Celebrating Holy Week
ISBN 9781788120203
eISBN 9781788123761
ASIN B09BLHZ37F
This is the third volume I have read from the pen of Vincent Sherlock. I picked this volume up right after reading and praying through his volume, The Stations of the Cross. I really enjoyed this little volume.
The description of this booklet is:
“In Celebrating Holy Week, Vincent Sherlock reflects on each day of the Easter Triduum. Opening up his own experience of the Triduum to the reader, Sherlock offers a detailed account of the significance and meaning of each day of the Triduum.He makes church and vestments speak, lingers on fonts that go empty and are then full again and turns the absence of song into a lyric of reflection. Urging us always to notice what is going on around us during this high point of the Christian year, Sherlock leaves no one out of the experience of the Triduum. In Celebrating Holy Week, Sherlock reminds us that we are all like the man with the pitcher of water who unknowingly guided the disciples to the place of the Last Supper, we are all a part of Easter too.”
The chapters in this volume are:
Introduction
Palm Sunday
The Triduum
Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday
The Easter Vigil
An Easter Sunday Story
Conclusion
They Wondered
I absolutely loved the sections at the end of some of the chapters called “Signs and Symbols to Notice” from “The Easter Vigil” chapter they are:
The darkness of the church. Without Christ we are in darkness.
The Easter Fire … a flame to be blessed.
The Paschal Candle.
Alpha and Omega, beginning and end.
Cross.
The year.
The grains of incense – five wounds.
The call to recognise ‘The Light of Christ’.
The faith to respond ‘Thanks be to God’.
The spreading of light through the church as candle lights candle.
Remember where the light came from-the Paschal Candle.
Christ, the source of all light.
Notice the lighting of church lights, candles on the altar.
Darkness yielding to light.
Night giving way to dawn.
Flowers around the Altar. A sign of joy and celebration.
Hear the bell rung during the Gloria that has been silent since the Mass of Holy Thursday.
The blessing of Holy Water.
Hear the ‘I Do’ when baptismal promises are renewed.
Notice your own ‘I do’.
When leaving the church notice again water in the Holy Water fonts.
‘He is risen’.
A sample chapter is:
“HOLY THURSDAY
While The Triduum begins with the Mass of The Lord’s Supper on the evening of Holy Thursday there takes place, in many dioceses, a significant gathering earlier in the day. In some dioceses, for various reasons, this gathering might take place the previous evening or at another time near Easter. The gathering is for the Chrism Mass and sees the diocesan bishop gather with the priests and people of the diocese in the Cathedral to celebrate together the institution of the Priesthood and the blessing and consecration of the Sacred Oils of Catechumen, The Sick and Chrism to be used throughout the diocese in the coming year. At this Mass, the bishop speaks to the priests about their shared calling to be present to God’s people in the diocese and during the Mass, priests of the diocese and resident in the diocese renew their commitment to priestly service. It is noteworthy that this is the only Mass celebrated in a diocese on Holy Thursday morning.
Later that same day …
Did you ever think about the man carrying the pitcher of water in Mark 14:12–16? It would be a pity to overlook him on a day like today. We are not told much, indeed anything, about him as a person but he is a key figure. Jesus had told his disciples, ‘You will see a man carrying a pitcher of water’ and that they should follow him to the house where he was going. You would wonder about him. How many times he must have filled that pitcher, countless times in truth, and walked the street back to the house. That day was different though. His everyday task became a sign, a sacrament perhaps, and his role in this ever-unfolding drama took centre stage. He was noticed! There is something about noticing people, not least when they do not expect it, and it is linked with noticing the difference they make.
There is a story I like to tell, a moment I like to recall, when I waited for a friend outside Penn Station, New York. The place was busy, as you’d expect, with hundreds of people walking and talking. In the middle of Penn Plaza, I noticed pigeons pulling at a large piece of bread someone had dropped. Their work was continually interrupted by the passers-by and the pigeons flew to and from their find but were having very little success in taking any advantage of it.
I watched, maybe without even knowing I was watching, and then I noticed a man walking towards me. I would put him in his late twenties and a bit alternative perhaps! Black T-shirt, tattooed forehead, faded and torn jeans, a dangling earring and still a man who could blend into and get lost in the crowd. He walked through the pigeons and they scattered. Then it happened! He stopped and, as I watched, I saw him go back to the bread, go down on his knees and take the piece of bread in his hand and begin to break it into pieces. He rubbed the broken pieces on the ground and they became almost dust-like. As I watched, I thought his movements awkward and laboured but admired what he was doing. He got up, walked away and the birds flew back to the broken and scattered pieces. No longer were they congregated around one piece, now there was feeding to be done.
As he walked past me, I heard myself say ‘Well done!’ I don’t know where it came from and neither did he. He stopped, and looked at me and asked ‘What do you mean, “well done”?’ ‘That’s a good thing you just did’, I said. He smiled a little, looked at me and said, ‘If I didn’t do that, only the greedy ones would get it’. I was silent but filled with admiration and then I noticed, one of the arms of his T-shirt hung empty, he had one arm. I thought again about the awkwardness of his work and realised that, with one arm, he had done what I failed to do – notice, react, respond and make a difference. He walked away but his action and witness stayed with me.
‘If I didn’t do that, only the greedy ones would get it’. That is the line that stayed with me most I think. He was so right. It was, in truth, because bread was broken that it could be shared and shared generously with others. This takes us to the Upper Room where tonight’s Liturgy has its birth, but we must not forget the man carrying the pitcher of water, no more than I must not forget the man on bended knees, one-handed, breaking the bread.
Holy Thursday calls us to a place of awareness around Eucharist and Service. These two are centre stage in all that is happening today. We are asked to be aware of people around us, to notice people, not just for the sake of noticing but because otherwise they might all too easily go unnoticed. The man with the pitcher of water had no idea where his daily task would take him and, not just him, but all who have come to hear his story right up to this present day, right up to you reading these words and wondering about Holy Thursday. That man is carrying the pitcher of water for you and me today, leading us down a street, to an open door and to an Upper Room where our place at the table is assured and the bread will be broken, divided, shared so that all, not just the greedy ones, may be nourished and uplifted so that like the pigeons we can take to the skies – where we are intended to be.
Eucharist and Service then are key to all we look for on this day. In this evening’s Liturgy, there will be witness given to the Lord’s call to be servants of one another. This, we are told, he did in the washing of his disciples’ feet. They were reluctant to have this done, especially so Peter, who objected ‘“Never”, he said “never shall you wash my feet”’ (Jn 13:8). When Jesus pointed out that if he did not allow this to happen then Peter could have nothing to do with his ministry, he changed his mind saying; ‘“Then not only my feet but my head and my hands too”’ (Jn 13:9) – that response, that change of attitude is perhaps central to our approach to a moment like this. The willingness to be open to a new message and take on a role not imagined is, at once, challenging and exciting.
Where did Jesus get the water to wash the disciples’ feet? Certainly, it is possible that it is some of that same water carried by the man with the pitcher. That water too, finished up beside the wine on the table and may well have been mixed with it as we see time and time again when the bread and wine are offered at the altar. Noticing! That’s the best gift you can bring to this day. Noticing! Noticing people, noticing signs, noticing what is done around the altar and noticing the people involved and those, like the man who carried the water, who may well be behind the scenes. Noticing!
Feet washed, and altar approached, we will hear again those words and see again those gestures first seen and heard in the Upper Room. Try, if you can at all, to locate yourself there in a place where you can see and hear. Observe the movements, the taking of chalice and paten, their being lifted/offered to the Heavens, so they can be shared with all around. See the man, on his knees, outside Penn Station, taking the bread and breaking it so that all would have a chance to be nourished, not just the strong or the greedy.
Notice the ending of Mass tonight. There will be no final blessing, the priest will leave the altar in silence with no closing hymn. He may well carry the Eucharist to an ‘Altar of Repose’ where adoration might continue for a number of hours but there is no formal ending or dismissal. This is because the prayer is truly only begun and will continue through Good Friday, Holy Saturday and all the way, to the discovery of the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning. It is great that you are here. It is where you need to be and where you are needed.
Notice! You may well be carrying a pitcher of water. Someone may need to follow you.
SIGNS AND SYMBOLS TO NOTICE
Church decorations such as bread and grapes, a white towel and basin. The tools of service.
Return of the Trocaire Lenten Campaign boxes. A call to share.
Ringing of the bell during the Gloria. It will not sound again until Easter.
The empty Holy Water fonts. Dryness of spirit. Emptiness.
Stripping of the altar after Holy Communion. No celebrations.
No final blessing at Mass. A silent procession from the altar.
A seamless prayer from Holy Thursday to the Easter Vigil/Sunday.
Continuous prayer.
A time for waiting and reflection.
Procession to the Altar of Repose.
Often a time for quiet prayer for a few hours into the night.
Akin maybe to ‘the wake’ – being with and in silence.
Silence! A time to reflect and anticipate the days to follow.”
I only highlighted a few passages my first time through this booklet. They are:
“‘If I didn’t do that, only the greedy ones would get it’. That is the line that stayed with me most I think. He was so right. It was, in truth, because bread was broken that it could be shared and shared generously with others. This takes us to the Upper Room where tonight’s Liturgy has its birth, but we must not forget the man carrying the pitcher of water, no more than I must not forget the man on bended knees, one-handed, breaking the bread.”
“The man with the pitcher of water had no idea where his daily task would take him and, not just him, but all who have come to hear his story right up to this present day, right up to you reading these words and wondering about Holy Thursday. That man is carrying the pitcher of water for you and me today, leading us down a street, to an open door and to an Upper Room where our place at the table is assured and the bread will be broken, divided, shared so that all, not just the greedy ones, may be nourished and uplifted so that like the pigeons we can take to the skies – where we are intended to be.”
“That’s the best gift you can bring to this day. Noticing! Noticing people, noticing signs, noticing what is done around the altar and noticing the people involved and those, like the man who carried the water, who may well be behind the scenes. Noticing!”
“Notice the ending of Mass tonight. There will be no final blessing, the priest will leave the altar in silence with no closing hymn. He may well carry the Eucharist to an ‘Altar of Repose’ where adoration might continue for a number of hours but there is no formal ending or dismissal. This is because the prayer is truly only begun and will continue through Good Friday, Holy Saturday and all the way, to the discovery of the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning. It is great that you are here. It is where you need to be and where you are needed.”
This is a wonderful little volume. I picked up the eBook edition and I read it before church on each of the specific days. There are a couple of personal stories one about the authors father and another by a bishop. Both really add to the volume. The book is easily accessible. Anyone with a secondary education could engage with this booklet. It would be great for personal, family, or even youth group reading together. It is an excellent resource for ending Lent and transitioning into Easter It is a volume I can easily recommend.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2023 Catholic Reading Plan! For all review of Messenger Publications books and booklets click here.
Books by Vincent Sherlock:
Let Advent be Advent
The Enchanted Way: Reflections on the Way of the Cross
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