Holy Week Guided Prayer

Holy Week

As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly, to re-center my scattered senses upon the presence of God

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. It marks Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, where crowds welcomed him with palm branches laid along the road, symbolizing victory and triumph.

As the days continue, we consider the path to the cross, the shifting in people’s hearts–some moving closer toward Jesus and some being so far removed as to call for his death. On Holy Thursday, we remember the Last Supper, the Passover meal Jesus shared with his disciples and gave new meaning as he revealed himself as the bread and wine. On Good Friday, we will reflect on the Passion of Christ, the sacrifice he endured to restore us. Holy Saturday, when Jesus lay in the tomb, his friends and family broken-hearted, scared, and confused, we quiet ourselves, listening for His voice in the stillness. Then, on Easter Sunday, we celebrate with all of Heaven, Jesus’s victory over sin and death! Because of his power, we. are. free! 

Join with the saints who have gone before you and those all around the world in these prayers of Holy Week:

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the Cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O Lord our God, whose blessed Son gave his back to be whipped and did not hide his face from shame and spitting: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Assist us mercifully with your grace, Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the meditation of those mighty acts by which you have promised us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Almighty God, we beseech you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the Cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.