JERUSALEM - During Holy Week, if the best-known celebrations take place mainly at the Holy Sepulchre, there are many others organized by the city's many Christian communities. Characterized by their diversity, they take place in places that are sometimes unknown but always rich, and allow both foreign pilgrims and locals to experience a unique and exceptional Holy Week, specific to Jerusalem.

Everything can begin at Saint Peter in Gallicantu. On the evening of Holy Thursday, a beautiful mass is celebrated in the church, which is built over the dungeon where Christ is said to have spent the night while waiting to appear before Caiaphas.

His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, delivered his weekly Wednesday sermon, on April 16, 2022, from the Church of the Transfiguration, from the Logos Center in the Monastery of St. Anba Bishoy in Wadi El-Natrun, Egypt.

The sermon was broadcast across several Christian satellite channels and by Internet on the Church’s Media Center Internet channel, COC, on the World Wide Web.

Resurrection of Christ means a bright future for humanity

if it proceeds according to His teaching

Easter celebration this year reminds us, more than any other time, of God’s love for mankind, His closeness and His vast mercy to all, through the resurrection of Christ, which is an affirmation for brighter future and salvation of humanity, as long as it proceeds according to His teaching. His resurrection comes “to shine from heaven on all those who live in the dark shadow of death, to guide our steps into the path of peace” (luke 1/79).

JERUSALEM - On Friday, April 15th, 2022, His Beatitude Mgr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, presided over the commemoration of the Passion of Our Lord at the Calvary of the Holy Sepulchre, which stands where stood the cross almost 2,000 years ago.

At the Passion Office this morning, in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church commemorated the arrest, trial, condemnation, torture and crucifixion of Jesus, until his burial in a tomb, dug in the rock that would have stood under the Aedicule. A highlight of the Paschal Triduum.

You can find the appeal for prayer issued by His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, to join the Patriarchate in prayer Psalm 23 every Friday, beseeching the Lord for His gift of peace.

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem congratulates its congregations and all the people of the Holy Land on both sides of the Jordan River for the occasion of Easter and Saturday of the Holy Light, and at the same time we affirm our strong and renewed commitment to our natural right to celebrate our holidays along with our communities, families and to participate together in prayers at our churches in the Old City of Jerusalem, including the basic right of all our communities to access the Church of Holy Sepulchre and its vicinity during Easter festivities including Holy Light Saturday.

On April 10, 2022, His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, answered the invitation of His Grace Archbishop Zoltan Balog, President of the Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church, to attend the special service of Palms Sunday in Budapest.

His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, delivered his weekly sermon on Wednesday April 6, 2022, from the Church of St. Virgin Mary and St. Anba Bishoy at the St. Mark Cathedral in Abbassia, Egypt, several Church fathers attending. The sermon was preceded by the Prayers for the Feast of the Glorious Annunciation.

The sermon was broadcast across several Christian satellite channels and by Internet on the Church’s Media Center Internet channel, COC, on the World Wide Web.

On Tuesday April 5, 2022, His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, visited the projects of the Patriarchate in Damascus.

His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II was accompanied by their Eminences the Archbishops who are participating in the spiritual retreat.

The program of the Holy Week celebrations in Jerusalem, issued by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The Vatican releases the meditations for the Good Friday Way of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum, with 15 families offering their perspectives on the pain life can bring and the horrors of war.

By Devin Watkins

Complaints, uncertainties, needs, wounds, but also courage, forgiveness, prayers, and hope.

These themes related to the life of every family across the globe form the basis of the meditations written for the Via Crucis which His Holiness Pope Francis presides over on Good Friday at the Colosseum in Rome.

Dearest Brothers and Sisters,

After a long journey we have finally entered Jerusalem, and here today our Church, the Church of Jerusalem, is gathered inside the Holy City. We come from many parts of the Holy Land: from Palestine, from Israel, we also have representatives from Jordan and Cyprus. After the pandemic, we also have with us many pilgrims from different parts of the world, and we greet their return with joy: Thank you for remembering us and returning. We have been waiting and praying for your return.

Presiding over the liturgy of Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, His Holiness Pope Francis encourages us to journey toward Easter with God's forgiveness, and recalls that as Christ gazes upon "our violent and tormented world," Jesus never tires of repeating: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

St. Gregory the Illuminator is the Patron Saint of the Armenian Church. He is referred to as Illuminator for spreading the light of Jesus Christ and formally establishing the Armenian Church. St. Gregory underwent passion and was prisoned in a pit (Khor Virab) for more than a decade. The Armenian Church commemorates the feast of St. Gregory the Illuminator’s descent into the pit on the Sunday of the Advent. On this feast, the Holy See of Cilicia also marks the Catholicosate’s Pilgrimage Day.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.” (Psalm 122:6–7)

Over the past two weeks, indiscriminate acts of violence have taken place in various parts of our Holy Land. These have in turn led to violent confrontations throughout the region. More than a dozen people have lost their lives as a result of these attacks and ensuing conflicts. Others have suffered serious injury.

In the early hours of Saturday, April 2nd, 2022, on the feast of the St. Gregory the Illuminator’s descent into the pit (Khor Virab) and the eve of the Antelias Pilgrimage Day, pilgrims and Armenian Theological Seminary students marched from St. Mary Monastery in Bikfaya to St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Antelias, Lebanon, where they participated in the Divine Liturgy conducted at the Cathedral.

Following the service, sacred relics, kept at the Cilicia Museum, were taken out by His Holiness Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I and placed in a reliquary coffer to be revealed to the faithful on Sunday during the Divine Liturgy.

On the start of the Holy month, His Beatitude Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and the bishops, priests and faithful of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, Amman, and Nazareth, congratulate Muslims all over the world and wish them an acceptable fasting, during which they may obtain forgiveness, grace, and acquire self-discipline and the exercise of virtue.

On April 4, 2022, His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and Supreme Head of the Universal Syriac Orthodox Church, inaugurated a spiritual retreat entitled “for them, I sanctify myself”, for the Archbishops of the Archdioceses in Syria, at Mor Aphrem Monastery in Maarat Saydnaya.

The technique of downplaying His Holiness Pope Francis' words by appealing to circumstances.

By Andrea Tornielli

"The Pope speaks against rearmament, but... The Pope does what the Pope should, but... The Pope can only say what he says, but..."

There is always a "but" that in many embarrassing comments accompanies the unequivocal "no to war" declared by Pope Francis, in order to contextualize and downplay the Pope's statements.

His Holiness Pope Francis consecrates all humanity—especially Russia and Ukraine—to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and says the act expresses our complete trust in the Virgin Mary in the midst of the “cruel and senseless war” in Ukraine.

By Devin Watkins

His Holiness Pope Francis presided over the annual “24 Hours for the Lord” Lenten penitential service in St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday evening, as the Church marked the feast of the Annunciation.