Holy Week!

Last Supper by David LaChappelle

Holy Week is often a time of many different emotions and thoughts for me.  I go from wonder at the love Jesus shared and inspired, to horror and grief, to -

I try not to get ahead of the story this week.  I don't always get to joy exactly on schedule.  I don't want to plow through this week of intense intimacy with Jesus.  As a Companion of Mary Magdalene, I treasure this week of walking with her as she walks with Jesus.  It's a time of deep reflection and prayer.

And, this year, of work.  Elizabeth and I had planned to do a very quiet, private Holy Week this year: all the services, but just the two of us and whatever local friends might want to join.  Then COVID hit.  As we learned of people's yearning to be together, our hearts matched that yearning.  We are used to meeting on Zoom, so we thought: let's invite some of our friends to join us.  Simple, right?

We've spent the last week consumed with creating a meaningful service that everyone could not only view but participate in.  With Diane Paulsell, one of our Covenant Companions, and Allison Moore, the new priest at St. Andrew's in New Paltz, we're putting on the full Triduum - from foot washing to new fire.  No communion, honoring our inability to be physically together, but we will be spiritually and really united.  So: readings, liturgies, Zoom instructions, have been pouring into the computer.  Emails, phone calls, rehearsals.  Suddenly we're hosting a church service!

So: how to honor the need to be in the story myself, to pray and meditate, while also working full out to enable our community to share the story?  This is the dilemma, not only of those who lead or serve churches, but of everyone who has a job and a family and also wants to be mindful.  So I don't have an answer; I just have a sense of solidarity.

As every year, I'm reminded that the first Holy Week was like that for the women who served Jesus and his companions, and probably for that company as well.  They weren't all sitting around feeling deep feelings.  They felt a lot, I'm sure, but they also kept cooking.  Like them, we don't take a break from "the world" this week unless we go on retreat and let others bear that burden for us.  Most of the time, all we can do is remember Jesus and pray without ceasing.

Everything I do this week,I offer to you, Jesus.  Please work through me, through us, and give me the awareness of your presence and your love.  Help me keep my heart fixed on you even as I plow through emails and plans.  Help us all to remain with you in this time when you pour yourself out for us.  Show me how to live, and eventually to die, in love.