In this the love of God was made manifest among us,
that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
- 1 John 4:9-10 (ESV)
Holy Week is the heart of the Christian year. And the heart of Holy Week is the Triduum, the great three days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. Why do we include four days for the three days of the Paschal Triduum? Because we, as moderns, count time differently.
Maundy Thursday is a celebration that happens on the evening of Thursday. Ancients counted time from sundown to sundown. So from an ancient perspective, after sundown on Maundy Thursday is Friday. So Holy Week culminates in four events over three days if we count sundown to sundown.
The four events are the institution of the Christian Eucharist (Maundy Thursday), Jesus' suffering and death (Good Friday), his repose in the tomb (Holy Saturday), and his glorious Resurrection (Resurrection Sunday).
Easter Sunday, is the Great Day of the Resurrection. Resurrection Day begins the Easter Season. Easter is a season unto itself, the Great Fifty Days. It concludes with the Feast of Pentecost, which opens into the remainder of the year as we learn to live and grow in the Life of the Spirit.
The Word:
(Click on the links below to read Sunday's passages)
First Reading: Isaiah 52:13–53:12
Psalm 22:1-11 (text from 2019 BCP below)
Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11
Passion Gospel: Mark 15:1-39
A downloadable Home Liturgy with Spiritual Communion follows the playlist below
22 Deus, Deus meus
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, *
and are so far from my cry, and from the words of my complaint?
2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear;*
in the night season also, but I find no rest. 3 But you remain holy, * enthroned upon the praises of Israel. 4 Our fathers hoped in you; * they trusted in you, and you delivered them. 5 They called upon you, and were delivered; * they put their trust in you, and were not confounded. 6 But as for me,I am a worm,and no man,*
scorned by all, and the outcast of the people. 7 All those who see me laugh me to scorn; * they curl their lips, and shake their heads, saying,
8 “He trusted in God, that he would deliver him; *
let him deliver him, if he will have him.” 9 But you are he that took me out of my mother’s womb; * you were my hope, when I was yet upon my mother’s breasts. 10 I have been cast upon you ever since I was born; *
you are my God, even from my mother’s womb. 11 O go not far from me, for trouble is near at hand, *
and there is none to help me.