Good day,

It’s a lovely day out there today – at least where I am, anyway. 

Happening Around the Deanery:

Monday Evening Zoom Bible Study through Lent, 7pm: with Jay and Susan Koyle (please email me if you’d like the link: susan.montague2@gmail.com)

St. Vincent Place dinner this Wednesday – for those of you who come out to help and any new volunteers who’d like to be involved – we gather at St. Vincent Place about 2pm to package up dinners for people in need in our communities.

Webinar Opportunity! Converting to Childhood in a Time of Climate Crisis: Thursday, March 14, 4-5:30pm. It sounds really interesting. Email me if you’d like the link. This is another webinar provided by APLM (The Associated Parishes of Liturgy and Mission)

Stations of the Cross at the Cathedral on Good Friday. There is a poster at the end of this post for your information.

A Liturgical Note For You:  This may make some of you sad but, since St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, the Church does not keep this observance. It is on the “non-observed” list for 2024. Under no circumstances does good ol’ St. Patrick bump the usual celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If you’re Irish and really, really, really want to give Patrick the nod, you could mention him in the Prayers of the People. 

Another Liturgical Note For You:  Our most important time of the Christian year is quickly approaching (no…it’s not Christmas ) – Sunday the 24th marks the beginning of Holy Week and, near the end of Holy Week, we have The Paschal Triduum. Since there are a few very important days to tell you about, I thought I’d spread it out instead of putting everything in all at once.  So…let’s start with The Sunday of the Passion.

The what? The Sunday of the Passion. I’ll bet you thought I was going to say “Palm Sunday”, right?  Well, read on…

The Sunday of the Passion, with the Liturgy of the Palms:  Perhaps you are wondering why we read the Passion Narrative on the Sunday before Good Friday and then we read it again on Good Friday.  People who do not know the liturgical history of this practice speculate that perhaps we read the Passion on the Sunday for all of those people who don’t show up to the worship service on the Friday. Nope. This Sunday is named “The Sunday of the Passion, with the Liturgy of the Palms” in order to reflect the fact that the Passion actually dominates the liturgy for this day. The palms may seem to be the main part of the worship since we sing, and process, and wave palm branches around. It is highly recommended that, whenever possible, this part of the service (The Liturgy of the Palms) take place somewhere other than the church itself...perhaps outdoors if weather permits, perhaps in the church hall, or even at the back of the church (if there is room) and then everyone would process to their seats in the church behind the altar party when the Liturgy of the Passion begins. 

The Liturgy of the Palms was first introduced by the Jerusalem Church in the late 300’s but the western church did not begin celebrating this liturgy until some time in the 600’s – and they changed it from an evening procession around the city into a morning procession into the church.  

Alright, so why the emphasis on the Passion of Christ when this is not the day he died?  There is a very long history – many centuries old – to this practice as well. Reading the Passion Narrative on the Sunday beginning Holy Week turns our hearts and minds more fully to the events of the week leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross. The Passion Narrative, as a matter of fact, used to read in churches every single day during Holy Week.  Reading the Passion Narrative so quickly on the heels of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem “will not allow any theology that dwells on triumphalism. It will not let us deceive ourselves about the sort of Messiah that Jesus is. To leave [The Liturgy of the Palms] without the Passion narrative can leave one with the impression that Jesus is the conquering Messiah, the Messiah of worldly power. The Passion narrative reminds us that we follow the crucified Messiah, the one who gained victory precisely in defeat” (The Rev. David L. Hansen at thedigitalpastor.org). It is also a reminder that we – the church – are simultaneously the ones who shower Jesus with accolades and then demand his death. We have been made holy by Christ but we still turn from God. Creation is good but broken by sin. The kingdom is here but is not yet fully revealed. 

One final point, The Sunday of the Passion rotates through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke – never John. The first three Gospels provide the narrative of the Last Supper in which Jesus instructs us to eat his body and to drink his blood, the new covenant, in remembrance of him.  Then we hear the rest of the story of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, his death and his placement in the tomb.  John’s account of the crucifixion is always the one read on Good Friday. John shows us how to see Jesus’ death as his glorification.  More on this later…

In the hope of Christ,

Susan