SPY WEDNESDAY EVENING (7 PM) EVENING (7 PM) DO YOU KNOW The Service of The Maundy Thursday Eucharist WHAT’S IN STORE? — Tim Moss — — David Small — If you have not experi- Peter said to Him, “You will never wash my feet.” ‐ John 13:8 Dear friends, enced the service of Tene-

Throughout the season of , we are invited to prepare our- brae, it is something that Over the last few years when I have you will ind very differ- selves for , when we will celebrate that , by his Resur- attended the Maundy Thursday service, ent to what we are used to rection, has destroyed evil, sin, and death. my own thoughts had resounded through in our regular church cur- my head saying “I don’t want someone to To experience the fullness of the Easter Celebration, we invite riculum. The name itself is wash my feet, nor is it necessary for me you to take part in the events we offer here at St. descriptive of darkness – Stephen’s. This guide will tell you more about them. an absence of light. to wash theirs’. We know almost everyone finds themselves very busy, especially From the outset of the Something was different this year. during the week. Still, we encourage you to try and make time for service, the sanctuary and Whether or not it is a result of my close some of these special services. (In particular, the is nave are lit primarily by involvement with my EfM family, the the most important service of the Christian year!) Participating in candles. On the altar a tri- winding road of my spiritual journey or The tradional footwashing Holy Week will help you to experience more fully the life and angular candlestick con- the acceptance of the St Stephen’s parish taining ifteen candles. death of Christ so that you can appreciate his Resurrection at a family where I feel a special comfort. This year I planned to do it! I came The readings, number- whole new level. to church with bare feet and sandals ready to go. When the time came, ing ifteen, are taken from The lectern and special candelabra set for Tenebrae. We wish you a blessed Holy Week, the Monastic and and a few parish members initially got up, I lingered in the pew. Was I hav- Father Jesse+ and Mother Hilary+ for the triduum. Divided into Nocturnes and Lessons, the tone is ing second thoughts? Perhaps, but I did get up and moved forward. The somber and forbidding. At the end of each reading one of the candles is irst step was the hardest! Once I was moving it seemed so natural. After my HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE extinguished until at the end only one is left. This last is hidden from feet were washed, I knelt and washed Sylvia’s, while I was washing them, I view behind the altar. The passage of the readings at Tenebrae foreshad- (April 9) thought of the many miles those feet had walked, the many hours they had 8:00am—Palm Sunday Eucharist (with palms distributed) ow the events starting at the and proceeding to Gethsemane supported her in serving God. and beyond. As the service proceeds, candles are extinguished, marking 10:00am—Palm Sunday Eucharist with music and palm The of John explains this Jesus’ suffering through the trials, the beatings and inally to Golgotha Holy Monday (April 10) and the cross. It is a time of foreboding, a time of betrayal, an agony of act of service better than I ever 8:00am—Morning Prayer in the Chapel could. All I know is that this action spirit followed by denial by those closest to Him and ultimately, a crimi- (April 11) nals death on a cross. created in me a calmness that 12:00p- Eucharist & Clergy Renewal of Ordination Vows (Cathedral) We are shocked when a loud crash is heard, symbolizing the earth- brought forth an emotion of joy 6:00pm—Evening Prayer in the Chapel quake which occurred at the time of the Resurrection. The darkness is yet, at the same time, sorrow. Why

Spy Wednesday (April 12) extinguished. The light of Christ is our source. did I forego this for so many years? Tenebrae concludes at the tomb, the women weeping as we recite 8:00am– Morning Prayer in the Chapel Later that evening, I participated Psalm 51 “…a broken and contrite heart, O God. you will not despise.” 7:00pm—Service of Tenebrae in the Watch. For me, the event It has taken time for me to become used to, irst, the form of the Maundy Thursday (April 13) Tenebrae service which follows the monastic tradition and which is un- was more of one of inner re 7:00pm—Special Liturgy with the Foot Washing and Stripping of the Altar The stripping of the Altar at the end familiar to many of us. More importantly be ready to accept the somber rather than an act of service as was 9:00pm—Prayer Watch (ongoing hourly shifts until pm ) of the Maundy Thursday liturgy. tone of the readings combined with the gradual dousing of light. Per- the foot washing. The meditation Good Friday (April 14) haps, I am more used to the familiar pace and content of Holy Week as materials provided helped in focusing. It gave me the opportunity to re- The Prayer Watch in the Chapel continues until the evening service. we progress through foot washing to the solemnity of Good Friday all lect on where I had been and where Jesus was calling me to go. 12:00p—Ecumenical Service (at the Methodist Church in Westborough) preparatory to the utter joy and excitement of the Easter Vigil and East- 7:00pm—Solemn Good Friday Liturgy er Morning. (April 15) Tenebrae makes sure that I have an appropriate mindset to compre- 10:00a—Holy Saturday Ofice of Prayer (in the Chapel) hend fully the entire scope of the week’s offerings. If you have not expe- 8:00p—Contemplative Easter Vigil (approx. 0 minutes in duration) rienced Tenebrae, be open to it’s subtle opening of mind and heart by

Easter Sunday (Apr. 16) the psalms, readings and responses of the service. As the light fades and 8:00a—Holy Eucharist with Hymns utter darkness ensues, we realize the enormity of our Lord’s suffering in 10:00a—Festival Eucharist with Choir the last days. 11:30a—Easter (for children yrs and under) 8 PM MAUNDY THURSDAY—6 PM GOOD FRIDAY GOOD FRIDAY EVENING (7 PM) SATURDAY NIGHT (8 PM) The Watch The Solemn Good Friday Service The Contemplave Easter Vigil — Sharyn Philcox — — Fr. Jesse Abell — — Michele Mongeon — Good Friday evening. It’s the end of a Easter Vigil on Saturday night, shall I go or “Could you not watch with me one hour?” ‐ Matthew 26:40 work week before a big holiday weekend, not? I’ve enjoyed it the times I’ve gone, I’ve and the Church marks it with a somber and been inspired even. Sometimes I’ve felt like I I go to the Garden of Gethsemane in the early morning hours of solemn liturgy. The whole week of Holy found a really good secret and I’m one up on Good Friday to sit with my Lord hoping that I can bring him some Week focuses in on the inal week of Jesus’ the people who show up on Easter morning. comfort and solace on this very dificult night. His friends have fallen life leading up to his death and Resurrec- After all, I’ve said the Alleluias already, it’s asleep and left him alone—but I won’t. The chapel is quiet and I can tion. The week is an opportunity to really been done. You should have been here last immerse ourselves in his story and to re- night, I think to myself. hear our “bubbling brook” that Jesse has plugged in and it, and the live, in a way, some of the most important Other times life just gets in the way. It’s palms which are have been placed in the chapel, bring me into that (and tough) times of his life on earth. Come Saturday evening and I’m already prepping for Easter dinner. So many things sacred space of Gethsemane. Sunday, we will be rejoicing, but we can’t to do, and I’ve gone to Maundy Thursday and even Good Friday (sometimes I read scripture, espe- skip ahead to the new life of Easter without twice), what more can God expect of me? cially the psalms, and irst passing through the tragedy of Good But, I do know that when I make the effort, I’ve loved every minute (and Friday. there are many minutes). I was still un- through these words can We enter a dimly lit church, still bare sure about whether or not I was going to feel the pain of Christ this from stripping of the altar on Maundy go to the Vigil right up through mid-week. night—the worry, the Thursday. The austerity is striking. Unlike Then I had a conversation with Fr. Jesse fear, the dread that he other big church services, today there will be no beautiful organ music, and he asked if I was planning on going. must feel knowing what is only a cappella chanting of somber He was very excited about it. He had new songs. plans, a different way of doing things, to come and knowing, too, We sit in silence before the naked adult baptisms, lots of water, re, that it is unstoppable. But altar in the emptied chancel. We hear ire, stones, and noise makers, how could I I am here to comfort him the familiar passages about the Suffer- stay away? and let him know that he ing Servant, freely offering himself to Outside, in the dark a spark ignites The Altar of Repose is not alone. I cannot stop persecution and abuse. We recite the a lame, the lames dance, our new Pascal candle is lit and the light of Christ is words of the Psalm that Jesus would what is to come but I can walk the journey with him. brought inside. We saw and experienced two people reborn, born again in later echo from the cross: “My God, my Christ. They were blessed with water, lots I sit quietly, I read, I relect, I study the around the chapel but God, why have you forsaken me?” and lots of water, and the Holy Spirit and then ind myself interjecting “Lord Jesus, please help Susan.” “Lord Then we hear again the Passion anointed with oil. We heard the stone roll Jesus, I worry about Candy, please protect her.” I remind myself that Narrative, the story of Jesus’ betrayal, away from the tomb and we heard the loud this hour is not about what I want; it is not about me, and so I return torture, execution, and burial. This noise of the resurrection. to my readings only to ind a few minutes later that I’m still asking Je- time we act it out from John’s account of the events. We join with the We brought our troubles, our sins, the angry crowd as they cry, “Crucify him!” We watch as Peter denies his things holding us back in the form of sus to look out for those I love, asking him to care for them, to love friend not once, or twice, but three times. We grieve as he is nailed to a stones and placed them on God’s altar. We them. What am I doing? I came here to offer comfort to Jesus and cross and dies. left them there while we shared in the irst have ended up bearing my soul and my heart to him. What can we do after witnessing all that but pray? We get on our Eucharist of Easter. We were happy. We But as I relect on this Night Watch, I think that this hour with knees and beg for God’s compassion and mercy for us, the whole Church, shared our joy in the risen Christ and when Christ is about me and, even more importantly, about the relationship the world, and all people, using the ancient we were done, we took one of those stones form of the Solemn Collects. off the altar. Not the stone we brought but I have with him. From the garden in this darkest of nights, he reaches Then a large life-size cross is brought in, a different stone, someone else’s burdens, someone else’s troubles to carry. I out to me telling me that he loves me and wants what’s in my heart. and we have the opportunity to visit it, to will carry these troubles with me. I don’t know what that stone holds but I will Perhaps my willingness to give it to him is the comfort he needs most touch it or kiss it. It’s as though we are mak- pray for the person who brought it to the altar and I hope that their burden is this night. ing our own pilgrimage to to the lighter because I carry it for them. The hour is almost over. The knock on the door announces the spot where Jesus has died. It’s as though we Is Easter Vigil worth the time? Would are able to touch his cross, and remember my time have been better spent prepping next watcher. I gather up my things and return home, illed with won- the pain he endured out of love for all of us. the vegetables for Sunday’s dinner? Life is der and awe that the one who sought to offer comfort is the one who The tangible encounter with the Cross makes full of choices. I chose to go and saw re- received the comfort. the story of Jesus real in a whole new way. birth, heard the resurrection, shared in the We can’t be disconnected from it, because irst Eucharist of Easter, and someone is we are there, with him, in his inal hours. His helping me carry my troubles. I’d say I story is now our story. made a good choice.