Holy
Week and Easter Liturgies at New Song
Holy
Week is the heart and center of the liturgical year. Everyone is
invited to New Song to join in the Holy Week services as we experience
Jesus' journey and to come for Easter when we shall exclaim with
such joy, "Christ is risen!" Each of the services is significant.
Each one takes us to the next place in Jesus' journey and in our
own.
Palm Sunday | Maundy
Thursday | Good Friday | Easter
Vigil | Easter morning | links
Palm Sunday.
Palm Sunday, April 9, the Sunday of the Passion, brings us into
Holy Week. By the very nature of the events of Jesus' life commemorated
on this day, the Palm Sunday liturgy is perhaps the most dramatic
of the entire church year. At our 10 a.m. service, the community
gathers for the blessing of palms, and our children will distribute
them to each of us as we sing our hosannas and listen to the account
of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
As we move from
the triumphal entry into the service of Holy Eucharist, the theme
quickly changes. The Gospel for the day is the account of the passion
- this year according to Mark - and is read in parts as a dramatic
narrative - the betrayal, the crucifixion, and death.
Palm Sunday | Maundy
Thursday | Good Friday | Easter
Vigil | Easter morning | links
Maundy Thursday.
This solemn liturgy, at 7 p.m. on April 13, commemorates the final
meal which Jesus spent with his friends. It is an evening rich
in
meaning when we remember Jesus' institution of the Eucharist. He
used the occasion of the Jewish Passover to give his disciples
the
means to keep him among us in the Holy Communion. We also recall
his command (Latin: mundatum - Maundy), to "love one another"
which is dramatized by the foot washing ceremony, enacted by those
who choose to do so, as the congregation sings the ancient hymn
"Ubi Caritas" (God is love, and where true love is, God
is there). It is very powerful.
The service ends
with Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?" and the stripping of the altar of decoration,
recollecting the degradation of Jesus during the night. We leave
the church in silence and darkness. The sacrament of the Eucharist
which remains following communion is reserved for Good Friday.
Palm Sunday | Maundy
Thursday | Good Friday | Easter
Vigil | Easter morning | links
Good Friday.
The service of the crucifixion day is extremely simple. At 7 p.m.
on April 14, the liturgy consists of readings, including the passion
from John's Gospel, and the solemn prayers for the church and the
world. We retell the story of Jesus' passion as we remember the
stations of the cross which recount the events of his trial and
death, and
we have guided meditations for the meaning in our day.
Palm Sunday | Maundy
Thursday | Good Friday | Easter
Vigil | Easter morning | links
The Great Vigil
of Easter. Theologically and liturgically, The Great Vigil of
Easter is the feast of feasts, the central service of the church
year, and the center of the triduum - three-day celebration beginning
with Maundy Thursday. We celebrate Jesus' passage through suffering
and death to resurrection life and our own participation in the
victory through the signs of baptism and Eucharist. As a people
we pass over with Christ from darkness to light, from penitence
to rejoicing, from death to life.
The early church
began the observance of the "eve" in accordance with
the Jewish observance of sunset as the actual beginning of the
day.
Our liturgy will begin at 7 p.m. on Holy Saturday, April 15. We
will begin in darkness, gathering to light the new fire from which
we light the paschal or Easter candle, the symbol of Christ, the
light of the world. From the paschal candle, we each light our
own
candles, thereby sharing that light.
The Easter proclamation,
or Exultet, is sung, recalling the mystery of Jesus' passover from
death to new life and announcing the celebration of Easter. This
is an ancient chant with a haunting beauty, tireless in its praise
of this holy night.
The early church
spent the night waiting for the arrival of dawn, listening to a
series of lessons from scripture telling the story of salvation
from the creation until the coming of Christ. Each passage was followed
by a period of silence for reflection and then a collect (prayer)
drawing together individual meditations. (We will not spend the
whole night as they did, but we will use the same form as the early
church!)
The Vigil was
always the occasion in the early church for the celebration of Baptism
- the culmination of the Lenten preparation of the candidates. In
this rite the benefits of the resurrection of Jesus become our benefits,
his eternal life our own. We will celebrate the baptism
of William (Liam) Dutcher.
The climax of
the Vigil is the first celebration of the Eucharist, recalling the
presence of our living Jesus in our midst. We begin the service
in Lent and end in Easter. We have passed over with Christ from
darkness to light, from penitence to rejoicing, from death to life.
Palm Sunday | Maundy
Thursday | Good Friday | Easter
Vigil | Easter morning | links
Easter.
We sing our alleluias as we greet one another on Easter morn, at
10 a.m. on April 16, rejoicing once again in the Risen Christ,
and
we begin the first day of the Great Fifty Days of the Easter Season.
We shall hear
the story from the gospel of Mark telling us how Mary Magdalene
and Mary came to the tomb to find the stone rolled away! And they
are told Jesus is not there! They become the apostles to the apostles
as they go to tell the rest that Jesus has risen, and they are met
my Jesus, telling them they will meet him in Galilee.
With our alleluias
at every turn, in joy we will go out into the world knowing and
singing that Jesus Christ has risen this day.
Palm Sunday | Maundy
Thursday | Good Friday | Easter
Vigil | Easter morning | links
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