Holy Week Liturgical Ministers Schedule
Posted by Sister Therese Ann on March 23rd, 2010
Holy Week begins with the sixth Sunday in Lent known as Palm Sunday. This Sunday observes the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem that was marked by the crowds who were in Jerusalem for Passover waving palm branches and proclaiming him as the messianic king. The Gospels tell us that Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, enacting the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, and in so doing emphasized the humility that was to characterize the Kingdom he proclaimed. The irony of his acceptance as the new Davidic King (Mark 11:10) by the crowds who would only five days later cry for his execution should be a sobering reminder of the human tendency to want God on our own terms.
This Sunday is also known as Passion Sunday to commemorate the beginning of Holy Week and Jesus’ final agonizing journey to the cross.
There are a variety of events that are clustered on Holy Thursday – this last day before Jesus was arrested that are commemorated in various ways in services of worship. These include the last meal together, which was probably a Passover meal, the institution of Eucharist or Communion, the betrayal by Judas (because of the exchange with Jesus at the meal), and Jesus praying in Gethsemane while the disciples fell asleep. Most liturgies, however, focus on the meal and communion as a way to commemorate this day.
Friday of Holy Week has been traditionally been called Good Friday. On this day, the church commemorates Jesus’ arrest (since by Jewish customs of counting days from sundown to sundown it was already Friday), his trial, crucifixion and suffering, death, and burial. Since services on this day are to observe Jesus’ death, and since Eucharist is a celebration, there is traditionally no Communion observed on Good Friday.
From the earliest days of the church, the Easter Vigil was primarily a means of preparing new converts for baptism into the Christian Faith, which was normally done on Easter Sunday as the focal point of the entire year. This preparation traditionally arises from a set of Scripture readings from the Old Testament that recounts the unfolding of God’s creation of a people in the Exodus, and a promise of restoration from Zephaniah (see Readings for the Easter Vigil). Following the lead of the Gospels themselves, this provides a crucial link between the revelation of God in Christ and the creation of the church with God’s past revelation of himself and the creation of his people Israel. This important emphasis on the continuity of the church with the Old Testament’s witness to God also helps define the nature of the church and its mission in the world, thoroughly grounding it in the ongoing work of God in history.
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