What is Holy Week?
Holy week is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter. It begins with
Maundy Thursday, continues on Good Friday, and culminates in the Great
Vigil of Easter on Saturday Night. These are sometimes called by the Latin
Triduum (meaning “three days.”). They are, technically, one service-there’s
no final blessing or dismissal from Thursday’s opening until the end of the
Great Vigil on Saturday. Often times the observance during the week might
include the Stations of the Cross or a simple Eucharist on Holy Monday
and Holy Tuesday, and a service called Tenebrae is held on Wednesday.
At Christ Church, we have Stations (lead by a lay person) on Tuesday, are
home on Wednesday (St Paul’s in Brookline has a lovely Tenebrae service
a few of us attended several years ago), and then have church Thursday-
Sunday. In 2013 a children’s stations of the cross was added on Good
Friday at 6pm.
Why Holy week?
Holy Week is, spiritually and theologically, the high point and center
of the whole church year. Having gone through the journey of Maundy
Thursday, the depths of Good Friday, the watching and waiting of the Vigilthe
celebration of the Easter resurrection is that much more powerful-and
honest. Our liturgies aren’t museum pieces; they draw us into a deeper
truth of our faith. They are in some ways a mirror of our own experience.
Jesus Christ was fully human. Though he was in the form of God, he did not
regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself.
(Philippians 2: 5) Jesus emptied himself and took on all of the uncertainty,
pain, and suffering of human living. Nothing human is alien to the heart of
God because of Jesus’ closeness to us. This week, Jesus enters the depths
of human love, and also human grief and suffering. This week is about us,
not just about God. “Wash each other,” Jesus tells us in Scripture, and as
we do, we wash Christ himself. This week, we observe and participate in
this sacrificial closeness God has to us.
Where do the services come from?
Our liturgies come from the pilgrimage diary of a fourth century Spanish
nun, Egeria. We owe our own Book of Common Prayer liturgies to the
discovery of her account of her travels. Egeria was a remarkable woman
who wrote and traveled at a time that many women couldn’t do either. We
know she was Roman, so she was a convert to the Christian faith. Our
celebration of Maundy Thursday goes back even further, to the account in
Scripture of Jesus’ last night as described in the Gospel of John, when he
washes his disciples’ feet as he models servanthood. It is also the time we
remember the institution of the Holy Eucharist; we say the same words from
the Gospel on Maundy Thursday and every time we celebrate communion:
This is my body, this is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.
The Stations of the Cross
At this service, we walk the pilgrim walk of the Way of the Cross. Many
churches, both Catholic and Protestant, use these 14 “stations” as a way
to pray the last day of his life from his condemnation to being laid in the
tomb: the path Jesus would have walked in Jerusalem. From “Jesus is
condemned to death” through “Jesus is placed in the tomb,” the carved
images of each moment on the way were widely installed in European
churches in the late middle ages. Our stations are photographs of Eric Gill’s
early twentieth century series (at Westminster Cathedral in England). The
prayers can be done as a private devotion or a service with or without music
and can be lead by a lay or ordained person.
Maundy Thursday
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved
you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)
The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin, mandatum, which means
commandment. In the liturgy, we wash each others’ feet-we are each others’
servants. Men and women, older and younger-we are all called to serve
each other. Is it awkward? Of course. Don’t come wearing pantyhose. It’s
a level of nearness we don’t frequently experience with our friends, much
less the person you sit behind in church. But is it holy? Absolutely. The
disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was doing at first, either. When
Jesus kneels at Peter’s feet, he says, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus
answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Peter is
confused-an act of submission by his Lord? No way. Jesus says, “You do
not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Does Peter
get it, later? Much later, he does-after the crucifixion, after the resurrection,
he understands just how different a Lord Jesus was. Not one who wants
domination and power, but a Lord who wants to be on the floor, kneeling
in front of us, comforting and consoling: a Lord whose only command is
love. The foot washing takes place between the sermon and the prayers
of the people. The liturgy continues with Communion. After Communion,
we strip the altar. All the hangings, all the chairs, all the cushions and
candles come out of the sanctuary. We do this to prepare for Good Friday,
to remind ourselves of the abandonment of Christ, and the utter absence
and desolation of that day. Everyone who is present in the church is invited
to help strip the altar-it’s not just a performance by the clergy or leaders of
the service; it’s shared by us all. After the service, we’re invited to sit in vigil
with the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, remembering his invitation
to his disciples to stay awake with him in Gethsemane on his last night.
Good Friday
Some one is said to have bitten off and stolen a portion of the sacred wood, it is
thus guarded by the deacons who stand around, lest any one approaching should
venture to do so again And as all the people pass by one by one, all bowing
themselves, they touch the Cross and the title, first with their foreheads and then
with their eyes; then they kiss the Cross and pass through, but none lays his hand
upon it to touch it. (The Pilgrimage of Egeria)
For Good Friday at Christ Church, we follow the liturgy in the Book of
Common Prayer. It differs in some significant ways from the regular
Eucharist we celebrate on Sundays. Instead of the Prayers of the People,
we hear a series of collects (aptly named “the Solemn Collects”) that offer
prayers for the church and the world, for those who suffer and those who
seek faith). After the collects comes the central moment, the entrance of
the cross. The cross we use is not an elaborate one-it’s not made of nice
wood, or stained a beautiful color. It’s two rough sticks, bound together,
found in the woods. After the cross enters, we are all invited to reverenceto
bow, to kiss, to kneel, or just to stand and wonder at the mystery of that
symbol, an object of shame and violence transformed into life and love.
On Good Friday we don’t celebrate the Eucharist. The preacher Barbara
Brown Taylor has said that Good Friday is the quietest day of the year-part
of that silence is not celebrating the sacrament. In recognition of our need
to be fed, however, we do share communion (the bread and wine having
been consecrated at the service on Maundy Thursday). On Good Friday
at 6pm, we’re also having a special service of Stations of the Cross for
Children, continuing the conversation begun at the children’s sermon on
Palm Sunday.
The Great Vigil of Easter
The Easter Vigil is just that – a Vigil – we enter a darkened church, after lighting
the Pascal candle from the “new fire” of Easter outside the church and
then we process in singing, “The light of Christ,” and hear the stories of our
salvation from the Hebrew Scriptures. Halfway through the service, Easter
begins! We ring in our celebration with bells and more light (so remember
to bring your own bell to ring). We reaffirm our baptismal covenant (if there
aren’t baptisms to celebrate) and are sprinkled with holy water. The service
continues with a festive Eucharist, with incense and wonderful Easter
hymns. The alleluias will be back! The first time we did it at Christ Church (I
think in 2009), someone commented, “That is the Easter-est it’s ever been!”
Indeed.
Please join us for the whole journey!
Tuesday, 7 pm: Stations of the Cross
Thursday, 7 pm: Maundy Thursday Liturgy
Thursday, 8 pm-7 am: Vigil at the Altar of Repose
Friday, 12 pm and 7 pm BCP Liturgy for Good Friday
Friday, 6 pm Stations for Children
Saturday, 7 pm The Great Vigil of Easter
Easter Sunday, Holy Eucharist at 8:30 and 10am