Holy Week has begun, and as we anticipate the Triduum you may be looking for ways to enter into Holy Week and make it more meaningful.
Monday on The Inner Life®, Fr. Glenn Sudano, CFR stopped by to offer some suggestions of Holy Week practices that will help you enter more deeply into the Paschal Mystery this week. Fr. Glenn said:
Be a Missionary
We know that the Church is going to provide some of the most important services of the year. The feet washing on Holy Thursday, the reposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Good Friday with the three o’clock service, the blessing of the Easter fire and the procession with the Easter candle at the Vigil and the singing of the Exsultet.
One thing I think is very important, and it may be helpful for those of us who are familiar with these things, is to tell everyone about what’s coming on a the end of the week. Meaning, be a missionary and let people know what’s going on. Because while it may be bread and butter to some of our listeners, to other people they don’t know what it is, they don’t know what it means. They may know Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, but some of these other services may be lost to them. Why? Because they never went to it.
It’s such a rich experience. So that’s #1 I think, is just to make this week special by making yourself a little but more of a missionary. And quite frankly, if you invite 10 people and one shows up, that’s a blessing for you and that one person.
Do Something Different
Do something special, like maybe fast from social media during the week. Make it special by dressing differently. We dress the altar and the priest in the violet color during Lent, and you may want to do the same. I know some people that say they dress liturgically, and certain feast days they may wear red or white. But take the week and give it a completely different character.
Do something different, so the whole thing takes on a different texture, a different feel to it, and therefore maybe it’s more of an interior attitude of expectation for this week.
Embrace the Stillness
I’m a big advocate of silence, stillness, and solitude. Those three elements are often missing from our lives. Everyone speaks of this, but we live in a very busy time, when people are running from pillar to post. But from pillar to post we should have a little place where we could simply just stop and be still and be silent. And listen. One of the very beautiful things is taking the readings of this week, the Scripture readings, and to sort of go through the ceremonies, go through the rites and the rituals of what’s going to unfold at the end of the week. And to sort of have a little bit of a preview.
Spend a few days before we actually get there as sort of like an antipasto, to build up our appetite. So when we are actually there on Holy Thursday, when we are there for Good Friday, when we are at the Easter Vigil and we’re going through all of the readings and going through salvation history, and on Easter Sunday with the powerful proclamation of the Resurrection, we’ve already sort of paid these places a little visit. So silence, stillness, and solitude. Beginning today, that makes the week special.
Listen to the full conversation with Father Glenn Sudano below:
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