Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"My home church did not follow the liturgical year with Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, etc. There was Christmas, and there was Easter. You may see palms in the sanctuary the week before Easter, but that was just a prelude to the big day. For a church that gathered on Sundays only, one could go from the Hosannas of Palm Sunday to the Alleluias of Resurrection Day, but miss all the passion in between. You could have palms and lilies, but no cross, no lamentation, no tomb.

"Later, when I pastored a church that observed Lent, I discovered the ability of the Lenten season to communicate and celebrate the power of God's love as compassionate solidarity with us and the world. Amid the layers upon layers of encounters in the Passion story, we experience hope and jubilation, danger and disruption, and ultimately grief and despair. The readings end with a typical penultimate cliffhanger episode. We witness a lament, a final breath, a burial, and a sealed tomb. To be continued."

-- Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews, "Palm Sunday: God’s Love as Compassionate Solidarity", 2021-03-28

[A good Palm Sunday to everybody celebrating the start of Holy Week today, and a good Passover to everyone celebrating Passover this week!]