First Holy Week

Since I was a freshman in college, singing in Sewanee's University Choir, I have always attended Holy Week services, or as many as I could given the conflicts with my theatre schedule. I love Holy Week, love putting God absolutely first by giving more time to worship than most anything else that week. But I feel like it's my first Holy Week because it's my first as a priest, and everything is different from here. I'm blessed to be an assistant, so I don't have sole responsibility for pulling everything off, but even so I was having dreams last night about the various things that could go wrong.

Today is Palm Sunday. It was an emotional roller coaster with 3 services. At each one we try to enact the manic/depressive nature of Palm Sunday. Big joy of Jesus' triumphal procession into Jerusalem. Palms waving and hosannas being shouted. Then plunge into the solemnity and horror of the Passion narrative. Then start over again with palms and hosannas. Each service was different. I presided at the first and last and read the Passion narrative during the middle one.

At the 8:00 service I made my first big error. I forgot to break the host. We said the Lord's Prayer, and then I picked up the bread and wine and got ready to say "The gifts of God." The rector looked at me and pointed at the Agnus Dei in the Altar Book. So I led us in that. Only then did I look down and see the priest host staring up at me, whole and pristine and unbroken. Oops! "This is my body... unbroken for you." So I broke it then, and we went on. Only took 8 months to make a major mistake. Not bad really.

It was so hard to remember everything today. A new place with different traditions. A different role at every service. A gallbladder giving out periodic bursts of pain. Eyes that got very tired reading the Passion narrative - and I haven't adjusted to the new glasses yet. And yet, I wouldn't be anywhere else. One of the reasons I wanted to become a priest was so that I would always get to be present at Holy Week liturgies. My job would never conflict with them again. I'm happy to be here, doing what I'm doing, telling our story, worshiping God, walking the way of the cross on our journey toward resurrection. Hosanna in the highest!