holy week | Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad

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Holy Week is Here!

Posted on April 2, 2023 | Leave a comment

Maybe it’s the fasting this Lent. Maybe it’s the pre-1955 liturgies. I don’t know. But I have this overwhelming desire to practically camp out at my parish the next seven days. I’m actually eager to enter into this most solemn week. I am thankful, above all, to my parish priests – good men all who are going above and beyond for the salvation of my soul. Monday may bring bad news but I am not bothered. Our Lady already told us that in the end, we would have only the rosary and the sign of her Son. We are not owed the Mass, though I would be devastated to be without it again. So I am making an extra effort to pray my fifteen decades every day with love and devotion. I am taking a pointer from my mother-in-law and trying to go to two Masses each day this week as I am able. I am dispensing my kids from their book learning in such ways as to be able to teach them what is truly important. I was struck with the thought today at Mass: what if this was the last time I ever received Our Lord’s Body and Blood? I knelt in stunned adoration contemplating that thought. But I believe He is true to His word and He will make it possible – as I ask Him every day at Communion – for me and my family to “ever have access to the daily Latin Mass.”

*Seven Sorrows of Our Lady*, *stained glass, Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg, MD*

Over this coming week I will be thinking of and praying for each of you. Those who have been kind enough to write to me over the past several months; I will remember you by name before Our Lord. When they take Him away on Friday, I will spend all night near His tabernacle. I will eat nothing from Holy Thursday Mass until the end of the Sacred Vigil. I will do these things because He has given me to grow in love for Him and I desire nothing more than to give Him my will.

Pray for me, please. I always pray for you.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

The Passion, Art, and Moms

Posted on April 19, 2019 | 1 comment

I have been in the Fatherland going on a week now. I am here to visit and spend time with my mom who is in the hospital.

It is also now the Sacred Paschal Triduum. I have been able to slip out of the room to make my way to a piecemeal collection of beautiful Catholic churches in order to observe the liturgy of the Church during these holiest of days.

Yesterday – Holy Thursday – I started out the day looking for a place to confess my sins. I mean, I could confess them anywhere and to anyone but I kind of wanted to do it to an ordained priest. Something about actual absolution and all… Here’s the thing. I am in the habit of going roughly once a week. But as we enter into these three days, surprisingly, confessions are rather limited. I don’t know if it’s that the priests are all of a sudden really, really busy or what. But I was able to find a scheduled round of confessions at St. Michael’s, a church tucked away at the lower end of Broadway near Bloomfield Ave. in the North Ward. Those familiar with the area will know exactly what this looks like. I can’t adequately describe it. OK, I could adequately describe it and I will one day but it would take pages. For now, I would like the artwork of the church tell the story. You see, most churches in this part of the world look like this one. Old, traditional, built on the donations of the mostly poor immigrant Catholics who brought to these shores their Old World style and peculiarities.

The thing is that in the art I was reminded of the story. The story here is the love of a mother for her Son and the love of the Son for the whole human race including you and me. Let’s start…

Here we see the Last Supper. Appropriate since this was taken on Holy Thursday. Note the detail and use of brilliant color.

Now let’s look at the Woman and her Son.

Not quite what you were expecting? I know, it’s Easter-time, not Christmas. But take a look at what was hanging on the wall just next to this particular window.

From His infancy to His death He was always close to His mother. It was in her arms that He rested in life and in death. Imagine her joy and her sorrow. I want that when my children read this in years to come they recognize something my parents taught me – that devotion to Our Lord comes through devotion to His mother. As He was pleased to rest in her arms we must turn to her in prayer and always be devoted to the Mother He gave us from the cross.

Here now, some other pieces on which to meditate…