Date Palm Tree, Synagogue of Hammam Life

Scenes from Paradise: Jewish Roman Mosaics from Tunisia

Museum Collection Fund, Brooklyn Museum

HOLY WEEK AT ST. HILDEGARD ’S
 
Palm Sunday - April 5 - 4:00 Silence 4:30 Eucharist
Maundy Thursday -  April 9 - 6:15 Gather 6:30 Eucharist
Good Friday - April 10 - 6:15 Gather 6:30 Worship
Easter Vigil -Saturday Evening, April 11 - 7:30 Gather 7:45 First-Fire of Easter and Vigil
There will be no service on Sunday  

 Let us welcome ourselves to the experience of Holy Week.  Each event is part of a whole and to miss one is like missing a chapter in an exciting story – our story.
 
This week we are entering into the most holy time in the Christian year.  The mystery of Palm Sunday, The Maundy, Good Friday, and the Great Vigil of Easter will be the same for each of us and yet each of us will be fed and nourished in our own way.  We will be “unpacking” it all in the weeks after Holy Week in the Season of Easter.
 
On Palm Sunday Jesus will come to Jerusalem .  The crowds will hail him and whisper and wonder among themselves who this man is.  He knows that he has come to the seat of power for his final hours to do what he must and we spend those hours with him as they turn from glory to violence.
 
On Maundy Thursday we will be with Jesus as he washes the feet of his friends.  We experience that loving act.  We will enter into his planning and giving a dinner for those friends who love him.  For Jesus – maybe his friends – have a foreboding of what is going to happen.  He has become too well known, too sought after, too dangerous to the powers that be.  It is dangerous business to give hope and empower people who are repressed.
 
I love the fact that Jesus planned this dinner.  He must have wanted a last intimate experience that they - and maybe he – could take with them after he was no longer with them.  He was building memory just as we will be building memory this week.  It is amazing to me how Jesus could have the where-with-all to plan a dinner when he knew he was in such danger.  This turns out to be the last intimate time with his friends because after dinner things turn violent.
 
It reminds me of how special last meals are.  When loved ones leave, we honor that relationship and the last conversations and moments that we have together become sacred.  It is something we do before going on to a new experience or place.  Where will the night of The Maundy take me?...you?… us?
 
On Friday we will be with Mary as she sees her beloved son suffer and we will remember the suffering of all women and men and those special to us.
 
On Saturday we will not gather until the first fire of Easter at sunset.  All day we reflect on how life would be if Jesus had not been with us.  We empty ourselves in sorrow to be filled by joyful expectation. 
           
On Saturday night we will gather as we remember our stories and act them out. We will remember what it is to be The Resurrected Body of Christ.  We will remember our promises at Baptism .  We will remember who we are.  This is the night.  It is a glorious night.  You’ll never forget it.  We look forward to participating  in this great night and celebrate this great life.
 
Susan LeVieux for Miriam