Tracey Jemmeson, the first-year principal of Thomas D’Arcy McGee Catholic Elementary School in Ottawa, heard positive advance buzz about Annunciation of the Lord Parish������Ƶapp Holy Week Adventure from her colleagues and fellow congregants.

Barring a dramatic reversal in pandemic fortune, the vast majority of Canadian Catholics will celebrate Holy Week as they did before COVID-19 infected society two years ago.

Every year, just before Easter, we take a week to meditate on Christ������Ƶapp Passion. We contemplate Jesus’ sacrificial death for us.

It's long since time to break with March Break.

Across Canada, COVID-cloistered Canadians plugged in throughout Holy Week in big numbers to view Mass at home on TV and over the Internet.

Our lives have changed drastically in the past month. In late February, we received ashes to mark the beginning of another Lenten season; now, we are deprived of visiting Church for Holy Week.

VATICAN CITY -- Despite the COVID-19 pandemic that is causing public Mass cancellations worldwide, the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter can not be postponed or suspended, said the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican office that distributes free tickets to papal events has posted a notice on its website that "the liturgical celebrations of Holy Week will take place without the physical presence of the faithful."

In the Diocese of Hamilton, the annual celebration of the Mass of Chrism takes place at the Cathedral Basilica of Christ the King on Monday of Holy Week. 

Second Sunday of Easter, April 28 (Year C) Acts 5:12-16; Psalm 118; Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19; John 20:19-31

The spread of Christianity began not with reasoned arguments or carefully planned strategies. People responded in droves to what Luke describes as “signs and wonders” — language that resonated with the events of Exodus.