Pastor’s Page: Palm Sunday – April 5, 2009

“Holy Week and the 50 Days of Easter Rejoicing”

Our Lenten journey to Easter is nearly complete. Six weeks of more intense prayer, fasting,
and almsgiving for our catechumen, Stacy Schroder and ourselves will soon be followed by
seven weeks of feasting and festivity, with this Holy Week and most of all the Triduum
(literally ‘the three days’: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter) as the heart and soul of
our liturgical year.
“The liturgies of these days do not ‘take us back’ to the upper room (Last Supper, Holy
Thursday) or the path to Calvary (Good Friday). Their ultimate purpose is not to
retrace or relive the last hours of Jesus’ life – nor to catch sight of him emerging from
the tomb at Easter’s dawning. They celebrate not what once happened to Jesus but
what is now happening among us as a people called to conversion, gathered in faith, and
gifted with the Spirit of holiness. They celebrate God’s taking possession of our hearts
at their deepest core, recreating us as a new human community broken like bread for
the world’s life – a community rich in compassion, steadfast in hope, and fearless in the
search for justice and peace.” (Nathan Mitchell, “The Three Days of Pascha”)
This coming week, the holiest in our year, is a week of remembering and giving thanks for
the great gift of God’s love made manifest in Jesus Christ. God came to convince us of our
inestimable worth. God opened his arms wide on the wood of the cross and embraced all men
and women with perfect love. “How can I keep from singing!” and proclaiming by our words
and more importantly our actions, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God our Father!

Happy Easter!

Peace, Father Bruce