It’s Palm Sunday today and for the first time in our lives we began Holy Week with mass live streamed from the Church of the Divine Mercy in our diocese and later in the evening, straight from the Vatican.

Thanks to the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese and the Vatican media in addition to archdiocese in other parts of Malaysia, Asia and the world we aren’t completely alone during this lockdown and movement control period.

It all still seems very surreal but fascinating at the same time that despite being confined, we are able to celebrate mass in union with thousands (if not millions) of Catholics in our respective countries and all over the world. Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Basilica no less!

It is also the diocesan level World Youth Day today and the day when youth from Panama were supposed to hand over the World Youth Day cross to youth from Lisbon, Portugal where the 2022 world youth day is to be celebrated. This event has now been postponed to Nov 22.

Today was a taste of a week of online participation in Holy Week & a peek into a quiet Easter celebration sans friends and family.

In place, we will be celebrating Holy Week 2020 in unseen company – the global Catholic community logging in to celebrate the week with their comrades across the globe.

Pictures from Vatican Media and Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese live stream on March 5, 2020.