In a YouTube message posted April 3 on the website of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, Msgr. W. Ronald Jameson, the cathedral's rector, invited Catholics of the Archdiocese of Washington to view the livestreamed Holy Week Masses that Archbishop Wilton Gregory will be celebrating there.
This week's Holy Week and Easter celebrations for the Archdiocese of Washington will be different, since public Masses are not being held for the time being following the directives of local government leaders aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus. D.C. and Maryland leaders have prohibited gatherings of 10 or more people and have encouraged residents to stay at home except for essential work and necessary household activities.
“Holy Week is upon us, and this Holy Week, although we won't be celebrating with a large crowd in the cathedral, we will be celebrating in our homes with a livestream of each service with our archbishop, Archbishop Gregory,” said Msgr. Jameson, who added, “So I invite you to join us as members of our parish, but also as the whole archdiocese, as we gather together as Church.”
On April 2, the Archdiocese of Washington announced that Archbishop Gregory will be celebrating Holy Week and Easter Masses via livestream, in English and Spanish with a live interpreter for the Deaf, without a congregation, from the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.
Archbishop Gregory's Holy Week and Easter Masses will be livestreamed on the archdiocese’s Facebook page and on its YouTube channel.
The archbishop's Holy Week schedule is as follows:
April 9: Holy Thursday, 5:30 p.m.
April 11: Easter Vigil, 8 p.m.
April 12: Easter Sunday, 10 a.m.
In his YouTube message, Msgr. Jameson noted that “this coronavirus time is a long extended Good Friday. Our whole world is suffering a sort of Passion.”
But he added, “When we offer those hardships in union with Jesus, we share in His redemptive sacrifice. We carry the cross with Jesus... As we enter into Holy Week and the Paschal Mystery of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection, we can confidently look beyond the cross to see the risen Christ. So too we can confidently look beyond our own Calvary, this coronavirus pandemic, and we can see the hope of Christ.”
The cathedral's rector said that “throughout any and all hardships we might face, including this coronavirus, we know we can rely on God.”
Msgr. Jameson invited Catholics to view the livestreamed Holy Week liturgies and Easter Masses and “join us with Jesus as He travels through Jerusalem to Calvary and then as he rises from the dead to bring us new life. Jesus is our new life. Jesus is our hope.”
