Date: April 19, 2022
When I was training for the priesthood, I remember vividly my first Holy Week at my contextual ministry site. On the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I was responsible for leading a group of parishioners in the Evening Office. On Thursday, I was washing feet. On the Friday, I had a lunchtime service and then an evening service. On Saturday, there was the Great Vigil of Easter. Then, there were three services on Sunday, starting with the sunrise service on the parish grounds. I was exhausted.
For this reason, we follow the almost universal practice of the Church and have Easter Monday as a rest day. I hope all our seminarians slept in and have arrived at Tuesday ready to fully enter this Easter season.
Entering into the full significance of each season is the joy of the Church calendar. We can learn a great deal about God and what God wants to do in our lives as we live into each season. One theme of Rowan William’s reflections on Easter is that Easter is in many ways a hard season. While in Lent, we acknowledge the pervasive nature of sin in our lives and society, in Easter, we are called to see ways of being that are full of love and justice. Easter is where we participate in God’s mission in the world to bring the world ever closer to the kingdom. So, let the hard work of Easter begin.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President