Dear Friends,

We have come once more to Holy Week—the most sacred time of the Christian year. It’s the week when we slow our steps and pay attention, walking the road with Jesus, only to discover that he’s already been walking every road with us.

“To participate in Holy Week is to step into a truth larger than ourselves, and find that it holds us.”
— Rowan Williams

We enter Holy Week not just as observers of a story, but as participants in a mystery. At the centre of it all is what the Church calls the Easter Triduum—three days that flow into one another: Maundy Thursday, GoodFriday, and the Easter Vigil. These are not separate events, but a single movement of love poured out, sorrow borne, and life reborn.

Without Maundy Thursday, Good Friday is simply the death of a good man; with Maundy Thursday, it is Christ offering himself as Priest and Victim for the sins of the whole world. Without Good Friday, Maundy Thursday is just another Passover meal; with Good Friday, it becomes a sacrificial offering and a sign of the unity of the Church, lived out through loving service (“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” John 13:34).

Similarly, without Easter, Good Friday is a miserable day, but held in tension with Easter it becomes a day of hopefulness for all humanity; which is why we call that Friday good. Friday and Sunday held in tension become the great turning point of history—the place where death is undone and the world begins again.

“The cross is the place where God's love and human suffering meet— and neither leaves unchanged.”
— Samuel Wells

Sometimes people wonder why clergy urge the faithful to attend all sacred services of the Triduum. It’s not just because we like to see more people in the pews, or that we want parishioners to see how much effort goes into these liturgies. It’s because we long for you to have a real and living encounter with Jesus Christ—one that moves you, roots you, and reorients your life. Because this story, when entered into deeply, doesn’t just tell us what happened—it changes what is.

“The resurrection is not just a promise of life after death— it is the invasion of a new life into this one.”
— N.T. Wright

So whether you’ve been to church every week or haven’t been in years—come. Whether you feel full of faith or full of questions—come. Whether you are staying home or going away—do your best to keep these three days, and let yourself be drawn into the mystery of God’s love.

With love and prayers,

Fr Ben