Let us surround ourselves with the depth of holy week activities

I have a new friend who is going through a difficult time, so I wrote her a quick email today telling her she was in my prayers and I was hoping she was doing OK. She responded "I am fine and surrounded with the depth of holy week activities." She didn't say involved in, she said surrounded by, she didn't say busy-ness, she said depth. I felt blessed by her email.

My prayer for our combined congregations is that this week we all immerse ourselves in, surround ourselves by and experience the depth of Holy Week. Our variety of Lenten preparatory experiences started with the Shrove Tuesday pancake supper and Ash Wednesday services and continued as a rich tapestry of Sunday worship services and fellowship, private and family devotions using the resource book we created, cottage meetings, Wednesday Bible studies, and the Wise Women retreat. In addition we had the Health Fair and Black History celebration that, while not oriented to Lent, were opportunities for fellowship, education, reflection and thanksgiving. Psalm Sunday worship was deeply moving and gave us a look forward, to and through Holy Week. We have a joint Maundy Thursday service with First Church and travel to Our Redeemers for joint Good Friday worship. Then our Alleluias will return (will the children remember where they were hidden?) on Sunday, when we celebrate the Festival of the Resurrection of Our Lord back at 4th and E. There is indeed much with which to surround ourselves and much depth of experience, emotion and remembrance in the coming week.

John and I have a special blessing this Holy Week. Our foster daughter's oldest son, now 22, is bringing his fiancé to visit us so that we can meet her before their June wedding. We have known Ben since the day he was born, and he is very special to us. We are inordinately proud of the young man he has become, a man of principle, a man of faith, a mature man capable of the deep commitment required of marriage. We are excited to meet his Amy, a woman about whom our foster daughter says she cannot find one thing she does not love. They met shortly after Ben arrive at the small Christian liberal arts college that has so nurtured and matured his faith so we have been waiting a long time for this meeting.

Ben was confirmed in our former church, and together with his siblings worshipped with us from the time his family moved to Fergus Falls when he was in sixth grade. He visited John before I arrived and before we found First Trinity, so we are thrilled to now bring him - and Amy - to our new church home. We know that they will feel the welcoming hospitality, the love of the Gospel and spirit of service - and the Minnesota connections - that we felt on our first visit.

It will indeed be a rich blessing to surround ourselves with the depth of Holy Week activities while seeing First Trinity and its partnership with St. Matthew's, and our fellowship with First Church, through Ben and Amy's eyes.