Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

In the Western Church, Easter falls on April 4 this year and during the week preceding it, Christians remember some of the significant things which happened during Jesus’ last days before his death by crucifixion. They call these days Holy Week. It is a week of sorrow and distress; but it ends gloriously in joy and hope with Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Some of the Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team have put together a rough sketch of each of those days and included references from the gospel of St. Mark, where you will find a biblical account. We have also given a brief explanation of how Christians observe the day, and a meditation from the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way (used with permission).

Palm Sunday

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. Jesus was coming to Jerusalem for the Jewish Passover celebrations with his disciples. During the three years of his ministry of teaching and healing he had gained a huge crowd of followers, mostly humble people who were grateful for his loving, inclusive affirmation. On Sunday he came into Jerusalem. Word had gone before him that he was entering the city and crowds lined the streets to welcome him, waving branches from the trees (palms) crying “Hosanna” which means “save us.” You can read the account at Mark, chapter 11, verses 1-11.

In churches around the world, Christians will celebrate this day by waving palms, some woven into crosses or other shapes, and singing “Hosanna!”  It is a day of joy, but with undertones of sorrow as  they will probably also consider some of the things that happened during Jesus’ last week. When they gather again on Thursday, the tone will be very different. Some thoughts from the Iona Community:

It was on the Sunday
that he took on the city.

Religious freaks usually appear in the desert,
cutting themselves off from the hurly burly
for God wouldn’t dirty his hands
with things of the city,
political things,
criminal things,
beggars and thieves and prostitutes.

But on the Sunday
he rode in,
to claim all he saw
for God does weep in the dust of the streets.
God does cry out in the grand temples and courtyards.
God does yearn for the hustlers and the crooks,
the power hungry and the power brokers,
the fashionistas and the dolly birds,
the addicts and the dealers.

It was on the Sunday …
that he took on the city.

Triumphal entry – Hosanna! Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk