Fr. John A. Perricone: The Ecstasy and Terror of Holy Thursday

By Fr. John A. Perricone, Crisis Magazine, April 14, 2022

Fr. John A. Perricone, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of philosophy at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. His articles have appeared in St. John’s Law Review, The Latin Mass, New Oxford Review and The Journal of Catholic Legal Studies.

“And it was night.”—John 13:30  

If you are not paying close attention, you might miss it: two small omissions in the canon of the Holy Thursday Mass. While these occur only in the Extraordinary Form, their observation and consideration unleash the chilling power of Holy Thursday for every Catholic. They produce in the soul a kind of thunderclap. As with everything in the Roman Rite, their appearance is understated and demure, which is its genius and majesty.

Both of those omissions appear in the body of the Canon. The first comes in the last invocation of the Agnus Dei.  …

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