'Bring flowers of the rarest,' as the old Marian hymn says, is exactly what the boys and girls from our Parish Primary School did on Friday afternoon as we held our annual May devotions. The devotions in church should have been preceded by a procession from school to church. However, the weather was so wet in the morning that the procession was cancelled, and of course, the afternoon turned out to be bright and fair, if a little breezy!

We had already celebrated the Stations of the Cross in the morning with 80 of our parishioners, the meditation led by Fr Darren. But at 3pm, as is customary, we commemorated the Lord's passion. About 250 gathered in the church; the priests and deacon and 15 of our altar servers eneterd in silence and all prostarated themselves before the sanctuary. The Liturgy of the Word unfolded culminating in the shared reading of St John's Passion. The homily reminded us that on the Christ became a 'bridge' between us and God, spanning the gap forged by our sins and bringing us back into right relation with God.

As the Paschal Moon hung heavy and full the third phase of our sacred Triduum began: The Easter Vigil. In this Vigil, when we celebrate Christ rising from the dead, all things are made new. We bless fire, light and water; we proclaim the Gospel of the Resurrection, we renew our own Baptismal Promises. We sing ‘Alleluia’ as we celebrate the first Mass of Easter and receive the Risen Lord in Holy Communion.

This is the first stage of the Easter Triduum. This Triduum celebrates one event over three days: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This evening's stage was The Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, here we recall that momentous evening when Jesus, as he celebrated the Passover Meal with his Apostles celebrated the first Eucharist, ordained his first priests and forever linked these with service, as he knelt to wash the feet of his followers.