Marco Carvalho
The Cathedral parish will organize an Easter retreat on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The retreat will take place in the basement of the Chancery building, and in addition to moments of prayer and reflection, it will also provide the participants with the opportunity to submit to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and “wash themselves clean”.
“In Holy Week, as usual, both on Good Friday and on Holy Saturday, a retreat aimed at the Portuguese-speaking community will take place, starting from 9:30 am to noon,” Fr Daniel Ribeiro, the parish vicar, told O Clarim. “The purpose of this initiative is to provide the local Catholics with spiritual tools to better prepare for Easter. The retreat will include moments of reflection, prayer and music, and it will offer the participants the opportunity to confess their sins. It is an important moment of preparation when it comes to celebrating Easter,” Fr Ribeiro adds.
On the forty-day journey to the Cross, a spiritual retreat that encompasses the significance of Lent is of a particular importance to Catholics. The evocation of the mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is not, nevertheless, limited to Holy Week. In the Cathedral parish, the celebration of the triumph of life over death was the subject of reflection over the weekend.
Fr Ribeiro recalls, “On March 26th – the last Saturday of March – as customary on the last Saturday of every month, there was a liturgical formation in St Dominic’s Church. Right after the 6:30 pm Mass, there was a moment of Adoration, followed by a brief lecture, which took place from 6:30 to 7:00 pm. The theme of the lecture was “How to properly live Lent”. It was one more activity aimed at preparing the participants for Holy Week and for Lent itself.”
“The preparation process for the mystery of the Resurrection,” the parish vicar of the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady told O Clarim, “will reveal a new chapter on Sunday.”
Next Sunday, after Mass, the children enrolled in catechesis will take part in the Way of the Cross. After that, the children and their parents will have the opportunity to confess their sins. It’s yet another moment of preparation for Holy Week,” concludes Fr Ribeiro, who is also a missionary of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart.
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