Preparing for Holy Week

“Bridegroom Crucifix” by Erin-Lara Forsythe

Preparing for Holy Week
By Claire Zajdel

I have been meditating recently on Holy Week. Our lives often cycle through seasons of anticipation, foreboding fears, tragic suffering, quiet grief, waiting disguised as sadness or unfulfillment, and resurrection, rejoicing. In my private prayer, I have been placing myself with Christ in whatever moment of Holy Week most resonates with the season I am living in. I have been surprised by how deeply I am met in those moments of contemplation, how clearly the Lord sees the tumultuous desires of my soul. There has been so much clarity in exploring my relationship with Him and understanding my own spiritual experiences by placing myself in the most poignant moments of Holy Week. Sometimes, I am sitting beneath the cross, the Most Precious Blood falling on my head as I bring my suffering to Him. Other times, I am sitting in front of the recently closed tomb, filled with confusion and sadness, as I wait for the answer to my prayers. I pay attention to my senses in these scenes, focusing on the rough wood of the Cross, the coldness of the stone before the tomb. More importantly I focus on where Christ is, if he’s speaking to me, what He looks like. Are His wounds fresh? Has the blood begun to dry? More importantly, is my heart prepared to invite Him into my own wounds?

While Lent has only just begun, and Holy Week is weeks away, I believe that our individual relationships with God and personal spiritual journeys can be understood clearly as we walk through Holy Week with Christ. The great hope of these mediations being that, no matter what season you invite the Lord to join you in, the glory of Easter Sunday will always arrive.

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