A Lenten Pilgrimage 2026

Burial Eliza Sewap, Pelican Narrows Daily Office  Liminal We began Lent with sin and death and we end there as well. We read today that the unclean cannot be clean and that mortals die.  We deny ourselves the reality and grief of sin and death and thereby rob ourselves of the assurance and joy of forgiveness and life. There is an awkward silence to this day.  I am not sure what to feel. Relief, that Christ’s agony is over?  Sorrow, as I recall my complicity in this and all injustice and hatred and lies? Despair, as his most good and beautiful life and teaching, ministry and example, work and love have come to a dead end?  Gratitude, as I rest in his finished work?  Hope, as even his death was full of signs of hidden victory? The first time I heard someone use the word “liminal” (from the latin limen, threshold, referring to a transitional space or time), I recoiled. The word sounded pretentious and educated.  Yet here I am to claim that Holy Saturday is Li...

  Is 52:13-53:12; Ps 22;  Heb 10:16-25; 4:14-16, 5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?     Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;     and by night, but find no rest… But I am a worm, and not human;     scorned by others, and despised by the people. All who see me mock at me;     they make mouths at me, they shake their heads; ‘Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver—     let him rescue the one in whom he delights !’ Psalm 22:1-2, 6-8   Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and striking him on the face.   John 19:1-3   I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins. Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer s...

Exodus 12:1-14 Psalm 116:1, 10-17 John 13: 1-17, 31-35   Later today at our Maundy Thursday service we will enter into the Triduum or the Great Three Days, the heart of our liturgical year.   McCauslind’s “Order of Divine Service” says we have two options for the tone of today’s service: the liturgical colour is white and the Glory to God in the Highest is sung to the accompaniment of bells, or the color is red, we don’t sing Glory to God and we must wait for our celebration another two days. I don’t remember which option we follow at St. Augustine’s but Psalm 116 draws me toward the first. After our season of discipline and self-denial, it is time to begin to turn toward celebration, even if it is best done with some reserving of our full release until Resurrection Sunday.   Turning back to Psalm 116, the lectionary has us skipping over verses 2-9 but I find them to express my response to my Lenten journey. “I love the Lord, he heard my cry for mercy.” A season of self-r...

  Daily Office Reflection on John 13   ​It took Leonardo da Vinci almost twenty years to complete “The Last Supper.” At first he struggled to find the right model for Jesus — a model whose face radiated strength, purity and compassion. He was similarly meticulous about finding the right models for the Twelve. This was particularly relevant as the painting would capture the moments following Jesus’ announcement that he would be betrayed by one of the Twelve. For Judas, legend has it that da Vinci sought a model whose face bore the marks of contempt, malevolence, violence and trickery. He found it at a local jail and had the man brought to his studio. Upon the completion of “Judas,” da Vinci showed his work to the man, who, having remained reserved and stoic throughout, suddenly fell to his knees and wept. He asked the artist if he remembered him. The artist regarded the man thoughtfully and replied that he didn’t. As the man continued to weep he asked God to forgive him for the...

  Isaiah 49:1–7; Psalm 71:1–14; 1 Corinthians 1:18–31; John 12:20–36 Holy Week draws us into the mystery of a God who redeems through what looks like loss. It holds together sorrow and hope, rejection and glory, silence and promise. What appears fragile to the world becomes the very place where God’s saving power is revealed. As we move toward the cross, we are invited to see beyond the surface but to discern how grace is working even in suffering. In Isaiah 49, the servant speaks with both confidence and weariness. Called and formed by God from the womb (v.1), His life carries divine intention. Yet, he also voices a painful tension, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all” (v.4). Holy Week allows us to sit with that honesty. There are moments when obedience feels unnoticed, when faithfulness appears unfruitful. Yet the servant entrusts the outcome to God. “What is due me is in the Lord’s hand.” The Father responds by widening the mission that is, salva...

  Illumination from the Vaux Passional England, ca. 1503–4. Peniarth MS 482D, fol. 15v, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. John 12:1-11 Daily Office The intimate scene of the dinner in Bethany, whether it was a thanksgiving feast for the raising of Lazarus or just spontaneous hospitality by these three great friends of Jesus: Martha, Mary and their brother, occurs during a series of events with cosmic proportions.  Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’  (He said this...