I wonder where you are in your own Holy Week pilgrimage. If you are anything like me, it is tempting to trust in my knowledge of the story of Jesus’s pilgrimage to the cross instead of sitting with the texts and listening for where the Holy Spirit is guiding me into new insights and new opportunities for the growth of faith in the depths of my soul. 

It is always tempting for us to fall back on the fact that we have heard the story, been to the services, and know what to expect when the story finishes. And, I also think this is something that leads us down a path of certainty versus a path of wondering. The path of wondering is one that leads us into being open to the work of the Holy Spirit, and it seems pretty important to do our best to open ourselves to the working of the Spirit as we journey the three days of the Triduum. It is important not because we don’t know the story; it’s important because we do not know how the story will touch us differently this year than it did last year or the year before that. The invitation in front of us is to make the journey with a eyes to hear and ears to see. The invitation is to enter into the journey that Jesus makes, which is so eloquently stated in the processional collect from last Sunday, which reads, 

“Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Let us take this journey with Christ together so that we, like Jesus, may finally find ourselves in the place of joy that is first expressed as surprise, confusion, and astonishment. 

In Christ,

Hunter+

The Presiding Bishop’s Easter Message

Bishop Reddall’s Easter Message