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We publish, to help your prayer and reflection, on this day which commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and the Priesthood, some extracts from the work of the Cardinal of Milan Ildefonso Shuster ( A. I. SCHUSTER, The Book of the Sacraments. Historical and liturgical notes on the Roman Missal – III. The New Testament).

HOLY THURSDAY

Lateran station

The Basilica of the Savior where the Supreme Pontiffs established their ordinary residence since the 5th century, today claims the honor of the solemn rites with which the Church begins the Easter solemnity on this very day. Another time there were three masses, one in the morning for the reconciliation of public penitents, the other for the consecration of the sacred oils intended for the anointing of the sick and for Baptism, the third finally at dusk for the commemoration of the Lord's Supper and Easter Communion. It is therefore understandable why the station instead of being celebrated in San Pietro, which was then outside the urban enclosure, was held more comfortably in the Lateran.
Today the ritual is less complex, and the discipline of public penance having fallen into disuse, the holy oils are consecrated in the same mass as the Easter Communion. Read More