Each day of Holy Week offers a fresh invitation to engage with this most sacred season. 

Below you'll find a resource page for each day of Holy Week. We hope these selections of music, sermons, videos, and photographs will help you pray along the road to Calvary and the Empty Tomb.

Palm Sunday

We raise our cries, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” Together we hail Jesus, the Victor over death and evil, present among us now.  Our pilgrimage through suffering is in company with that of God’s beloved Son, Jesus.

– Br. Jonathan Maury, SSJE

On Palm Sunday, we begin the journey to Calvary that we will live out across the next week. We are invited to join the crowd in shouting "Hosanna" and "Crucify." And we are invited to accompany our Lord in the dramatic events of his final days.

How will you journey alongside Jesus this week? 

Audio:

The Passion According to Luke

The Passion According to Matthew

Sermons:

  • "A melodrama ignored...or not?" – Br. Curtis Almquist
    Br. Curtis Almquist points us to Jesus’ despair, reminding us that the Lord meets us in our tears and in our fears.
  • "Lovely Be" – Br. Luke Ditewig
    In this lyric meditation, Br. Luke Ditewig invites us to linger with the profound mystery of Holy Week.
  • "United with Christ in Suffering and Glory" – Br. Jonathan Maury
    On a second Palm Sunday in pandemic times, Br. Jonathan Maury encourages us to join in Holy Week with hope, knowing that we will be supported and strengthened.
  • "The Weight of the Cross" – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
    On Palm Sunday in the midst of the pandemic, Br. Geoffrey Tristram invites us to be guided by our thirst, trusting that God will meet us here.
  • "Lovely Be" – Br. Luke Ditewig
    On Palm Sunday, Br. Luke Ditewig sings a song of love unknown, our Savior’s love—to you, to me.
  • "Why?" – Br. David Vyrhof
    Why must God’s Servant enter into the darkest rhythms of the human condition? Perhaps it’s the only way they can be challenged and undone, once and for all.
  • "Singing Hosanna, Screaming Crucify" – Br. James Koester
    Palm Sunday is a chance to discover once more all that is within us, both light and dark, both good and evil.
  • "Steal Away" – Br. Tom Shaw
    Letting the power of Jesus' humility, self-sacrifice, and surrender soak into us during Holy Week gives us the power to stand on the edge of glory every day.

Monday in Holy Week

Jesus is calling us to follow him. To meet Jesus in the moment – to follow him through Good Friday and into Easter Sunday – means to be ready for the journey when he calls: to say yes to the One who has assessed the risk, climbed the route, knows the steps, and will guide us to the safety and glory of the mountaintop.

– Br. Jim Woodrum

Monday in Holy Week offers a pause, a chance to recollect from the drama of yesterday before plunging into the sacred events to come.

What are the lessons Holy Week has to offer you this year?

Since Holy Scripture is the living word of God, as we encounter again the events of the final week of Jesus’ life, look for those passages, those haunting details of the story that seem to rise up from the page to snare your attention, things you had not noticed before. Ponder what special meaning these passages might hold for you this year? Why is God bringing them to your attention at this time? What might God be saying to you? Take time to meditate on these questions. Be especially alert to listen because God will be speaking to us through the liturgies, through scripture, homilies and also in other unexpected ways this week.

Audio:

Psalm 22

Sermons:

Praying Your Way Through Holy Week: A Meditation – Br. Eldridge Pendleton (1940-2015)
God who loves us so much and continually delights in our creation, is continually offering us grace in the form of answered prayers, healing, reconciliation, hope and deeper faith, and in the Paschal mystery has given us the means to triumph over death. Two practices to deepen your awareness of this love during Holy Week.

Tuesday in Holy Week

"Pay attention to what happens in these next days. A shift in Jesus is happening, and it begins with Mary bending over and washing the feet of the Lord and anointing them with costly nard. It ends, not in the Upper Room, or even at the Empty Tomb, but at every Eucharist when we go in peace to love and serve the Lord." 

– Br. James Koester

On Tuesday in Holy Week at the Monastery, we celebrate the Eucharist in the evening. This evening gathering around the Lord's Table invites us to join the disciples at the Upper Room, sharing a meal with the Lord.

We reflect together on the words of used at the presentation of the Bread and Cup here at the Monastery, which derive from St. Augustine’s Sermon 57, On the Holy Eucharist: Behold what you are.  May we become what we receive.  

These words point to one of the deep truths of Christian faith: Through our participation in the sacraments (particularly baptism and Eucharist), we are transformed into the Body of Christ, given for the world.

How is God transforming you into Christ's Body and giving you to the world?

Audio:

Psalm 78:14-20, 23-25

Sermons:

  • "The Hour Has Come" – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
    Br. Geoffrey Tristram invites us to make peace with our death this Holy Week, knowing that Jesus is waiting for us, right around the corner.
  • "Hope for the Powerless and Needy" – Br. Curtis Almquist
    Br. Curtis Almquist walks us through Psalm 71, powerful words for all of us today, as we live in the fear of death and the hope of resurrection.
  • "The Hour Has Come" – Br. Keith Nelson
    Br. Keith Nelson invites us to the experience of Holy Week as a time of vulnerability, allowing ourselves to experience the paradoxical binaries at the heart of the Gospel and our own lives.
  • "God's Strength in Our Weakness" – Br. David Vryhof
    Br. David Vryhof looks to the cross of Christ to discover how God's strength is made perfect through our weakness.
  • "The Legacy of Judas" – Br. Curtis Almquist
    Judas' presence at the table of our Lord is an invitation to us all: to mercy.
  • "Now, Now, Now" – Br. James Koester
    Pay attention: Now is the time when Jesus shall draw all people to himself.

Wednesday in Holy Week

"Do you want security, certainty, control? There’s no checklist beyond one requirement: surrender. Let go. We are laid bare in order to heal. Grace abounds, including in surrender and death."

– Br. Luke Ditewig

 

On Wednesday, the Brothers pray the ancient monastic office of Tenebrae, a service that derives from the monastic services of matins and lauds. The liturgy uses darkness and the gradual extinguishing of candles, until only a single candle remains, a symbol of our Lord.  The service provides an opportunity for sustained reflection on the Lord’s suffering and death.

This liturgy, parts of which you can listen to below, is a choral offering, with chanted psalms and canticles set to plainsong and chanted lessons from the Lamentations of Jeremiah (in which each verse is introduced by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet). As you listen, you might light a candle, allowing its light to inspire your meditation.

In what ways has Jesus’ coming penetrated the darkness of your own life? In what ways are you blind, or unable to see? 

Audio:

Chanted Lessons from the Lamentations of Jeremiah

Sermons:

  • "Trouble & Trust" – Br. Luke Ditewig
    Br. Luke Ditewig encourages us, this Holy Week, to cry out with trouble –and trust that God hears us.
  • "Love & Betrayal" – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
    On Wednesday in Holy Week, Br. Geoffrey Tristram weighs betrayal and love in the final days of Jesus – and in our own lives.
  • "Lament" – Br. Luke Ditewig
    Br. Luke Ditewig reminds us that God hears every cry and grieves with us.
  • "Suffering with Jesus" – Br. Jonathan Maury
    Br. Jonathan Maury suggests how Holy Week offers a sacramental and transformational means by which we experience the grace of divine love, which evil can never defeat.
  • "In the Shadows" – Br. Luke Ditewig
    Jesus was troubled, sad, and afraid – as we all are. This night invites us to linger in the darkness with him.
  • "And It Was Night" – Br. James Koester
    We only know the relief of dawn when the terrors of the night have kept us awake, so spend some time today in the darkness.

Maundy Thursday

"What a contrast Jesus’ values are to the ways of the powerful, who so often are consumed with protecting and promoting their own interests! By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus does not diminish his authority. He shows them a new way of exercising authority, a new way of being with others that is characterized by humility, compassion, and loving service."

– Br. David Vryhof

Maundy Thursday marks the beginning of the holiest three days in an already holy week.   The liturgy commemorates the humility of the Lord in his willingness to do the most lowly of tasks.

The word maundy is an English corruption of the Latin mandatum, from the ‘new commandment’ that Jesus gives his disciples after washing their feet, an event we reenact and remember in the liturgy. At the conclusion of our Eucharist, we are invited, as were the first disciples, to watch and pray with the Lord on the night before his crucifixion and death. We keep watch through the night, here at the moment of Jesus' greatest need. On Maundy Thursday, as you are fed by God's body and blood, pray for your deepest need. As your feet are washed, ask God to bring healing to what is broken in you.

Where is your deepest need right now?

Audio:

Sermons:

  • "A Radical Act" – Br. David Vryhof
    Br. David Vryhof marvels at the radical act we commemorate, and in which we are called to participate.
  • "And It Was Night" – Br. James Koester
    This fear-filled Holy Week, Br. James Koester encourages us to see that, as the world is plunged into darkness, Jesus stands among us, inviting us not to fear, but to love.
  • "A Radical Act" – Br. David Vryhof
    By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus does not diminish his authority. Rather, he shows them a new way of exercising authority, a new way of being with others that is characterized by humility, compassion and loving service. Br. David Vryhof invites us, and the Church, to follow in these radical footsteps.
  • "Feet First" – Br. Luke Ditewig
    The foot washing reminds us that love is always vulnerable: emotionally exposing, risky and essential for living well.
  • "Maundy Thursday Remembrance" – Br. Curtis Almquist
    Take what is cut off, broken, lost, detached from your own life, and allow it on this holy night to be reattached, reconnected, remembered.
  • "Love Is His Meaning" – Br. James Koester
    Everywhere we look, everything we taste, everything we feel, everything we hear, everything we smell tonight is a reminder that God loves us.
  • "The Scandal of Service" – Br. James Koester
    When we are prepared to fall on our knees before another in acts of humility and service, we too have the opportunity to change the world.
  • "Called to Serve" – Br. David Vryhof
    As Jesus reveals his true vocation, we learn that we are all called to serve.

Good Friday

"God’s faithfulness leads us to the foot of the cross. We are worthy to stand there with Mary and John to witness God’s redeeming, reconciling, healing, righteous love, worthy to join them in a new family of love. We find there, finally, firm, stable ground on which our belief may rest and rise, a place where we may stand upright before and alongside our Lord and God."

– Br. Lain Wilson

Good Friday marks the second day of the Triduum (from the Latin for ‘three days’), the day on which we commemorate the Lord’s crucifixion and death.

The worship offered at the Monastery is in fact a continuation of the liturgy begun last night and it will not ‘end’ until the Great Vigil of Easter. The vesture of the sacred ministers is deep red, accented with black, recalling the solemnity and sobriety of the day, and the Gospel according to John is chanted to an ancient tone, which you can hear below.

The liturgy crests as a cross is carried in and venerated by the gathered congregation. All depart in silence to the awkward waiting of Holy Saturday and the restrained anticipation of the Great Vigil of Easter.

How will you stand beside Jesus in his hour of greatest need?

Audio:

Sermons:

  • "The Pain and Struggle" – Br. Jack Crowley
    On Good Friday, Br. Jack Crowley invites us to pray our suffering, our uncertainty, our desperate passion for God.
  • "Look at Love" – Br. Luke Ditewig
    Would you rather turn away from the Cross? Br. Luke encourages us, "Admit your fear or grief or confusion, your guilt and shame." And look at love on the Cross.
  • "Life out of Death" – Br. Curtis Almquist
    We are not spared the experience of the cross, we are shared the experience. And the only way to survive the many deaths of this life is to surrender to Christ, taking him at his word: that life comes out of death.
  • "Love Upon a Cross" – Br. David Vryhof
    We have been captured by this love, smitten and overwhelmed by this love, changed and transformed by this love. And how could it not be?
  • "Life By His Death" – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
    Our greatest hope in Jesus is that however dark the day, even as dark as Good Friday, we can look in confidence and trust to the cross. “For he hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.”

Holy Saturday

"The Love of God endures the worst imaginable suffering. Through this, not in spite of this, as a ray of light pierces the darkest storm cloud, God’s glory is made manifest. We read this truth in the flesh of Jesus Christ: beaten, bleeding, broken…drawing all people to himself."

– Br. Keith Nelson

 

Holy Saturday is a day of waiting, anticipation, and preparation for Easter.  We know that Jesus is in the Tomb.

An ancient homily for Holy Saturday, which you can listen to below, meditates on the mystery of this day: "Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness.  The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep."

You might pray today with stillness, silence.

What parts of you are dying? What parts of you are waiting for new life?

Consider what in your life is giving you life right now – and give thanks.  Consider what is draining or destroying life in you right now.  As we await the glory of Easter, ponder what God’s invitation to ‘new life’ might look like in your present circumstances.

Audio:

Liturgy of the Word, an ancient lyrical homily

Sunday of the Resurrection

"When you are in the middle of a dark night, there is absolutely no reason to imagine light will ever come again… except if you can remember that, amazingly enough, the dawn has happened before. The resurrection – your resurrection – will dawn on you, as it has before, and that is the promise Christ leaves with us this Easter day."

– Br. Curtis Almquist

The Great Vigil of Easter is the most solemn and ancient liturgy of the entire year.  It is the culmination of Lent and Holy Week, and the Triduum.

Ring the bells!  Worshippers at the Great Vigil of Easter ring handbells as we sing God’s Paschal Lamb at the beginning of the first Eucharist of Easter and during the singing of Jesus Christ is Risen Today. The tradition of silencing church bells on Maundy Thursday and ringing them again on Easter Day likely reflects an even more ancient custom of keeping silence before a spring equinox or a winter solstice, then celebrating it with a joyous celebration of light and sound announcing that the darkness has fled and that new life is coming back into the world. We know that this is true on Easter Day.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Audio:

Sermons:

  • "We Stand on Holy Ground" – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
    On Easter Day, Br. Geoffrey Tristram invites us to let our hearts rise with Jesus.
  • "The Hope of the Resurrection" – Br. Curtis Almquist
    Even as we celebrate Jesus' resurrection, Br. Curtis Almquist encourages us to acknowledge our own and the world's woundedness, to allow us to tap into Jesus' resurrection power in the here-and-now. Hallelujah!
  • "In the Midst of Death, We are in Life" – Br. James Koester
    Br. James Koester invites us to join the women at the tomb and to be shocked, overcome, and speechless – not at death – but at the unpredictable, Spirit-filled, risky life of Jesus' resurrection.
  • "Bestowing Life" – Br. James Koester
    In the midst of an Easter that feels unlike any we have known, Br. James Koester celebrates the truth that remains: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!
  • "Resurrection Knowing" – Br. Keith Nelson
    On Easter morning, Br. Keith Nelson evokes the power of resurrection knowing, which implausibly, illogically, mysteriously, tangibly, palpably, materially, personally, lovingly, victoriously prepares us to sing into the mouth of the grave, "Alleluia."
  • "Prisoners of Hope" – Br. James Koester
    Br. James Koester celebrates how the life and love of God, through the resurrection of Jesus, can shatter our chains, and set us free.
  • "Calling by Name" – Br. Luke Ditewig
    God comes to us when we are face-first with death. On Easter Sunday, Br. Luke Ditewig encourages us to look back to remember, look up to give thanks, and look forward in hope, to claim Jesus' resurrection power over all that is killing us in this life.
  • "Ring Your Bells!" – Br. James Koester
    We experience Holy Week, not just with our minds but in our bodies. Br. James Koester invites us to recognize not just the aches and pains and grip of fear that Holy Week can evoke, but also the resurrection of Jesus, surging like an electric flash in our bodies.
  • "Experience the Resurrection" – Br. Curtis Almquist
    Claim the hope in Jesus’ resurrection for you in the here-and-now.
  • "Love Reborn" – Br. James Koester
    We should all be standing on a street corner today throwing our hats, or gloves, or coats or even our surplices into the air, because hope and forgiveness and love are reborn, and we want the world to know. Alleluia.
  • "Those Five Words" – Br. James Koester
    Those five words turned the world upside down. They renewed love. They restored hope. They rekindled courage. “I have seen the Lord."
  • "From Still Days to Dawn" – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
    We stand with the women at the empty tomb, at the dawn of universe, at the threshold of Life.
  • "A Cause For Great Joy" – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
    On Easter, we celebrate that Jesus has called us brothers, as he rolls the stone away from our hearts.
  • "Joy Comes in the Morning" – Br. David Vryhof
    The evidence for the Resurrection lies not in the empty tomb, but in the encounters of the first disciples with the Risen Lord.
  • "The Power of God" – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
    The power of God, which raised Jesus to life, which is more powerful than anything else in all creation, is the power of love.
  • "Shekinah" – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
    We need all the help we can get to keep us awakened to the wonder and significance of Easter: that “because he lives, we live also.”