Dear Parishioners,
After five weeks of Lent, we now enter the most sacred and powerful time of the Church’s year – Holy Week. These days form the heart of our Christian faith, when we remember and relive the final days of Jesus’ earthly life: his suffering, death, and glorious resurrection.
Palm Sunday opens the door to this great week. We begin with joy, waving palms and remembering how Jesus was being welcomed into Jerusalem with cries of “Hosanna!” Yet the mood quickly changes as we hear the Passion narrative; a stark reminder of how quickly praise can turn to rejection, and triumph to suffering.
Jesus does not arrive in Jerusalem with grandeur or earthly power but riding humbly on a donkey. The crowd cheers him, yet within days, many will turn away. He chooses not the throne but the Cross. His arms are stretched wide, not in anger or judgment, but in love, to gather all who have been scattered by sin.
The Passion we hear today and listen to again in the coming days speaks to every human heart. It is a story of pain and betrayal, of fear and silence, of courage, love, and obedience. Jesus shares fully in our human experience. He knows what it is to suffer. He shows us what it means to trust God even when the path ahead is dark and difficult.
Holy Week invites us not just to remember, but to accompany Christ. We walk with him from the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, through the agony of Good Friday, to the waiting silence of Holy Saturday and finally to the joy of Easter Sunday.
I know many of you will be busy preparing for the upcoming long weekend and time with family, but please do make space for the spiritual journey as well. Come to the liturgies if you can. Take time to pray. Reflect on what this week means for you personally.
May this Holy Week be a time of grace, a time of deep encounter with the suffering and Risen Lord, who laid down his life so that we might live.
With every blessing,
Deacon Ian
