Time Marches on to Jerusalem

It is nearly Holy Week. As Christians - in theory at least with Baptismal vows at the root - we set out to mark every day as holy, make each act as holy. Sometimes that works. For some of us, it means going back to bed for another hour and having a cup of coffee before attempting to think "holy" things. Yet, with God's help (and often through God's power alone) our words are kind, our giving is selfless and our dedication is pure. In this sense, please God, there are many, many holy weeks in the year.

Let's shift from our personal life to our corporate life in the greater Church. By a remarkable process that is marked in calendar time, all the collective parts that make the church - the eyes and service dogs and ears and hearing aids and hands and canes and hearts and pacemakers and voices and pacifiers and interpreters and feet and prosthetics and wheelchairs - all the parts of the Body of Christ come together in a particular way for a collective week that compresses the final days of the earthly life and transformed life of Jesus Christ, the one we call our Lord and Savior.

This Holy Week is steeped in a cast of characters and rituals and symbols.

In MOLC I will be writing frequently this week - perhaps multiple entries a day - of the symbols and the rituals.

The first will be a new version of the Blessing of the Palms and the Palm Sunday ritual. Whether you chose to use it or not, it's all good. But do read it. I will be attempting to bring you closer to that time - or to bring the Christ closer to this time that your heart may be touched anew and the corporate acts the Church engages in may take on a life a bit closer to your heart. It is our heritage to tell the story of Christ - in what appeared to be His most triumphant and most defeated moments - on both sides of the tomb.

May the way you keep your Holy Week be truly blessed. With peace in my heart for all of you, DJ