Holy Week & Easter Schedule at Peace

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?  I do have most of the bulletins done, but still have some tweaking to do to a few of them.  Some of the sermons only need slight revisions; others need to be drafted in whole.  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 am - Matins (spoken)*
12 pm - Divine Service (spoken)
7 pm - Divine Service (spoken - same Service as Noon)

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

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

Holy (Maundy) Thursday
7 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 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 am - Matins (spoken)
10 am - Divine Service (spoken)
8 pm - Easter Vigil (w/champagne reception following the Vigil)

Easter Sunday
7 am - Divine Service:  Sunrise Service
8:30 am - Easter Breakfast
9:30 am - Divine Service:  Festival of the Resurrection

Easter Monday
12 pm - Divine Service

Easter Tuesday
12 pm - Divine Service

Easter Wednesday
12 pm - Divine Service
7 pm - Vespers

* 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 last year, and it served 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.

I am especially excited for this Holy Week, since we now have beautiful new scarlet vestments to match our scarlet paraments, thanks to DK Brunner & Son.

I am thankful to Pr. Petersen (Redeemer, Ft. Wayne), who turned me on to the idea of holding Daily (spoken) Mass (Divine Service) throughout Holy Week a few years back.  There is just something very special about speaking the liturgy during these Services - the contrast cannot help but strike you and serves as a helpful aide for meditation during this holiest of weeks.  Plus, when Holy Thursday evening rolls around and we sing the liturgy again, it is spine-tingling awesome, having spoken it in the previous days.  Cool stuff, indeed!