Thoughts from The Vicarage with all you need for Easter except the eggs
Greetings and welcome to our new readers as we move through these three Holy Days or Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday that lead up to the great celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. All are being marked here in the Lambourn Valley Benefice and I strongly commend our acts of worship and witness to you.
Come to Maundy Thursday as we remember, on Good Friday stay with Jesus in the walk of witness, the veneration of the cross, the Good Friday Liturgy and the Requiems of our Good Friday concert. They are all about staying with Jesus, a call that even the disciples struggled with. And on Holy Saturday – continue to stay … because without the experience of that day neither our hearts nor minds, nor even our souls, are prepared for Easter Morning when we celebrate the resurrection.
We celebrate with the newly lit Paschal Candle symbolically bringing the light of Christ into church, joyfully singing the gloria, finding the empty tomb, hearing the words Alleluia Christ is Risen and responding He is risen indeed!!
And it goes without saying for all our Lambourn Valley chocolate lovers, young and old there will be Easter eggs!! Speaking of which please find attached a lovely Easter Egg fun sheet for our younger friends as well as those young at heart! We very much look forward to welcoming you to these services.
The art work this week is one that followed me around on a postcard throughout my university and young adult years. It’s Salvador Dali’s Christ of Saint John of the Cross. Dahli reimagines the crucifixion with Jesus hovering over the water. It is radically different from other depictions of the crucifixion. There is no thorny crown embedded into the forehead or painful-looking nails pinning down Christ’s hands. We see no injury. As Dali stated about his work Christ is portrayed ‘as beautiful as the God that He is’.
I chose this piece as this week Thoughts and Pews News is bridging the Triduum as well as Easter Day itself. Please forgive me if you wanted Easter eggs, bunnies, flowers or even chocolates!! You’ll have to wait for Easter Day for those!!!
Let us finally celebrate as we proclaim on Sunday:
Christ is Risen – He is risen indeed Alleluia
Thoughts & Pews News is taking a break and will be back on April 19th, meanwhile,
Every blessing and joyful Easter Greetings
Julie