For churches that celebrate Holy Week as an integral part of Easter, this past week has been full of services. Each is unique, allowing participants to focus on what happened in the life of Jesus each day, and to experience the flow that ties them all together.
Over the course of these services, a great many prayers are said, a great many songs are sung (I think our choir learned 30 new songs for the week), a great many chapters of Scripture are read, and yes, a great many sermons are preached. It is a bit overwhelming at times, and that is at least part of the point of it. But it also has its moments of unspeakable glory and transcendence.
Here is one of my favorite prayers, which happens to come from the Good Friday service:
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light... let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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