Washington National Cathedral

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This year during Holy week the Cathedral offers three new worship services that explore the profound gift of love expressed in the Passion and death of Jesus Christ. While the order of each service is similar each of the three nights, each evening explores this unconditional divine love from different Scriptural perspectives. The Song of Solomon, the great poem of love from Hebrew Scripture, is the unifying text that is our response at the beginning and the end of each night. While no sermon is offered at these services, those gathered are invited to reflect silently on how this great love story of God for humankind is interwoven with their lives and their own intimate relationship with God.

Monday takes as its theme the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Using Scriptural narrative as the basis, poetry and musical meditations provide opportunity to assess our own vanity and shame. Selections include “Invocation” by MacMillan, “Valiant-for-Truth” by Vaughan Williams, and Parry’s “Lord, let me know mine end.”

Tuesday evening’s service focuses on the story of the Tower of Babel and invites reflection on the triumphs and tragedies of the towers we build in our own lives. Thomas Tallis’s choral masterwork Lamentations of Jeremiah alongside Scripture and poetry encourages close examination of what we are truly seeking.

The Anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany is the scriptural starting point for Wednesday in Holy Week. Her provocative act, set against Scarlatti’s “Stabat Mater” and considered through the lens of the love songs of the Bible and the sacred poetry of George Herbert, leads us into deep reflection on how far we are willing to go for the sake of Love.