On to the Church, after a final “site visit” which was only in name (see p. 17). The blockbuster orchestrated by the Élysée on Friday revealed the new face of the cathedral, revealed from all its angles. Freed from this issue of revelation, the true reopening will be celebrated on Saturday and Notre-Dame will once again become a place of worship for good. Certainly, the ceremony will be preceded by a new speech by the President of the Republic, from the square this time, and followed by a “cultural moment” entrusted to France Télévisions. Many officials are invited, including many heads of state, but the main thing will be the reopening, celebrated in two stages.
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The service, to begin with, will begin on Saturday at the end of the afternoon with the rite of opening the doors: three times, Mgr Ulrich will strike the closed door with his crosier. The cathedral will respond to the Archbishop of Paris with the voice of Psalm 121: “What joy when they said to me: “We will go to the house of the Lord!” Now our march ends before your gates, Jerusalem! Jerusalem, here you are within your walls: city where everything together is one! » At the third answer, under the portal of the Last Judgment, the heavy door will open…
The service will continue with the “awakening” of the great organ: blessed by the archbishop, the instrument must “respond” eight times to his incantations. After the “office song”, composed of a hymn, a psalm, prayer intentions for the whole world and an Our Father, Mgr Ulrich will give the final blessing, before the singing of the Te Deum . Everything will be accompanied by the organists of the cathedral, and by the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris which will return to its setting.
Political and heritage issues may have led to the nature and primary vocation of Notre-Dame being forgotten.
The next day the inaugural mass will be celebrated, presided over by the Archbishop of Paris, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron – who will not speak this time, and will not take communion, faithful in this to the custom of a head of the State in office, specified the Élysée. The reopening will stretch over an octave, that is to say eight days punctuated by daily masses celebrated at 10:30 a.m. by Mgr Ulrich. A way to involve as many faithful as possible in the reopening, beyond the lucky ones elected on December 7 and 8. The cathedral will even continue the celebrations of its rebirth until Pentecost 2025, with a rich musical, cultural, but above all spiritual program.
During the disastrous fire, Emmanuel Macron, who came to the bedside of the cathedral on the evening of April 15, 2019, found the words to express his compassion, which went first to the Catholics. The latter sometimes felt forgotten, throughout the magnificent adventure of the construction site… Notre-Dame de Paris is much more than a church, and does not only belong to the Church and the faithful, but the political and heritage sites have been able to make us forget its nature and its original vocation: next Saturday and Sunday, it will also be restored.
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