Entering Holy Week
We have entered Holy Week…
All over the country our friaries are busy getting ready for the great events of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, statues and crosses have been veiled, churches and friaries are being cleaned, all of the items necessary for the annual observance of this beautiful time are being assembled and prepared. There is a holy busyness and bustle taking place.
Yesterday we celebrated the “Hosannas!” of Palm Sunday that so quickly became the “Crucify Him!” of Good Friday. It is a reminder to us that both potentialities lie deep in our frail and often broken human hearts; a reminder of our need for the healing of heart and soul that Jesus brings to us from the Cross.
But there is always the danger that we miss this week… after all, in our ever more busy and noisy world a week can fly by and we can suddenly find ourselves on the other side of these great events having missed their meaning. We need to slow down to a sacred pace to truly enter sacred space. Perhaps we will need to lower the radios and switch off the TV’s for a while, to actively choose to become a little more mindful of the days we are in so as to enter into their mystery all the more. We could take a quiet walk each day and use it as a time to be present to the Lord, or we could drop into a church for a few moments of stillness and quiet. Best of all, why not take a few minutes each day to read the Gospel story of the events of Holy Week and ask yourself what is the story of God’s immense and unconditional love inviting you to be? And of course, you will be very welcome to join the brothers in our celebrations of the liturgy of Holy Week in any of our friaries up and down the country.
It will not be long now before we hear the glad tidings of the Angel of the Resurrection announcing that “He is risen!” Let’s not miss out on the journey to this momentous and all-changing event but, together, let us walk the path of the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus so as to enter into Easter joy!