This has been a year like no other. This will be a Holy Week like no other. If ever we were invited into an experience of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are most certainly asked to dig deep this coming week. I am sure the hardships experienced these past twelve months have had some positives and made us much more appreciative of what was taken for granted. Yes, it has been a dreadful year. “If suffering brings wisdom, I would wish to be less wise.” W. B. Yeats. We can understand these words. However, Holy Week simply asks us to know that we don’t just seek wisdom and understanding to the losses and hardships endured this past year, but also to realise we are not alone. Faith and community go some distance in helping this understanding. We will attend services online or in person of a limited form. We will miss the pageantry of it all. But, there is something profound in the simplicity of experiencing Holy Week at home, or in Church. So much effort has been put into making something out of our tattered expectations. Think of all the phone calls. All those simple messages of concern. Those heroic efforts of hospital staff, school staff, delivery people, All the any decent, caring frontline workers. Perhaps this week is an opportunity to bring them all into Holy Week with us. To see the face of Christ where we never thought he was. “While we too always seek other signs, other wonders, we do not realise that he is the real sign. God made flesh. He is the real sign; he is the greatest miracle of the universe; all the love of Go hidden in the human heart, in a human face”. Pope Benedict. We pray that this coming week brings the comfort and consolation you richly deserve. And speaking of consolation, we recently lost a wonderful character in the person of Mary Malyan. Mary’s love of The Word of God was visible to all of us who listened to her reading in Church and at St. Leonard’s at Christmas and Easter. She made each word her own. She loved to hear it well read from others. A readiness to smile and laugh at the failings of others, but especially her own. Bless her. Have a lovely Holy Week.
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