Holy Week Gospels

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

   This might be a good day to offer an explanation or two.  Why is Easter a moveable feast, not fixed as is Christmas? How do we know when the Passion of Christ, His Death and Resurrection take place?

   All four of the Gospels of the Passion, by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, begin by telling us when it was happening.  Matthew is read on Palm Sunday, Mark on Tuesday, Luke on Wednesday and John on Good Friday.

   From my St. Andrew's Missal (1945) I take the following information:

   Towards evening on the Tuesday in Holy Week, after leaving the Temple, Our Lord ascended the Mount of Olives; "You know that after two days shall be the Pasch, and the Son of Man shall be delivered up to be crucified," He said. Now among the Jews the days are reckoned to begin on the previous evening; Wednesday had already begun and it was on the following Friday that Our Lord was put to death. The Passover corresponded with the full moon of the Spring Equinox since it was then that the Hebrews left Egypt. (to the Hebrews this moon was the mark of the first month of their year called Nisan. "And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, shall be the Phase of the Lord." Numbers 28;16.) So the day in which the Last Supper and the Crucifixion took place, reckoned in Jewish fashion from Thursday to Friday evening, was the 14th of Nisan or the eve of the Passover. Too show that Christ is the true Paschal Lamb of the true Passover, almighty God willed that He should be received as food by the apostles, and sacrificed by Jews on the same day when the Israelites were eating the lambs offered in sacrifice which were "types" of Him. The Passover, or the time of our Lord's passing from this world to His Father and of our deliverance from sin, took place at the time when the Jews were keeping the anniversary of the passing of the angel over the land of Egypt and of the freeing of Israel which was the "type" of that deliverance.

   The Church, therefore, to emphasize this fact has decreed that Easter, like the Jewish Passover, shall always take place at the Paschal moon. But since the Church wished to keep the Feast of the Resurrection on a Sunday, the day on which it actually took place, she decided at the Council of Nicea that in each year it should be kept on the Sunday following the full moon of the Spring Equinox, which was supposed to always fall on the 21st of March, as was actually the case in 325 A.D., the year of the Council. If the full moon falls before the 21st, it is the following full moon which will mark the date of Easter, which varies between the 22nd of March and the 25th of April.

  Now, read that twice, slowly. Don't you feel enlightened?

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Regarding some of the  parts of the Mass for Tuesday in Holy Week:

   The Epistle is from the Old Testament. Jeremias 11: 18-20, foretells Christ as  the "meek lamb that is carried to be a victim." The Offertory (Psalm 139:5) prays, "Keep me O Lord, from the hand of the wicked; and from unjust men deliver me." The Gradual, too, is about Christ's persecution (Psalm 34:13, 1,2). "....Judge Thou, O Lord, them that wrong me, overthrow them that fight against me: take hold of arms and shield, and rise up to help me." The Old Testament, again, is used in the Communion prayer (Psalm 68: 13,14). "they that sat in the gate were busied against me; and they that drank wine made me their song. But as for me, my prayer is to Thee, O Lord; for the time of Thy good pleasure, O God, in the multitude of Thy mercy."

   The Introit, or opening prayer, shows that the Church continues Christ's saving work and revives the mysteries of His Passion. (Paul to Galatians 6:14). "But it behoves us to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection: by whom we are saved and delivered."

The richness in the language of the liturgy never ceases to touch me. The choices made for various prayers at various times and for specific reasons during the whole of the liturgical year always hit the right note, if you will, to emphasize what we should be taking in for the edification and sanctification of our souls.

      Miserere mihi Domine, et exaudi orationem meam. 
      Have mercy upon me, O Lord, and graciously hear my prayer.