Lent 2019
Dear Friends in Christ,
Each year I add to the number describing the time since my birth, and it seems increasingly also the pronounced sincerity of my sigh of relief and prayers of thanksgiving that the long wait of winter is coming to an end. I look forward to summer each year and somehow even make unrealistic presumptions that winter is over for good. In any case, the long New Brunswick winter this year, now stretching into six months, shows signs of receding as days brighten and temperatures moderate one more time.
Seasonal rhythms, many would say, significantly enrich the experience of living where we do. The rhythms of the church seasons provide a similar spiritual experience as we, with the days of the calendar, walk through the life of our Lord each year. As we approach the end of another forty days of Lent, just over the horizon we see the first glimmer of light in the promises of Easter.
While that hope of resurrection, to which Jesus often alluded, is found in the shadows of the burial garden on Easter Day, there is another source of those hopeful beams. We most often think of the darkness of the hour of crucifixion the most intense of history. But the light that shines from the dark wood of the Cross is among the brightest. It is the reason, in the Christian tradition, that we are able to describe a terrible Friday as “Good.” The price paid on the Golgotha hill is what makes the suffering of life in the world worthwhile. Even though we struggle, like enduring the cold and windy days of winter, there is a brighter, warmer light in our future. Eternal life is evident, even in the Cross of Death. “I know that my redeemer lives!” said Job.
That’s the miracle expressed in the narratives of Holy Week and Easter. You’re invited once again to join in the walk toward Jerusalem and to hear both the shouts of Palm Sunday and the whispers of early Easter morn – the first suggestion that Jesus is alive, just as he has promised. Because he lives, we too will live, and continue even into eternity with him.
The schedule of Easter seasonal worship is included here. You’re encouraged to celebrate with us to the extent that you are able, and breath once again that sigh of relief that comes from knowing that our Lord lives!
Sincerely,
Geoffrey Hall (The Very Rev’d)
Dean of Fredericton
GMH
Holy Week and Easter 2019
Christ Church Cathedral, Fredericton NB
Monday - Thursday: 8:45 Morning Prayer and 4:45 Evening Prayer
The Holy Eucharist on 20 April is the first of Easter
Passion/Palm Sunday
(14 April 2019)
8:00 a.m. Liturgy of the Palms and Holy Eucharist
10:00 a.m. Liturgy of the Palms, Dramatic Passion and Holy Eucharist
11:45 a.m. Blessing of Palms and Come Worship Eucharist
Monday
5:15 p.m. Holy Eucharist
Tuesday
5:15 p.m. Holy Eucharist
Wednesday
10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist
5:15 p.m. Holy Eucharist
7:30 p.m. Tenebrae - Liturgy of Shadows (Traditional)
Maundy Thursday
11:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Ministry Vows and Blessing of Oils
5:45 p.m. Maundy Thursday Shared Meal (Memorial Hall)
7:30 p.m. Holy Eucharist and Stripping of the Sanctuary
Good Friday
10:00 a.m. Celebration of the Lord's Passion
Easter Eve
(20 April 2019)
8:00 p.m. The Great Vigil of Easter, Renewal of Baptism and Eucharist
Easter Day
(21 April 2019)
8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist
10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist
11:45 a.m. Come Worship Eucharist
