‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2024 Maundy Thursday

Beloved of the Lord:

Today is Maundy Thursday, in the year of our Lord 2024. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Maundy Thursday (today): 6:30 PM, removal of the Sacrament from the Altar, Mass of the Day, the Maundy (foot-washing), Stripping of the Altar,
  Good Friday Tenebrae.
• Good Friday: 12:10 PM: The Mass of the Catechumens, The Solemn Collects, The Veneration of the Cross, the Mass of the Pre-sanctified.
• Holy Saturday: 8:00 PM: Scripture readings, the Blessing of the new fire and the Paschal Candle, The Sabbath Prophecies,
  the Blessing of the Baptismal Font, The Litany and the Mass of Easter Even.
• Sunday, Easter Day: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass of the Feast of the Resurrection.

Now is the time, this is the hour, and the place. The Rites, Ceremonies, and Liturgies over these next few days form the capstone, not only of Great Lent, but more specifically of the reflections we have discussed in previous weeks. Our journey, hopefully, has lead us to the very core of ourselves, along the way have examined every aspect, every atom of ourselves, in the light of reason, experience, and of the Holy Scriptures. We should be much more familiar with ourselves, now, than when we began this Season of reflection and penance.

This final stage allows us to continue, to deepen our self-study in the absolute dark of the absence of our Lord, as His earthly life is ended, and He travels to very Hell, to take the light that we shall soon lose, to every soul that ever lived before His incarnation. Our considerations will reach another peak, when he returns to us, and we are filled to over-flowing with His light. Come Easter Day, we will have reached full-circle in our journey ~ there, and back again.

Salvation does not exist outside of Holy Church. Now, more than at any other time, we must join with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ as we join Him on His Way ... The Way, as the Church was known in the earliest centuries. In a few, short hours, we will begin. Join us tonight, and over the coming days, we beseech thee. I remain

in His praise,

The Rev'd Canon. T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish