As we enter Holy Week and approach the Triduum, we wanted to share these reflections from the Mar-Apr Evangelist.
Gwen Odney attended a beautiful Catholic church in North Dakota for 25 years. Holy Week was special there, and it was meaningful for her to attend the services with the rest of the congregation, marking Jesus’ death and his resurrection. “We all went through it together,” she said. When the church was eventually closed, it was “heartbreaking.” There was a period of real grief and mourning that followed the closure.
Gwen and her husband Eric moved to the Como Park area 20 years ago. She continued to be a churchgoer, and attended Holy Week services. However, she says, “I kind of avoided Good Friday for years because I’m not very penitential.” She also pointed out that her work as an elementary school teacher did not usually give her the day off for Good Friday.
Gwen and Eric joined St. John’s last spring. After Holy Week and Easter here, I sat down with her to talk about her experiences attending our services. She spoke warmly and enthusiastically about the church: the intimacy, the community, the feeling of connectedness and support, and the sense that “we’re all here because we want to be.”
That especially came through during the services of the Triduum: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Great Vigil of Easter on Saturday night. By tradition, these three days are celebrated as one continuous service. There is one bulletin that covers all three days. At the end of worship, there is no dismissal; rather, the priest says, “We will continue our service tomorrow.” Gwen found this aspect “really powerful” because it told her, “We need to be there!”
She attended worship on Thursday evening (the foot-washing was “wonderful”) and the Stations of the Cross at noon on Good Friday.
The next day, she said, “it felt like we were going to miss something if we didn’t go to the vigil. We’re all going to Jerusalem together. We know how it’s going to turn out, but we want to experience the journey together.”
She and Eric attended Easter morning worship at 10am with her son, daughter, and grandchildren. It was a “brand new day” with blossoms on the trees outside, and with Jered, Kate, and Margaret welcoming everyone.
At the service, three people made a point to say hello to her son Peter. She pointed out afterwards, “Now you know three people.”
“Actually, it’s better than that,” he replied. “Now I know three people who want to know me.”
