3
April 2020
Friday
of Judica
Dear Saints and Friends of Grace
& Trinity,
Palm Sunday begins the most liturgically rich and rubrically dense week of the
Church calendar. It’s a week that begins outside with palm branches in hand
and shouts of “Hosanna!”, which means, “save us now!” from Ps 118. The joy
turns somber and reflective as we then begin our daily reading of the Holy
Passion: Monday, according to St. Matthew; Tuesday, St. Mark; Wednesday, St. Luke
(each at 8pm at Trinity and FB live). Maundy Thursday is the celebration of our
Lord’s institution of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, where He gives His body
and His blood to us. That service ends with the beautiful chanting of Ps 22
while the altar is stripped. Then comes Good Friday, with the Chief Service at
noon at Grace, full of the reproaches, the Passion of St. John, and the
adoration of the Holy Cross. In the evening is the Tenebrae Vespers Service at
8pm at Trinity, a service of diminishing light and the closing of the tomb (strepitus).
Holy Saturday is a day, then, of rest—just as our Lord rested on the seventh
day at Creation, now He rests in the tomb, having “finished” all His
work. We’ll gather again that evening at 8pm for the Easter Vigil, recounting
the death and resurrection of Jesus throughout the OT, remembering our baptism,
thanking God for this night on which our Lord Jesus rose from the dead! It’s
our first peak into the paschal joy of Easter.
I can’t tell you how much it pains me that this week—of all weeks!—is muted by
the current pandemic. Our elders still feel that it is not best for us to
permit the gathering of the Church and that these services, as beautiful as
they are, must be enjoyed digitally from our homes. I will try my best to
stream them on FB live and upload them to YouTube, as we’ve been doing for
daily Matins and Vespers. All services will be streamed from Trinity and can be
found on Trinity’s Facebook page. Matins will still be
prayed daily at Grace and live-streamed from Grace’s page at 9am.
Here are the Bulletins for each of the services—they’re left as full as they
would have been used by us in our regular gathering.
Palm Sunday
Holy Monday
Holy Tuesday
Holy Wednesday
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday:
Chief Service, Tenebrae Service
Easter Vigil
Also, here’s the news/notes, and the congregation at prayer for Sunday. I’ll post
my sermon on the website as usual.
Locally, it appears that Immanuel will still be offering the Divine Service on
Tuesday at 11am, Wednesday at 7pm, and on Thursday at 11am.
If you’ve missed any of the services or my daily devotions and don’t have FB,
please see my YouTube channel.
Speaking of daily devotions, here’s the one from today. It’s one that I
desperately needed and thought I’d share with you. Somehow, when everything
shut down, I became busier…but with a busy-ness that didn’t produce anything
new and that certainly didn’t lead to any greater rest or fulfillment. Friday
is a good day to remember that we work for leisure and rest; and that
leisure is the source of culture. Enjoy!
Coming up…
- Today:
- Private Absolution is still offered every Friday from 4-5pm
- Sunday:
- 9:30am Live-Stream Divine Service at Trinity
- Monday
– Wednesday:
- 9am Matins at Grace (w/Live-Stream on Grace’s FB page)
- 8pm Compline (w/Live-Stream on Trinity’s FB page)
- Maundy
Thursday:
- 9am Matins at Grace (w/Live-Stream on Grace’s FB page)
- 8pm Divine Service (w/Live-Stream on Trinity’s FB page)
- Good
Friday:
- 9am Matins at Grace (w/Live-Stream on Grace’s FB page)
- 12pm Good Friday Chief Service at Grace (w/Live-Stream on Grace’s FB page)
- 4-5pm Private Absolution at Trinity
- 8pm Tenebrae Vespers (w/Live-Stream on Trinity’s FB page)
- Holy
Saturday:
- 8pm Easter Vigil at Trinity (w/Live-Stream on Trinity’s FB page)
Some Things to Read while at Home…
- Our friend, Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller wrote a new book. You can get a free pdf here, or get a physical copy for $10 here.
- Also, the Eighth Day Institute has been putting out a “Daily Synaxis”. You can subscribe here. From today’s there is a wonderful little article by Wendell Berry, in which he reflects on the things that distract us from our humanity—“they are revelations of a crisis of culture,” he says. Read that here.
Prayer requests…
- For the Conrads, our missionaries in Mexico City, who are similarly trying to navigate ministry and home life, but in a foreign culture and country. Their newsletter can be read here.
Many blessings and rest to you all in Christ our life,
– Pastor