Palm Sunday
Dear Friends in Christ,
With Palm Sunday just a few days away it is time to turn our thoughts toward Holy Week. Lent is not officially over until sunset on the Saturday before Easter, which this year is March 30th, but for centuries the Church and followers of Jesus have set this week aside to retrace and remember Jesus’ last days. You may want to add something to your Lenten spiritual practices or change them up to observe this solemn week, especially the last three days known as the Triduum. If you haven’t already done so, you may want to make a holy place in your home with a few things that help you enter into the presence of God – a cross, a bible, an icon, a candle. If you have children encourage them to add something to this place, but keep it simple.
The Episcopal Church observes these solemn days with liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer, beginning with the liturgy of the Palms on Palm Sunday, moving through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and culminating with the Easter Vigil on Saturday night. It is commonly believed that the three services on the last three days of Holy Week cannot be separated, and, in many places, they are celebrated as one liturgy. At Church, we will be transforming our worship space during the course of the week to reflect our journey toward the cross and resurrection.
This Sunday, Palm Sunday, we will decorate the church with palms to remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. You may wish to lay a branch gathered from your garden or neighborhood on your holy place.
On Maundy Thursday, we will gather in the Parish Hall for an Agapé meal, to remember Jesus’ last meal with his disciples at which he washed their feet as an example of servant leadership. We will serve each other at the meal and wash each other’s feet in similar acts of service. You may wish to add a bowl of water and a clean washcloth to your holy place. After we have eaten and washed each other’s feet, we will process to the sanctuary and observe as the altar is stripped. We will take away all the trappings of our regular worship just as Christ was taken away after his arrest. You may wish to remove some of the items on your holy place.
On Good Friday, we will enter church to be confronted with a stark wooden cross crowned with thorns to remember Jesus’ humiliation and crucifixion. We will be invited to place rocks at its foot to remember that Jesus died for humankind’s sinfulness. You may wish to place a rock on your holy place.
Holy Saturday is an opportunity to sit in the absence of Christ and wonder what the world would be like without God’s presence among us. It is also the day we prepare for the joy of Easter. As the sun sets and the first star appears in the sky, the Church observes the Great Vigil of Easter. The Vigil uses symbols of life - fire, water, bread, wine – to tell the sacred stories of God’s faithfulness to God’s people since the beginning of time as recorded in the Old Testament. It starts in darkness to symbolize the shadow of death and we kindle a fire to remind ourselves that God’s love is greater than death, and that “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:39. Then with sung Alleluias and the reappearance of light, we proclaim the resurrection of Christ. On Holy Saturday you may wish to add some joyful symbols to your holy place, such as flowers and candles, which you can light at sunset to symbolize the light coming back into the world.
At Saint Anna’s we have not had an Easter Vigil for many years, but this year we are trying something new. We will gather outside around a fire and tell our own sacred stories of God’s saving grace, of hope and rebirth, of light retiring to our loves, until we proclaim with joyful Alleluias and the ringing of bells that Christ is Risen, when we will make and share s’mores to celebrate the Resurrection and God’s desire to gather all humanity around God’s table.
I hope you will consider joining us for these services to walk with Christ through the last week of his life, and, after the solemn events of the week, join us on Easter Sunday to fully experience the joy and of the resurrection. Details are in this newsletter and can be found on our website.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Jane+