A Different Holy Week

Gordon Creamer writes today’s post about Holy Week approaching. Gordon presents many retreats for us throughout the year, such as the grief, caregiver’s and Dinner & Dialogue programs. He also guides annual summer weekend retreats and this year the theme will be “A Sacred Encounter with Jesus & Rumi: the Very Heart of Love”. You can click here to learn more about it.

Let’s take a moment to breathe, to remember we’re in God’s presence and to reflect on this post as we prepare for Holy Week.

A Different Holy Week

As I am certain that many of you have noticed, Holy Week is right around the corner! And, what will it look like this year as we are not able to gather in person with our faith congregations around the sacred rituals that constitute the heartbeat of our religious beliefs?! It is equally difficult and surreal to imagine observing Palm Sunday without receiving fresh palm for waving or to recall Jesus’ Last Supper without experiencing the washing of feet. And, unfathomable to even conceive of Good Friday without venerating the cross or woefully singing in concert the dirges that surround our Lord in His Passion and entombment. Yet, as God’s Word impresses upon us, there is indeed a season for all things that transpire under the Sun.

While we can easily become lost in wondering how Holy Week will unfold in such a tenuous and unsettling time in human history, we would then be missing the very real truth that God still desires to celebrate with us: Easter will still happen! Despite it all, Jesus will still be resurrected from the dead by the same incredible God and Father who raised Him up two thousand years ago. The Love that began before time has not paused or receded or been quarantined. Let us not forget that in the midst of social distancing and developing new routines Jesus is still in need of brave volunteers to join Him on the road to Calvary, to help Him carry His cross and bear the burdens of Divine Love.

As I ponder this Invitation that lies before each of us, I am humbled by the Lenten Journey that has already transpired. Close to 40 days and nights where prayers and traditions and spiritual conversations take on new meaning in light of our current global circumstances. For, if we remember and believe that Easter and all God’s accompanying promises are still being provided, then our experience of Lent can be transformed from something strange and unusual to where we can recognize the abundant graces that still remain for us.

Lent and Easter have survived since their conception many millennia ago – through plagues, natural disasters, genocide and other dark concourses of the human heart. And, they will continue to do so whether we realize it or not! But, imagine all the possibilities of creativity, healing and unity here if we open our hearts and minds together to embrace God alive as He makes all things NEW once again.

You are in my thoughts, prayers and candlelight at this time. I ask for yours as well.

And, maybe we will see each other next week – entering the City’s Gates, or in the Garden, along the way of the Cross or in the dark tomb?

Peace & Goodness be with You,

Gordon