This coming Tuesday, April 12th, at 10:30 am, at Nativity BVM, Biloxi, we will celebrate the Chrism Mass as will all Catholics around the world in preparation for the Easter Triduum. Only a bishop can consecrate chrism (pure olive oil infused with rich fragrance) so this liturgy is a sign of the unity of the local Church and the bishop’s ministry to all who will be baptized and confirmed in our parishes in the coming year. Chrism is also used in the ordination of priests and bishops and the consecration of new altars. Two other sacramental oils, the unscented olive oil for Catechumens and one for the sick, will be blessed in the same liturgy and transported carefully to every parish by the beginning of the Triduum. Remember when Noah’s dove returned with the sign of the world’s rebirth? The dove carried an olive branch, a pledge that God was breathing the world to life again. Yet olives require human nurture. Olives are inedible unless they are cured. Olive trees grow on sunny slopes, away from the shade of city walls, and are tended out in the open, cured, and pressed for oil by human labor. The Chrism Mass, with its olive oils, expresses God’s deepest desires for us, and our resolve to place our lives in service to God’s saving, healing, loving plan.