Holy Week and Easter Schedule

As hard as it is for me to believe, in just a few short days, we will enter the most important week of the Church Year.  I wish I could say that I was fully prepared, but that would be a lie.  Besides, what fun would it be to be fully prepared anyway?  All of the bulletins are ready to go, but still have some sermon writing to do.  Needless to say, I will be a busy beaver over the next several days.  Even so, I can't wait.  I look forward to this Holiest of Weeks every year and cherish the opportunity to gather around Word and Sacrament with my brothers and sisters in Christ daily.  Here is the schedule we will follow this year:

Palm/Passion Sunday
9:30 a.m. - Divine Service (w/Procession of Palms and St. Matthew's Passion Account)

Holy Monday
7:30 am - Matins (spoken)*
12 pm - Divine Service (spoken)
7 pm - Divine Service (spoken - same Service as Noon)

Holy Tuesday
7:30 am - Matins (spoken)
12 pm - Divine Service (spoken)
7 pm - Divine Service (spoken - same Service as Noon)

Holy Wednesday
7:30 am - Matins (spoken)
12 pm - Divine Service (spoken)
7 pm - Divine Service (spoken - same Service as Noon)

Holy (Maundy) Thursday
7:30 am - Matins (spoken)
12 pm - Divine Service (spoken)
7 pm - Divine Service (sung- w/Corporate C&A, Christian Questions & Answers, Stripping of the Altar & Psalm 22)

Good Friday
7:30 am - Matins (spoken)
12 pm - Chief Divine Service (sung - w/Seven Words of Christ, Litany, Procession of rough-hewn Cross)
3 pm - Short Devotion at the Sacred Hour
7:30 pm - Tenebrae (sung - w/Reproaches, St. John's Passion Account, Bidding Prayer, Strepitus)

Holy Saturday
7:30 am - Matins (spoken)
10 am - Divine Service (spoken)
  7 pm - Easter Vigil (w/champagne reception following the Vigil)

Easter Sunday
7:30 am - Matins (sung)
8:30 am - Easter Breakfast
9:30 am - Divine Service:  Festival of the Resurrection

* For daily Matins throughout Holy Week, we use the propers from Treasury of Daily Prayer, substituting the OT Reading with the "additional reading" from Lamentations.  Thus, we end up reading through the whole book of Lamentations during the week.  We did this for the first time a couple of years ago, and it serves as a powerful way to begin each day during Holy Week.  Also, in place of the homily, I simply read the Writing for each day.

Here's what the week looks like bulletin-wise (minus the Easter Vigil and Morning bulletins, and the revised Matins bulletin for Easter):

A BLESSED HOLY WEEK TO ALL!