The week runs the gamut of human emotion and experience as found in these last days of our Lord’s earthly life-triumph of Palm Sunday, the sharp encounters with enemies on Monday and Tuesday, the almost feverish ministry of healing, teaching and miracles, the contract of betrayal by a close follower on Wednesday, the intimate and sacramental fellowship of the Last Supper on Thursday, the calm agony of prayer in the Garden later that night, and then the arrest by the retainers of the High Priest, the trials, the humiliations, the suffering and finally the death on the cross on Friday, the limbo of Saturday during which the Lord descended to the place of departed spirits, and finally the glorious and mighty triumph of the Resurrection and the empty Tomb on Easter.

    What a kaleidoscope of events that is! No wonder that this week of all weeks in the Christian calendar is called “Holy” and marked by deep introspection, unusual devotion and daily worship.

    The Book of Common Prayer provides for a service of Holy Communion on each of the first four days of the week. The story of Christ’s Passion is read for the Gospels on each day, using in order

    Easter Even is also generally observed by using the Ante-Communion, although again, the Book of Common Prayer provides for the possibility of a Holy Eucharist. This day, too, has long been the special occasion for baptisms, in keeping with the new life in the Resurrection signaled by the coming Easter Day. It is worth noting, in passing, that the Book of Common Prayer calls the sixth day of Easter Even, not “Holy Saturday”, a term which has crept into partial usage from the Roman Church. And, again, the name for Easter is “Easter Day”, and not “Easter Sunday”.

    There is no other period in the Christian year which contains so much sharp alteration and contrast between joy and sorrow. The sorrow, the tragedy, the pain, are properly to be remembered, and felt by Christians, for our blessed Lord experienced these to the fullest extent in the week’s events leading to the physical and psychological agony of His Crucifixion. But faithful Anglicans are also aware of the joy of the Triumphal Entry as a portent of the eternal rule of God, the joy of the Last Supper as a testimonial of His presence left by the Lord, and the supreme joy of His triumph over death on Easter Day as a further and final sign of Christ’s deity and a promise to all who believe in Him.

    No week means more to us. No week demands more of us. No week condenses the entire Christian message into so few days of packed action as Holy Week.