Entering into Holy Week

My Dear Family,

We are on the cusp of the holiest week of the year. Palm Sunday is a unique liturgy, beginning with palms and the entry of the king into Jerusalem, and culminating with His passion and death. In a way, the whole week is compacted into one liturgy! Next Sunday, we will already find ourselves marveling outside the empty tomb.

During the course of the week, we are invited to zoom in further and walk more slowly with Jesus, from His entry into the holy city to the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, in the evening. If possible, please come to Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper (7pm). It is one of my favorite liturgies of the year. The highest holy days, called the Triduum, follow when we strive to accompany Jesus and His followers, almost in real time, from their last meal together to the discovery of the empty tomb. During His last steps, we try our best to walk alongside our Savior, until we meet the angels at the door with the question: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

There are many layers to this week, and I invite you as best you can, to walk step by step with our Lord and His followers. Draw close and seek to journey alongside Jesus, as He brings redemption to a world fraught with woundedness and sin. During Holy Week we are invited to live our Faith even more intensely, to create more space for God to speak to us, even to add an additional penance. One beautiful offering would be to limit all screen time to only what is absolutely necessary. Use the mornings and evenings for quiet and prayer, reflection and journaling. One simple suggestion would be to meditate on the Gospels that relate to those final days and hours. (Begin at Mark 14, Matthew 26, Luke 22, or John 13.) Spend fifteen to thirty minutes a day. Enter into the moment. Imagine yourself in the scene and ask Jesus the simple question: how are you speaking to me? These layers help Christians who seek to be ever more one with our Lord.

So, let us enter into this beautiful and possibly familiar rhythm. Each year, as we live out our liturgical year, we have the opportunity to go deeper. The year wraps around, but we are in a different place along with the world, and we are beckoned to continued renewal and conversion in Christ. In Christ Jesus, the promise of the Father is ultimately fulfilled and new life is shared with the world! So, we seek to be one with Jesus in His dying, to be one with Him in His rising.

Enjoy Holy Week,
Fr. Wilson