Holy Thursday evening -- before we began our celebrations of the Easter Triduum -- we hosted a meal at the cathedral for a number of priests from Regina Cleri and others who were able to join us, as a Holy Thursday dinner and celebration of the priesthood.

It was a wonderful meal, and someone very kindly sent us a beautiful Italian rum cake, which we all enjoyed very much.

Mass of the Lord's Supper

That night at 7 p.m., we began the Triduum with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, which was celebrated bilingually in English and Spanish.

During the Mass, we prayed in a special way for the people of Ukraine who are suffering so much at this time. Father Yaroslav Nalysnyk, the pastor of Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Jamaica Plain, concelebrated with us, and two of his parishioners took part in the washing of the feet.

Of course, at the end of Mass, we brought the Eucharist to the repository in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. There, we concluded with traditional Hispanic Eucharistic hymns.

The adoration in the chapel continued to midnight, and at 11:30 p.m., we prayed compline with about 200 university students who gathered with us. I gave them a reflection on the Agony in the Garden, and we concluded with the Salve Regina.

Good Friday

On Good Friday, we are always very happy to welcome the groups that conclude their Stations of the Cross processions at the cathedral.

In the morning, we welcomed Colbe Mazzarella and the group from the Way of the Cross for Life.

Then, at 1 p.m., we were visited by the members of Communion and Liberation, who had just completed their Stations of the Cross through the streets of Boston.

They always have a choir that sings very beautiful polyphonic music as part of their celebration of the stations.

Between those two groups, we had our own Living Stations of the Cross procession, led by the members of the Hispanic community at the cathedral.

We held the first station inside the cathedral and then the second outside on the steps.

The other stations were done as the stations made their way through the neighborhood and, eventually, back to the cathedral. I'm always impressed with the amazing job they do.

Holy Saturday tradition

As has been my Holy Saturday tradition for several years, I joined the Memores Domini for lunch at their house in Cambridge. Dr. Lorenzo Berra was the architect of the meal, which was just splendid. The Memores Domini are consecrated laypeople who come out of the Communion and Liberation movement, and we are very blessed to have their presence in our archdiocese.

Easter Sunday Mass

On Easter Sunday morning, I celebrated the 11 a.m. Mass at the cathedral. It was extraordinary to see the number of people.

It was standing room only, which means there were over 2,000 people with us. That's the largest crowd we've had in a long time, and, in fact, many told me that it was their first time coming back to church in over a year.

At the conclusion of the Mass, we had the blessing of several hundred people who were preparing to run the Boston Marathon the next day.

After the blessing, they each received a Guardian Angel medal.