Holy Week includes the celebration of the greatest, most important and most beautiful liturgies of the whole church year. Plan now to take part in as many as you can. Your celebration of Easter will be all the greater and more joyful for having done so!
Holy Week begins tomorrow, Lord...
In some ways, it will be an ordinary week,
- even if in a world where the pandemic, violence and injustice
are routinely expected on an ordinary basis...
But the week ahead will be ordinary
in more ordinary ways, too...
I'll still have my regular work and duties
or continue to look for work.
I'll still need to care for my family and friends.
I'll still have to do the laundry and take out the trash.
I'll still have shopping to do and bills to pay.
I'll still have to deal with life's everyday problems:
responsibilities that never take a break...
And I'll do all this in a world that largely ignores
what makes the week ahead anything but ordinary:
Palm Sunday
Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday
Easter!
So I ask you to help me, Lord,
to make and keep this week holy...
I hope and pray this week will be peaceful -
in spite of all I have to do...
I hope and pray these days will be prayerful:
that I'll make time to spend with you alone
and time to pray with the church on these holy days...
I hope and pray that in my mind and heart
these days will be different from any others,
in how I see and experience the world around me,
in how I plan and spend my time...
Help me know and live this week of special days,
these solemn, sober, grace filled, joyful days:
a time to grow in faith, and hope and love,
a time to grow in my relationship with you...
More than all the weeks and all the days
of the rest of the year, Lord,
may the days of this week be truly prayerful
and, to your glory, truly holy...
Amen.
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