3/5
Ash Wednesday
Services at 7:30 a.m., 12:05 p.m., and 7 p.m.
The first of the forty days of Lent, named for the custom of placing blessed ashes on the foreheads of worshipers at Ash Wednesday services. The ashes are a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality, and may be imposed with the sign of the cross.
Holy Eucharist
Wed, March 19, at 12:05PM. The Feast of Saint Joseph Holy Eucharist
Tues, March 25, at 12:05PM. The Annunciation Holy Eucharist
4/9 Stations of the Cross
Wednesday at 6PM in the Cathedral
Stations of the Cross is a devotion to the Passion of Christ which recalls a series of events at the end of Jesus' life from his condemnation to his burial. Stations of the Cross imitates the practice of visiting the places of Jesus' Passion in the Holy Land by early Christian pilgrims.
The number of stations for prayer and meditation in the Stations of the Cross typically includes fourteen stations. Each station may have a cross and an artistic representation of the scene. There is a versicle and response, a reading, a prayer, and a collect for each of the fourteen stations. Concluding prayers before the altar follow the fourteenth station.
Holy Week services
*All evening services & Easter Sunday services offer childcare
4/13 Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday Holy Eucharist services at 8AM, 10:15AM and 6PM
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. This feast celebrates Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem. While shouting “Hosanna,” crowds threw down clothes and palms on the path in front of him. Palm Sunday is also the Sunday of the Passion, for in less than a week, the same crowds would shout “Crucify him, crucify him.”
Before our Palm Sunday service, we bless the palms, asking the Lord that “these branches may be for us signs of his victory” over sin and death through his Passion. At the close of the service, parishioners may take palms home to use during their devotions throughout the year. The palms can be returned to nature by burying them or burning them before spreading the ashes outdoors.
Holy Eucharist
Monday April 14 at 12:05PM
Tuesday April 15 at 12:05PM
Wednesday April 16 at 12:05PM
4/17
Maundy Thursday
7PM Maundy Thursday with Foot Washing and Holy Eucharist with choir.
Prayer Vigil begins immediately following the service until midnight. It resumes Good Friday at 7:30AM until Noon.
Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter. Christians remember it as the day of the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and established the ceremony known as the Eucharist. The night of Maundy Thursday is the night on which Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Christ’s “mandate” is commemorated on Maundy Thursday ”maundy” being a shortened form of mandatum (Latin), which means “command”. It was on the Thursday of Christ’s final week before being crucified and resurrected that he said this commandment to his disciples. Jesus and his disciples had just shared what was known as the Last Supper and he was washing their feet when he stated:"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34).
At the end of the Maundy Thursday service liturgy, the consecrated elements of bread and wine are processed to the Garden of Repose in the Resurrection Chapel and placed on the altar. The Garden of Repose symbolizes the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed before his arrest. An ancient tradition of the church is to keep a prayer vigil as a way of watching and praying with Jesus as he faces the final hours of his life.
4/18 Good Friday
& Tenebrae
12:05PM Good Friday Liturgy with Holy Eucharist from the Reserved Sacraments, Rite of Reconciliation
7PM Tenebrae, led by the Cathedral Chamber Singers, is an austere Service of Darkness with ancient chants, prayers, and the dramatic narration of Christ's Passion.
Good Friday is the day for Christians to commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion. On this day, according to the Bible, the Jewish religious leaders—who had condemned Jesus the night before for claiming to be the son of God and king of the Jews—brought him to the Romans for sentencing. He was sent from Pontius Pilate to Herod and then back to Pilate, who ultimately sentenced Jesus to crucifixion—the highest form of criminal punishment at the time. Jesus was then beaten, forced to carry a heavy wooden cross through jeering crowds and finally nailed to the cross by his wrists and feet, where he hung until he died, later that day.
The Friday before Easter Day, on which the church commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus, is a day of fasting and special acts of discipline and self-denial.
Tenebrae
The name Tenebrae (the Latin word for “darkness” or “shadow”) has for centuries been applied to the ancient monastic night and early morning services (Matins and Lauds) of the last three days of Holy Week, which in medieval times came to be celebrated on the preceding evenings.
Apart from the chant of the Lamentations (in which each verse is introduced by a letter of Hebrew alphabet), the most conspicuous feature of the service is the gradual extinguishing of candles and other lights in the church until only a single candle, considered a symbol of our Lord, remains. Toward the end of the service this candle is hidden, typifying the apparent victory of forces of evil. At the very end, a loud noise is made, symbolizing the earthquake at the time of resurrection (Matthew 28:2), the hidden candle is restored to its place, and by its light all depart in silence.
-From The Book of Occasional Services 2022 page 88
4/19 Easter Vigil
7PM The Great Vigil of Easter with lighting of the new fire, candlelight, choir and Baptisms. (Remember to bring your bell or noisemaker!)
The Easter Vigil liturgy intended as the first (and arguably, the primary) celebration of Easter in the BCP (pp. 284-95). It is also known as the Great Vigil. The service, sometime between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter, consists of four parts: The Service of Light (kindling of new fire, lighting the Paschal candle, the Exsultet); The Service of Lessons (readings from the Hebrew Scriptures interspersed with psalms, canticles, and prayers); Christian Initiation (Holy Baptism) or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows; and the Eucharist. Through this liturgy, the BCP recovers an ancient practice of keeping the Easter feast. Believers would gather in the hours of darkness ending at dawn on Easter to hear scripture and offer prayer. This night-long service of prayerful watching anticipated the baptisms that would come at first light and the Easter Eucharist. Easter was the primary baptismal occasion for the early church to the practical exclusion of all others. This practice linked the meanings of Christ's dying and rising to the understanding of baptism.
At the Cathedral, the Easter Vigil begins in darkness with a symbolic expectant waiting. A New Fire is kindled from which the Paschal Candle is lighted. As the Paschal Candle is processed to the chancel, the candles held by the congregation are lighted. The church remains in semi-darkness through the reading of lessons and prayers. Following Holy Baptism, the congregation is sprinkled with holy water as the choir sings the ancient chant for the canticle “Te Deum.” Then, the First Alleluia of Easter is joyfully sung, and the Cathedral is filled with The Great Noise (symbolic of Christ’s Resurrection, bells are rung as lights in the congregation are raised, the candles at the altar are lighted from the Paschal Candle, a festal procession commences, and then the altar is censed as everyone sings Gloria in excelsis Deo.) The service continues with a Festival Eucharist.
4/20 Easter Sunday
7:30AM Holy Eucharist with Confirmations & Receptions.
10:15AM Festival Eucharist
*Reception the the Great Hall following both morning services and Children’s Easter Egg Hunt in the Courtyard following the 10:15 service.
6PM Holy Eucharist.
Easter is one of the central holidays, or Holy Days, of Christianity. It honors the Resurrection of Jesus three days after His death by crucifixion. For many Christian churches, Easter is the joyful conclusion to the Lenten season of devoted prayer, fasting and penitence.
Along with the Nativity of Christ, Easter is one of the most important celebrations in the Christian calendar. It is when Christians glorify and give thanks for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. After his crucifixion, death, and burial, Christ rose from the grave three days later. By this, he conquered death and redeemed us from sin.
Easter Day marks the beginning of 50 days of celebrating Jesus' resurrection. The final 10 days begin on Ascension Day when we celebrate Jesus' ascension into heaven. At the end of the 50 days, we celebrate Pentecost (sometimes called Whitsunday) when Jesus' disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is often referred to as the birthday of the Church.