Notes

Amidst all the cartoons floating around the Internet during Holy Week and now Easter Week, the best one that I have seen this year is of the Grim Reaper. Yes, the Grim Reaper is sitting beside the empty tomb with the stone rolled away, with his head bowed in futility, and holding his sickle and a sign that says “Out of work.”Yes, indeed: the Resurrection has put the Grim Reaper completely and ultimately on the eternal life unemployment line. Jesus’ victory over the grave is the last word, the... Read More

The holy season of Lent ends this week with perhaps the most significant collection of days in the liturgical year, the Great Three Days also known as the Triduum: beginning on the evening of Maundy Thursday, continuing through Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and leading into the Great Vigil of Easter on Easter Eve and the Sunday of the Resurrection (Easter Day). The dramatic triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday quickl... Read More

Only one Sunday, only one feast day, yea, only one occasion in the entire liturgical year has two appointed Gospel readings – the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday. Even with all the readings appointed for the Great Vigil of Easter, only one reading from the Gospels is appointed for the Eucharist. And in liturgies such as Advent or Christmas lessons and carols, multiple suggestions from the Gospels are given, but they are suggestions and not officially appointed readings.For the Palm/Pa... Read More

If Lent is that time of cleansing, here goes: I am a complete George Herbert junkie, thanks to my favorite college English teacher. In this Sunday’s (Mar. 13) Philippians reading, the apostle Paul describes Lenten cleansing this way: This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phillippians 3:14) And George Herbert (1593-1633) describes Lenten cleansing this w... Read More

To veil or not to veil…that is the Lenten question. This Sunday (Mar. 6) is the Fourth Sunday in Lent (in Lent and not of Lent, as the Sunday in Lent do not count as one of the 40 days). The fourth Sunday is sometimes called Mid-Lent, marking the midpoint of this penitential season. Most Roman Catholic churches and many Anglo-Catholic Episcopal churches use rose colored vestments and paraments on this Sunday, a lightened hue of the penitential Lenten purple. Mid-Lent is a slight “lifting... Read More