Have you felt a quiet settle over you today on this Holy Thursday? A sort of solemn reverence as we journey with Christ to Calvary? As the Church begins the Triduum, it seems natural that our souls would quiet themselves in reflection of Our Lord’s suffering and Passion.

“The quiet … is a kind of solemnity. In other words, deep within our Christian soul, we know that the mysteries of our redemption are being enacted,” said Msgr. James Shea, president of the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, on Morning Air^®.

“The quiet takes on a different tone and texture as the days of the Triduum progress. On Holy Thursday, tonight when the Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the quiet is a quiet astonishment at the tremendous love of Christ who gives us tonight the gift of the Eucharist, the gift of the priesthood, and the gift of the commandment to love each other by washing the feet of His disciples. As we look at the Lord tonight we see His tremendous resolve, how He sweats with blood in the garden of Gethsemane, how He prays to His father that this cup might pass from Him,” said Msgr. James Shea.

“Tomorrow the quiet is of a different kind because it has a violence to it. It’s as though we are watching something terrible unfold but it unfolds in slow motion. … We see the Lord offering the Paschal sacrifice, being hung upon the cross and dying for love of us.”

Holy Saturday is what Msgr. Shea calls “the quietest day of the year when the Son of God lies in the tomb.” These days of quiet are preparation for the “trumpet blast, which shatters the silence on Easter morning.”