Season's Greetings

Let us prepare for a holy Easter…

Known as Black Week, the Great Week, the Week of Mourning, Laborious Week, the Week of Salvation, or most often, Holy Week, this week comprises the final days of Lent.

Though this week maintains the themes of Lent, it calls forth from us more – more devotion, more prayer, more penitence, more gratitude – as we journey towards the cross, that vivid and painful image of the reckoning for our sin.

In a mere six days, Holy week manages to whiplash between the high-highs of Palm Sunday and the low-lows of Good Friday. To shepherd us through this rollercoaster of feeling and experience, the Church has developed a special set of themes and services to draw us near to the Lord and prepare our hearts to celebrate the resurrection.

Holy week includes:

- Palm Sunday - we celebrate Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem

- Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (sometimes known as “Spy” Wednesday) - we remember the anointing of Jesus' feet, the temple cleansing, and Judas' deal to betray Jesus

- Maundy Thursday - we remember the Last Supper, Christ washing his disciples' feet, and his agony in Gethsemane

- Good Friday - we bear witness (in our hearts) to the crucifixion and death of Jesus

- Holy Saturday - Jesus rests in the tomb and we wait

Pray

Assist us mercifully with your grace, Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the meditation of those mighty acts by which you have promised us life and immortality through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer

Sing

Learn

Once Christianity became legal in the Roman empire in 313 AD, Holy Week traditions for the pious developed in earnest. Cyril was Bishop of Jerusalem when the devout began to pilgrimage to the holy city for the Easter celebration. As pilgrims arrived, he would guide them along Christ’s steps from triumphal entry to the hill of Golgotha. These were not reenactments, but rather visitations to places of significance. Each stop often included readings, prayers, and hymns.

One such pilgrim was Egeria (or Aetheria), a nun from Spain. She visited Jerusalem in 395 AD and left detailed journal entries on the customs and events enjoyed during Holy Week.

Like many pilgrims, she also brought these customs home, adapting them for the local Church. The traditions she recorded include a procession on Sunday waving palm and olive branches; a prayer service in the Garden of Gethsemane; veneration of Christ’s cross on Good Friday on Golgotha; and an Easter vigil celebration (which included baptisms) at the empty tomb of Christ.

While the Church’s current Holy Week liturgy and traditions have developed over time, its essential structure remains remarkably similar to Egeria’s experiences.