28 March 2023
Dear friends,
This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the Week of Weeks. For us Christians, it is the most exciting week of the year, for we have the opportunity to relive the great events that are at the center of our faith in Jesus Christ. This is what Lent has been preparing us for, and it is from Christ’s death and resurrection that we find our meaning and purpose in life.
I hope you can join us for the upcoming celebrations next week. In addition to the great liturgies of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, sung masses will be celebrated on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week at 12:00 noon. These services are the perfect break in the day, fitting nicely into the lunch hour for those who are working.
Our Holy Week schedule also includes the three Services of Tenebrae: the Office of Shadows and Darkness - Matins and Lauds for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. During medieval times it became the norm to pray these services on the night prior, hence the first Tenebrae is sung on Holy Wednesday evening. These services largely consist of the singing of psalms, accompanied with readings from the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the Epistles to the Corinthians and Hebrews. Over the centuries magnificent choral responses were composed for these scripture readings. On Holy Wednesday a schola from the choir will sing, and on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, Tenebrae will be chanted by the congregation. These Tenebraes serve as our offering of the Daily Office for the days of the Triduum. They are offered in addition to the principal liturgies of these days.
Holy Week is a feast of liturgical riches, and for those who participate to the fullest, it becomes a spiritual retreat in the midst of our busy lives. It is well worth the time in your calendar and schedule to attend these services. Every year each Christian is called to make the space for being present during Holy Week. Just as we commit to worshipping the Lord every Sunday, we also make the commitment to be present at the cross and the empty tomb.
Arising from Holy Week and Easter Day, the church gives us fifty days of celebrating the resurrection, including the Ascension and the Coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. For St. Mark’s we have the extra bonus of celebrating St. Mark’s Day, and this year we will celebrate our patron in conjunction with the Third Sunday of Easter, April 23. The special offering for the patronal feast has been dedicated for Family Promise, and donations are already being accepted. As well, giving envelopes for Holy Week are in the back of the church, and those donations will help defray the cost of our new live-streaming equipment.
Let me be the first to wish you a very Blessed Holy Week and a joyous Eastertide.
Father Paul Lillie +
