Campus Ministry
Holy Week: Aligning Your Life With the Liturgy
By Jessica Peek, Graduate Assistant for Liturgy
Today marks the beginning of Holy Week, one of the busiest weeks in the Church. There are numerous liturgies, prayer services, and programs we can attend and for some it can feel like more things to add to our calendar. Especially at this time in the semester, it may be easy to plan our Holy Week schedules around the papers or projects we have due.
The culmination of Holy Week is the celebration of the Easter Triduum, from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday. One of the things I really love about the Triduum is that the Church looks upon these three days as one liturgical day. That single liturgy celebrates Christ's Paschal Mystery in its fullness, as we journey with Christ in his Passion, Death, and Resurrection and celebrate the victory of our redemption.
The single liturgical day of the Triduum is marked at distinct times by the various liturgical services, like the Mass of the Lord's Supper or the Good Friday of the Lord's Passion, but the entire time is liturgical. This idea turns upside down how I am often tempted to view my schedule. Whereas I might think of liturgical services as "interrupting" my routine, during the Triduum, the liturgy is the routine and anything else we might need to do interrupts the liturgy.
I invite you to join me this Holy Week in flipping your perspective of how the liturgy fits into your life and try to align your life with the liturgy.