Chris McDonnell writes "The choice of where to pray and when to pray has come down to us through subsequent years; for now, this Spring, we have limited options." and he reminds us of Teilhard de Chardin who found himself in the Ordos Desert in China in 1923, unable to offer the Eucharist and wrote "Since once again, Lord I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar,
I will raise myself beyond these symbols, up to the pure majesty of the real itself. I your priest will make the whole earth my altar and on it will offer you all the labours and sufferings of the world.’

Gerard O’Connell and  Colleen Dulle report in americamagazine.org on the establishment by Pope Francis of a new commission to study the issue of the ordination of women deacons.

The liturgy that begins this Tursday evening continues until we reach Easter. We are at the start of a three-day celebration of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. We journey from the Last Supper to Gethsemane tonight, from there to Calvary tomorrow, and from the tomb to resurrection and new life at the Vigil of Easter Sunday.

Tim Hazelwood is using the social distancing to reflect. "Now may be the opportunity for us to learn that we all are Church and that we must be Eucharist every day, of being thankful and believing that the risen Christ is with us."

Maura O Shea writes of her perspective on the distancing, isolating, and close downs that have happened as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

If you are in lockdown this Holy Thursday and Good Friday., you or someone with you will have to act as a leader in prayer if you are to actually celebrate – which is more than tuning in to a celebration – these great days.

After an unanimous ruling by seven high court judges Cardinal George Pell will walk free from prison today after the High Court of Australia ruled he was wrongly jailed for child sexual abuse.

Brendan Hoban, in the Western People, writes about the absence of Holy Week Ceremonies this year.
"Church leaders are caught between their responsibility to give clear and appropriate guidance and the felt need of the people to celebrate the key events of the first Easter. But their (and our) moral responsibility is clear. The bottom line is that no compromise that might endanger health and life is acceptable."

Dermod McCarthy draws our attention to an interesting webcast.

Seamus Ahearne has time to de-clutter and observe and write;
"it is the cleaners, the bin men, the shelf packers, the shop servers, the drivers of the lorries, the post people, the orderlies, the receptionists taking calls, the local nurses and doctors, the shoppers for the cocooned..... We need eyes to see and to appreciate and to be grateful..... if there is an outbreak of generosity and gratitude; Eucharist is happening."