by Hannah Pollok
Though campus will shut down for Easter Break late this week, there will be several opportunities for students to participate in Holy Week activities before leaving for break.
Holy Week, which beings Sunday with Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Sunday, includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
The chaplain’s office has several events and services planned for the first part of the week.
This year, the week will feature a walk through stations of the Cross experience, a chapel including students who went on the Israel FLARE trip and a Holy Week Tenebrae service.
Stations of the cross will allow students an opportunity to walk through and reflect on what Christ experienced on His journey to the cross. The services will be available throughout Holy Week and held in Boone Monday night through Wednesday night.
“I think this experience will help students take time to meditate on the true meaning of Easter,” said Kaylee Carley, liaison to the Office of the Chaplain and resident director of ladies’ apartments.
Carley has been working with SGA and RHA student chaplains to prepare the stations for the event. Each chaplain has a responsibility during the services. Carley and the student chaplains also arranged a prayer room for Spiritual Deepening Week earlier this year.
“Discipleship is the call to take up your cross and follow Jesus. These stations are a focal practice of Christian discipleship,” said Shawna Songer Gaines, university chaplain.
Tuesday morning’s chapel will involve hearing from students and staff who went to Israel over spring break. Students will have the opportunity to watch some of the footage from the holy sights that the FLARE team visited.
On Thursday morning, there will be a Holy Week Tenebrae service.
“Tenebrae is the Latin term for ‘darkness’. In this service we will hear the words of Jesus and watch as the light is slowly extinguished. The last light to be extinguished is the light of Christ,” said Gaines.
The Christ candle has been lit during every chapel this school year, and Gaines has been talking about the people who walk in darkness and have seen the light of Christ.
“In the Tenebrae service, we recognize that without Christ we are merely people in darkness,” said Gaines.
When to go:
4/10: Stations of the Cross (Monday night through Wednesday night in Boone)
Monday 6-9 p.m.
Tuesday 6-9 p.m.
Wednesday 10-11a.m., 6-9 p.m.
4/11: Students from the Israel FLARE trip
4/13: Holy Week Tenebrae
