Posts Tagged ‘Holy Week’

Maundy Thursday

March 20th, 2008

Today is Maundy Thursday – it is the day we remember Christ washing the Disciples feet. I was doing a little research on Maundy Thursday and found this on Wikipedia:

The word Maundy is derived through Middle English, and Old French mandé, from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase “Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos” (“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you”), the statement by Jesus in the Gospel of John (13:34) by which Jesus explained to the Apostles the significance of his action of washing their feet.

Along with my fried Tara (see her post on Maundy Thursday here) I found the meaning behind the days name to be very interesting and challenging. In the past Thursday of Holy week was not a day I really gave much thought to. I knew that it was related somehow to the foot washing but it wasn’t really a part of Easter for me. My family would often go to a service on Good Friday but we never went to church on Thursday and never really included Thursday in our Easter/Holy week celebrations. But, today I find myself thinking about Maundy Thursday. How can I enter into Christ’s command to “love one another as I have loved you” today? How can I commemorate and celebrate and remember the miraculous act of the God of the universe stooping down to wash the feet of dirty and sinful human beings – of stooping down to serve them and to serve me?

With these thoughts in mind I stopped researching about Maundy Thursday and went to read through the many blogs that I read daily. Phyllis Tickle has been blogging through Lent and yesterday she wrote about Maundy Thursday and what is to come in the Triduum. It struck me and challenged me. HERE is what she wrote.

Today I have to work, tonight we have dinner plans, but I hope to carry with me the significance of this Sacred day even amidst the mundane details that are my life today. I hope to remember the significance of the God the all stooping to serve, the significance of the Last Super and the Eucharist and to in some ways enter into these sacred events today.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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Holy Week

March 19th, 2008

Check out this site for some great Holy Week resources :)

http://www.sgmlifewords.com/easter/index.php

Enjoy!

 Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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Palm Sunday: The Beginning of Holy Week

March 16th, 2008

Today is Palm Sunday – A day to remember Christ’s Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. It is the day that starts Holy Week and the firsts of many events that leads directly to the cross. It has always seemed like an odd day to me – like a day of fake victory. Jesus enters Jerusalem humbly riding a donkey and yet exalted by all the people. “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, Hosanna.” Waving palm branches and making a path of coats and palms for him to walk on they praise him, and rightly worship him. But, why? Why is it the Triumphant Entry? There hasn’t been any real victory, any real triumph yet. That doesn’t come till Sunday and when it does come they don’t recognize it – they praise the small triumphs of little miracles, but ignore the larger triumph of Victory over Death! How petty, how small, how short sighted! They rejoice and praise him as Messiah and then just days later cry out for his crucifixion. How fickle, how erratic, how inconsistent! ….. And how very like ME.

Lord, forgive me for my shortsightedness, forgive me for inconsistency. Forgive me for praising you as Messiah one day and crucifying you the next. Lord, in many ways Jerusalem was praising you in for what THEY expected you to be and do – in many ways they weren’t praising you, but their perception of you. Lord, I know I do that. Forgive me. Lord, show me who you are that I might praise you rightly – that I might in truth and honesty from my deep heart say to you, Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

Rejoicing in the journey –
Beth Stedman

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