Lent, Holy Week, and Easter

For Christians, Lent is a time set apart. Forty full, rich, and long days to reflect and to pray, to look within, to discover the things in our lives that create distance between God and ourselves, and to consider gently letting them go. Lent is a time to discern how God may be calling us. What might we take on, or let go of, in order to more freely love God, our neighbors, and ourselves?

We offer you these Lenten devotions and invite you to spend some time each day reflecting on Holy Scripture with our St. Barnabas community. These reflections have been written with great care and attention by the people of our community, and they offer us an opportunity to move more deeply into our relationships with God, with one another, and with ourselves.

My heartfelt thanks to all who prayed and pondered and wrote so beautifully from the riches of their own lives to make this offering happen. This little devotional is a great gift to us all, and it has been my privilege to have had a hand in bringing it to you. I invite you to use it to pray with and to come closer into community by coming to know a bit more of the people who have written these reflections. May this Lent be an especially rich and holy season for us all.

Faithfully,

Rev. Karen Haig

Wednesdays in Lent | 6 p.m.
March 12 – April 9

Each Wednesday in Lent at 6 p.m. we will gather in the Parish Hall for a simple supper, rich teaching, and lively conversation. Please join us for Rev. Karen’s last teaching series with us. It is sure to be a journey of exploration, growth, healing, and hope. Questions? Email Rev. Karen, revkaren@stbbi.org.

Sign-up bring soup on the sign-up sheet in the parlor or parish hall, or email parish administrator Etienna Wright, info@stbbi.org.

St. Barnabas will offer weekday prayer services in the Sanctuary at 9 a.m. during the Season of Lent. We will hold Morning Prayer on Monday, Centering Prayer on Tuesday, Morning Prayer on Wednesday, Healing Eucharist on Thursday, and Stations of the Cross on Friday. We pray that Lent will be for you a season of reflection, repentance, and renewal as the Spirit moves in your life and the life of our community.

Holy Week begins with a liturgical “overture,” summarizing the major themes of Jesus’s last week in a powerful blend of ritual, hymns, and story. The Triumphal Entry with palms, a dramatic reading of the Passion Gospel, and celebration of Holy Eucharist initiate our “contemplation of those mighty acts” by which Christ has redeemed the world, preparing us for the great three-day journey of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. Bring an open and joyous heart.

The ancient monastic liturgy of Tenebrae (“Shadows”) is a sequence of chanted Psalms, readings, and prayers contemplating Christ’s Passion. Throughout this unique Holy Week service, candles and other church lights are gradually extinguished until a single candle, symbolizing Christ, remains. This candle is then hidden from view, as if the Light of the World were extinguished by darkness and death. But then a great noise is made—the earthquake of resurrection—and the Christ candle reappears. As it burns with hope on the altar, the people depart in silence. Bring an open and contemplative heart.

Each Sunday before we come to the altar to receive communion, we make our public confession, asking God’s forgiveness for things done and left undone. When we find ourselves confessing the same grievances, the same inability to forgive, the same hurts week after week, public confession may not be enough to bring us God’s peace. The Rite of Reconciliation offers the opportunity for private confession and absolution that gives a profound experience of God’s forgiveness, love, and grace. Join us Tuesday of Holy Week at 6 p.m. for a Service of Healing and Reconciliation, where you will have the opportunity to make a private confession, or to spend time in quiet reflection before we celebrate Holy Eucharist together. Whether or not you wish to make confession, you are welcome at this quiet, contemplative service. Bring an honest heart and self-compassion. 

At the last supper with his friends, Jesus showed them (and us!) what it is to be God’s love in the world.  Maundy Thursday holds within its liturgy an unspeakable tenderness that invites us into humble and vulnerable love and reflection. In the intimacy of table fellowship, we will listen to the words Jesus said on that last night, offer heartfelt prayers, share a simple supper, and receive the blessed sacrament Jesus gave to us on the night before he died. Then we will enact one of the holiest and most tender gestures Jesus ever offered as we stoop to wash each other’s feet. This deeply moving liturgy concludes with the Stripping of the Altar and prayers at the Altar of Repose. Bring a hungry heart.

This uniquely powerful liturgy takes us to the foot of the cross with eloquent prayers, somber hymns, compelling rituals, and profound silences. In word, gesture, and symbol—from the Veneration of the Cross to Christ’s transformative sacrament of self-offering—we enact and embody the meaning of compassion (“suffer with”), not to glorify suffering, but to participate in the healing mystery of Love poured out for us on this “good” day—God’s Friday. Bring your worried, wounded, longing heart, and prepare to receive the immeasurable riches of the Holy One who knows us all by heart.

This is a night like no other, the Christian dreamtime when we pass through darkness and mystery into the risen life! You won’t want to miss this most glorious, vibrant, and essential liturgy of the entire church year—a visionary, multi-sensory, wondrous, festive, Spirit-filled evening of song, chant, story, drama, sacraments, processions, candles, bells, fire, water, prayer, praise, Baptismal Renewal, Holy Eucharist, abundant joy, and so much love! Bring your children! Let them wear their jammies and stay up late. This is the night when heaven and earth are joined! Experience the mystery, and share the joy. Bring noisemakers, your families, and joyful hearts! The journey is how we know.

Christ is risen! Join us to celebrate the Resurrection at 9 or 11 a.m., with an Easter Egg hunt, hot cross buns, mimosas, and coffee in between services! Easter Sunday continues the great celebration begun at the Easter Vigil, with glorious music by organ, choir and brass, a gorgeous festive liturgy, and the boundless joy of resurrection! Bring your family and friends, and hearts filled with joy and gratitude!