Let’s get ready for the Adventure of Holy Week. I have crafted and presented a retreat to parishes and priests in the Midwest based on the great drama that will unfold for us during the coming week, arguably the most significant of the entire year. Holy Week can lead us through a great spiritual adventure if we open ourselves up to it.
I point out in the retreat that most folks come to Palm Sunday seeking a palm branch to display in their home for the coming year. This is a very reverent custom and I highly encourage you to take a palm this year and display it in a prominent place in your home as a reminder of this Lenten season calling us to return to goodness, dignity and humanity. May it remind us of the challenging, radical journey of the heart that we have been on together as a community of faith.
However, most folks, certainly not all, take a break so to speak during Holy Week from Palm Sunday until Holy Thursday when the Triduum (Sacred Three) liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter take place.
During my retreat I try to lead people through significant reflections on the many additional dramatic, spiritual events that are a part of the ENTIRE week, not just those three.
Many people simply avoid the Easter Vigil because it is too long. Please consider (or reconsider) participating in the Easter Vigil that is THE most beautiful liturgy of the entire year. During the Vigil we tell much of our Judeo-Christian story through scripture passages that highlight just some of the significant events of our identity and connection with God through the gift of our Jewish brothers and sisters that ground our Christian story. We also welcome adults into full communion with the Church, from darkness to light, with fire and water and music and all that accompanies this beautiful liturgy. I encourage you join us!
Please take some time on Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday to reflect and enter into the Triduum and all of the drama that accompanies it. Just as Jesus entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, enter into Holy Week with Him. Prepare yourself for some spiritual drama.
Consider the powerful events that will unfold this week that are captured by the following words:
Palm Sunday
Procession
Triumphal Entry
Hosanna
Expectation
Preparation
Holy Thursday
More preparation
Spiritual Meal – Passover and Last Supper giving us Christ’s lasting presence
Instituting – looking into the future by starting the
Eucharist while looking back at its roots in the
Passover which they were gathered to celebrate
Service – Footwashing
Betrayal
Agony
Good Friday
Trial
Suffering which included, interrogation, torture,
humiliation, scourging, exhaustion, stripping,
suffocating
Death, Burial, Darkness
Holy Saturday
Waiting
Vigil
Story– several scriptures
Light
Welcoming – Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist
Easter
Joy
Resurrection – New Life
New Chapel Seating
Part of the founding vision of Holy Family included flexible worship space. I hope you have appreciated the various and changing positions of the Altar, Ambo and other sacred furniture in our Church.
The same holds true for our chapel and after eight years of reflection and conversation, we have changed the seating in the Chapel to antiphonal style. In other words, the assembly faces each other in equal parts seating on the east and west sides. This design is not permanent but my hope is that, among other things, it will encourage the assembly to see Christ more in each other, to surround the word (Ambo) and ritual (Altar) more, to draw more attention to the gifts of bread and wine that encourage us to offer our real presence to our God who gives us the gift of Christ’s real presence.
I appreciate that certain changes in environment may challenge familiar habits. Please give the new environment in the Chapel a chance to enhance your worship in a new and different way. Thank you.