Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Holy Week
We are still near the beginning of Holy Week, and entering into the Passion of Christ. It has been a time of much contemplation for me, and discussion with the boys. In church, we have been talking about how it is not possible to truly celebrate and rise with the Lord on Easter if you do not first enter into the darkness with Him - the darkness of Gethsemane, of Golgotha, of the tomb. We will be having a Maundy Thursday service with the stripping of the altar and the footwashing, followed by a (vegetarian) Agape meal, a prayer vigil will follow, when members of the church have signed up to "watch" with Jesus for an hour, Good Friday we are having the Stations of the Cross up the hill at our house (we can't have it at the convent we usually go to because some couple is having a WEDDING there that afternoon. Who has a wedding at a church on Good Friday, and why were they allowed to do that?) and the Easter Vigil on Saturday. Because of the late hour of the vigil, we are following the example of our Orthodox brethren and not gathering on Sunday until the afternoon. If anyone is interested, I found a decent site online for meditating on the Stations of the Cross for children. It has some hippy dippy, 1970s feel good, guitar mass type statements, but over all a good simplification of each station and some good discussion/questions for the kids to explore further how to apply the contemplation to themselves.
Labels: Church Year
