Preparing for Holy Week in a Season of Fragmentation

by on April 3, 2020

wire art in front of a stained glass window

We find ourselves in the midst of a collective trauma that both exposes, overwhelms, and compounds suffering. In this new reality, as we come upon the end of the Lenten season, “how do we live as though the resurrection is more true than death?” Rachael Clinton Chen offers words of grounding and hope as she invites us into a different kind of preparation for Holy Week.

“As the people of God I do not think in any way we are meant to give our hearts over to despair or to believe that death has the final say—we are Easter people inside and out. But it’s because we’re Easter people that we can be honest about our suffering.”

This is a new season for all of us, and as such we must look for ways to create new rhythms and rituals that offer good care to our bodies. Our Holy Week practices and traditions may not look as they have in the past.

“What would it look like this week to slow down and spend time focusing on the faithfulness of Jesus?”

Jesus contends, comforts, laments, and nourishes in the week leading up to the cross. In turn, Rachael asks listeners:

  • What would it look like to be people who contend, who are righteously angry about injustice?
  • How might the comfort of Jesus invite us to repentance and different ways of tending to our own hearts and bodies?
  • How might the Jesus who laments in the garden be a presence with you in the midst of grief that allows your body to find a different kind of rest?
  • What would it look like to let the nourishing Jesus feed you?

“So will you give yourself permission to slow down a little bit this week, and instead of an indictment against yourself about ways you need to be living better, can you fix your eyes on Jesus?”

Resources

If you are interested in going deeper with the resources mentioned in this podcast: