Holy Week devotion

The following is a guide for individual and family devotion during Holy Week. A PDF of the guide can also be downloaded from this link: Holy Week devotional guide.

Daily prayer

Suggested for use with the readings for each day in Holy Week for individual or family prayer. Adapted from the Greek Orthodox prayer book for Holy Week.

Blessed is our God, always, now and forever. Glory to you, Lord!

O heavenly king, comforter, the Spirit of truth, ever-present and filling all things, the treasure of all blessings and giver of life, come and dwell within us; cleanse us from every blemish, and save us, O blessed one.

Holy God, holy mighty, holy immortal, have mercy on us. (3X)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning is now, and shall be forever. Amen.

Read the psalm

All-holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord, pardon our sins; Master, forgive our iniquities; O holy one, visit and heal our infirmities, for your name’s sake. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.

Read the Old Testament and epistle readings

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.

Read the gospel

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Glory to you, O God. Our hope, our Lord, Glory to you.

Prayer—seek God bringing praise, petitions, and gratitude to him.

Help us, save us, have mercy upon us, and protect us, O God, by your grace. Amen.

Glory to you, O God, our hope, Glory to you!

May Christ, our true God, the Lord, who willingly came to his passion for our salvation, through the intercessions of his all-pure and holy mother; the power of the precious and life-giving cross; the protection of the honored powers of heaven; the supplications of the honored, glorious prophet and forerunner John the Baptist; the holy, glorious, and all-laudable apostles; the holy, glorious, and victorious martyrs; our saintly and god-bearing Fathers; the holy and righteous divine ancestors Joachim and Anna; of the blessed Clement of Rome, our beloved patron, and of all the saints, have mercy on us and save us, as a good, loving, and merciful God. Amen.

Monday

The mission and anointing of the servant upon whom the Spirit of God rests and who has come to establish justice.

Psalm 36.5-11; Isaiah 42.1-9; Hebrews 9.11-15; John 12.1-11

Tuesday

The commission of the Messiah, the light to the nations, and the scandal of unbelief.

Psalm 71.1-14; Isaiah 49.1-7; 1 Corinthians 1.18-31; John 12.20-36

Wednesday

The passion of our Lord and his betrayal.

Psalm 70; Isaiah 50.4-9a; Hebrews 12.1-3; John 13.21-32

Three special days—a time to die to sin

Adapted from Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time, pages 123-134

Our spiritual journey is rooted in the great mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, which is remembered especially on the three great days in Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (called the paschal Triduum).

We have the opportunity to observe these three days with the humility and focus befitting the redeemed who owe our lives to Jesus Christ and what he suffered on our behalf. Therefore, these three days should not to be taken lightly or frittered away in casual conversation, the search for pleasure, or the pursuit of business. In these days we experience and encounter our own reality in the reality of Christ’s horrible death and burial and in his triumphant resurrection from the dead. If we miss these days, we have missed the heart of our spiritual pilgrimage.

Therefore we ought to organize our time and commitments in such a way that we can center entirely on our own participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus and do our best to set aside anything that might interfere with the deep spiritual focus these days bring to us and the unique ways the Holy Spirit can speak to us through their observance.

Maundy Thursday

We pass with Jesus into the darkness of his last night in which his determination to go to the cross is set in vivid contrast to the powers against which he must struggle. We walk that path with him.

Psalm 116.1-2, 12-19; Exodus 12.1-4, (5-10), 11-14;1 Cor. 11.23-26; John 13.1-17, 31b-35

Good Friday

We worship with both the sorrow we bring through our identification with Jesus in his death and the joy we experience knowing that his death was the death of death, the ruination of the powers of evil.

Psalm 22; Isaiah 52.13-53.12; Hebrews 10.16-25 or 4.14-16; 5.7-9; John 18.1-19.42

Holy Saturday

A day of rest and preparation for the great service of resurrection (the vigil).

Psalm 31.1-4, 15-16; Job 14.1-14 or Lamentations 3.1-9, 19-24; 1 Peter 4.1-8; Matthew 27.57-66 or John 19.38-42

Suggestions for reflection and discipline during Holy Week

Take time each day

  • To remember God’s mighty acts of salvation and consider what they mean to your spiritual journey and to Falcon Ekklesia as the body of Christ in our community.
  • Reflect on the past year:
    • How have you entered into his death this year? What sins in your life need to be brought to death?
    • How have you been raised to new life in his resurrection this year? What in your life still needs renewal?

Consider reorganizing your time leading up to Easter and make it a point to be participate in all the celebrations of the church. Demonstrate the importance of your faith, your submission to Christ as Lord, and your grateful love for his sacrifice by refraining from anything that would interfere with the worship of the body of Christ and your own focus on Christ’s death and resurrection.

Extend the fast through the week, perhaps through simplfied meals each day, continuing to limit your diet, or abstaining from a meal or two each day.

Mystagogical devotional guide: Lent-Easter

The attached PDF is a devotional guide designed to be used throughout the Lenten and Easter seasons. Initially based on the 28 day guide posted on this site, this revision adds material from many sacramental liturgies and portions of the sermons from the great mystagogues of the 4th century. The themes and readings are designed to integrate well with Sunday worship throughout Lent and Easter, and yet the guide can also be used for Advent and Epiphany or any other time throughout the year.

The guide will eventually accompany the book on which I am currently working, but it is ready for use now for both individual and corporate reflection on our sacramental journey into the body of Christ and our ongoing transformation for his mission in the world.

Dr. Chris

Download devotional guide

28 days: a mystagogical study for the family or individual

Devotional Guide for Adults and Youth

The following is a devotional guide to help you reflect on your sacramental experience of baptism and eucharist in light of the Scriptures. Passages are included for each day, along with supplemental passages from the Old Testament that appear in parentheses.

Please use this devotional guide as a means to lead you into meditation and prayer about what God has to say to you through these sacred actions of worship. How has he used them to shape you? How does he want to use them even now to bring you deeper into your new life in Christ? What is he trying to say to you, and to his church, through the words, the symbols, the movement, and the memory of the sacraments?

Please log your journey in a journal, including impressions, insights, experiences, and questions that arise from weekly worship.

Please consider the daily readings and questions as a family, helping your children with the process of writing their reflections in their journals. Make prayer and silence a part of your time together, and allow room for everyone to ask questions and wrestle with ideas. If you have younger children, consider these tips for including them:

  • Have the children read the Scripture passages.
  • Ask them for their thoughts—use simple questions: what? when? where? who? how?
  • Don’t be afraid to add your observations. Children often understand more than we expect.
  • For younger children, ask them to draw pictures of scenes from the passages and then talk about them.

If you are working through these passages on your own, consider using an immersive, prayerful approach:

  1. Find a quiet time and place. Free yourself from potential distractions as much as you can (have someone else deal with phone calls, children, doorbells).
  2. Take a few minutes to clear your mind. Breathe slowly, relax your body, make yourself aware of the simple fact that God is present.
  3. Read through the Scriptures for the day, simply listening at first. Don’t try to pick them apart, don’t seek insight. Just read them, even aloud.
  4. Pause for a moment. Did something jump out at you, a word or phrase? Make note of it in your journal.
  5. Read the Scriptures a second time, slowly. Listen again for anything that stands out, that causes you to linger for a moment. Make note of it in your journal.
  6. Consider what God has brought to your attention. Meditate on the words or phrases that caught your attention.
  7. Talk with God about what he’s trying to say to you. Listen to what his Spirit is saying.
  8. Write in your journal. What is God saying? Is he asking you to do something? Is he communicating something very personal, or something important for all of us? What new insight has he given. Can what he’s said be put into words? What difference does it make?

Week One

Sunday Rom. 6.1-11 (Ps. 51)

Journal suggestion: Reflect on our time together on Saturday evening. Record your impressions, insights, experiences, and questions. What did God say to you?

Big question for the week: what does your baptism really mean in your life?

Monday Matt. 28.19-20 and Acts 2.37-42 (Gen. 22.9-18; 1 Chr. 16.8-36; Is. 42.1-9)

Journal suggestion: Consider why baptism is so central to what we call the Great Commission. What is the relationship between baptism (conversion), teaching (disciple- ship), and the Holy Spirit? What did the newly baptized Christians do?

Tuesday Acts 8.35-39, 10.44-48, 16.30-34, 22.12-16 (Lev. 16. 23-28; Joel 2.28-29)

Journal suggestion: Examine these different accounts of conversion, baptism, and receiv- ing the Holy Spirit. How did it happen? In what order? Was anyone not baptized? Do you associate your own baptism with your conversion to faith in Jesus Christ?

Wednesday 1 Cor. 12.12-13; Eph. 4.1-6 (Ps. 33)

Journal suggestion: How does our baptism relate to how we get along with other Christians? Can you think of relationships you have with others that are clearly different because of your common baptism in Christ? How about any that are still a problem?

Thursday Col. 2.8-15 (Gen. 17.1-14; Deut. 10.12-22)

Journal suggestion: What does it mean to think of baptism as a permanent mark of your new life, like circumcision? Think about what it means to think of baptism and our salva- tion in such physical terms. Does it change the way you think about living the new life Paul talks about? How?

Friday 1 Pet. 3.18-22, Titus 3.3-7 (Gen. 6.12-9.17; Gen. 1.1-31; Ps. 77)

Journal suggestion: How are Peter and Paul describing what the water in baptism does? What does Noah and the ark have to do with baptism? What phrases from these passages stand out to you when you think about what your own baptism means? Think of someone you know who is not a Christian. What would it mean for them to be saved through the waters of baptism?

Week Two

Sunday Mark 10.38; Matt. 3.1-17

Journal suggestion: Reflect on our time together on Saturday evening. Record your impressions, insights, experiences, and questions. What did God say to you?

Big question for the week: what does being baptized into Christ mean we should be doing? Answer Christ’s question from Mark 10.38, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” What might it mean for you to drink his cup and be baptized in his baptism?

Monday Luke 3.1-22 (Is. 40.1-5)

Journal suggestion: Consider the questions asked of John when he baptized. What differ- ence did he expect baptism to make in the lives of those baptized? Why is judgement asso- ciated with baptism? What are those baptized being judged about?

Tuesday John 1.19-34 (Is. 35.1-10)

Journal suggestion: How was Jesus different than John? Why was Jesus baptized? What does the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus mean for those baptized in Jesus’ name?

Wednesday John 3.1-15; 22-36 (Ez. 37.1-14)

Journal suggestion: This passage is full: baptism, new birth, Spirit, purification, mysteries, and testimony. How does it all relate? What is hard for you to understand? Having been baptized, what of these mysteries begins to make sense to you? How could you testify to what God has done in your life?

Thursday Acts 1.1-6; 2.14-21, 37-42

Journal suggestion: What did baptism with the Spirit mean for the disciples? What was their response (what did they do)? What was the response of the people to Peter’s witness? What did the apostles tell them to do and say would happen? What did those who were baptized do? What pattern in all of this should apply to us?

Friday Reflection on baptism

Journal suggestion: What does it mean? For you, for the church? What is happening in baptism? How does being baptized change who you are? How does being baptized change what you do?

Week Three

Sunday Luke 24.13-35; Col. 1. 15-20, 24-29

Journal suggestion: Reflect on our time together on Saturday evening. Record your impressions, insights, experiences, and questions. What did God say to you?

Big question for the week: what does eucharist really mean in your life?

Monday Acts 2.37-47; Acts 20.7-12; Acts 27.27-38

Journal suggestion: Consider the New Testament “code” for eucharist: “breaking of bread.” In what context is it done in these passages? Is thanksgiving and gladness associ- ated with the breaking of bread?

Tuesday 1 Cor. 10.1-33 (Ex. 12.1-28, 16.1-17.7)

Journal suggestion: What is really at stake in these warnings from Paul about eucharist in the church? What does Paul’s focus on unity with Christ and one another say about why and how we celebrate eucharist?

Wednesday 1 Cor. 11.17-34

Journal suggestion: What does Paul say about the eucharist in this passages? What seems to be the focus of participating in communion? Consider the language about divisions, fac- tions, and discerning the body. What does our unity in this special act of worship say to those who witness it?

Thursday John 2.1-11; 6.1-14 (Num. 8.5-13; Joel 2.23-24; 2 Kings 4.38-44)

Journal suggestion: Consider the context of these miracles of Jesus’ provision. What do they say about Jesus, about the celebration of eucharist?

Friday Rev. 19. 6-10; Is. 25.6-10, 55.1-5 (Amos 9.11-15)

Journal suggestion: How is eucharist related to the marriage supper of the Lamb? What kind of images are we given about the banquet of the Lord? What do they mean for the Eucharistic meal of the church today? What do they mean for the world? What do you look forward to?

Week Four

Sunday John 15.18-27; John 17.20-24; Luke 22.7-23

Journal suggestion: Reflect on our time together on Saturday evening. Record your impressions, insights, experiences, and questions. What did God say to you?

Big question for the week: what does our weekly eucharistic celebration prepare us to do?

Monday Mark 14.12-25; Matt. 26.17-30 (Ex. 12.1-20)

Journal suggestion: What strikes you about these accounts of the last supper from Mark and Matt.? How are they similar or different? What does this language of covenant and blood mean? What about the reference to drinking in the kingdom of God?

Tuesday John 13.1-30 (Is. 42.1-9)

Journal suggestion: Why would John include this story of footwashing in place of the last supper? What themes are similar to those we associate with eucharist? What does it imply about our relationship with Christ, with others in the church, with the world?

Wednesday John 14-John 17

Read as if you are the disciples and Jesus is talking to you directly, right after you’ve shared bread and wine with him. Journal suggestion: What is Jesus trying to offer the dis- ciples in these words following his last evening with them? What themes keep showing up? What is he preparing them for?

Thursday John 6.22-71 (Ps. 22)

Journal suggestion: Why are these words difficult to hear? What do they tell us about Jesus’ relationship to those who eat his flesh and drink his blood? Why does he give of himself this way?

Friday Reflection on Eucharist

Journal suggestion: What does it mean? For you, for the church? What is happening when we celebrate eucharist? How does worship at Christ’s table change who you are? How does worship at Christ’s table change what you do? What does it mean for the world that the church is eucharistic?