Holy Week

From early times, Christians have observed the week before Easter as a time of special prayer and devotion. As the pilgrim Egeria recorded in the late fourth century, numerous pilgrims to the holy city of Jerusalem followed the path of Jesus in his last days. They formed processions, worshipped where Christ suffered and died, and venerated sacred sites and relics. From this beginning evolved the practices we observe today on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. These services and our prayers through these days invite us to experience the last days of Jesus’ earthly life, as well as the time and events leading up to his resurrection. The three holy days, or Triduum, of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are at the heart of Holy Week prayer and worship.

Parishes are invited to use or adapt the following resources to support their prayer and gathering throughout Holy Week.

Holy Week Resources for Congregations

Click on each of these expandable sections to view resources.

Creating a Sacred Space in the Home

A sacred space is a space set apart that can help us come closer to God. Create a sacred space in your home where you can pray, read scripture, and worship. If your home allows, make it a quiet, out-of-the-way space, free from clutter. If you have limited room, even a shelf will do. Gather symbols of our Christian faith and other items that are meaningful to you: candles, a cross, an icon, incense, a cloth. Invite family members, including children of all ages, to contribute to the location and design of the space, with each person adding items that help them make meaning. Items might be added to the space throughout the week, e.g., a bowl and cloth on Maundy Thursday, a black cloth covering the cross on Good Friday, water symbolizing Holy Baptism on Holy Saturday, photos of people you are praying for.

Resources for Creating a Sacred Space in the Home

Palm Sunday

The Sunday before Easter recalls Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mt 21:1-11, Mk 11:1-11a, Lk 19:29-40). Palm Sunday helps us enter into Holy Week. The observance of Palm Sunday in Jerusalem was witnessed by the pilgrim Egeria in about 381-384. During this observance people processed down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. The people waved branches of palms or olive trees as they walked. They sang psalms, including Ps 118, and shouted the antiphon, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The Palm Sunday observance was generally accepted throughout the church by the twelfth century. The liturgy of the palms traditionally includes a reading of one of the gospel accounts of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem.

Resources for Palm Sunday

Marking the Days

The days of Holy Week offer a meditative opportunity to connect ecumenically with friends, neighbors, and other parishes for prayerful preparation for Easter. Monday through Thursday are minor days of Holy Week, and yet still invite deep reflection on scripture and its meaning for us in the context of these times. It is possible to observe these days of preparing for Easter by gathering virtually with members of a parish community, or by praying at home as individuals or families.

Resources and Suggestions for Holy Week Practices

  • Pray Daily Devotions In the Morning, At Noon, In the Early Evening, or At the Close of Day. Daily Devotions begin on page 136 of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). Offering prayers on these days at noontime is a time-honored practice.
  • Lectio Divina is a prayerful practice of listening to and praying scripture and can be done individually, as a family, and/or in groups on Zoom. Lectio Divina: A Beginner’s Guide provides a nice introduction and brief history of Lectio Divina, then walks you through the practice in five simple steps. Daily readings can be found on the Forward Movement website or at the back of the Book of Common Prayer. The readings for Holy Week of this year (Daily Office Year Two) can be found on page 957. You may also choose to use the Lectionary for holy days.
  • The Mission of St. Clare online resources provide extensive options for praying Daily Devotions and other Offices.
  • Aural Bible Study, an African style of Lectio Divina is well-suited for small group Bible study and includes an element of prayer. Learn more >
  • A Holy Week Devotional was created especially for youth and includes a reading and meditation for each day of the week, beginning with Palm Sunday. Youth leaders could gather their groups online each evening to check in with each another, then enter into a time of reflection using the devotional. The devotional could also be used individually in the home.
  • Were You There: A Readers Theater of the Events and Voices of Holy Week is an option for youth groups and could be performed online. It features 14 eyewitness accounts of the events of Holy Week based on the four Gospels. The script is $5.
  • Holy Week at Home provides coloring pages and descriptions of the events of Holy Week.

Stations of the Cross

The Stations of the Cross is a prayerful meditation following the events leading to Jesus’ crucifixion. Prayers accompanying each station allow time to reflect on the mystery of his death. Originally praying the Stations of the Cross involved an actual physical journey in and around Jerusalem. Through the centuries, the stations have been symbolized in art and architecture, and today many parishes display artistic representations in their sanctuaries. The Stations of the Cross may be prayed at any time, but is commonly a part of Lenten spiritual practice, specifically on Good Friday.

Resources for Stations of the Cross

  • The Episcopal Church in Colorado offers a Stations of the Cross from a number of parishioners and leaders from across the diocese. In many ways, the work of the church is the work of social justice. In this time of isolation, it has never been more apparent the impact that the suffering of others has on our lives, our communities and our spirit.
  • Virtual Stations of the Cross offers inspiring videos with meditative music and images. These Stations can be prayed individually or in a group Zoom gathering, inviting simple shared reflection following the Stations.
  • You might also enjoy ChurchNext’s course on Praying the Stations of the Cross, in which artist Kathrin Burleson discusses and reflects on her series of fourteen paintings representing the Stations of the Cross. This is not a service so much as an introduction to the devotion and the artist’s reflections on the paintings for each station.
  • Beautiful woodcut images from Margaret Adams Parker can be used for praying the stations in booklet format or projected at home or for a group online. The booklet includes suggested readings for each station.
    Go to booklet >
    Go to Powerpoint >
  • This nice, simple Stations of the Cross video can be used for individual or family prayer, or shared as a group online via Zoom. The video is 11 minutes.
  • Download a printable Stations of the Cross booklet for children to color and reflect on the Easter story. This site offers three different options (one free and two paid). Each option includes reflections for every station.

Tenebrae

The name Tenebrae (the Latin word for “darkness” or “shadows”) has for centuries been applied to the ancient monastic night and early morning services (Matins and Lauds) of the last three days of Holy Week, which in medieval times came to be celebrated on one of the evenings earlier in the week.

Resources for Tenebrae

Maundy Thursday

The Thursday in Holy Week. It is part of the Triduum, or three holy days before Easter. It is believed the term “maundy” is derived from the Latin for Jesus’ new command to love one another (mandate novum), or possibly the verb “to wash” (mundo). This is the day we follow the example of Jesus by offering ourselves in love and humbly serving one another.

Resources for Maundy Thursday

Good Friday

The Friday before Easter Day, on which the church remembers the crucifixion of Jesus. It is a day of fasting and special acts of discipline and self-denial (BCP, p. 17). Traditionally this has been understood to mean fasting and participation in prayer and worship at some time during the day. In the early church candidates for baptism, joined by others, fasted for a day or two before the Paschal feast. In the west the first of those days eventually acquired the character of historical reenactment of the passion and death of Christ. The liturgy of the day includes John’s account of the Passion gospel, a solemn form of intercession known as the solemn collects (dating from ancient Rome), and optional devotions before the cross (commonly known as the veneration of the cross).

Resources for Good Friday

  • Stations of the Cross liturgies can be found under the Stations of the Cross tab.
  • A Good Friday Service for the Home could be prayed as an individual or family, or shared online.
  • As part of Good Friday prayer/worship consider playing the hymn (or meditating on its lyrics)
    When I Survey the Wondrous Cross from Sir Isaac Watts:

When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
save in the death of Christ, my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them through his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Link to hymn on YouTube >

  • The Good Friday Contemplative Service of Scripture and Song invites individuals or groups to experience Good Friday through Biblical texts, poetry, music (provided as YouTube links.) This would be most meaningfully experienced as an individual or as part of an intimate online group.
  • Holy Week At Home: Family Practices For The Triduum provides in-home practices for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Since Good Friday services often end in total darkness, the suggested in-home practice for Good Friday is unplugging from technology…which may carry particular significance during this time of increased reliance on our devices.

Easter Vigil

This most ancient of holy days is rich in symbolism, saturated with the word of God, and is, in fact, the principal celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. Throughout the ages, it has been in this worship that countless saints have proclaimed, Alleluia, Christ is Risen! Indeed, when we celebrate the Easter Vigil, we recall the total darkness of the tomb, in order that the splendid light of the resurrection might be all the more glorious.

Resources for Easter Vigil

  • Consider starting your virtual Easter Vigil worship at home in darkness with a candle or outside around a firepit, as a reminder of the victory in Christ of light and life over darkness and death.
  • Holy Week At Home: Family Practices For The Triduum provides in-home practices for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. The practice for Holy Saturday involves making wax crayon eggs, reminding us that we sometimes have to wait to see the complete picture.

Easter

Easter is the feast of Christ’s resurrection. According to the Venerable Bede, the word derives from the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess Eostre. Christians in England applied the word to the principal festival of the church year, both the day and the season. Easter Day is the annual feast of the resurrection. Faith in Jesus’ resurrection on the Sunday or third day following his crucifixion is at the heart of Christian belief. Easter sets the experience of springtime next to the ancient stories of deliverance and the proclamation of the risen Christ. Following Jewish custom, the feast begins at sunset on Easter Eve with the Great Vigil of Easter.

Resources for Easter

Easter continues for an entire season – six Sundays, 40 days – until the Feast of Pentecost. For 2023, we recommend the resource Easter Triumph, Easter Joy by Scott Gunn. A book of inspiring daily meditations for Easter, it also includes “Musical Mondays” (meditations on Easter hymns) and “Throwback Thursdays” (explorations of sermons or teachings from the first centuries of the church).

Worship Resources for Online Gatherings

As you consider alternative ways of using technology to meet people where they are, remember that personal connections, the connections that are made from an individual to an individual, are important. How can you create communities within your community to maintain personal relationships? How can you shift meetings, worship services, or youth events from in-person gatherings to online gatherings? Could you offer morning prayer or a daily reflection virtually rather than in-person?

As more pastoral offerings and activites are being offered online (worship services, meditations, formation offerings, and more), here are suggestions on adapting your ministry to this new reality.

  • As online gatherings increase, reduce the amount of time you would normally take to offer the meeting in person and consider how much time people can pay attention when they are “participating” by computer. This is important because more and more people are attending more and more meetings and events online.
  • Think visually when leading online meetings. Try to do something that seems familiar at least for moments in the program, for example, let the camera focus on a stained glass window or outdoor scene or room that people are used to seeing in person when possible.
  • Encourage ways that people can “participate” in a communal activity even though they are physically separated. Worship experience could include gathering a sacred object or all lighting a candle in the same moment.
  • If an online worship service is led from inside a church, try to have several people in the space so that there is variety of leadership, speaking or singing, with opportunities for all to join in parts of the service together
  • Organize the program intentionally, taking into account attention span, varying the views and activities so that there is flow but also variation.
  • Think through and help articulate the context, giving more directions of what is happening within the program, with instructions for what participants need to do. Take time to make sure that each participant actually knows how to follow and participate.
  • Good technology is important but not critical. Authenticity and caring presence are most effective. Consider investing in a quality web camera and microphone, so that visuals and sounds are crisp and clear. It’s harder to stay engaged when sound is poor or breaking up, or video is cloudy or freezing.

Adapted from the Rev. Elizabeth Denham Thompson, Eremos Consulting Group.

  • The Taizé Community has granted permission for all our parishes, missions, and communities across the Episcopal Church in Colorado to play the CDs produced by Ateliers et Presses de Taizé as part of prayer resources, free of charge, as long as the present crisis lasts.
  • OneLicense, which provides permissions to copy and project musical scores of songs and to make podcasts of services, is offering gratis licenses to churches through April 15. Learn more >