Daily Reflection Tuesday of Holy Week

Last week I asked the question are we there yet? Yes, we have arrived! Happy Holy Week.

This is quite a beautiful week in our Church and our faith journey. Each of us should strive for holiness this Holy Week. We have spent forth days with Jesus during Lent and now is the most important time to be with him in silence.

This year for Lent the Hallow app introduced “Silent Saturdays” led by Cardinal Robert Sarah. He has a beautiful deep calming voice. He would have a brief introduction and then enter into silence. During the silence a piano played and each week he would add time to the silence. This past week it was twenty minutes of silence. It was a very moving experience. As we entered into the silence Cardinal Sarah said “Let’s now enter our final time together by spending twenty minutes of silence with God. If this feels challenging, I want you to imagine the thirty silent years in Nazareth that Jesus spent or the forty days and forty nights of fasting. The Holy Spirit is eager to equip you for twenty minutes of stillness. Simply ask for His help as you pray."



In the Palm Sunday homily my pastor invited everyone to be present and quite as to really experience the beauty of Holy Thursday, the heartache of Good Friday and the silence of Holy Saturday before rushing into the joy of Easter Sunday. There was that word again silence.



Unless we are silent and truly present for each day and liturgy how can we really enter into the passion of Jesus. Cardinal Sarah asked “why is Holy Week celebrated in silence? The answer is simple: We must enter into the Passion in order to be conformed to Christ, to be in communion with his sufferings, to become like him in his death, so as to arrive at the resurrection from the dead.”



For the rest of Holy Week, I am going to challenge myself to be silent as much as I can. To just be present for each liturgy. Normally I am a lector for all the services of Holy Week. This year I wanted to experience the services without all the stress. I wanted to just walk with Jesus. I made this decision at the beginning of Lent by what I can only say was a prompt from the Holy Spirit. After my silent Saturday’s on Hallow I can see the Spirit knew exactly what I needed. It’s been years since I have listened to the reading of the Passion instead of worrying about losing my place while narrating it.



I will accept the challenge of silence on Holy Saturday and disconnect from the world and be present with Jesus in the silence of the tomb. I will invite the Spirit to accompany me on Saturday and help me sustain the silence.



I can only imagine what my children would say if they thought the crazy lady of their childhood could be calm and quiet the week leading up to Easter. It was always me running around, yelling at them to clean their rooms and help me get set up for Easter dinner. A small dinner hosting anywhere from twenty-five to forty guests. This year I called a caterer, and I will be spending time with Jesus.



I invite each of you to do the same. Be a guest at the last Supper, pray in the garden, walk the road to Calvary and sit in silence with Jesus on Saturday. Then on Easter Sunday share in the joy of the Resurrection.



Happy Holy Week!!