This Sunday will begin Holy Week. I encourage you to enter into this sacred week with all your heart, to turn down the volume of life so you can hear the voice of God as meditate on the mighty acts of salvation Jesus endured for us and the whole world.
We’ll begin with Palm Sunday by remembering Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with a palm leaf procession around the church. Then, inside the church, John’s Passion narrative will be read dramatically by our reading team where we will take up the shouts of “Crucify him! Crucify him!” A sober beginning to the week indeed.
Wednesday morning we’ll continue with Morning Prayer and conclude by praying the Great Litany in procession inside the church. Maundy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper with his disciples begins the Great Three Days. The service will end in silence and darkness as we prepare for Good Friday.
At noon on Good Friday we will walk through the meditations on the stations of the cross, remembering Jesus’ bearing the hard wood of the cross through Jerusalem, outside the city gate, to be lifted up and glorified.
It’s the most important week of our faith, and I look forward to the sober, solemn, life-giving time we’ll have together.
Jay+