At the request of readers, I'm rounding up my favorite posts on Holy Week and Triduum. For wherever you are and wherever God may meet you this week...blessings on all of it, the mess and the joy. If you're expecting: Labor's Stages: A Triduum. If you have a new baby: Baby's First Holy Week. If you're a new parent, missing Triduum services for the first time: Wholly Weak (Or A Sick Mother's Reflections on Expectations). If you have little ones and can't make it to church: A Holy Week at Home. If you're busy preparing: The Forgotten Days of Holy Week. If you're burnt out: The Footwashing. If the weather (or world) doesn't look the way you hoped: Holy Snow. If you're gearing up to wrangle kids for many hours in the pews: Gospel, Interrupted. If you have a child with special needs: Where I Saw Christ, Back Row, Pink Coat. If you or your kids are sick and you're stuck at home: What An Upside-Down Holy Week Taught Me About Jesus. If you're grieving: Was It A … [Read more...] about how to Holy Week: a guide for where you are
Good Friday
what an upside down Holy Week taught me about Jesus
Triduum is my favorite time of year. Except when it's turned upside down. In a house of one spouse with walking pneumonia, one child with pinkeye, two children with stomach bugs, and everyone home sick for Holy Week bringing an apocalyptic return of morning sickness which lands the other (pregnant) spouse in the hospital for dehydration on Holy Thursday. A litany like that sounds like a laundry list of lament (which it is, to be honest). But in the midst of throwing all Easter plans out the window, something surprising happened. THE SAME THING THAT ALWAYS HAPPENS WHEN I THINK I AM IN CHARGE OF MY OWN LIFE OR OTHER PEOPLE'S. Also known as: a startling encounter with the reality of God. By Friday afternoon, slumping in the pew with two kids who begged to go to church, exhausted from an evening of IVs in the labor & delivery ward, cranky from caring (poorly, selfishly, mistake me not for Florence Nightingale) for everyone else instead of me, I was Officially … [Read more...] about what an upside down Holy Week taught me about Jesus
the yes that breaks your heart
Today is March 25th. It is nine months from Christmas: the Feast of the Annunciation. The day that celebrates the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she will bear the Son of God. Today is also Good Friday. It is the day that remembers Jesus' suffering and death. This year they fall on the same day. This year I cannot help but see the searing truth in their overlap. When Mary heard the startling news from the angel, when her heart grew troubled, when she said yes to God, it was for this. For Good Friday and Easter and everything that comes after. And when Jesus suffered and died, it was for this. For good news and Incarnation and everything that came before. Is one a feast of death and the other a feast of life? No. They are both. You cannot get the hope without the heartbreak. The Christian story holds both. And through this twisting tension - creation and resurrection - everything we know about life and death is changed. All week the hard and the holy have … [Read more...] about the yes that breaks your heart
baby’s first holy week
Sweet boy, here we are. In the holiest of weeks. It all started on Palm Sunday. You solemnly gumming the long green palm in your father's hands. Your brothers waving their palms wildly around the air (bonus points for whacking a sibling in the eye). Me watching all of you, half wondering why we bother to bring you to church, half realizing that the wonder of Holy Week is to see it through a child's eyes. We will take you three boys to church three times this week: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday. I will prepare for each outing as I prepare for nearly everything as a mom of littles: with low expectations and plenty of snacks. As always, Holy Week will be nothing like what I envision and exactly what I need. But here is a small secret I will share with you and only you. (Because you are new and mute and thus good at keeping secrets.) You already know what this week is about. . . . On Holy Thursday we wash feet. You know about this, too. You know the warm … [Read more...] about baby’s first holy week
