Introduction to Christian Liturgy by Senn Frank C

Author:Senn, Frank C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: christian liturgy
Publisher: Fortress Press (NBN)
Published: 2012-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

1. How did the rites of Holy Week develop?

2. Palm/Passion Sunday: What is the relationship between palms and the passion?

3. Maundy Thursday: What is the relationship between foot washing and Lord’s Supper?

4. Good Friday: What is the difference between liturgy and paraliturgical devotions?

5. Holy Saturday: How might the Great Vigil be structured?

1. How did the rites of Holy Week develop?

Holy Week is the last week of Lent. It begins on what has been called Palm Sunday (now designated as the Sunday of the Passion in several calendars) and comes to a climax in the three days (Triduum) comprising Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday), Good Friday, and Holy Saturday with its great Vigil of the Resurrection. In the Eastern church Holy Week is called Great Week and includes the Saturday before Palm Sunday, which is called Lazarus Saturday. Holy Week commemorates the last week of the earthly life of Jesus the Christ and focuses on his passover from death to life.

It is possible that already in the Gospel of John there is a demarcation of the last week in Jesus’ life that reflects contemporary church practice. The supper at Bethany must have taken place on the Saturday, “six days before the pasch” (John 12:1-2), and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem was made from there next morning. Of Christ’s words and deeds between this and his crucifixion we have a relatively full record.

Whether this feeling of the sanctity belonging to these days was primitive or not, it in any case existed in Jerusalem at the close of the fourth century because the diary of the Spanish nun Egeria, who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the late 380s, contains a detailed account of the whole week, beginning with the service in the “Lazarium” at Bethany on the Saturday, in the course of which was read the narrative of the anointing of Christ’s feet.1

The Holy Week rites that had developed in Jerusalem undoubtedly utilized the actual places where events in the life of Jesus had taken place. There was a kind of “acting out” of the Gospel narratives in processions and ceremonies. The assembly of worshipers, which was probably full of pilgrims from all over the Roman Empire and beyond, was given oral instruction on where to meet for each commemoration. Thus Egeria reports that at the beginning of Holy Week, “which they call here the ‘Great Week,’” the archdeacon addresses a special reminder to the people in these terms: “Throughout this whole week, beginning tomorrow at the ninth hour, let us all gather in the Martyrium, in the major church.”2

The commemoration of Christ’s triumphal entry into the city took place the same afternoon. Great crowds, including even children too young to walk, assembled on the Mount of Olives and after suitable hymns, antiphons, and readings, they returned in procession to Jerusalem, escorting the bishop, and bearing palms and branches of olives before him. Special services in addition to the usual daily office are also mentioned on each of the following days.

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