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| Click image to watch highlights from Ash Wednesday. |
(terrasanctablog) Early in the morning, at 6:30, the bells of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher invite all to Ash Wednesday mass.
The celebration is held at the entrance of the empty tomb, a sign of Christ’s victory. Right in the place where in 40 days the great feast of the Resurrection will be celebrated.
“Be reconciled with God! This is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation” and “Repent and believe the Gospel!”
With these two imperatives, the Christian community is called to welcome God’s merciful action and to return to Him.
The ashes are a sign of penance and contrition. Lent is a time experienced with a lot of intensity at the Holy Sepulcher, with a very rich lineup of celebrations.
Fr. NOEL MUSCAT, ofm
President of the Holy Sepulcher Monastery
“Lent is a very strong and very intense time at the Holy Sepulcher. It is a moment in which local Christians, all the pilgrims and also all the brothers who are in Jerusalem get involved.”
Every Saturday of Lent, in the afternoon there is the solemn procession with the participation of Franciscan priests and religious, together with the Patriarch of Jerusalem and with the local Christian community and the pilgrims.
Fr. NOEL MUSCAT, ofm
President of the Holy Sepulcher Monastery
It is a procession that we do every day, starting right here at this column that is behind me, which is the column of Jesus’ flagellation. The procession goes all the way around the Basilica. On Saturdays during Lent, it is done solemnly going around the Holy Sepulcher three times. And nighttime is very nice because the Father Custos is here with the brothers for the Lenten Sunday vigil.
Every Wednesday, the brothers go on pilgrimage to the shrines of Jerusalem. As Father Noel explains, the pilgrim Egeria, in as early as the fourth century, already spoke of the celebrations in the Holy City.
Fr. NOEL MUSCAT, ofm
President of the Holy Sepulcher Monastery
This is why the celebrations here at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher have a very deep meaning—because besides celebrating the liturgy of the universal Church, because we are part of the universal Church, there are characteristics that are unique to Jerusalem’s liturgy—beautiful characteristics that were started here so many centuries ago that the local Christians and pilgrims get to experience during Lent.