Holy Week: A Sacred Time?

This week in ucanews.com, journalist Lourdes Abelardo reported that Batanes Bishop Camillo Gregorio, in a radio program, urged Catholics to use Holy Week as a time for silence and reflection rather than as a beach vacation, as has become common for some.

His exhortation brings to mind a good question, it seems to me, one that is relevant not only in the Philippines, but wherever a tug is felt between two calendars—religious and secular. This year Holy Week coincides with spring break for some schools in the U.S. Will leisure and rest open a space for families to be more attentive to Holy Week? Indeed, many people find it hard to find time for prayer and reflection in their usual busy schedules. A change of pace is an opportunity. Or will “break time” merely push Holy Week to the margins? The religious observance of these heightened days of the year seems to depend on how well people manage to integrate faith into their lives at other times.

For those who must work straight through Holy Week, the question also arises: How do we keep this time sacred? The disciplines of prayer and fasting can surely help. But I would say that above all, participating in the liturgy is key to this week.

How will you keep this time holy?

Of course, I’ve been thinking of fasting from blogging… um, no, guess not… I am on as editor of the blog for another week. Hello, friends!

Rita Ferrone

Rita Ferrone is an award-winning writer and frequent speaker on issues of liturgy and church renewal in the Roman Catholic tradition. She is currently a contributing writer and columnist for Commonweal magazine and an independent scholar. The author of several books about liturgy, she is most widely known for her commentary on Sacrosanctum Concilium (Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium, Paulist Press). Her most recent book, Pastoral Guide to Pope Francis's Desiderio Desideravi, was published by Liturgical Press.

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20 responses to “Holy Week: A Sacred Time?”

  1. Fr. Allan J. McDonald

    When I was stationed in Augusta where the Masters Golf Tournament is played always the first full week of April, it would coincide with Holy Week every two or three years. Masters is spring break and party time in Augusta for the entire week, but especially Holy Thursday and Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.
    You just do the best you can, but it’s hard and you compartmentalize between prayer, liturgy and having a good time with friends and family and all this week (Masters Week) means to Augusta.

    Reply
  2. Fr. Jim Blue

    Frankly, it will be difficult. Occasionally I think that I’m going to have to find something else to care about other than liturgy. But then, what else is there? It’s perplexing. The worship of the church has become the new arena of abuse . . . isn’t this the blasphemy against the Spirit that we were warned about?

    Opps, guess this is a buzz kill for a string that is supposed to be positive.

    Reply
    1. Rita Ferrone

      Thanks for this candid comment Fr. Jim. While I am very reluctant to call something a blasphemy against the Spirit (a category that implies it cannot be forgiven), I think you are speaking of something real and important. I didn’t think of the thread as either positive or negative when I posted, but rather as a place to discuss some of the barriers to keeping this week holy, and to surface some strategies for doing so in a variety of real circumstances.

      Reply
      1. Mike Burns

        If you have studied Liturgy and know the Liturgical documents you look for things. I find it very difficult not to see things while praying at Liturgy. I went to a new Church yesterday and tried my best. The environment was well prepared as were the musical selections. I was surprsied to see the Paschal Candle lit. I suppose I might be able to see their reasoning but it takes away from the Great Vigil. The ushers were going up and down the isles seating people during the Liturgy of the Word. Communion went to one kind when the two small cups were emptied. The crowd was about 1000-with 2 eucharistic ministers. The music was so amplified it gave the impression that the entire Church was alive in song. With the exception of myself there were few around The Passion Gospel was read so slowly and lifeless I almost fell asleep, No homily after the passion, just silence.
        Then at the sign of peace the mother in front of me pulls out a bottle of Purell and passes it among the family members. I tried my best not to notice these things, but it is difficult.

    2. Claire Mathieu

      I find the readings inspiring. Jesus knows Judas is betraying him, yet calls him “friend”. Peter will betray him, yet he continues to have nothing but kindness for him. The crowd asks for him crucifixion, yet he does not curse them. He is abused, lied to, ignored, and betrayed, but continues to love them.

      This year it is easy for me to cast church authorities in the role of Peter the betrayer. We can then look to Jesus to find a model of how to respond.

      I don’t mean to sound sanctimonious, but when all else fails, Scripture is my source of hope – and today, with outstanding lectors and music to fit the readings, the liturgy was very moving.

      Reply
  3. Tom Poelker

    Holy Week
    SUNDAY
    Be prepared, Mass is longer.
    Put Triduum schedule for your parish in a visible place.

    MONDAY – WEDNESDAY
    Arranged for all to be off school and work on Friday and Saturday and not be late for the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday.

    Plan simple to serve meals so that you can fit them around Triduum services.

    Discuss with your family avoiding entertainment and news for the fifty hours from Holy Thursday through the Easter Vigil.

    Clean and select clothes to wear for the Triduum services.

    Get house cleaning, laundry, yard work and shopping done before Thursday night. 
    If you have to order things for pick up for Sunday dinner, try to schedule the actual pick up on Sunday when the Triduum services are complete. 

    Plan what else you are going to do to make Friday and Saturday holy instead of boring. 
    Consider:
    -meditative walk,
    -visit the cathedral or other churches,
    -make the Way of the Cross
    -compare the 4 versions of the Passion in the Gospels
    -braid palms
    -dye eggs
    -pray simple versions of the Liturgy of the Hours,
    ….morning [Lauds],
    ….midday [None],
    ….evening[Vespers] , and
    ….bedtime [Compline] prayers.

    THURSDAY
    As a family have an early supper then share in the Lord’s Supper.

    FRIDAY
    Consider attending both the afternoon and the quite different evening service in your parish.

    Do your planned activities.

    The Lenten fast began while remembering the time Jesus was dead.  Fasting during these times might be more meaningful for you if you are aware of its origin in fasting in the absence of Jesus.

    SATURDAY
    Do planned activities.
    Rest
    Join the Easter Vigil, the most important liturgy of the Church year.

    Please plan ahead, so you can be calm, recollected, able to focus on the words of the services, sing the songs, make the responses, experience the messages and the remembering without the distractions of other things to…

    Reply
    1. Bill deHaas

      Tom – appreciate this. You have insights, thoughtfulness, and passion for the passion. If I did even 50% of this, it would be a miracle but I would really benefit from it.

      Thanks for doing this.

      Reply
  4. Will Roach

    Last Holy Week in Catholic Church, A little sad and reflective, Thanks Ben

    Reply
    1. Jordan Zarembo

      Brother in Christ, please reconsider leaving.

      In Mt 20:1–16, Jesus offers us the opportunity to labor in his vineyards. As PT and human frailty in general demonstrate, laborers have illicitly divided the vineyard according to notions of an “ideal liturgy”. What is the finest vintage to some is a most disgusting gall to others.

      The vineyard of Christ is still one labor of mercy, even if we, in our sinfulness, cannot see beyond the fallacy that what we create liturgically will earn us that shiny denarius. The glory of this eternal life is glimpsed in the absolute reality of the Holy Sacrifice and Paschal Mystery. The objective reality of Calvary-Mass is present even at those Masses which offend our prideful convictions of correct worship.

      In the MR 1962, The epistle for the Easter Sunday Mass (1 Cor 5. 7-8 Vulgate) reads: […] “Indeed Christ our Pascha has been slain. May we feast, not with old leaven, or the leaven of vice and ill-will, but in the leaven of sincerity and truth” (my trans 1 Cor. 5: 7b-8) The challenge of Easter is to lay aside the musty vintages of arrogant pride and labor for the perfect vintage of Christ’s Church. This task is almost insurmountable for those who cannot stand the worship offered by other of brothers and sisters in Christ. The promise of eternal life for faithful laborers sustains faith in the suffering of unmet needs or even offensive prayer.

      Reply
      1. Gerard Flynn

        Jordan, your sentiments are encouraging and positive. and I commend you and them. It is deeply regrettable that the new translation per se and the process whereby it was produced have led to the scandal of a member of the church having to make a choice to leave. Cui bono, the 2011 translation.

      2. Will Roach

        You speak of Christ, and accuse me of pride in the same sentence. The pope and leadership accuse us of irreverence- but I have not been irreverent.

        There are those who want to put distance between us and our Savior under the guise that we should step back from the One who runs to meet the prodigal son. The Incarnation is as close as it gets. I will run to my Savior. There is no formality needed as the Christ is seen eating with tax collectors and prostitutes and other sinners, and is so commited to His Father and us that he will not step back from us. When He is warned to stop, he is killed protecting us. I will be faithful to the Incarnation in the Episcopal Church. Although there are things there I obviously disagree with, there is no distance between me and the one who loves me in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is all I have. A woman annoints Jesus’ feet and dries them with her hair. How irreverent of her to approach Christ so physically, and informally; but she makes her decision. Others make the same decision such as the woman with a hemorage. Christ rewards them for their faith in Him. I will make the same decision. I have nothing else. I must go to Him. Will Roach

      3. Jordan Zarembo

        Will: You speak of Christ, and accuse me of pride in the same sentence. The pope and leadership accuse us of irreverence- but I have not been irreverent.

        I presumed (unwisely perhaps), that most would understand that I have included myself as one of the most prominent examples of this divisive mind-frame. I am certainly irreverent, even if I don’t know if you are.

        I hope you find Christ in the Episcopal Church. I work for, and work with, Anglican clergy who are intelligent and devoted Christians as well as excellent preachers. The divisions that I describe are inherent to any Christian communion. Often, bitter and uncharitable squabbles over piety and worship exist in any church. Still, I wish you find the sustenance you require.

    2. Dunstan Harding

      I’ll go to “Smokey Mary’s” (St. Mary the Virgin, Anglo Catholic) off Broadway in Manhattan for it’s pre-Pius XII reform of 1955 Good Friday and to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral for Easter vigil. Roman rite Easter vigils in NYC
      are largely very forgettable, disappointing beyond compare with a couple of exceptions, but I may go to mass again on
      Sunday at St. Vincent Ferrer’s (Dominican friary church) on Lexington Avenue. NYC’s most magnificent Catholic church and, in my view, the finest Gothic revival Catholic church in the country.

      Reply
    3. Will Roach

      Thanks

      Reply
  5. Fr. Jan Michael Joncas

    For the first time in 30 years I will not be responsible for leading liturgical prayer during the Triduum, so I will have the great privilege of joining my fellow believers around the font, ambo, and altar during these days of intense prayer. I have also decided to re-read Michael Arditti’s novel _Easter_, a magnificent portrayal of a London Anglican parish celebrating the liturgies of Holy Week with descriptions of how the various parishioners are themselves experiencing the paschal mystery. Although it has some rather graphic scenes of gay sexual activity, they are by no means gratuitous. As I recall, it also has some heartbreaking accounts of people’s engagement with the Stations of the Cross, some hilarious social satire, and some of the most powerful descriptions of the dying process since Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Illytch” [sp?]. I promise to pray with and for all the readers of and contributors to this blog.

    Reply
  6. Anthony Ruff, OSB

    I’m reading Gerard Sloyan, Why Jesus Died, an excellent reflection on what is likely historical and what not in the Passion narratives, and how the early church began to see Jesus’ death as forgiveness for sins.

    Other years I’ve meditated with Raymond Brown’s A Crucified Christ in Holy Week, which is now taken into the larger book, Christ in the Gospels of the Liturgical Year, which is the series of smaller booklets brought under one cover. Highly recommended.

    awr

    Reply
  7. Robert B. Ramirez

    On Palm Sunday I MCed the x-form Mass (remember — no judica me, and a different last gospel!) and served at the following O-form (preceded by blessing and procession with palms).

    Last night I split wood for the Easter fire (bone-dry cedar, remarkable for longevity, with lovely scriptural allusions, which will burn with a heavenly fragrance). This morning I bought a new flint and steel to start the fire.

    Tonight I’ll accompany my RCIA participants as candidates receive First Reconciliation and as we explain to them how the Easter vigil will unfold. Must remember to get everyone’s confirmation name (buy index cards!)

    Tuesday will be the final all-hands rehearsal with altar servers for the Triduum. We’ll review the videos we made last year, and walk through the various actions.

    Wednesday I shine my shoes and get to bed early.

    Thursday I’ll MC the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and solemn procession to the altar of repose. (Don’t forget rose water: Lebanese is supposed to be the best!)

    Friday morning a group of us will walk the 9 churches, ending up at our parish for stations at noon. I’ll remain behind to serve as second MC for the Good Friday liturgy. Expecting the reproaches to be sung beautifully this year. Afterwards, working to set up the church and sanctuary for Easter. Bring down the fire pit, remove veils, set up the water jug (get the bottle of Jordan water). Sweep and vacuum the sanctuary, dust mop the church.

    Saturday, sleep till I wake up. In the afternoon, break my Lenten fast (wine! coffee!), and report to church to make final preps for the Vigil. At the vigil do a reading, manage my RCIA critters, and generally keep an eye on things.

    Sunday: MC the x-form Vidi aquam and Mass (with choir and orchestra), and following o-form solemn Mass. Then home for a lovely Easter brunch (more coffee!), newspaper, and I hope an afternoon nap.

    Monday, go to work and listen to reports of other people’s Easter “holiday”.

    Reply
  8. Fr. Robert Dueweke, OSA

    On the question of prayer I tell people to pray as they can and be conscious of God in the mundane.

    Reply
  9. Michael Silhavy

    Time to settle in for several hours with a recording and score of Wagner’s Parsifal. Here’s a text for you preachers:

    PARSIFAL
    Alas, the greatest Day of Pain!
    On which everything that blooms,
    Breathes, lives and lives anew
    Should, it seems, but mourn ‑ ah, and weep.

    GURNEMANZ
    You see, it is not so.
    They are the repentant tears of the sinner
    That drop today with holy dew
    Upon both field and meadow:
    Thus they flourish.
    Now all creatures rejoice
    At the Redeemer’s gracious sign,
    And dedicate their prayer to him.
    Him upon the Cross they cannot see:
    And so they look up to Man redeemed,
    Who feels free of his burden of sin and shame,
    Made pure and whole by the loving sacrifice of God:
    Now stalk and flower of the meadows perceives
    That this day no foot of man shall crush them,
    But just as God with heavenly patience
    Took mercy on him and suffered for him,
    So Man today with pious grace
    Spares them with gentle tread.
    For this, all creation then gives thanks –
    All’that blooms and shortly withers –
    For Nature cleansed
    Has gained this day her day of innocence.

    Reply
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