Holy Week 2023

Dear Friends in Christ

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the day we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Its official name is Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday as the Church adopted a practice of reading the Pasion Narrative from one of the Synoptic (i.e. not John’s, which is always read on Good Friday) Gospels. The service begins with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ends with his death on a cross, encapsulating the events and emotions of Holy Week in to one short hour (and a bit). While this has the advantage of ensuring that people who didn’t attend Holy Week services didn’t leap straight from the “Hosannas!” of Palm Sunday to the joy of the resurrection without experiencing the somber events of Holy Week, at Saint Anna’s we have chosen to observe Palm Sunday and leave the Passion until Good Friday. Which means that if you only attend Church on Sunday you are going to miss the important events that happen during the most holy week of the Church year.

For centuries Christians have gathered to retrace and remember the last days of Jesus Christ, especially the three sacred days that make up the Triduum (“three days”) – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. In the fourth century a pilgrim named Egeria wrote extensively about her observations of Holy Week proceedings and an Easter Vigil in Jerusalem. From Maundy Thursday through to the Great Vigil of Easter on the Saturday evening there are no dismissals, only pauses until the community of the faithful gather again. These days cannot be separated from one another, so they are celebrated as one liturgy. When we attend Church on all three of these days, we proceed from the humble act of serving one another on Maundy Thursday, through time spent in contemplating the absence of Jesus in our world at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday, to the new light piercing the darkness at the Feast of the Resurrection on Saturday and Sunday.

I encourage you to consider attending one or more of the services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, so you can experience the joy of the resurrection, the miracle of the empty tomb, more fully on Easter morning, and can shout “Alleluia” with renewed thanksgiving and praise.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Jane