What makes Holy Week holy?

As the week begins, Palm Sunday is a mind bending crashing together of Jesus’ raucous last entry into Jerusalem with the sober reading of the Passion. Monday and Tuesday provide a quiet opportunity to reflect on a few less familiar events of the week. On Wednesday betrayal and forgiveness come to the fore. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter Day stretch our visceral emotional/spiritual response way beyond what we ordinarily experience. 

But our responses by themselves are not what makes Holy Week holy. And the actions of Jesus by themselves are not what makes Holy Week holy. The simple definition of holiness is “to be set aside.” What makes the week holy is that we set aside the time to fully enter into these last events of Jesus’ life. We do this not as an escape from the world, but rather as a decision to be open to the Holy Spirit and the Word in a conscious way. It is a decision to engage the world, to engage our daily lives through the lens of this last week of Jesus’ life. It is in this intersection that holiness emerges. As a way of facilitating that intersection we offer the following schedule of services.
+Nancy

Click here to go back to the Holy Week service schedule.