Go to home page - diocesan shield

The Anglican Church in Tasmania                                                             Search

a healthy church...transformingLIFE

Tasmanian Anglican

March 2005

 

  


If Easter is about anything, it is about transformation - the bare, wooden cross; the living Easter garden.

 

Thoughts and reflections - a journey through Holy Week

by René Knaap

 

 

The Easter Three Days commemorates the beginning and climax of our faith. It is prepared for through the six weeks of Lent and is prolonged for fifty days until Pentecost.

The observance of the Easter Three Days is the hinge of the entire liturgical year.

Every word, act and rite of these days point to the enormity of God's love for us. We remember and share in God's passion for us. But they also speak of the God who interrupts our lives in ways which challenge and confront. Many of us may wish to remain with the crowd in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and skip the suffering and agony of Good Friday. But if anything speaks to the human condition with its joy, exultation, agony, suffering and expectation, then it is these days.

Large demands

There is also the assurance that in all we experience in this life, God in Christ shares with us. So the full observance of these days is not to be missed lightly.

As God interrupts humanity in the suffering, death and resurrection of his Son, so we are called to interrupt the usual pattern of our lives and commit to experiencing again the force of God's saving work. Holy Thursday Night, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil make large demands in both time and effort. But the construction of the liturgy on these days sees it built as one liturgical act, the one saving work of God.

The faithful are therefore encouraged to encounter the fullness, the richness and the grace of the Paschal mystery through the dramatic, poetic, symbolic and life-changing words, rites and actions of the liturgy.

If you would like to experience such a journey through Holy Week please phone 03 6223 1795 or go to the All Saints South Hobart website for full details of services. All welcome to all services.