Holy Week

It's been a good Holy Week so far. Although the Advent and Christmas season is really my favorite time of the year, Holy Week and Easter run a close second.

I honestly used to dislike the Lenten season pretty strongly (I hated fasting!), but as the years have gone by, I have appreciated more that--not only are there various creative ways to fast, food isn't the only thing we can fast from that will benefit us spiritually. And if done well, the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday services and observances can be rich for us in our lives.

I look forward every year to re-living the Thursday night experience of Jesus and the disciples--His commands to love and do Eucharist, the footwashing, His agony in the Garden, and the arrest and betrayal, which we remember by stripping the altar. All the visual things that speak to of us of, and convey our Faith to us--are quietly taken off the altar. The altar book, the altar cross, the bread and wine, and the candles--all things that remind as well as convey Jesus' Presence (as in the bread and wine) are removed, and we have an opportunity to walk with Jesus and the disciples again on that dark night. We walk with them as they see Jesus led away to His "trial" and sure death. We know and remember that Jesus knows what is coming and yet He is ready to do the Father's will and suffer and die for us, so He can reconcile us to Himself.

Then on Good Friday we meditate on His "trial," appearance before Pilate, His carrying the cross and agonizing death for us.

Then on Holy Saturday we meditate in His burial with Joseph and Nicodemus, and sit with Jesus by His tomb, as it were. We meditate on how the disciples must have felt on this day.

Some may ask--why do all this? Is this all necessary? No. I can celebrate His resurrection Sunday morning without it. But older, wiser folks than I am long ago saw the benefit of meditation in His Passion and death. They saw how beneficial it can be for us as believers to remember what He did for us. And how good it would be for us to meditate in the Scriptures in the experience of the disciples--who they were, their reactions to Jesus suffering, death, burial, and resurrection--and the explosive way their lives were changed by their Risen Lord sending His Spirit to them.

Chapel of St. Francis parish meets here at Mercy House, Shirley's and my hermitage, 5901 NW 62nd St. at MacArthur (northwest corner), Warr Acres (OKC). We invite you to join us--here or at another church--in Maunday Thursday ("maundy" means mandate or commandment), Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter observances. Walk with us as we walk again in the footsteps of Jesus and the disciples.

Maundy Thursday is tonight at 7pm. Stations of the Cross is tomorrow (Good Friday) at Noon. At 7 pm we have Communion and Veneration of the Cross. The Order of St. John the Beloved offers Holy Saturday Morning Prayer at 8 am--we'll pray the Collect, meditate in the Scripture readings and another reading, sit by the tomb, and pray together. For Easter Vigil, we gather at 7 pm for coffee and fellowship, and begin Eucharist as the Sun goes down. And our Easter Sunday Worship is Communion at 10 am. We welcome you if you're in the area.


God bless you this Holy Week.


br. francis