Holy Week is an amazing time of year. The liturgies are just so powerful. But there is a danger to all of the extra activities, and it’s an ironic one: it can lead us more in the past and into a passive faith. While the week is definitely about remembering the final days of Jesus on earth, it’s important to remember that liturgy is never about the past alone. It’s about calling our attention to how what happened long ago is still true today, still unfolding today, still bringing life today. We are not actors in a play and we are not trying to relive the past. Our goal, in the liturgy and in life, is to participate in what Christ is doing today. The paschal mystery is not that Jesus rose from the dead. It is that he is alive today.
But we can learn from the past…
That said, there are elements of the past we want to learn from so that we can turn away from. One of the main ones that is always thrown at us as Catholics is the crusades. Without denying that many things went wrong in these conquests, it’s important that we don’t accept every criticism as fact. Here are five myths about the crusades.
Top Gun: Maverick is… Extra
No movie is quite so dialed up to 11 like Top Gun: Maverick. Everything about it is pushed to the extreme, which is why is was such a fun movie to watch and exploded at the box office.
From the Vault: The Triduum Explained
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are the holiest days of the year for Christians. Together, they are called the Triduum. For a refresher on what that means and what we celebrate, here’s a video from 2018.
What a week to read the Bible
If you haven’t started praying with my guided meditation podcast The Word Became Flesh, you are going to want to start this week. In what can only be called perfect divine intervention, we have reached the story of the Passion according to Mark… right at the beginning of Holy Week. It was fate, I’m sure. Each day this week I’ll post a new meditation, reaching the crucifixion on Friday and taking Saturday off in silence.
Hope everyone has a great Holy Week!
I’ll be posting an important video about this week’s liturgy on either Wednesday or Thursday, so be sure to check the Breaking in the Habit YouTube page before the Triduum starts for that extra help in your prayer.
Peace and good,
Fr. Casey
Breaking In The Habit 
Have a great Holy Week. Thank you for the wonderful post.
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Have a blessed Holy Week 🙏! Love the post and look forward to the video later on this week!
Love to listen to your programs.
God bless you, Father.
Have a blessed Holy Week!
Hi Father Casey!
I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands of misconceptions about the crusades, and so many other incidents in history. That being said, they are all irrelevant as far as I am concerned. Christians should not be at all like “all the others”. We are held to a different standard, which in fact should be the direct opposite to how the world works, or the reasons people do things.
Misconceptions or not, there is no excuse for a Christian to act in any violent manner, physically, verbally, or through omission. In my opinion, to even state that there are misconceptions and that they can or should be taken into consideration, is making excuses for things that are just plain wrong.
Dear Br Casey,
I sent a letter to you via your Instagram DMs about Pope Francis canonization Mass for St Junipero Serra. Iâm pretty sure I caught you there with my lens (see attached photo and below description of how it came about).Â
Iâm sending it to you againâin case you missed itâto see if you concur.Â
Blessings,Â
Kirsten Fitrell
Backstory/Original DM:
âDear Br Casey,Â
Ever since I started following your YouTube channel about a year ago, I havenât been able to shake the idea that Iâve seen you somewhere before.Â
Today, I was cleaning up my photo files for an art project Iâm working on when I came across an old folder of photos that I took at Pope Francisâ celebration of the Mass of Canonization of Junipero Serra at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.Â
Did you happen to attend as well?  Because check out the attached photo. I swear itâs you!Â
I was in attendance as a guest of the Washington Archdiocese after a piece I wrote for Busted Halo about my experience as a returning Catholic came to their attention. I was so excited to be present for such an historic event that I arrived hours and hours before the scheduled Mass. As my seat was in the rows just behind the cardinals (ie under the exposed pounding sun), I escaped to some shade I spied just outside the VIP section.Â
I was sat on the curb under a tree when I captured the attached image. How crazy would this be if it is indeed you?â
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
Thank you, Fr Casey, for all that you do. These meditations center my heart and mind. Prayers are offered for you and all. May the Lord’s peace be with you and everyone.
Thank you for introducing me to the Triduum and taking a stab at clearing up misconceptions about the Crusades. ’twas fun to see a video from you from your “Brother” days, too. Though virtual reality is seeming to be a thing these days, being physically present for real-life happenings cannot be replaced.
Blessed Holy Week to you and the Church of God in Macon!
God bless you, Father Casey. You have a great part in bringing me to Christ. Yes! It’s true.