Getting Ready for Easter: Holy Week Resources

Holy Week is almost here! So I thought I'd write a quick post about some resources for Holy Week, starting with something I noticed when I was reading Morning Prayer this morning: there are opening sentences for Holy Week! Yep! Somehow, I thought I just went straight from the Lenten ones ("If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves..." etc.) to the Easter ones ("Alleluia! Christ is risen!" etc.). But no! There are sentences for Holy Week ("Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" etc.).

There are also, I discovered, looking a little further, collects for each day in Holy Week - and each day in Easter week. Now, I'm not sure if reading those in place of the normal Morning Prayer collects is quite proper - they're probably actually to be read during Mass on those days - but I'm gonna pray them anyway. Partly because I can almost guarantee you I'll only be making it to Mass Thursday-Sunday, and not Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. :) Anyway, if you want to take a peek, you can find them starting on page 168 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Here's a sample of the prayers I'm talking about, to whet your appetite:

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but
first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he
was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way
of the cross, may find it none other that the way of life and
peace; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.

Doesn't that just give you shivers?


Next, it's always good to have good reading and music on hand to help you think about the events of Holy Week. Good reading for Good Friday and Holy Week would include, in my opinion, George Herbert's excellent The Sacrifice. Here's a short excerpt from a very long poem:

Now heal thy self, Physician; now come down.
Alas! I did so, when I left my crown
And fathers smile for you, to feel his frown:
Was ever grief like mine?

In healing not my self, there doth consist
All that salvation, which ye now resist;
Your safetie in my sicknesse doth subsist:
Was ever grief like mine?

Betwixt two theeves I spend my utmost breath,
As he that for some robberie suffereth.
Alas! what have I stollen from you? Death.
Was ever grief like mine?


Another good one is John Donne's "Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward". It's a poem with a long argument, and an excellent payoff, but in addition to that, it is scattered throughout with heart-piercing observations, like this one:

But that Christ on His cross did rise and fall,
Sin had eternally benighted all.

If you've got some time on your hands, Dorothy Sayers' excellent play cycle, The Man Born to Be King, will well repay your reading of it. I personally had some trouble slogging through the first play, the Christmas play, but after that I was hooked, and I've never looked at the gospel the same way again. It's one of those works that convinces you that the author must have the gospels memorized, she writes with such a sure hand. It helped me think about how odd and terrifying Holy Week must have been for the disciples.

Well, my baby's waking up, so I must go! More later!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica