🖤 Holy Week: The Unfolding Story
Prayers and practices for the path toward resurrection.
As much as we want to race toward resurrection, Holy Week is not a week to rush through. Instead, we're asking: What would it look like to enter the story and let Love do its slow, sacred work as we follow Jesus toward the cross?We’re arriving at the edge of the story. Palm branches scatter. Echoes of Hosanna! linger. And yet we know where This week is headed. The tension is thick. The table is set. As clouds roll in And darkness looms, We're invited not to look away, But to stay awake to it all. To be mindful of every breath In the tension of now and not yet. To notice Divine Love In the broken bread And betrayal, too.
What might be yours to notice this week as we journey toward the darkest night?
In the Tension
From my book Every Season Sacred: Reflections, Prayers, and Invitations to Nourish Your Soul and Nurture Your Family throughout the Year:
In this season of Lent, we're invited to reflect on the last days of Jesus' life on earth.
We reflect on how He blessed peacemakers (see Matthew 5:9) and healed victims of violence (see Luke 22:49-51).
With reverence, we grieve His last days and, finally, His gruesome death at the hands of those in power.
This season is not all bunnies and chicks and new dresses and warm fuzzies. Like parents wanting to wrap up a complicated conversation with our children in a bow, we ache to go past the uncomfortable realities of Lent and move on to Easter. We sit in the pain as we reflect on the sins of our world and the sins we personally have been part of inflicting. But we must sit in the tension of not yet.
Our job is not to shield our children from every heart-wrenching headline; it's to help them make sense of the world around them. As parents, we may feel terrified to wade into complex topics, especially when we haven't seen it modeled well by our peers or our families of origin. Spend just a few minutes on social media, and you'll see that the norm for dealing with the latest trending news is to hurl insults, to harm instead of heal.
If we don't model empathy, nuance, and understanding when we talk to our children about the real pain in our world, they will turn elsewhere to get their questions answered.
…
Theologian Miroslav Volf writes that Jesus "broke the vicious cycle of violence by absorbing it, taking it upon himself." Jesus died on the cross, but He did not stay dead.
We sit in the darkness of Lent, but we do not stay waiting.
This world, erupting in violence and death, does not have the final word. Because of Christ's limitless compassion, He has won victory not only for Himself but for us, too (see 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.) In light of this truth, we can, along with our children, contemplate pain and then be moved into action, breaking the cycle of sin and death.
No matter what awful nightmares are splashed across the headlines, we can tell our children that God holds our tears in a bottle (see Psalm 56:8).
Today we cry out to Jesus, but a time is coming when every tear will be wiped away (see Revelation 21:4). And when we have trouble sleeping, we can return to our beds with the promise that, one day, everything will be made new (see Revelation 21:5).
In other words: Easter is coming.
Reading Plan
As we enter Holy Week, To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers & Liturgies for Parents has a grouping of modern prayers specifically for this time, including:
A Prayer for Lent (page 148-49)
A Prayer for Palm Sunday (page 151)
A Prayer for Maundy Thursday (page 152)
A Prayer for Good Friday (page 154-55)
A Prayer for Holy Saturday (page 156-57)
A Prayer for Easter (page 158-59)
April Reading Plan
ICYMI: April’s downloadable reading plan includes weekly prayers & readings from To Light Their Way and Every Season Sacred, scripture for Holy Week, and simple prayers to borrow when words are hard to find. You can save it on your phone or print it out for easy reference.
I think of this month’s reading plan as a gentle guide for the road to resurrection.
Songs for Holy Week
Year of Breath paid subscribers have a new curated Holy Week playlist waiting for them below (it intentionally moves from Palm Sunday all the way to Holy Saturday), but I wanted to share this playlist from last year with everyone, too.
Family Prayer
Dear Jesus, be with us when we're scared. Help us to remember that You are with us And that Your Spirit will never leave us. When we're afraid or when bad things happen, Remind us that You're near. Thank You for giving us the hope That someday there will be no more tears. Help us to be brave enough To share when we're sad or scared. Help us to be strong enough To stand up for what's right. We love You, and we know that You love us With a love that fills every galaxy— And then some! Amen.
Good Friday Prayer
O Lord, we come to You on this day To remember You— You, who hung each star in the sky And, too, hung upon the cross. O Lord, we grieve and lament And repent of the ways we have shouted, “Crucify Him!” With our actions and our words And our sins of omission and silence. Christ, have mercy on us. O Lord, we want to skip ahead To Your resurrection, For it is painful To remember Your pain— The torture, The death at the hands of people in power, The sacrifice of Your great love. We want to turn away. We want the storybook ending Without any of the sorrows. And yet it is because of Your power And Your suffering That we are able to dwell in a faith Big enough to hold all the pain of the world. And we can sit in the tension Of now and not yet. From “A Prayer for Good Friday” on page 154 of To Light Their Way
Journeying through Holy Week
For paid subscribers, I’ve created a Guided Holy Week Devotional Experience to help you slow down and stay grounded in the Story that shapes us.
Each day this week, from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday, you’ll have:
Scripture
Breath prayer
Guided contemplative reflection prompts
Plus:
New curated Holy Week playlist
Phone wallpaper
Benediction to send you out into the week
To the weary, the wondering, the ones holding both grief and hope in the same breath: I’m grateful to walk this journey alongside you.
Become a paid subscriber to access the full experience.
(As always, reply to this email if finances are in the way.)
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