Holy Week
The last week of Lent is one of special devotion as we remember Christ's Passion. The word "Passion" comes from the Latin word patior, meaning "I suffer". Athanasius, in his Festal Letter of 330, referred to it as "holy Paschal week."
Greek and Roman worship books called it the "Great Week" because great deeds were done by God during this week. In the 4th century, Bishops Athanasius of Alexandria and Epiphanius of Constantia used the name "Holy Week".
At first only Friday and Saturday were observed as holy days. Wednesday was added later as the day on which Judas plotted to betray Jesus. And by the start of the 3rd century the other days of the week had been added.
The pre-Nicene Church celebrated just one great feast, the Christian Passover, on the night between Saturday and Easter Sunday morning. But by late in the 4th century the various events had been separated and people began commemorating them on the days of the week on which they had occurred:
- Palm Sunday (or Passion Sunday, depending on how a church celebrates the day)
- Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday): Judas' betrayal and the institution of the Lord's Supper (Holy Communion)
- Good Friday: The suffering, crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus
- Holy Saturday: Jesus' body rests in the tomb
- Easter Sunday: The Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ
The early Church of Jerusalem organized dramatic ceremonies during the week at appropriate local holy sites that had been restored by the Emperor Constantine. Visitors were so moved that many of these ceremonies, such as the Palm Sunday procession and the Good Friday reverence of the cross, have spread from Jerusalem to churches worldwide.
The complete Holy Week
in Scripture and Hymns
Hymns below are in the public domain. Numbers are the Hymn number in the United Methodist Hymnal (UMH).
Sunday
Event: The Triumphal Entry, Jerusalem
Hymns
- UMH 278: Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
- UMH 280: All Glory, Laud, and Honor
- UMH 154: All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name
Monday
Event: Jesus curses the fig tree
Event: Jesus cleanses the temple
Tuesday
Event: The authority of Jesus questioned
Event: Jesus teaches in the temple
Event: Jesus anointed, Bethany
Wednesday
Event: The plot against Jesus
Thursday
Event: The Last Supper
Hymn
- UMH 599: Break Thou the Bread of Life
Event: Jesus comforts the disciples
Event: Jesus prays at the Garden of Gethsemane
Hymn
- UMH 290: Go to Dark Gethsemane
Thursday night and Friday
Event: Jesus' arrest and trial
Friday
Event: Jesus' crucifixion and death, Golgotha
Hymns
- UMH 282: 'Tis Finished! The Messiah Dies
- UMH 165: Hallelujah! What a Savior
- UMH 289: Ah, Holy Jesus
- UMH 294: Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed
- UMH 286: O Sacred Head Now Wounded
- UMH 295: In the Cross of Christ I Glory
- UMH 296: Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle
- UMH 297: Beneath the Cross of Jesus
- UMH 298: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
- UMH 301: Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross
- UMH 511: Am I a Soldier of the Cross
- UMH 624: Bread of the World
- UMH 287: O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done
Event: The burial of Jesus, Joseph's tomb
Sunday
Event: The empty tomb, Jerusalem
Hymns
- UMH 307: Christ Is Risen
- UMH 302: Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
- UMH 322: Up from the Grave He Arose
- UMH 318: Christ Is Alive
- UMH 653: Christ the Victorious
- UMH 173: Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
- UMH 327: Crown Him with Many Crowns
- UMH 365: Grace Greater than Our Sin
- The bells of Easter
Our Response ...
- UMH 530: Are Ye Able
- UMH 298: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
- UMH 163: Ask Ye What Great Thing I Know
- UMH 304: Easter People, Raise Your Voices
- UMH 424: Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone
- UMH 361: Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me
- UMH 415: Take Up Thy Cross
- UMH 504: The Old Rugged Cross
- At Calvary
Related references
- Easter
- Easter Drama
- Good Friday
- Holy Saturday
- Holy week
- Holy Week (BBC)
- Holy Week & Easter artwork - new 4/3/2010
- Maundy Thursday
- Palm Sunday
- Passion (of Christ)
- The Passion ( BBC ReJesus site)
- The Passion (The Life)
- Passion Plays - history
