Well, my Holy Week music is all ready. And like many years, it's
mostly the familiar, and some of the new ones. Tomorrow, we'll be
singing "O Sacred Head Surrounded" and "All Glory, Laud & Honor" for
our services. And of course, all the good stuff of the long Passion
reading and the blessing and procession of the Palms. I rememeber
that when Sister Corona was our director, she'd have our choir & the
children sing "The Children Of Jerusalem."
"The Children Of Jerusalem
Welcomed Christ The King.
They carried olive branches
and loudly did they sing,
Hosanna In The Highest!"
And of course, another great hymn is "Hosanna Son Of God" by
Marchondia, in which the Lord makes his triumphant entry into
Jerusalem. But remember...Jesus entered his city to die on a cross
and to rise again.
One of the musical aspects of the Mass of the Lord's Supper is when
we have the washing of the feet. Among the songs we've done in the
choirs on Holy Thursday include "The Lord Jesus," which is based on
the account of Jesus washing his disciples' feet and telling him that
his model is what they-and all of us-must follow. The past two years-
we'll be singing it again this Thursday-is "As I Have Done To You,"
in which Jesus teaches his disciples that we must do to others what
he's done to you. The song itself is based on Jesus's last discourse
with his disciples in John's Gospel, the fourteenth & fifteenth
chapters.
I find this particular song moving, since we are seeing a recreation
of the love Jesus showed for his disciples that night of the Last
Supper. After all, it was the night he left his Greatest Commandment
of all:
"Love one another as much as I've loved you."
In many Catholic & other Christian churches around the world, this
night of joy and sorrow will be reenacted as we remember the love
that Jesus has for all of us. He loved us so much that he laid his
life down, but before he did, he desired to dine with his disciples
for the Passover.
And in doing so, he left a symbol of the death he'd endure for us all.

To be continued...