“We are gathered in the Mother Church of the Diocese of Paris, Notre-Dame Cathedral, which rises in the heart of the city as a living sign of God’s presence in our midst. My predecessor, Pope Alexander III, laid its first stone, and Popes Pius VII and John Paul II honoured it by their presence. I am happy to follow in their footsteps, a quarter of a century after coming here to offer a conference on catechesis. It is hard not to give thanks to the Creator of both matter and spirit for the beauty of this edifice. The Christians of Lutetia had originally built a cathedral dedicated to Saint Stephen, the first martyr; as time went on it became too small, and was gradually replaced, between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, by the great building we admire today. The faith of the Middle Ages built the cathedrals, and here your ancestors came to praise God, to entrust to him their hopes and to express their love for him. Great religious and civil events took place in this shrine, where architects, painters, sculptors and musicians have given the best of themselves. We need but recall, among so many others, the architect Jean de Chelles, the painter Charles Le Brun, the sculptor Nicolas Coustou and the organists Louis Vierne and Pierre Cochereau. Art, as a pathway to God, and choral prayer, the Church’s praise of the Creator, helped Paul Claudel, who attended Vespers here on Christmas Day 1886, to find the way to a personal experience of God. It is significant that God filled his soul with light during the chanting of the Magnificat, in which the Church listens to the song of the Virgin Mary, the Patroness of this church, who reminds the world that the Almighty has lifted up the lowly (cf. Lk 1:52). As the scene of other conversions, less celebrated but no less real, and as the pulpit from which preachers of the Gospel like Fathers Lacordaire, Monsabré and Samson transmitted the flame of their passion to the most varied congregations, Notre-Dame Cathedral rightly remains one of the most celebrated monuments of your country’s heritage. Following a tradition dating back to the time of Saint Louis, I have just venerated the relics of the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns, which have now found a worthy home here, a true offering of the human spirit to the power of creative Love.”
Pope Benedict XVI, 12 September 2008, at Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris
Last night, Notre Dame burned. This morning, we find that more than we could have hoped for was spared of its interior. The roof and spire may be gone, and soot may cover the walls and mangled debris may have reached the floor, but Notre Dame still stands.
And most important of all, the reason of its existence still remains: the presence of the Lord, Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine, the sacraments given to us who wish to follow Him, as well as some of the symbols of the salvation He wrought for us.
Notre Dame is a historical building which has a special place in the hearts and minds of many, first of all the Parisians and the French, but also those millions, including yours truly, who had the chance to visit her, however briefly.*
But more than a monument to history and the civilisation in which we live, Notre Dame is a church. It is the home of God, a prefiguration of heaven, the place where we come to encounter Him as closely as we can. It manifests the presence of God in the heart of Paris, in the place where that great city began, and thus also in the heart of all the works and endeavours we undertake.
Last night’s fire and its timing, as Holy Week begins, can be understood symbolically, regardless of the cause of the fire. The scenes of people praying and singing as the cathedral burned give us hope and remind us that God hears us at the difficult times in our lives, but He remains present when things are going well and we tend to forget or ignore Him. Like Notre Dame, He is always there.
Today, we may mourn the damage done, but we may also rejoice in what remains. Notre Dame still stands. God is still with us.
*Last October, my wife and I had the chance to visit Notre Dame. By chance we participated in a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Aupetit and Bishop Freddy Fuenmayor Suárez of Los Teques, Venezuela, who gifted an icon of the Blessed Virgin to Notre Dame. The cathedral was filled to capacity and the mood was celebratory. The joy of the Hispanic community was palpable and infectuous. A fond memory, which made yesterday’s developments all the more painful.
The consecration of the Holy Blood of Christ.
Three men were baptised and confirmed during the Easter Vigil.
Brother Hugo reads the Gospel in the now fully decorated and illuminated sanctuary.
One of the many flower bouquets decoration the cathedral for Easter. 
The events for Good Friday announced on a poster at the cathedral. 
Six candles in the sanctuary, one or each of the six Psalms sung during the Tenebrae. A seventh one, the middle one, for Christ, is still to be added. The latter candle does not get extinguished, but is moved behind the altar to symbolise the burial of Christ, and then revealed and lifted up to symbolise His resurrection. 
Candles yet burn at the altar of repose. 
The main altar, barren and empty, lies in darkness as the Blessed Sacrament has been moved to the altar of repose. Jesus at prayer in Gethsemane… 
The footwashing, following Christ’s example on the eve of His Passion.
Diocesan priests at the Chrism Mass.
Preparing the flasks of oil for the Chrism Mass.
Poster announcing the Tenebrae, which will be sung at the cathedral on the eve of Good Friday.
Children with their homemade crosses process through the church after Palm Sunday Mass. Weather sadly prevented a procession in the streets.
Faithful hear the long Gospel reading of Palm Sunday.
Some of the crosses made by the children of the parish for Palm Sunday.
The sanctuary of the cathedral at the start of Holy Week, with statues and crosses veiled.
“All that is written about us, will be fulfilled by you in these days”. Thus the opening verse of a song that Willem Barnard wrote for the start of Holy Week. Much is said in those few words. That He shared our existence to the very end. That nothing human is unknown to Him. The final days, the days of His passing. These are also the days that refer to what is impossible, but what the Church counts as her deepest conviction: that He is risen. The final days: they are the days of ‘pascha’, the passing from death to life. And in these days He fulfilled all that was written about us.
“Holy Week
It’s almost Lent. Snuck up on you, didn’t it? But it’s true, Less than a week away the great time of fasting and penitence will begin and prepare us for Easter.
Wednesday, 19:30: Chrism Mass
Wednesday, 19:00: Chrism Mass (at the Church of St Mary in Apeldoorn).
Wednesday, 19:30: Chrism Mass (for both the diocese and the Military Ordinariate).
Wednesday, 19:30: Chrism Mass
Wednesday, 19:00: Chrism Mass (at the church of St. Gummarus in Wagenberg).
Wednesday, 19:00: Chrism Mass
Wednesday, 19:00: Chrism Mass
In the past few days, four curial prelates have met with Pope Francis: Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, President emeritus of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”; Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches (and fellow Argentinean); Cardinal João Bráz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Consecrated and Apostolic Life; and Cardinal Marc Ouellet (pictured), Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
In Caelo et in Terra 