We are committed to helping the faithful encounter the living Christ through conversion, communion and solidarity. Led by the Most Rev. John P. Dolan, more than 1.7 million Catholics make this diverse, vibrant, and faith-filled diocese their home.
The faithful worship, receive the sacraments and participate in the many activities and social events at one of the 94 parishes and 23 missions. Nearly 15,000 students attend one of the 29 Catholic elementary schools, seven high schools and 29 preschools in the Diocese of Phoenix. For more information, visit https://dphx.org/
The faithful worship, receive the sacraments and participate in the many activities and social events at one of the 94 parishes and 23 missions. Nearly 15,000 students attend one of the 29 Catholic elementary schools, seven high schools and 29 preschools in the Diocese of Phoenix. For more information, visit https://dphx.org/
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Easter may be known for the baskets full of gifts, the chocolate bunnies and the
00:04 dyed eggs. But there's another reason to celebrate the day and here to explain is
00:08 Bishop Dolan from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. We're very happy to
00:12 have you here. Thanks, Dan. Thanks, Lexi. It's great to be here.
00:15 So like we were saying in our little intro, you know a lot of people are
00:20 celebrating this weekend, this whole week leading up to this weekend, but it's
00:24 really about what's happening this weekend for those of us who do celebrate.
00:28 This is really special in the church. Tell us a little bit about kind of the
00:31 history of Easter in the church. Well within the church it obviously ends and
00:38 begins with Christ, with Jesus. So he suffers, he dies. On the third day he
00:45 rises from the dead and it's a celebration of new life in the most
00:51 dramatic way where he rose from the dead not just spiritually but physically and
00:55 showed his hands and his side and ate with the disciples and all of that. So
00:59 it's beyond our imagination. It's kind of mysterious and mystical.
01:07 That's what's so cool and beautiful about it for you know people who are
01:11 members of the church and who are believers. And this comes at the end of
01:15 the Lenten season which is much more of a somber waiting season. Yeah, so the 40
01:22 days of Lent kind of symbolized what happened when Jesus went into the desert
01:27 for 40 days and 40 nights and discerned his own mission that he was going to
01:33 embrace after that. And then in essence that's what we do. We're trying to go
01:39 through those 40 days, 40 nights of our own penance if you will, examining our
01:45 conscience and then saying how are we honestly focusing on on our God and
01:50 let's get back on track if we're not. Yeah, a lot of people think Easter
01:55 weekend starts Friday with Good Friday but actually today is a very important
01:59 day. That's right. Holy Thursday, it's a time where we focus on a number of
02:04 things. It's the Last Supper of Jesus and another piece of that is the
02:09 washing of the feet which is highly symbolic. It's kind of a mandate for us
02:14 to go out and be charitable in all ways and Jesus who is God from our
02:21 perspective humbled himself to wash the feet of the Apostles. And that's what's
02:27 actually happening today starting at noon until 3 which I didn't know
02:31 actually it took place here. I just know I've heard about it but that's happening
02:35 today. Yeah, that's a unique thing at the Basilica downtown. They're actually
02:39 having a washing of the feet and anyone who happens to be coming by including
02:44 many of those who are on the streets will have an opportunity just to be
02:49 cared for and that symbolic washing of the feet is going to take place. And
02:55 that's really beautiful. What a great way to you know be Jesus to the people. That's
03:02 really really cool and there's so many other incredible masses going on this
03:06 weekend because it's not just today not even just tomorrow Saturday as well.
03:09 That's right. So technically what we have is within within our church, our
03:14 tradition is it starts on Holy Thursday goes through Good Friday because we
03:19 don't have a mass on Good Friday but we do have the service. We have a service
03:23 and then it concludes with Saturday evening with the Easter vigil and then
03:29 ultimately with the celebration of Easter and then that's a 50-day
03:33 celebration too. So it's Easter is 50 days. It's not just the one day.
03:38 Bishop you said something that's very important and that's a service. Explain a
03:41 little bit between but a service and a mass is because I think that people don't
03:45 understand that. Right so the mass itself includes the Eucharistic
03:50 celebration so the breaking of the bread. In the case of the service that
03:54 is really focusing on kind of the passion of Christ, his death. And so we
04:00 we read from the Gospel of John specifically his passion, his death and
04:06 his place in the placement in the tomb. And then we get to the next day which is
04:13 Holy Saturday morning and we focus on Jesus who descended to the dead right
04:19 and then kind of woke up the dead in essence. So reaches out to Adam and Eve.
04:24 There's a great homily, an ancient homily focusing on that. The beauty of Christ is
04:29 reaching down into the dead and kind of grabbing the hands of Adam and Eve and
04:34 all of it. It's a beautiful story. And this is a very very special weekend
04:38 obviously you know it's Easter weekend and you and I were just joking before we
04:41 started that it's kind of the Super Bowl for the church. Yes well particularly you
04:47 know I'm a bishop and so I don't have the same experience as the
04:51 priests I used to but once I became a bishop I live more in that world of
04:57 governance so but the priests and their parishes they're really rolling up their
05:01 sleeves they're really busy. It's their Super Bowl. And the big part is Bishop
05:05 you want to get the word out is that everyone's welcome Catholic or non
05:08 Catholics. That's correct. Because there's people that want to come to see what it is about
05:11 because they've never experienced it so you're opening the doors and saying yes
05:14 please come. Yes indeed and and of course this is celebrated in all denominations
05:20 within the Christian enterprise this particular period. The the Eastern
05:25 Orthodox celebrate it at a different time but within the Western Church if
05:31 you will Lutherans and Catholics and Methodists and so on we all tend to
05:35 celebrate it on this weekend. Yeah well it's a great weekend to go out to come
05:41 to church any one of the churches that you just mentioned will be celebrating
05:45 because it's a big big deal. It's a big crowd. Absolutely and we definitely encourage you to
05:50 get out and celebrate but if you can't here at the CW7 we are proud to partner
05:56 locally with the Phoenix Diocese to bring you live special coverage of Good
06:01 Friday service which will be this Friday at 3 p.m. and also that Easter service we
06:06 were talking about Easter Mass this Sunday at 9 a.m. it's all taking place
06:10 from St. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix. Yes so that's great. Bishop
06:15 thanks for joining us this morning. My pleasure.
06:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]