Beloved ones in Christ,
The season of Lent is nearing its culmination as we move ever closer to the experience of Holy Week, beginning with Palm/Passion Sunday and Exploding to life once more on Easter.
Don’t Rush through the Darkness!
We do not want to rush through the darkness, however. We cannot skip from the purple banners to the white ones without experiencing the shadow and pain of loss and bereavement. Easter Sunday is utterly meaningless without the pain and shadows of the Holy Week Journey.
I encourage you, dear ones, to join our Coastal Co-Op and TEC churches in honoring the sacred days of Holy Week. Travel the road of palm and passion held at Camp Magruder on Palm Sunday. Allow your heart to soften and your horizons to broaden. Listen to the story as it is told through many voices.
Experience a time of water and walking the labyrinth up north at St Catherine’s Episcopal Church on Maundy Thursday. Gaze upon your reflection in the waters. Feel the tangibility of Jesus’ work in the world. Wash one another’s feet. Walk the dusty road.
On Good Friday, enter the sanctuary of Sacred Heart Catholic church here in Tillamook. Remember the shadows. Honor the human experience of death and dying. Meditate on your mortality.
Join us for our shared Prayer Vigil on Holy Saturday. Travel to the sanctuaries of our Co-Op churches and spend the day in prayer. This is a day traditionally of quiet contemplation and going inward with our spirit, remembering Jesus’ time in the earthen tomb. Easter will come.
Watch and pray until then!