A Note from Pastor (March 2024)

During March, we move steadily through the season of Lent to Holy Week and the cross as we prepare to celebrate our Lord’s resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday.  Throughout these forty days of Lent, the paraments of the church change to reflect the different emphasis from Sunday to Sunday.  This year, we are blessed to have a new set of paraments that reflect the nuances of the season very well.
    The liturgical color for most of Lent is the very familiar purple (or violet), which represents the royalty of Christ and the suffering and future glory of our humble Lord and king.  However, on Laetare, the fourth Sunday in Lent, the less familiar color, rose, is used as a subtle reminder that our Lord’s time of suffering will soon be at an end.  
    Beginning with the Sunday of the Passion, also known as “Palm Sunday,” the paraments change to scarlet.  Scarlet is a different shade of red reminding us of the shed blood of Christ.  On Maundy Thursday, the color changes back to white, as our Lord institutes His supper and gives His disciples the promise that He will always be with them; a reminder of Christ’s coming resurrection and victory over death.
    Good Friday finds the altar and cross draped in black as we simultaneously grieve and marvel that God’s Son willingly died to atone for our sins, as the life of the Light of the World is snuffed out.  Finally, the white paraments return at the Easter Vigil in anticipation of Easter Sunday, and the joyful celebration that Christ has risen, He has risen indeed!  But as we look forward to that day, do not forget how the colors of the church help inform and prepare us along the way.