Dear friends,
Today on the church calendar is, of course, the Wednesday of Holy Week, but it is also the day the Church remembers Frederick Denison Maurice, a 19th century English priest. Maurice was the pastor of several churches, and was a professor of Moral Theology at Cambridge. He was also one of the founders of the Christian Socialist Movement, which identified capitalistic greed with many of the social justice issues of the day.
Some of his quotes seem especially appropriate for Holy Week.
“We have been dosing our people with religion when what they want is the living God,” he wrote. “I do not think we are to praise the liturgy, but to use it. When we do not want it for our life, we may begin to talk of it as a beautiful composition.”
In other words, liturgy for liturgy’s sake is not what the Church should be about. Worship should be a pathway to the living God; it should speak to our whole lives, not just the hour a week we are in church.
The liturgies of Holy Week do exactly that. Beginning tomorrow night we will be immersed in the events of the last week of Jesus’ life, connecting with his suffering and death, the absence of God he felt on the cross. This is the difficult path that leads to the resurrection.
Here is the schedule:
Thursday, 7 p.m. — Maundy Thursday. “Maundy” is from the Latin word for command. On this night we remember the last night of Jesus’ earthly life, and his last command to his disciples — to love one another. Jesus showed this love by washing the disciples’ feet. Our service includes (optional) foot washing. We also remember the last supper, or the first Eucharist. At the end of the service the entire altar area is stripped of all its adornments. We leave the bare church in silence.
Friday, 7 p.m. — Good Friday. This is the most somber and solemn service of the year as we remember Jesus’ crucifixion and death.
Saturday, 7 p.m. — Easter Vigil. This is the Church’s oldest liturgy. We will begin at the foot of the cross in the Memorial Garden with the lighting of the new fire from which we light the Paschal (Easter) candle. Then we process by candlelight into the darkened church to hear the stories of how God has saved God’s people, beginning with the story of creation. Halfway through the service we declare that Lent is over and Christ has risen! The service continues with the baptism of David McMichael, and the Eucharist. Following the service is a reception with champagne and a breathtaking piece of art that is actually a cake, created by Katharina McCawley.
Sunday, Easter services at 8:30 and 10:45 a.m. Come celebrate the joy of the resurrection!
I hope to see you at some, if not all, of these services.
With love,
Tricia