Transcript:
Greetings, beloved in Christ. I hope that you are well on this day, and I hope that you have had a blessed and holy Lenten season. The season of Lent is drawing to a close, and it culminates in Holy Week. Holy week begins on Palm Sunday, where we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with palms as he begins to walk the way of the cross. And throughout the week, there will be liturgical observances that invite you and I to walk the way of the cross with Jesus. I invite you this season, if you have not, to experience a deepening of your faith through liturgical observances in Holy Week. I invite you to experience the shadows of Tenebrae. I invite you to experience Maundy Thursday, and the humbling experience of having someone wash your feet and the grace of washing another’s feet. I invite you to observe the stripping of the altar that represents Jesus’ stripping and arrest.
I invite you to sit in vigil with the sacrament late into the night, waiting for the dawn of a good Friday. I invite you to experience the sorrow and the grief of the crucifixion, observing the stations of the cross, hearing the passion, letting it seep into you, recognizing that our God became flesh, poured the Divine self out for you and I, and that Jesus went to the cross for our redemption. I invite you to experience the deep well of Holy Week so that you might embrace more fully the miracle, the blessing, the joy of Easter. This Holy Week, even if you are not near your congregation during these services, there is an Episcopal church somewhere nearby that is observing these holy days. We are one Church, and even if you observe these services not in your particular congregation, take your congregation with you as you go and pray and meditate on how great a gift we have been given, how amazing our redemption is, and how we too are called to walk in the way of the cross, that we might reconcile the world. Blessings.