Here are seven simple ideas that might just help – whether you are alone, part of a church community which is marking the week together, or among people for whom nothing is holy.
Good Friday 2009 (Photo credit: Lawrence OP)
Shut down some sources of information.
For much of our lives we are overwhelmed by messages and news. Screen some of them out for a week. Give your mind chance to rest on things that last, things that really matter.
Listen to silence.
True silence is very hard to come by, but listening more intently for it will impact on you profoundly.
Look at darkness.
Don’t try to understand it. Just try to look deeply into that which has no colour, no meaning, no purpose, no life. Do not be afraid. Light will come.
Soak up the story.
Don’t take it apart. Don’t compare and contrast. Just read it, hear it, recite it, perform it or tell it. Let the story do its good work.
Use your sense of smell.
It is strongly connected to memory but also to your soul. What does Good Friday smell like? What is the aroma of Easter Day?
Slow yourself down.
Holy Week happens in real time. Synchronise your personal clock with God’s cosmic clock and slow to God’s more patient pace.
Behold the wood of the cross.
This is a phrase from the ancient liturgy of Good Friday. Prepare for it by noticing wood wherever you find it. Touch trees. Feel polished wood. Make a cross of wood or carry a holding cross. Get close to wood and let the wood connect you with the saviour of the world.
May this holy week bring many blessings for a world in desperate need of reconciling love.
I like the instruction – it is helpful to let the pressures and irritations of everyday life go – listen to the silence.
Dear Stephen
I’m interested to know what you mean by “among people for whom nothing is holy”?
Liz
Dear Liz,
Thank you for your quesion. What I was trying to say was that these ideas might also help people who live among those who are hostile to anything to do with God, faith, religion or spirituality.
I hope that clarifies.
Stephen
Great ideas, I have printed this ourt for future use. It is amazing how many sounds we hear when we think we are in silence! I suppose we are never in silence, nor in blackness (except down underground wher eit is completely black). Very profound and humbling experinces trying these ideas Stephen.
Very, very nice. I love your call to let it be, allow for mystery. In my tradition (Episcopal) we tend to get all Broadway musical with Holy Week, scripting every move and over-explaining. Thanks for the salutary reminders. And have a blessed Holy Week,
Amy