus Pidyarto Gunawan.  In remarks to AsiaNews, the bishop expressed his joy for the enthusiasm with which priests and the faithful attend the Chrism Mass in every diocese. 

The diocese of Bogor, in West Java province, also organized two days of recollection. “The main theme of our retreat was the fidelity of us priests to Jesus, the Church and humanity,” Fr August Surianto Himawan told AsiaNews.   (Source: AsiaNews)

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Vatican City, Apr 13, 2017 / 06:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has given an interview ahead of his Holy Thursday visit to a prison, warning, among other things, against the hypocrisy of viewing inmates only as criminals beyond hope who deserve to spend their lives in jail.

“At times a certain hypocrisy pushes us to see in prisons only people who have done wrong, for whom the only path is that of the prison,” the Pope said in the interview, published April 13, Holy Thursday.

However, as he often has before, the pontiff stressed that “we all have the possibility of making mistakes. All of us in one way or another have erred. And hypocrisy makes it so you think there is no possibility of changing one’s life.”

Francis lamented that there often seems to be a lack of trust in rehabilitation and the ability for prisoners to be reinserted into society. With this mentality, “one forgets that we are all sinners and, often, that we are also prisoners without realizing it.”

“When we stay closed in our prejudices, or are enslaved by idols of a false wellbeing, when we move within ideological schemes or make absolute market laws that crush people, in reality you doing nothing other than stand between the narrow walls of the cell of individualism and self-sufficiency.”

In doing this one is “deprived of the truth that creates freedom,” he said, cautioning that “to point your finger at someone who has done wrong cannot become an excuse for hiding one’s own contradictions.”

Pope Francis gave his interview to Paolo Rodari of Italian newspaper La Repubblica. It was published to coincide with the Pope’s Holy Thursday visit to a prison on the outskirts of Rome for former members of the mafia, where he will wash the feet of 12 men and women serving various sentences, and who are both Christian and Muslim.

The interview focused largely on the Pope’s many visits to prisons as part of Holy Week and during international trips, as well as his preference for the “discarded” and the rising danger of modern war and conflicts.

He said the idea of visiting prisons came largely through the example of the late Cardinal Secretary of State, Agostino Casaroli, who passed away in 1998 and would frequently spend his Saturday nights at youth prisons on Rome’s Via Casal del Marmo.

Francis, who has washed the feet of inmates on Holy Thursday in both 2013 and 2015, said the reason he is choosing to do so again is because of Christ’s declaration that “I was a prisoner and you visited me.”

“The mandate of Jesus goes for each one of us, but above all the bishop, who is the father of everyone,” the Pope said, noting that when some inmates express their guilt to him, he responds by telling them: “let whoever is not guilty throw the first stone.”

“Let us look inside and try to find our faults. Then, the heart will become more human,” he said, explaining that priests and bishops must always be disposed to serve others.

When asked about his attention to those who are discarded, Pope Francis turned to the Gospel episode of the hemorrhaging woman who touched Jesus’ cloak and was healed.

This scene, he said, reflects the fact that “Jesus gives health and freedom to the socially and religiously discriminated…Jesus’ heart is always for them, for the excluded, as among other things the woman was perceived and represented then.”

Although the woman was afraid to be seen, Jesus admired her faith and in meeting her gaze, he didn’t chastise her, but rather welcomed her with mercy and tenderness, seeking a personal encounter that gives her dignity.

The same thing goes for each of us when we feel “discarded” by our sins, the Pope said, explaining that “we must have the courage to go to him, to ask for forgiveness for our sins and to go forward. With courage, like this woman did.”

When it comes to war and conflict, Francis said that in his opinion sin today “manifests itself with all its strength of destruction in wars, in the different forms of violence and mistreatment, in the abandonment of the most fragile.”

Echoing similar statements that he frequently makes, the Pope noted that it’s the poor and vulnerable that are the first to pay the price.

When faced with these situations in the midst of Holy Week, the Pope said the only thing that comes to his mind “to ask with more strength for peace for this world subjected to arms traffickers who earn with the blood of men and women.”

Looking back at the violence of the past century, marred by two World Wars and numerous other conflicts, Francis said it’s hard to tell whether or not the world is more violent now than it was then, or if thanks to modern communications technologies we are simply “more aware of violence or more addicted to it.”

He stressed the importance of not responding to violence with violence, saying “violence is not the cure for our shattered world.”

Responding to violence with violence leads “at best” to forced migration and suffering, an imbalance in the distribution of resources, and difficulties for youth, families in hardship, elderly and the sick.

“In the worst case,” he said, “it brings the death, both physical and spiritual, of many, if not all.”

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Lincoln, Neb., Apr 13, 2017 / 06:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Eucharistic adoration offers a powerful chance to encounter Christ’s love in silence and humility, and that experience can transform our hearts, both individually and as a Church, said Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln, Neb. in a new pastoral letter.

“Love is selfless sacrifice, and sacrifice is the language of love. Love is the gift of ourselves to our beloved. And Christ made a gift of himself – he gave us his body and blood – poured himself out for our salvation, when he conquered death by dying and rising again,” Bishop Conley said. “Christ gave us his body and blood, as an act of love, so that we could know the love of God.”

“Before he conquered death forever, in a sacrifice of love, Jesus gave himself to the Church in the gift of the Eucharist,” the bishop reflected.

His pastoral letter “Love Made Visible” was released for Holy Thursday, when the Catholic liturgy marks the Last Supper. The letter reflects upon the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper and draws on the writings of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI on the Eucharist.

“In the Eucharist, the apostles received a share in Christ’s own identity: they became a part of his passion and death, and they became a part of his Resurrection,” Bishop Conley said. “The Eucharist unified the apostles to Jesus Christ in the bonds of his sacrificial love.”

Bishop Conley cited Pope Benedict XVI: when Jesus Christ changes the bread and wine into his body and blood, “he anticipates his death, he accepts it into his heart, and he transforms it into an action of love.”

Receiving Jesus Christ’s body and blood allows his disciples in the Church to “be unified to him in love.”

“In the Eucharist, we are made sharers in Christ’s mission of love,” Bishop Conley continued. “In the Eucharist, we are called to make disciples of all nations, so that all people will know the freedom of life in the love of the Lord.”

This mission must be renewed daily through a deepening of love for God, and the Holy Eucharist is at the heart of this renewal, he said.

“The Eucharist is at the center of every good work that the Church undertakes,” the bishop said. In the gift of the Eucharist, Jesus has given himself to us “so that as we follow him, we can be unified to his life, and he can be present, with us, at all times, until the end of the world.”

Bishop Conley praised Eucharistic adoration as “a particularly powerful encounter with the Lord.” The silence of adoration teaches true humility.

“As we kneel before our Creator-God, we are confronted with the power and the mystery of God’s love,” he continued. “And it is from this silence and humility that we experience a deep communion and friendship with God.”

On June 18, the Feast of Corpus Christi, Bishop Conley will re-dedicate the Bishops’ Chapel at Lincoln’s Cathedral of the Risen Christ as a perpetual adoration chapel. He prayed that the chapel would become “a source of renewal in the hearts of all Catholics, and in our families, and in the world.”

He also encouraged pastors and Catholic schools to provide more opportunity for Eucharistic adoration.

In Bishop Conley’s words: “Kneeling before Christ in the Eucharist, the hopeless find hope. The weak find strength. Captives find freedom. The afflicted find comfort. The mourning find consolation. The lonely find friendship. Sinners find mercy.”

“Kneeling before Christ in the Eucharist, all of us find love. And love is what we are longing for,” he said. “Before Christ in Eucharist – love made visible – each one of us discovers that the enduring, satisfying, life-giving answer to the questions of our lives is Love: love poured out from Jesus, and love poured out from us into the world, as missionaries of Christ’s salvation.”

He praised the longtime practice of Eucharistic adoration in the Lincoln diocese.

“We are blessed with priests and religious who love and promote Eucharistic adoration, with college students who make holy hours in the middle of the night, and with families who kneel before the Eucharist together – with mothers and fathers who teach their children to pray before Jesus.”

Bishop Conley said he wrote the pastoral letter “because God has been impressing upon me lately how important our lives of prayer are, and especially prayer in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.”

He said in a statement: “increasing our devotion to Eucharistic adoration could be transformative in our Church – there is just no telling how much God can do.”

Eucharistic devotion is especially important in a time when technology can distract, he said. “Sitting in silence with the Lord is refreshing, life-changing, and heart-changing.”

“The truth is that sitting in silence with the Lord is necessary for a fruitful Catholic life. I want all Catholics to know that we don’t need to be afraid to spend time in silence with Jesus – that He’s waiting to love us and transform our hearts and lives.”

 

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Always preach the whole truth of the Gospel with humility and respect and never be afraid to offer that truth just "one sip at a time," Pope Francis told the world's priests.

The Gospel is truth, "brimming with joy and mercy. We should never attempt to separate these three graces of the Gospel: its truth, which is non-negotiable; its mercy, which is unconditional and offered to all sinners; and its joy, which is personal and open to everyone," he said April 13 during the chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

Presiding over the first of two Holy Thursday liturgies, Pope Francis blessed the oils that will be used in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, ordination and the anointing of the sick.

With Holy Thursday commemorating the day Jesus shared his priesthood with the apostles, Pope Francis led the more than 1,500 priests, bishops and cardinals in a renewal of their priestly vows and dedicated his homily to the importance of preaching with a joy that touches people's hearts.

"The priest makes the message joyful by his whole being," he said, and it is in "little things" that this joy is best shared.

For example, he said, by stepping into today's "no man's lands" to bring God's mercy to forsaken situations, by picking up the phone and scheduling a needed meeting, by patiently allowing others "to take up our time."

The "good news" of the Gospel is not a thing, he said, but a mission that brings "delightful and comforting joy" to the evangelizer.

The truth of the good news can never be an abstract truth for those who do not let it fully and concretely shape people's lives just "because they feel more comfortable seeing it printed in book," he said in a homily delivered in Italian.

"The mercy of the good news can never be a false commiseration, one that leaves sinners in their misery without holding out a hand to lift them up and help them take a step in the direction of change," Pope Francis said.

And the good news "can never be gloomy or indifferent, for it expresses a joy that is completely personal," coming from a father who cannot bear to have even one of "his little ones be lost."

The Holy Spirit always helps communicate the joys of the Gospel in many, different ways for every age, every person and every culture. he said.

These joys "need to be poured into new wineskins," so that "the good news is kept fresh -- and preserving it is necessary -- without turning sour but being poured out in abundance."

The pope then offered priests three images of "three new wineskins" so that the good news may be full and contagious, inclusive and concrete, meek and truthful.

Like Mary and the stone water jars at the wedding feast of Cana, be "filled to the brim," ready and willing to do God's will and courageously go out to assist others, the pope said.

Like St. Teresa of Kolkata and the Samaritan woman who drew water at the well for Jesus, be concrete and help Jesus in his mission, he said.

Just as Jesus called to the Samaritan woman, "I am thirsty," he calls to everyone, and Mother Teresa heard him calling her to take him to the poor and be his light.

Mother Teresa was concrete with her smile and the tender way she touched people's wounds, the pope said. Priests need to be like this -- concrete and tender, he added.

The last image is the "fathomless vessel of the Lord's pierced heart, his utter meekness, humility and poverty which draw all people to himself," he said.

Priests have to learn from Jesus that "announcing a great joy to the poor can only be done in a respectful, humble, and even humbling, way."

"Evangelization cannot be presumptuous. The integrity of the truth cannot be rigid," he said, because the truth was made flesh, was born a tender baby, and was a man who died on the cross.

The Holy Spirit teaches the whole truth, but "he is not afraid to do this one sip at a time."

Let the Spirit tell "us in every situation what we need to say to our enemies" as he illuminates every small step forward.

"This meekness and integrity gives joy to the poor, revives sinners, and grants relief to those oppressed by the devil," the pope said.

Later in the day, the pope was scheduled to celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper at a prison 45 miles from Rome, housing men and women who testified as a witness for the state against associates or accomplices. He was scheduled to wash the feet of 12 inmates.

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Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.

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