Holy Week: A Journey of Remembrance and Redemption

Dear People of God,

Sunday is Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday. On this day, the dramatic events that occur to Jesus during the Triduum next week are read in detail. It is Palm Sunday that starts Holy week, a week for me full of emotions, of silence in the sanctuary, of reverence, and of remembering. We get a brief taste of this remembrance when we celebrate Holy Communion each week. This next week we remember it all. We remember our need for redemption, our need for forgiveness, and our need to be open to the GIFT Jesus gives each of us by his dying on the cross and resurrection at Easter.

I feel blessed for the many gifts I receive on my spiritual journey as I imagine you do too. God’s love is one of the gifts. Henri Nouwen in his May 27th blog titled Loving from God’s Love writes, “. . . When we understand the mystery that we are loved not for what we do but because of who God says we are, [then] we are free to love others in a similar way.” That LOVE is freely given. That LOVE is given on Resurrection Sunday. That Sunday we can live the resurrected life that God calls his People to be. On that day, we can spread that love, however, we cannot get to Easter Sunday until we have walked the journey of the Passion—the Last Supper, the washing of the feet, the Stripping of the altar, the Stations of the Cross where we pause to remember Jesus’ Walk to the Cross, His last seven words, and being witness to his last breath.

I invite you to join me in walking this spiritual journey of remembrance this Holy Week. 

Blessings,

Rev. Anne