HCH photos by Anna Weaver

Above, Bishop Larry Silva breathes over the Holy Chrism, infusing it with the Holy Spirit.

Bishop blesses the holy oils at Chrism Mass

By Patrick Downes | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Right, priests renew their commitment to priestly service.   HCH photos/ Anna Weaver Top, Youth and Young Adult Ministry director Lisa Gomes helped collect, fill and redistribute holy oil bottles.

The holy oils the Catholic Church uses to anoint, sanctify and heal were blessed and distributed at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa at the annual Chrism Mass on March 11.

Bishop Larry Silva presided at the evening Mass that was also the yearly liturgy at which priests gather before their bishop to renew their commitment to priestly ministry.

Oahu’s parishes, plus a mix of ethnic, military, educational and medical Catholic communities, each brought three vessels filled with extra virgin olive oil to be blessed.

The glass containers, held in an assortment of baskets and boxes, filled three long tables. The oils to be blessed were Oil of the Sick and Oil of Catechumens, which remained in their individual vessels, and Holy Chrism, which was poured together into a large glass container to be blended with balsam by the bishop during the ceremony.

In his homily, the bishop compared the use of the holy oils by the Catholic community to Jesus’ experience in the Garden of Olives.

“The trees were a canopy over Jesus’ head,” the bishop said. “They silently anointed him with the strength he would need” to face his passion and death the following day.

The newly renovated co-cathedral demonstrated its capacity for celebrating the presbyterate in its spacious sanctuary jacketed with gold-accented white marble, with its larger-than-life altar, ambo and presider’s chair.

Seventy-five priests, in albs and white and yellow chasubles, sat in the elevated area, filling the space on both sides of the altar, glowing in the light of two tall banks of flood lamps.

At the end of Mass, the blessed oils were handed back by the bishop to representatives of each parish, one parish at a time, as the cantors, with a responding choir, sang a litany of the parish names. The solemn distribution took about 10 minutes.

Three other Chrism Masses were scheduled for celebration in the diocese: March 16 at St. Joseph Church, Makawao; March 18 at St. Catherine Church, Kapaa; and March 23 at Sacred Heart Church, Hawi.