HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE 2021
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Whether we gather together in person or virtually, it remains important that we recall, together, the events in his life that took place over the course of a week 2000 years ago. Despite the inconsistencies and necessary abridgement of some of our worship, the services and prayers this week constitute a single, unified observance.
The man who was God, who challenged the conventional wisdom of his day, who made bizarre claims and then told his followers they must believe them, who alienated potential supporters and angered opponents, who went around healing, cleansing, preaching and teaching, working miracles, casting out demons, and raising the dead, was betrayed by a close and trusted friend, convicted on false evidence, and executed for political expediency, which seemed like a good idea at the time. But we know that is not the end of the story. We know that he did rise again from the dead. But like so much else that he did, he did not do it immediately. The things of God take time, because we were not created for the limitations of time, but for eternity. Jesus promised that he would remain with us until time will cease to be; those who walk with him do not. He spent his life — in every sense of that expression -- so that we might be free of the ravages and limitations of time. Can we not wait and watch one night with him? Can we not rearrange our schedules, for one week of the year, to spend more of the time he has given us with him? Our Holy Week this year remains sparse, stripped of pomp and pageantry, like Jerusalem of its splendor, an altar of its finery, or Jesus of his robes. But he walks with us, even now, for all time. Walk with us, as we walk with him. Father Tom Malionek Rector of Saint Paul's We are #stillthechurch. |
Holy Week
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