In the course of just 3 days, the most important, most symbolically rich, most dramatically beautiful liturgies of the entire year take place, with those three days having their own special season of the Liturgical Year: The Holy Triduum. The Triduum encompasses Maundy (Holy) Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday’s Easter Vigil. These three liturgies together act almost like one continuous Mass, with there being no dismissal such as “go forth, the Mass is ended” given the end of the Easter Vigil, and no greeting of “In the name of the Father…” given on Good Friday.

While on my last trip to Italy, I visited a place I had been wanting to see for quite some time, called the Capuchin Crypt in Rome. This crypt is located under the Holy Mary of the Conception of the Capuchins church, which was constructed by the Franciscan Capuchin Friars in the year 1626. In 1631, Cardinal Antonio Barberini, OFMCap, ordered the remains of thousands of Capuchins to be exhumed and transferred to the crypt below the church.

We often think of Lent as being 40 days long, but if you were to count the days from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, you arrive at 46 days instead… What's that about?

Mass practically begins with a “penitential act.” It’s the first order of business, right after the Sign of the Cross and a basic greeting. It says, “first things first”—let’s acknowledge our sins. We should not discount that immediacy. The Penitential Act signals an indispensable element of right worship and liturgy: man’s moral standing before his God. God is holy; man is not. That dissonance is the barrier to right worship because it is the barrier to the divine-human relationship.

“The main current of Lent must flow through the interior man, through hearts and consciences. The essential effort of repentance consists in this. In this effort, the human determination to be converted to God is invested with the predisposing grace of conversion and, at the same time, of forgiveness and of spiritual liberation.”

While a bit of a dry topic, it can be helpful for Catholics to know some basic information about how the Church handles legal matters, especially in regards to the administration of the Sacraments.

There are few facts known about St. Blaise except that he was a fourth-century bishop in the city of Sebaste, Western Armenia, and died as a martyr. A physician, he was regarded as a righteous man and, at an early age, elected bishop by the citizens of Sebaste. He was martyred by beheading in the year 316. Beyond those few facts, much of what we know of Blaise comes from legends. He became, during the Middle Ages, one of the most popular of all the saints and today remains highly esteemed.