Holy Week

Palm Sunday: March 28 – 9:00am

Maundy Thursday: April 1 – 6:30pm

Good Friday: April 2 – 6:30pm

Easter Vigil: April 3 – Sundown 7:27pm

Easter Festival Service: April 4 – 9:00am

Holy Week & The Paschal Triduum

Paschal = The Biblical word for “Easter”
Triduum = “The Three Days.”

After 40 Days of Lent, the Christian Year has now reached its climax. We have come to the celebration of the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the celebration for which we have been preparing throughout Lent. Now we see what our Savior came to do. We see Him suffer and die for our sins and for the sins of the world. And we see Him rise triumphantly on Easter morning to assure us that our salvation is complete, the victory is won.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, the day Jesus triumphantly rode into Jerusalem to humbly die on a cross.

Then, on Thursday evening, we begin the Three Holy Days.

On Maundy Thursday (Maundy = Latin for “Command”) Jesus gives a command to His disciples love each other as He has loved us. Jesus shows that love as He pours out His real body and blood for us to eat and drink in Holy Communion. This Divine Service service includes the stripping of the altar.

On Good Friday, Jesus suffers and dies as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He cries out “it is finished” when He completes the work the Father gave Him to do. The service is a Tenebrae Vespers service, meaning as each reading is completed, a candle is extinguished until there is only one remaining. The services ends in darkness and silence.

On Holy Saturday, Jesus fulfills the sabbath day, completely resting from all His Work. We join Jesus’ death and resurrection in Baptism. The service begins as the last ended, in darkness. The paschal candle, lit from a new fire, reminds us of the life we have in Christ.

All three services are dramatic each in their own way and intimately connected to each other. The focus as always, is Christ.

Finally, on Easter Sunday we hear the proof that the victory has been won. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!