For Goa’s Catholic Church, several important events take place around Easter. While most people are familiar with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, the chrism mass is a lesser known, but significant event.
The annual chrism mass of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman was celebrated at Se Cathedral Church, Old Goa, March 21, 2024, by Archbishop Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrao; Bishop Emeritus of Port Blair, Alex Dias; and priest representatives from all over the archdiocese.
The main objective of the chrism mass is to express the communion of the priests with their bishop.
During this mass, the bishop also blessed the Holy Oils, namely, the Oil of the Catechumens (Oleum Catechumenorum), the Oil of the Sick (Oleum Infirmorum), and the Holy Chrism Oil (Sacrum Chrisma).
In the course of the celebration, the bishop reminded the priests to be faithful to their priesthood, and invited them to renew their priestly promises publicly.
In his homily, Archbishop Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrao highlighted that Jesus is a 'Synodal Shepherd', and invited the priests to be shepherds, guiding the people and being with them in their journey, to motivate and support them and promote unity and fellowship.
He invited the priests to be caring leaders and discerning pastors.
During the chrism mass, the bishop expresses his bond with the priests and all the faithful. The priests resolve to work under the guidance of their bishop, who in turn, asks for prayers from the priests and faithful to help him reflect on the life of Christ.
This unique celebration unites the bishop, all the priests, and faithful working in the archdiocese.
The chrism mass ended with the releasing of Pastoral Diary for the coming year at the hands of Archbishop Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrao and Emeritus Bishop of Port Blair Diocese, Bishop Alex Dias.
The Pastoral Diary, which has a schedule of the major events in the archdiocese has been prepared under the direction of Pastoral Secretariat of the archdiocese.
WHAT IS A CHRISM MASS?
During the chrism mass, the bishop blesses the holy oils for use at baptism, confirmation, and during the anointing of the sick. This mass is celebrated around Easter, usually on a Thursday preceding Holy Thursday.
During this mass, the holy oils – namely, the Oil of the Catechumens (Oleum Catechumenorum), the Oil of the Sick (Oleum Infirmorum), and the Holy Chrism Oil (Sacrum Chrisma) – are blessed.
The Oil of the Catechumens is used in baptism, while the Oil of the Sick is used for the sick and the Holy Chrism is used in baptism, confirmation, ordination of priests and bishops.
These oils are blessed once in a year and distributed to churches all over the diocese, in this case, Goa.
