Holy Week already?

Clearly my pre-Christmas promise to self and others that I would be more faithful about blogging has not been kept. Here it is Holy Week already!

I miss the Holy Week observances of my youth. The daily trek to church for some observance or other, rosaries and walking the Stations of the Cross, confession . . all of that. In the Disciples tradition we don't do that so much. To make up for this we have turned Palm Sunday into Palm/Passion Sunday, and gallop through all the emotions of the week all in one hour. Some read the entire scripture and let it stand on its own, some have pageants or choir concerts.

Oh, here at Delhaven there is a Maundy Thursday supper, sometimes with Tennebrae, once with foot-washing (nobody wanted to let me wash their feet, so it turned into a hand-washing and was never repeated). And a Good Friday noon-midnite prayer vigil, which used to be in the sanctuary but now people keep at home.

And of course, the regular administrative stuff never ends. I spent an hour on the phone Monday with the phone company trying for the 6th month in a row to straighten out our bill. I'm planning for 2 weeks at once as I go on vacation immediately after the 2nd service on Easter.

So I pray - Holy One, help me to focus on you, on the journey to the cross that you son is making this week, and on where my own journey is taking me. May I approach my own cross as obediently and with as much grace as he did. Amen.