An entire emotional roller coaster in one week

April 9, 2022

Dear PJ's community,

Yesterday I ate my lunch outside and basked in the sunshine. The buds on the cherry trees in Wooster Square are about to burst open in glory (just in time for our Palm Sunday parade, fingers crossed!). The signs of spring, hope, and the resurrection are just at hand!

However, as Christians, before embracing the joy of Easter, we must first confront the fear, hopelessness, betrayal, and death that comes during Holy Week.

This is one of my favorite weeks of the year in the Church. We get an entire emotional roller coaster in one week – the exuberance of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem with songs of “Hosannah,” the gravity and love of the Last Supper, the frustration of the betrayal from one of Jesus’ friends, the grief of succumbing to the unjust authority of the Roman Empire, the agony of the cross, and finally, the disbelief and joy of the resurrection.

PJ’s friends, I invite you to join us as we celebrate and remember this entire journey. The full schedule of our Holy Week services can be found at the bottom of this email, and I would encourage you to come to as many of them as you can.

We are excited this year to bring back some of our pre-COVID traditions, including a jazz parade around Wooster Square on Palm Sunday, and a community meal of soup, along with foot washing and stripping the altar on Maundy Thursday. We will also be remembering Jesus’s request for his friends to stay awake in the garden with him on his last night, as we do a prayer vigil overnight from Thursday to Friday in the chapel. Please email Jeff and Janie (jlange2@mindspring.com) to sign up. Good Friday will feature a homecoming from our prodigal musician, Drew Fermo, as he will join Sarah Hill and Nate Solberg to sing the Passion story.

In this most Holy Week of the year, let us also hold in prayer our siblings who are celebrating this holy time in different ways – our Muslim siblings currently observing Ramadan, and our Jewish siblings who start Passover this coming week. Let us remember that we are all of the same family, with the same wonderful God.

Come along with us and buckle in for this wild and wondrous ride of Holy Week!

Peace,
Claire Cody
Co-warden