Our vast wall painting of the Adoration of the Cross was completed around the year 1500. This is how it appeared in 1844, when the whitewashing concealing it was first removed.
'I want to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.' When St Paul wrote to those words to the Christians in Philippi, he was speaking for all Christians in every time and place. We are people who want to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection, and we know that the only way to this is by sharing Christ’s sufferings and becoming like him in his death.
Holy Week is the high point of the Christian year: everything else prepares for it or flows from it. In Holy Week, we walk with Christ and try to have some tiny share in his sufferings, so that we may know the power of his Resurrection when Easter comes.
In Holy Week we see all that it means to acknowledge Christ as our Way, our Truth and our Life. Do not let it pass you by. This is not something a bit weird for ‘churchy people’: it’s for everyone. It’s for you. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never kept the Week in its fullness before: start now.
Come and sing Hosanna and carry palms with us on Palm Sunday, when so quickly the shout of the crowd changes to ‘Crucify him… crucify him…’. On the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, be with the Lord as the shadows start to gather around him. On Maundy Thursday night, take your place at the supper of the Lord when he shows his friends how much he loves them, stoops to wash their feet and gives them the priceless gift of his Body and Blood. Keep watch with him that night in his Holy Sacrament on the Altar of Repose, living through the hours of his agony in Gethsemane. Do not be ashamed to come to the foot of the Cross on Good Friday and see ‘love so amazing, so divine’. And then in darkness return on Easter Night, ‘night truly blessed’, and scatter the darkness of the night with the Light of Christ, rising in glory and giving us his new life in Baptism and Holy Communion. Then you will know that the Lord is risen indeed, and you will have what we wish for each other, a truly happy Easter.
O Saviour of the world, who by thy Cross and Precious Blood hast redeemed us,
save us and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord
Holy Week is the high point of the Christian year: everything else prepares for it or flows from it. In Holy Week, we walk with Christ and try to have some tiny share in his sufferings, so that we may know the power of his Resurrection when Easter comes.
In Holy Week we see all that it means to acknowledge Christ as our Way, our Truth and our Life. Do not let it pass you by. This is not something a bit weird for ‘churchy people’: it’s for everyone. It’s for you. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never kept the Week in its fullness before: start now.
Come and sing Hosanna and carry palms with us on Palm Sunday, when so quickly the shout of the crowd changes to ‘Crucify him… crucify him…’. On the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, be with the Lord as the shadows start to gather around him. On Maundy Thursday night, take your place at the supper of the Lord when he shows his friends how much he loves them, stoops to wash their feet and gives them the priceless gift of his Body and Blood. Keep watch with him that night in his Holy Sacrament on the Altar of Repose, living through the hours of his agony in Gethsemane. Do not be ashamed to come to the foot of the Cross on Good Friday and see ‘love so amazing, so divine’. And then in darkness return on Easter Night, ‘night truly blessed’, and scatter the darkness of the night with the Light of Christ, rising in glory and giving us his new life in Baptism and Holy Communion. Then you will know that the Lord is risen indeed, and you will have what we wish for each other, a truly happy Easter.
O Saviour of the world, who by thy Cross and Precious Blood hast redeemed us,
save us and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord
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