Holy Week: Behind-the-Scenes

by Justin Walter

Holy Week is the pinnacle of the Christian calendar, and thus there are myriad of liturgical celebrations particular to it. As the head sacristan for TU’s Catholic Newman Center, I am chiefly responsible for working behind the scenes to ensure that the liturgy runs smoothly. While I have worked throughout the year to schedule students to help with Mass, Holy Week is a time when such activity is particularly concentrated.

Even though the planning began more than three weeks in advance, Holy Week itself begins with Palm Sunday (March 29th,2026. (Since I am writing this before Palm Sunday, I will be speaking in the future tense). Since this commemorates the Entry into Jerusalem from Matthew 21, when people held palms along the path for Christ as He entered. We will be leaving Palms for people to hold during Mass—they will be in the lobby, and I need to find a red cloth to drape over the table they’re on. The palms will actually be kept in a fridge or something akin for optimal storage. And then, for Palm Sunday Mass there will be a much longer reading than usual—normally the Priest would simply proclaim the whole Gospel, but here they will be proclaiming the whole narrative of Christ’s Suffering and Death from the Gospel writings. For 10am Mass Father Porter will speak the words of Christ, then I will have the Lectors who said the Readings earlier in Mass play the parts of narrator and Voice (saying the dialogue of anyone other than Jesus). There are also points when the whole congregation responds, saying the words of the crowd and other groups of characters. Yet at 5:00pm, Bishop David Konderla, prelate of the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma, will be celebrating Mass so, out of respect for rank within the Church, he will be the voice of Christ, Father Porter will be the Voice, and I will ask someone else to be the Narrator. With the Bishop there, it is not unlikely that one or the servers would purely just hold his crosier and mitre (although he may not be concerned with having a specific server do that), so there is precedent for me to assign more altar servers than Father Porter would normally find appropriate (indeed, any Mass celebrated by a Bishop is particularly exalted).

On Holy Thursday there is Mass of the Lord’s Supper—we have it later than usual so that when it is over the sky is dark, in reflection of how we’re entering into a Memorial of Christ’s Suffering. At this Mass the Priest washes people’s feet—even though I need to schedule most of the people to help, and have been leaving sign-ups for the various roles, one of the employees at the Newman Center has been getting the people who commit to having their feet washed, in particular asking those who do the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults with him, as there are many such people. I am supposed to have slightly more altar servers scheduled—after all, some will need to help with feet washing. I have also found five people to bring up gifts—normally the sacristan brings everything to the front in advance, but particularly on Holy Thursday there are three containers of distinct Holy Oils (those who are Confirmed at the Easter Vigil are anointed with Holy Oil). Also, with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper commemorating a time of joy that was immediately followed by a time of sorrow, at the Gloria the bells are rung continuously and then stop, and then intentionally are not rung again until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil. Later during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper a server will use a Holy knocker instead of the bell, so I will need to tell the sacristan to bring that. Yet with all this being said, there is something right after this Mass that I will need to be preparing for well in advance, such as by having black-out curtains between our main Church and the side chapel, and having chairs from the cafeteria in the side chapel. So after receiving the Eucharist, in which we believe Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity are Truly Present, I and two other students whom I have already chosen will go from the Church where Mass is occurring into the side chapel to light the candles that will already be set up. Here is what I will have prepared for in advance: with the end of Mass, there will be a Procession with the Eucharist from the main Church into the side chapel, honoring Christ with song and worship, and then there will be Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (the Eucharist) until midnight. There will be people from other Catholic parishes who come to our Newman Center, Adoring Christ in the Eucharist, and some of our students shall do the same at other parishes. And yet, as is unique to this part of Holy Week, the Eucharist will not be in the main Church—this is the standard practice for Catholics. It is odd on Good Friday not genuflecting, but this feeling of absence is fitting in commemoration of Christ’s death. Thus the candle that stays lit by the sanctuary, literally keeping Jesus company, will be in the side chapel—in the main Church it will be out, just like Christ’s life on Good Friday was snuffed out.

On Good Friday Catholics do not have Mass at all. We commemorate Christ’s Suffering and Death with the Stations of the Cross, which some pray every Friday in Lent, and which commemorate the following moments from Good Friday:

At noon on Good Friday we will pray with these around the Old U (Dietler Commons). We will have Roman numerals I–XIV around the U and a lifesize Cross, so we will stop at each one to reflect on that particular Station. Then there is Good Friday Liturgy at 3:00pm. It is tempting to think this is Mass as usual, but it is not since there is not any Consecration of the Eucharist– instead the Priest will get the Eucharist from the side chapel for the congregants to receive. Of course, this Liturgy is very somber– the altar starts completely barren, the tabernacle is empty, there is not the chalice or anything else that would normally be brought in advance– and there is veneration of the Cross that we use at Stations of the Cross. The Priest lies prostrate at the beginning– as does the whole Church, symbolically speaking, on Good Friday.

Tenebrae will be at 6am on Holy Saturday. It will start with 14 candles lit, which I will need to set up the evening before. It commemorates Christ’s Harrowing of Hell– after dying, He freed the just souls who had been residing in Hell, since by His sacrifice they are now able to enter into Heaven, just as all of us who were born after His Resurrection can enter Heaven by His Grace. Last year for Tenebrae I read an ancient sermon which depicts the encounter between Christ and Adam, with Adam now being free to live with Christ forever. I need to get three people to proclaim such readings, but a great deal of Tenebrae is taken up by the choir. I also needed to schedule an altar server– he has specific points when he needs to douse one candle at a time until it is dark– for this reason we do so early and even though we have our own lights to read with, the main lights in the Church are off– still anticipating the joy of the Resurrection. Later in the morning of Holy Saturday we will have a big Mary and Martha work day– I have a list of things I need to make sure get done, so I and Father Porter will be directing others in setting up for the Vigil. With over a dozen people becoming Catholic, we are anticipating a crowd, so we’ll need to open up the glass doors between the side chapel and main Church (probably at this point we would remove the blackout curtains), and prepare extra chairs from the cafeteria. We need to set missals, set the altar, clean candles, clean pews, clean the cafeteria for the “Easter rager”, and prepare to have the Paschal fire outside. When all such work is completed, we can split for the main chunk of the day. In the evening, a little while before Mass starts at 8:15, we will get the Paschal fire started, and I will need to assign someone to keep watch over it. There will surely be some things I need to burn in it– if they have been blessed they may no longer be thrown away, so burning is the best way to handle them– I have done this in the past without it being Holy Saturday. Then at Mass a new Paschal Candle, which will stay in the Church for the next year, is lit while we are around the fire. We will have small candles (which we will also need to prepare earlier in the day) that will be lit from the Paschal candle, then we will enter the Church with them lit, but with the Church still dark, not even the candles at the front lit yet. However, there is a point when the congregation extinguishes their candles but the Church is still dark, so then I need to make sure the entry light is turned on. Regardless, at the Gloria the lights are turned on—as an usher last year I admittedly messed up on this)---not only in the main Church, but also in the side chapel and lobby, especially if people are sitting there. This is the big moment when the tension is eased and the anticipation is rewarded; now we are celebrating the Resurrection! We will have plenty of Baptisms and Confirmations, and they will all be after the Gloria. And then, a point I must be diligent on in a Mass with so many people is making sure everyone consumes the Eucharist after they are given It, rather than bringing it away in their hands or something. I have been told the ushers should help ensure this, although the Priest and altar servers will surely help as well. The end of the Easter Vigil Mass gives a feeling of completion, a tension that has finally been settled– with people being Baptized and Confirmed who have been awaiting these sacraments for so long, and also with the Eucharist being restored to Its abode in the main Church. The Paschal Candle is lit for every Mass between Easter Sunday and Pentecost, calling us to a spirit of joy, with the candle at the front of the Church. In the modern Roman Catholic calendar, not only Easter Sunday, but also each of the seven days following it, is a Solemnity. Thus the Alleluia, gone throughout Lent, comes back stronger than usual—we can enjoy this time of feasting all the more after being tempered by a time of fasting.