The Chrism Mass is usually celebrated on Holy Thursday, but can be moved to earlier in the week to allow for more people to participate in it. This is the case here in the Diocese of Burlington.
This post consists of a very informal, unorganized reaction to the Mass. I didn’t have time to organize the post nor do a lot of research, so it’s just a short write-up about today’s Mass, which was amazing. I hope you enjoy.
As it was on the Feast of Saint Joseph, all the priests from the Diocese of Burlington (which is all of Vermont) were at the Co-Cathedral. The Knights of Columbus color guard was there, and the Co-Cathedral was PACKED. One of my favorite parts of these huge Masses are when all the priests go up for the Consecration. It’s an amazing sight. Bishop Matano delivered a beautiful homily, which like on the Feast of Saint Joseph, was directed mainly to his brother priests but was able to speak to all in attendance.
The blessing of the oils of the catechumens the sick were blessed along with the chrism. This was my first Chrism Mass, and it was awesome. The Co-Cathedral has huge pillars and one of them blocked my view of most of the blessing of the oils, but what I saw was amazing. When blessing the chrism, the Bishop does a number of things, one of which was breathing on it. It was (I’m assuming here, so don’t take my word for it) a figure of the breath of God, like when God breathed life into Adam and when Christ breathed upon the Apostles, giving them the Holy Spirit. It was AWESOME.
We renew our baptismal promises during the Easter Vigil. The priests renew their ordinational promises during the Chrism Mass. I’ve never been to an ordination, so this was pretty great. I’d imagine it’s still pretty cool if you’ve been to an ordination.
I love huge Masses at the Co-Cathedral. We have another on Holy Thursday and for the Easter Vigil.
I love Holy Week!
