Today I met with the superintendent of our school district. He mentioned having grown up in a religious tradition that did not observe the services of Holy Week, the ones that are de rigueur in Lutheran contexts. This year we have experimented at our church with a schedule more like his. No Maundy Thursday service. No Good Friday service. Just a passion Sunday service last Sunday evening.
I wonder whether the most appropriate observances from Thursday on might be various forms of “foot washing” - finding ways to serve others up close and personal. To day I visited with an elderly woman and read stories to a man in assisted living. I plan to do more of that kind of service.
Like you, I would feel like I had lost a ton of weight and simply could no longer stand to wear my fat clothes one more time. Maybe I wouldn't even feel comfortable in my skin. I mean the spiritual body and the body spiritual.
But, acknowledging the effect on me from your congregation's decision this year to go skinny with a 3-in-one or 2-in-1 composite service on Palm Sunday evening, I have kept watch over Jesus moving or shifting in me and among the folks in a Colombian city where I lay my head.
After the long, crowded, and sometimes ostentatious route of the faithful moving from Station 1 to Station 14 of the via crucis, this morning, I skipped the 3-hour midday to 3:00 pm liturgy of the last words from Jesus to go shopping for groceries. Unlike most days of hustle-bustle and seemingly interminable lines to check out that require as much as 60 minutes of waiting, I was in and out of the supermarket in record time. Lutherans in Colombia have 21 congregations across the country, and two are located in the city I consider home. Neither of these congregations hold midweek services, and the Triduum is no exception. So, I say, when in Rome, do....
One added benefit came from my broken Triduum routine. I double-dipped in liturgical traditions and languages, engaging my attention in 'las estaciones de la cruz,' primero en español, and secondo in English, but soto voce, praying from 'Book 1' of the Northumbria Community's, 'Celtic Daily Prayer' (London: William Collins: 2015, pp. 128-39). For each station, there is a narrative of significant poetic strength and meter to link mind and gut, where I felt it, followed by short prayers.
Christ is risen! Christos anesti! The translated Greek Pascha troparion goes like this: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and on those who dwell in the tombs, bestowing life!
I wonder whether the most appropriate observances from Thursday on might be various forms of “foot washing” - finding ways to serve others up close and personal. To day I visited with an elderly woman and read stories to a man in assisted living. I plan to do more of that kind of service.
This is a wonderful insight.
Ioannis I appreciate the description of your context so much. It’s powerful and evocative and I wish I could visit there some time.
The most obtuse thing I’ve ever read on Holy Week. The apotheosis of low church mentality.
Like you, I would feel like I had lost a ton of weight and simply could no longer stand to wear my fat clothes one more time. Maybe I wouldn't even feel comfortable in my skin. I mean the spiritual body and the body spiritual.
But, acknowledging the effect on me from your congregation's decision this year to go skinny with a 3-in-one or 2-in-1 composite service on Palm Sunday evening, I have kept watch over Jesus moving or shifting in me and among the folks in a Colombian city where I lay my head.
After the long, crowded, and sometimes ostentatious route of the faithful moving from Station 1 to Station 14 of the via crucis, this morning, I skipped the 3-hour midday to 3:00 pm liturgy of the last words from Jesus to go shopping for groceries. Unlike most days of hustle-bustle and seemingly interminable lines to check out that require as much as 60 minutes of waiting, I was in and out of the supermarket in record time. Lutherans in Colombia have 21 congregations across the country, and two are located in the city I consider home. Neither of these congregations hold midweek services, and the Triduum is no exception. So, I say, when in Rome, do....
One added benefit came from my broken Triduum routine. I double-dipped in liturgical traditions and languages, engaging my attention in 'las estaciones de la cruz,' primero en español, and secondo in English, but soto voce, praying from 'Book 1' of the Northumbria Community's, 'Celtic Daily Prayer' (London: William Collins: 2015, pp. 128-39). For each station, there is a narrative of significant poetic strength and meter to link mind and gut, where I felt it, followed by short prayers.
Christ is risen! Christos anesti! The translated Greek Pascha troparion goes like this: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and on those who dwell in the tombs, bestowing life!
Pater Kabarnos chants the Pascha troparion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-fgrbpTRIk