What
is Holy Week?
We
call the week before Easter 'Holy Week'. It marks the time
during which all Christians re-live the Passion of Christ
through the drama of the liturgy. A brief summary of the
key events during Holy Week are listed below:
Palm
Sunday
Palm
Sunday received its name from the ceremony of palms that
accompanies it. Our worship at Saint Mary's recalls the triumphant
entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, where He was met by crowds
that covered His path with branches of palms as he rode into
the Holy City on a donkey. We commence our service with a
blessing of small crosses made out of folded palm leaves,
and a procession in which our sister churches throughout
the parish join us. During the service, in which we all share,
the Gospel of the Passion is dramatised, often re-enacted
by the children of the parish.
Maundy
Thursday
The
name Maundy Thursday has derived from a key-point
in Jesus' so-called 'farewell discourses', found in the Gospel
according to Saint John: 'a new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another' (Gospel according to Saint
John, 13.34). The Latin word for 'commandment' - mandatum -
became the English 'maundy' which lent its name to our commemoration
of the washing of His disciples' feet by Jesus, as well as
the Institution of the Holy Eucharist. Another key liturgical
feature that takes place on Maundy Thursday (or close to
Maundy Thursday) is the blessing of the Holy Oils and renewal
of priestly vows by the clergy, often in the Cathedral of
the Diocese in
which they serve, in our case Christ
Church Cathedral in Oxford.
At
Saint Mary's, Maundy Thursday is marked by a solemn evening
celebration of the Holy Eucharist during which, for the only
time in Lent, the Gloria in excelsis Deo ('Glory be
to God on high') is sung while bells are rung in great joy
and expectation for the last time before Easter Day. Before
the Eucharist, the tabernacle is emptied as all are expected
to receive Holy Communion from the bread consecrated at this
Eucharist. Before the Eucharist is celebrated, the priest
divests himself of his robes, and girding himself with an
apron, washes the feet of his
congregation in rembrance of the divine mandatum to
love one another as Christ has loved us. After the celebration
of the Eucharist, the bread required for the communion of
Good Friday is taken in solemn procession to the Altar of
Repose, where we keep watch before the Sacrament, in remembrance
of the watchful hours of pain and agony Christ held in the
garden of Gethsemane before His arrest at dawn. At the end
of the service we strip the church of all its adornments
- altar frontals, altar cloths and candles - and shroud crucifixes
and statues as a sign of mourning in preparation for Good
Friday.
In
some traditions, Maundy Thursday has become known as Green
Thursday (so for instance in Germany, from the Middle High
German greinen, 'to weep and mourn') or Sheer Thursday
(from the Old English skere, 'to be clean', 'to be
free from guilt', a reference to the washing off of sins
and guilt by the washing of feet and ceremonially stripping
and washing the altars that day). |
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Good
Friday
Good
Friday is the solemn remembrance of the Crucifixion of Christ.
Like Ash Wednesday, it is a solemn
day of fasting and penitence. Together with the Saturday
that follows it, it is a day on which there is no celebration
of Holy Communion, although we do receive the bread of the
Eucharist consecrated the previous night during our solemn
service of remembrance. The service of remembrance at Saint
Mary's consists of three key-elements: the scripture readings
and prayers that remind us of the Passion of Christ, with
the reading or chanting of the Passion according to St John;
the Veneration of the Cross, with the chanting of the Reproaches
(twelve verses which speak of God's compassion for His people
and the outrages committed in bringing the Christ to the
cross); and the communion of the pre-consecrated bread.
In
Reformed Europe and Scotland, Good Friday, has become a feast
of the triumph of the Cross over the evils of the world,
rather than a fast, with a key celebrations of the Lord's
Supper, and the preaching of the Passion. At Saint Mary's
we have, in the past, marked the day with a liturgical
performance of J. S. Bach's Saint John Passion,
the passion traditionally read that day, in the context of
Vespers. With our ecumenical partners, we take part in an
annual procession of witness through
Slough's town centre. |
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Holy
Saturday
On
Holy Saturday, or Easter Even, we commemorate the resting
of Christ in the tomb. It is a day without any formal services,
and one of the two days (together with Good Friday) of the
year where there is no celebration of Holy Communion although
the Vigil and First Mass of Easter may well be celebrated
after dusk on Saturday evening
For more
information, click the links below:
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