Reenacting the Passion of Our Lord

The time from sundown on Holy Thursday to sundown on Easter Day is also known as the Triduum, which is Latin for “three days.”

I cannot even begin to explain or tell you how very special Palm Sunday is to me and how very special this day and the meaning of this day is to me and what effect it has on my faith journey each and every yeart of the importance of this day.

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Holy Week is the last week of Lent.

This year 2011 the eve of Passover falls on April 18.  The Jewish calendar date begins at sundown of the night beforehand. Thus all holiday observances begin at sundown on the secular dates listed, with the following day being the first full day of the holiday. (Thus, the first Passover Seder is held on the evening of the first date listed.) Jewish calendar dates conclude at nightfall.
The first two days of Passover (from sundown of the first date listed, until nightfall two days later) are full-fledged, no-work-allowed holiday days. The subsequent four days are Chol Hamoed, when work is allowed, albeit with restrictions.

Holy Week observances began in Jerusalem in the earliest days of the Church, when devout people traveled to Jerusalem at Passover to reenact the events of the week leading up to the Resurrection.

Egeria was a Christian who traveled widely during the period of 381-385 and wrote about Christian customs and observances in Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor. She described how religious tourists to Jerusalem reenacted the events of Holy Week. On Palm Sunday afternoon, the crowds waved palm fronds as they made a procession from the Mount of Olives into the city. Of course, the observances must have begun quite a number of years before Egeria witnessed them, or they wouldn’t have been so elaborate. It’s just that Egeria’s description is the earliest we still have. The tourists took the customs home with them. Holy week observances spread to Spain by the fifth century, to Gaul and England by the early seventh century. They didn’t spread to Rome until the twelfth century.   Much of her time would have been spent in travel to and from the East. Once in Constantinople, it would have taken her eight more weeks to reach Jerusalem, traveling 21 miles a day over 1200 miles. Egeria also must have been a lady of some leisure and wealth to have spent three years traveling in the East. She may have been a nun and wrote her narrative for her fellow-nuns back in Spain. Possibly she had some connections with the imperial court at Constantinople. Emperor Theodosius the Great was from Spain. Though no mention is made of Egeria in the surviving court records, the very fact that she arrived in Constantinople about the same time as the Spanish Theodosius suggests some connection. Theodosius' wife Aelia Flacilla and his niece Serena were staunch Christians and implacable foes of paganism. What relationship, if any, Egeria might have had with these devout ladies is unknown.

The purpose of Holy Week is to reenact, relive, and participate in the passion of Jesus Christ.

Holy Week is the same in the eastern and western Church, but because eastern Christians use the Julian Calendar to calculate Easter, the celebrations occur at different times. All Orthodox churches continue to use the Julian Calendar when they calculate the date of Easter and holy days that are dependent on the date of Easter. Some Orthodox churches still use the Julian Calendar for all holy days, such as the Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Georgia, Russia, and Serbia and the other Slavic churches. If you have been watching the news on television, you may have noticed that Christmas was celebrated on 7 January in Serbia and Russia. That is because the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church use the Julian Calendar for all holy days. Currently, Julian 25 December falls on Gregorian 7 January.
In computer technology, the term julian date does not refer to the Julian Calendar. It is a misnomer for a method of ignoring the months and numbering the days of the year consecutively from 1 to 365 (or 366).

 However, the following events in the week before Easter are the same, east and west, relative to the date of Easter:

• Palm Sunday (or Passion Sunday), the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. 
• Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday), the institution of Communion and the betrayal by Judas.
• Good Friday, the arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus Christ.
• Holy Saturday, the Sabbath on which Jesus rested in the grave.

We can reconstruct Holy Week from Scripture:

Friday: Preparation Day, the Passover

The disciples arranged for the Passover meal, which took place after sundown on Thursday. We might call it Friday Eve, because by Jewish reckoning, the day begins with the previous sunset. That’s why we call 24 December “Christmas Eve.”

Jesus and the disciples ate the Passover in the upper room. They ate it early, which was not uncommon. In that era, most Passover Seders did not include lamb, because most Jews lived too far away from the Temple to obtain a lamb that was kosher for Passover. Therefore the disciples, who were from Galilee, would have been accustomed to a Passover Seder without lamb.

Judas left during the meal. Jesus and the remaining disciples adjourned to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed and the disciples kept falling asleep. Judas arrived to betray Jesus, who spent the rest of the night being tried by the Sanhedrin and by Pilate.

The following morning, which was still the same day by Jewish reckoning, the Crucifixion significantly took place just as the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple. Matthew 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:55-56, and John 19:31 all inform us that this took place on Preparation Day, which is the Jewish name for Friday. Mark and John explain that the next day was the Sabbath.

Later the disciples realized that in giving them the bread and pronouncing it His body, Jesus Himself had been the Passover lamb at the Last Supper. Thus Jesus, our Passover lamb, was sacrificed for our sins on Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), and His blood protects us from the angel of death.

Jesus died on the cross and was buried before sunset. So Friday was first day that Jesus lay in the tomb.

Saturday: the Jewish Sabbath

Jesus rested in the tomb on the Sabbath. According to Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1-3, and Luke 23:56-24:3, the day before the Resurrection was a Sabbath. This is the second day that Jesus lay in the tomb.

Sunday: the first day of the week, the Festival of First Fruits

On the third day, Jesus rose from the grave. It was the first day of the week and the day after the Sabbath, according to Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1-3, Luke 23:56-24:3.

John 20:1 says the Resurrection took place on the first day of the week. He does not explicitly say that the previous day was the Sabbath, but there is no room in his narrative for any intervening days.

The first day of the week is the Jewish name for Sunday. Sunday is also the eighth day after the creation in Genesis, so Paul describes Jesus’ Resurrection as the first fruits of the new creation in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23.

Notice the following:

• Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all inform us that the Last Supper and the Crucifixion took place on Preparation Day. (Remember, for them the day begins at sunset.)
• Mark and John inform us that the next day, the day after the Crucifixion, was the Sabbath.
• Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John inform us that the Resurrection took place on the first day of the week.
• Matthew, Mark, and Luke inform us that the day before the Resurrection was the Sabbath, and John heavily implies it.

Ancient Christian writers confirm this reconstruction. In The Apostolic Constitutions, Book V, Section III, it says that the Last Supper occurred on the fifth day of the week (Thursday), that Jesus was crucified on the next day (Friday), and rose on the first day (Sunday), and it explicitly states that this constitutes three days and three nights. The Apostolic Constitutions uses Roman-style midnight-to-midnight days, so this squares with the New Testament’s use of sundown-to-sundown days. It also says that Jesus gave the apostles a commandment to pass on to us, to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays; the first to commemorate His betrayal, the second to commemorate His passion on the cross.

Therefore, it is obvious that the Crucifixion took place on a Friday, that Jesus rested in the tomb on Saturday, the Sabbath, and rose from the grave on Sunday. So, you might ask, why didn’t the gospel writers just come right out and say that it was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? The answer is that they did, for the circumstances under which they wrote. They were writing for an audience beyond Palestine, and in the Roman Empire of the first century, there was no general consensus about the names of the days of the week, the number of the current year, the names and lengths of the months, the date of the New Year, or the time at which the day began. On that last point, the day began at midnight in Egypt, at sunrise in Greece, and at sunset in Palestine. So even though it is not what we are used to, the gospels are really worded in such a way as to make the dates and times comprehensible to anyone in the Roman Empire who was familiar with the Jewish Scriptures.

When you count days you get a different answer than when you subtract dates. If you go to a three-day seminar that begins on Friday, you expect it to end on Sunday, because Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are three days. However, if you subtract the date of Friday from the date of Sunday, the answer is two elapsed days. The ancients counted days instead of calculating elapsed time—in fact, Jesus Himself may have counted days this way in Luke 13:31-32. This is why the tradition is universal that Jesus spent three days in the tomb when He was buried on Friday and rose from the dead on Sunday. All intervals in the Jewish and Christian calendars are calculated the same way, which is why Pentecost falls on a Sunday and not on a Monday.

Palm Sunday is April 17^th and Many Jews will celebrate with their family on Sunday night April 17^th how many times this does happen in history????

As I savor the evening of April 17^th with family and friends I will also savor the thought of how lucky I am to have been Baptized on Palm Sunday, what special meaning this day has for me each and every year!!!!

Happy Easter and Shalom Passover!!!

The Role of the Stephen Ministry Caregiver and Skills of Communicating

A major part of my learning curve as a Stephen Minister, is not only learning how to aid and help each individual take care of and face their feelings and emotions, but also learning how to communicate with the people I am a Stephen Minister to but also communicating in an effective way.   I have found nonverbal communication is a very big deal, and through this and other types of communication, we have the ability to offer the presence of caring, comfort, support, and respect while helping each individual as they travel on a spiritual journey of their own..
The first learning that I found myself applying as a SM was developing my listening skills for active, critical, and empathic listening. As SM’s we know these three types of listening are important in the communication between the SM care giver and the SM care receiver because listening and responding appropriately results in better understanding and can build a better relationship between the SM caregiver and the SM care receiver.

·        Active listening is being mentally engaged in the needs of what the person is expressing.

·        Critical listening is observing the needs that the care receiver is stating and how you the SM caregiver will take on in carrying out and providing the opening for the spiritual needs the person is expressing.  However, critical listening occurs when you still want to understand what the other person is saying, but also have some reason or responsibility to evaluate what is being said to you and how it is being said. The key though, is to try to understand the other person FIRST, before one evaluates.

·        Empathic listening is understanding what the person is saying from their perspective and repeating back to them the importance of their needs being taken care of. Empathic listening is important because caregivers have to show the person that they are there as a SM and to help be a source of caring and compassion on their spiritual journey. 

CRF I have already learned that a person culture, religion past and present and their family history and their current family all play a significant role in just how ones sees themselves and how they tackle whatever it maybe they are facing.

·        Culture plays a part in communication, so a person’s cultural views must be understood and respected.   

·        Religious beliefs and influences a major part of their life.

·        Family, the history of ones past helps us all deal with the future. Understanding these important personal facts and the individual’s personal history helps from day one. 

Another learning curve is just how words have the power to create and affect attitudes, behavior, and perception. Using appropriate language is important because the wrong words can ruin a relationship that fragile between the SM caregiver and the SM care receiver. In order for communication to be effective, caregivers need to be open to the views and behaviors of the people they care for, every generation is different, and so a certain amount of understanding and change must be met for positive communication to occur.  The behavior of today would not have been acceptable in the 50’s and the behavior of the 60’s what can I say.  We have changed but some of our views and opinions have stayed in the past and we have to respect the individual’s history and time of when they were teenagers, young adults and young parents.  Some things never change.


I have also learned about the three  T's 

Touch, To much space and Time

Touch and body language are both important and a very delicate subject matter.  Do I hold their hand when I ask “would you like to go to GOD and share a word of prayer?” I first ask CAN I hold you hand. 
I have learned that touch is an expression of caring and warmth, but is also a very intimate matter. Nonverbal communication accurately reflects the person’s true feelings, rather than spoken language; this is because nonverbal expressions are involuntary expressions that cannot be controlled.  The individual may say yes but their body language has all the signals of NO. SM caregivers must pay close attention to their care receivers gestures and their own reactions, in order not to give the wrong perception. The body language of the caregiver should show compassion, enthusiasm and respect to the person receiving care. Caregivers should not only be focused on the verbal but on the nonverbal messages and expressions being sent out at the same time.
Too much space between the caregiver and the person receiving care can give a bad perception. Being too close can be uncomfortable and can be considered as violating the privacy of the care receiver. The SM caregiver needs to be able to notice what space and distance is appropriate, maybe you need to be close due to hearing aids etc, this depends on the attitude and need of the individual person. 
Time is also essential for the caregiver, Arriving on time and being proactive, gives a positive perception. Arriving late and being lazy gives a negative perception.
Caregivers must let the people receiving SM care express their feelings or concern without the caregiver adding their own opinions, or judging feelings, this can lead to the wrong idea and a breakdown of communication. Caregivers that are new to the job may have a tendency to talk too much when a SM care receiver is silent, both expressions can be because of nervousness or a lack of comfort, sometimes silence is okay so both parties may have a chance to warm up to each other.
Remember:

·        Listening and truly letting the individual know you DO understand.

·        Effective non verbal communication and the three T’s  is very important, when it comes to truly caring for someone.

·        Identifying the CRF’s hearing of the individual’s history, what made them who they are today, positive communication and understanding of who they are equally important as well. 

These are just a few of my observations in my months as a SM caregiver.   

Hope they are helpful to you on your journey as a Stephen Minister.  

If you want to learn more about Stephen Ministries visit their website at   www.stephenministries.org 

Martha's Discovery Of The One Necessary Thing Luke 10:38-42

Martha's Discovery Of The One Necessary Thing    Luke 10:38-42
Jesus had three friends who lived in Bethany. He would occasionally stay in their home when He was in Judea. Lazarus, Mary and Martha were brother and sisters. They lived together in the same house which probably was owned by Martha. At least, Luke records that it was Martha who welcomed the Lord into her house (LUKE 10:38). Bethany was located on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives on the road linking Jerusalem to Jericho. It was just over a mile and a half from Jerusalem, or about a half hour's walk. It would have been a very convenient place for Jesus and His fellow Galileans to stay when visiting Jerusalem for a feast day or on some other occasion. Also, its proximity to the garden of Gethsemane should be noted. Though we only have the record of the Lord's final visit to Gethsemane for prayer and His subsequent arrest there, we know that it was a favorite place of His while in the Jerusalem area. Luke records that it was His custom to go to that particular place (LUKE 22:39,40).

There are three passages of Scripture which mention Martha. They are LUKE 10:38-42 when Jesus taught in her home while she busied herself preparing food for her guests; JOHN 11:1-44 when Jesus raised her brother Lazarus from the dead and JOHN 12:2 when Jesus visited her home just six days before His crucifixion. We find her busy again preparing food while her sister Mary anoints Jesus' feet with costly perfume.

LIFE'S DISTRACTIONS
"And she had a sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord's word, seated at His feet. But Martha was distracted by all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, 'Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me." (LUKE 10:39,40). Both Mary and Martha are disciples of Jesus. These two women deal with Jesus' visit in two different ways. It is certainly important to observe something just now: it was not an either/or proposition for them or for us. We do not have to choose between worshiping the Lord like Mary or serving the Lord like Martha. Neither does there need to be such a conflict between our physical or secular needs and our spiritual growth. Sadly, that is exactly what many believers end up with.
A careful reading of the context shows us that Mary had been in the kitchen with Martha until Jesus started teaching. Note Martha said that her sister had left her alone to do all the serving.
But Jesus knows that neither Mary nor Martha can live by bread alone (MATTHEW 4:4). It was now time to digest some spiritual bread and feed the soul. Martha was being distracted from her soul's needs by other things. The other things in this case are not bad things. Sometimes, even good things can fill up our lives to the point where we neglect our souls. God has not blessed us with our families, friends, jobs, abilities and other gifts to give us an excuse to abandon a close walk with Him. Without Him we can do nothing (JOHN 15:5).

DO NOT LET SO MANY THINGS WORRY YOU
"But the Lord answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things." (LUKE 10:41). Anxiety is a killer. Many of the physical and mental ills of our present day are stress related. And Martha is certainly a stressed out lady at this point in time. Her exasperation can be seen in the way she forms her question, "Lord, do You not care...?" I can well imagine her "stewing" for a time in the kitchen (where else would you stew?) before being emboldened to charge into the room in such a way. And certainly the Lord does care, but not nearly as much about the problem as Martha sees it as He does about the real problem of which Martha is unaware. The Lord is more concerned about Martha's state of mind and priorities than He is about being served a feast later on.
Where faith grows, anxiety lessens. This is one of the chief lessons Jesus taught earlier in His ministry during what we call the sermon on the mount; "Do not be  anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?'... But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (MATTHEW 6:31-33). Having the correct set of priorities (putting His kingdom first) will greatly reduce your chance of heart attack.

THE NECESSARY THING
"...but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her." (LUKE 10:42). The good part which Mary had chosen was to listen to the Lord's teaching. In the final scheme of things, the things Jesus said that day were of much more importance than what He ate. Today, if we are too busy to commune with the Lord; to pray and study His word; to meditate on life's purpose and to enjoy a peaceful, private time with Him, then there is something horribly wrong with our practice. If our walk of faith consists mainly of going to church and then on with life's busy day then we are not receiving of the goodness that the Lord has planned for us. And if we are so hassled by  the routines of daily existence that we find ourselves  lashing out at those we love as Martha did on that occasion, then isn't that a good indication that something  needs fixed?

THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE
"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if He dies." (JOHN 11:25). After Lazarus had died, and as Jesus  approached Bethany, it was Martha who ran to meet Jesus while Mary remained at the house. Her first words seem to mingle faith and complaint; "Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died. " (JOHN 11:21). While one does not want to condone the complaint, it must be understood that many of the faithful have complained about one thing or another. Abraham, Job, Moses, David and Jeremiah to name a few. God seems to have more patience with this than He does with faithless grumbling and foolish accusations such as those made by the Israelites in the wilderness.
Martha's faith in Jesus never wavered. When Jesus asks her about her belief in Him, she sums up her faith this way; "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He that comes into the world." (JOHN 11:27).
Jesus had earlier said only one thing is really necessary. I believe He was referring to faith. Faith comes by hearing His word (ROMANS 10:17). Faith overcomes the world (I JOHN 5:4). Without faith it is impossible to please God (HEBREW 11:6). We must keep the faith to receive the crown of righteousness at life's end (II TIMOTHY 4:7,8). For that reason, the gospel is taught that men and women might be led to the obedience of faith (ROMANS 16:26).
Jesus approached the tomb where Martha's brother's body lay. Four days before he had died. But the One with the keys to death and Hades was about to call Lazarus back to this realm. Martha would soon be reunited with her brother.

A BALANCED APPROACH TO SERVING JESUS
"So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him." (JOHN 12:2). Here we find Martha serving again. This time the purpose of the gathering is to have supper. The end of Jesus' ministry is approaching, and it seems as if both Mary and Martha are far more aware of the fact than even the apostles. Mary anoints Jesus' feet with costly perfume and weeps openly. Martha does the thing she evidently knew the best. She fixes our Lord a dinner for perhaps her last time. No complaint this time. The Lord is about to go to the place from which He had called Lazarus. But remember who we are talking about. It is Jesus, whom Martha had identified as the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus had identified Himself as the resurrection and the life. He had proven it by raising her brother from the dead. He would prove it again on the third day following His own death. He would live again!