April 15, 2011. (Romereports.com) Holy Week is the final week before Easter. This year it begins on April 17, with Palm Sunday. The day that's meant to remember the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. The Italian cardinal Ravasi is the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture and underlines how Holy Week commemorates the Passion of Christ.


Card. Gianfranco Ravasi
President, Pontifical Council for Culture
“On one side are the parts that are religious, spiritual, theological, and of faith, and it's the great Christian mystery of the divinity that is within humanity, and that means also in the suffering and death. But then enters a seed of eternity. This is why it's called Passion, Death and Resurrection. A seed of hope in the future after death.”

Palm Sunday is followed by Holy Thursday, the day that Jesus sat down with his apostles to share the Last Supper. On this day he instituted the Sacraments of Eucharisty and Holy Orders.

From Thursday to Saturday, Catholics are invited to participate in the Easter Triduum. The three days before Easter make up the Triduum, which is meant to commemorate the Passion of Christ.

Card. Gianfranco Ravasi
President, Pontifical Council for Culture
“There is a second dimension of the Holy Week and it's the liturgical dimension, so these ceremonies have great wealth from the point of view of the culture because it's the sedimentation of a great quest.”

After Holy Thursday is Good Friday, which is when Jesus was crucified. It was this action that brought salvation to all mankind.

Holy Week comes to an end on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. On this day, Christians recall the hours Jesus spent inside a sepulcher. At night time, they commemorate his Resurrection with a solemn ceremony, the Easter vigil, which is full of signs such as light and fire.

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