Holy Week at Home
Welcome to Holy Week at Home! We at Trinity pray that you will find this sacred and frightening time to also be a time for deep communion with Jesus and his disciples as they experienced his passion, death, and resurrection.
On this website you will find a variety of offerings:
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An introduction to Worship at Home
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Daily meditations on each day of Holy Week, offered by the Trinity Cathedral Canons, added over the course of the week
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A checklist of items you might want to have with you for each service livestream
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A list of worship services for each day:
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The Sunday of the Passion – Palm Sunday
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Maundy Thursday
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The Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday
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The Good Friday Meditation on the Seven Last Words
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Easter Vigil
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Easter Sunday
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Links to additional resources to deepen your engagement
May this be a time for profound inner transformation and deep connection for you, even as we practice personal distancing.
Engaging in Worship at Home
Here are a few additional resources to help you engage more deeply in worship at home, using things you can find easily in your house! Click the video above to learn more about creating a home altar, and to see a few examples.
Home worship suggestions:
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A quiet space: somewhere safe to sit or kneel
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Something to look at
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Art work
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Something to smell or touch or listen to
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Something from nature
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Finger labyrinth
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Chime or bell
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Small dish of water
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Something to do
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Something to read – prayers or a Bible
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Art supplies
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A service to follow
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Prayer beads
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A candle is nice (battery operated is fine!)
Additional links & resources:
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The Story of Holy Week and Easter / A storytelling overview of Holy Week for children to adults, from St. John the Evangelist, Hingham, Massachussets.
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Home is Already Holy / An excellent overview on deepening your family’s spiritual connections during COVID.
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How-to: Setting up a Prayer Table
Palm Sunday
Sunday, April 5
From the proud shouts of “Hosanna in the highest!” to the shameful cries of “Crucify him!” and the dumbstruck silence of the tomb, Palm Sunday takes us through the heights and depths of the human condition as lived in the shadow of fear, death, and political ambition.
Through it all, we watch Jesus, unwavering. We see precisely how God’s love works in the face of human failing. Come with us, and discover the most powerful story ever told.
Service information:
9:45 am Virtual Palm Procession
10:00 am Palm Sunday Holy Eucharist, Rite II
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On Facebook
Items you might want to have on hand for the service:
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Palm, branch, or greenery (any kind is fine!)
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Cross, crucifix, or icon of Christ's passion or death
Additional resources:
Maundy Thursday
Thursday, April 9
Join us, wherever you are, as we participate in the ancient rituals of Maundy Thursday, which can include an Agape Meal, the ritual Foot Washing, the Last Supper, and the Stripping of the Altar.
These touchstones of the Triduum open us to a deep and prayerful engagement with the drama of Holy Week, and we encourage you to find ways to engage in them from your homes, as well as joining us for our online offerings.
Before the service, you might consider having an Agape meal with your family, or setting one up with Trinity friends or neighbors over Zoom. Learn more
Service information:
5:30 pm Agape Meal on Zoom, hosted by Trinity Welcoming Ministries
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You're of course welcome to share a meal with your family, but if you're alone or simply wish to join other Trinitarians for the meal, join us on Zoom!
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Find the password in the Maundy Thursday email (delivered early on Maundy Thursday morning), or email the Welcoming Ministries team.
7:00 pm Livestreamed Maundy Thursday liturgy
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On Facebook
9:00 pm Watch in the Garden of Gethsemane (live feed)
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On Facebook
Items you might want to have on hand for the service:
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For Foot Washing:
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Large basin to receive your feet
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Clean towel for each participant
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Pitcher or water bottle containing warm water
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Your favorite soap, if desired
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For Stripping your Home Altar:
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Storage box or bin
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Dark cloth
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Cleaning supplies
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Additional resources:
Good Friday
Friday, April 10
“’Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch.”
What do we do with our grief? How do we bear it? This service takes us into the heart of the matter, where we encounter once again the wisdom of the ancients borne through centuries of love divine and bitter loss: first, we find our people, then we bear witness to our love. We sing, we pray, we hold vigil, we breathe.
You are not alone: join us.
Service information:
12:00 pm Livestreamed Good Friday Solemn Liturgy
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On Facebook
7:00 pm Seven Last Words: Meditations in a Time of Crisis
A collaborative virtual meditation on the seven last words of Jesus from the cross, with short homilies from clergy around the country (including one from Trinity's own Dean Nathan LeRud) as Christians come together in a time of fear and crisis.
Items you might want to have on hand for the services:
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A cross, crucifix, or icon featuring the cross
Trinity Cathedral’s Lamentation Icon, written by Sherry Lynch and the Iconography Institute at Trinity Cathedral in response to the events of 9/11. The image is modeled after “The Lamentation” by Emmanuel Lambardos, the Younger, (Crete, about 1640 C.E.).
Christ is here laid down before His Cross. Joseph of Arimathea has just taken Him down, and is beginning to wrap His legs with a clean linen cloth while Nicodemos, leaning against a ladder, looks on. Mary cradles her Son tenderly in her arms and laments with John the Beloved Disciple leaning over and the Myrrh-Bearing Women wailing and weeping behind them. Mary Magdalene is standing with arms raised on the left.
Additional resources:
Holy Saturday/Easter Eve
Saturday, April 11
Holy Saturday ends at sundown, when our vigil begins. In darkness, we encounter the New Fire, the Uncreated Source of all life; then we gather around that fire, as we have since the dawn of time, to tell our ancient stories in fresh light. We find the threads that connect us to the entire human drama, and soon we find ourselves woven into that story.
The great drama ends in the surprise of the Easter proclamation, where “even at the grave we make our song, ‘Alleluia!’”
Service information:
7:00 pm Great Vigil of Easter
Items you might want to have on hand for the services:
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Candle (We encourage you to dim or extinguish other lights during the first half of the Easter Vigil!)
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Noisemaker (bell, clapper, whistle, etc.)
Easter Sunday
Saturday, April 12
Put on that Easter bonnet! Dust off your Sunday suit! It’s time to celebrate!
Join us with a skip in your step, from wherever you’ve been holding vigil this long Lent, because the war is over, the battle won! It’s been a long Lent – time now to lay your burdens down and celebrate with those you love. We’ll sing the great songs of joy for Christ’s victory over the grave, and we’ll experience once again that eternal truth: nothing in this world can defeat the resurrection power of love.
Service information:
10:00 am Festive Eucharist
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On Facebook
11:30 am Zoom Coffee Hour & Newcomer Conversations
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See Weekly Email Update or the Easter Sunday email (delivered early on Easter Sunday morning) for passwords, or email the Welcoming Team
12:30 pm Livestreamed Organ Concert by Bruce Neswick
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Hosted by Global Arts LA & livestreamed on the Global Arts LA & Trinity Music Facebook pages
Items you might want to have on hand for the services:
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Easter hat & other finery!
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Take pictures of your family and share in the service feed before the service or at the Peace, and then send them to Communications Director Arwen Myers for inclusion in the next week's Email Update!
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Additional resources: