Before the joyous celebration of the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses on April 16 and 17, 2022, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory presided at the solemn Holy Week liturgies at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle for Palm Sunday, the Chrism Mass, Holy Thursday and Good Friday. (Catholic Standard photos/Andrew Biraj)

Palm Sunday
The observance of Holy Week at St. Matthew’s Cathedral began on Palm Sunday, April 10. Cardinal Gregory blessed palms outside the cathedral and then processed to the altar. People in the congregation received palms at the Palm Sunday Mass, which commemorates Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem before His passion and death. At that Mass, the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke was read. (CS photos/Andrew Biraj)

Chrism Mass
The April 11 Chrism Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral began with Cardinal Wilton Gregory processing to the altar, walking past nearly 200 priests who concelebrated the Mass. The Mass, where sacramental oils were blessed and where priests serving in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington renewed their priestly promises, marked the largest local gathering of priests since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago. (CS photos/Andrew Biraj)

Holy Thursday
At the April 14 Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, Cardinal Gregory washed the feet of 12 parishioners at St. Matthew's Cathedral, repeating what Christ did for his Apostles on Holy Thursday to show His followers that they are called to love and serve others. The Mass also commemorates Jesus’s gift of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. At the end of that Mass, Cardinal Gregory led people in Eucharistic Adoration at the Altar of Reposition at the cathedral’s St. Anthony Chapel. The Adoration began after a Eucharistic procession to the chapel. (CS photos/Andrew Biraj)

Good Friday
Marking the most solemn day in the Church calendar, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory presided over an April 15 Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. The cardinal and the people attending the liturgy venerated the cross, remembering how Jesus suffered and was crucified to gain salvation for people and free them from sin and death. (CS photos/Andrew Biraj)

A  woman kneels to venerate the cross during the Good Friday liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2022. (CS photo/Andrew Biraj)