“We humans MUST overcome our obsession with apocalyptic thinking and behavior. If we cannot overcome our endgame fetish, I fear one day we will—oh crap! I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”
TEDx Applicant quoting from Christopher Columbus’s ship log, who by the gift and power of God had plagiarized Mark Twain’s yet-to-be-written diary
A Poem for Palm Sunday
come
wave around
tomorrow’s ashes,
ashes, ashes, we all
follow fronds, or lofted
wands, plucked causes,
sunny young turning old,
tomb food cooking in dust
on rock, atop those fallen
asleep in hope—yesterday’s
green becomes today’s gray,
procession of holy, shrouded
skeletons—trudging bones
smile down at His hungry
worms, plowing hallowed
worshippers made soil,
ashes, ashes waving
green,
ashes
yet to
be, or
ashes
now
ablaze,
lit by
sunrays
—ash—
matter
made
might…?
Let’s Head into Holy Week
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading! My palm-frond-shaped poem was sparked by the tradition in which fronds used in Palm Sunday services are turned into the ash that priests will daub on people’s foreheads next year on Ash Wednesday. Kinda beautiful, but also kinda haunting. To see a classic example of concrete (shaped) poetry, read George Herbert’s Easter Wings.
Holy Week 2024 is upon us, and hopefully you are looking forward to it. With complete sincerity, speaking as an agnostic Mormon, I bear you my testimony that—wherever you are on your faith journey—Holy Week can be a source of nourishment by way of giving time to contemplation. Here are some suggestions:
- Start with this Encyclopedia Britannica entry about Palm Sunday, a Christian tradition that goes back to the 4th century
- Then, here is Britannica’s entry on Holy Week
- Either in-person or online, attend one or more of the traditional services held during Holy Week. I prefer Catholic mass for this, but other branches of Christianity also offer special services on these days: Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday (aka Maundy Thursday), Good Friday, Holy Saturday (Vigil Mass), Easter Sunday
- Reread one of the Gospels. Consider forgoing the King James Version to explore a fresh and accessible translation like Thomas Wayment’s edition for Latter-day Saints
- Sure! Watch that classic Holywood epic, The Ten Commandments
- Or, if you have a taste for the peculiar, here’s my tradition: 1) attend an Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday (you need not be Catholic to attend). 2) After the vigil mass, watch the horror classic The Exorcist in the dark. Boy! You will feel relieved with the sun comes up on Easter morning
I sincerely hope you will dedicate some of the coming days to Holy Week observance. In the comments section below, please share your reactions to this post. Also, share how you intend to observe Holy Week in the context of Mormonism.
Wheat & Tares 
Beautiful poem! I remember watching the Ten Commandments with my parents around Easter time growing up when it would play on TV. I also remember us switching the tradition to watching Prince of Egypt at some point. I have fond memories of both.
Am I the only person who thinks it is surreal (in a positive way) that LDS across the globe are celebrating Holy Week? If we keep this up, we may even adopt some more cool Christian tradi
My wife is part of a FB page for seminary teachers (we’re early morning away from the center place, not on the payroll). She is shocked at some of the posts complaining about how to teach Easter for a whole week. Some are planning to press ahead into Jacob, with maybe a day for Easter, but not more. Some are looking for chapters in the BoM that talk about salvation. Some are complaining that there’s not enough material to teach Easter over five days. Are these good LDS people Christians? They are Mormons, but are all Mormons Christian if Christ isn’t their focus? Don’t people realize that over half of John’s gospel covers the last week of Jesus’ life? Half the book! There’s tons to teach. We plan to teach the events from the raising of Lazarus to Peter and John running to the empty tomb, using great (medieval, renaissance, great masters, so non-LDS) art as the visuals. We’re going to do a history lesson, a chronological harmonizing of the events as told in the four gospels: what Jesus taught, what He did, and what happened to Him. There’s more than enough material to teach for five days in seminary. I’m sorry, Elder Stevenson: the 3 Nephi 11+ story isn’t about Easter. That is the next chapter, and it is an important one, the post-Easter message of spreading the good word in Judaea, Samaria, and all the world. But the Easter story, for me, is about the utter shock at losing the Messiah, in whom they trusted, and then the surprise, wonder, and confusion at finding the tomb empty. I pity the students whose teachers can’t make 4-5 lessons about Jesus trials, death, and resurrection.
The LDS church may say they are celebrating Easter but it doesn’t look like that from where I live. My local ward is “celebrating” Palm Sunday by holding ward conference. And “celebrating” Easter Sunday by having testimony meeting. Because the week after is General Conference, so fast and testimony meeting got bumped. My musical number just got cancelled as it was decided that having a musical number (about Easter) was not appropriate use of time for a testimony meeting. In the rest of the Christian world, the time leading up to Easter is the fasting part of the cycle, with Easter the feast of celebration after making it through the time of mourning to the resurrection day of triumph. Instead we are doing nothing for the leading up part and having a fast and travel reports for the day of.
niki-la, I’m sorry they cancelled your musical number. That’s just lame and overreach, and maybe fear of some in the ward of offending the Brethren by risking a small step outside correlation and convention. Hopefully they make that up to you soon. In a Christian Church, if that is what it is, there is no Sunday of the year when an Easter musical number would be inappropriate. Thank you for sharing your experience here, frustrating though it has been
I think the first time I heard claiming General Conference as a celebration of Easter was on my mission by a CES leader who was also the ward mission leader. Didn’t quite buy it then. Don’t buy it now. This is why I suggest the traditional masses done by Catholic and other faiths. One hasn’t truly immersed themselves in Easter observance until they’ve had a worship experience that is singularly focused, decorated as it tends to be in candles, music, scripture, incense, and pageantry. Just sayin’
As I get ready to watch Palm Sunday mass in a few minutes, I’m so grateful for each of your comments.
In fairness, I just looked over the Church’s website. And with minimal drilling down, they do have a decent Holy Week landing page. Granted, it’s decked out with plenty of in-house advertising via email subscription boxes and missionary visit sign-ups. But there are paintings, scripture references, and nice use of the Show/Hide web design for people who want to read further about a specific day. Worth a look. The Church will notice in its web analytics if this resource is utilized:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/easter/holy-week?lang=eng
There is a local (non-LDS) church that is hosting a multi denominational sunrise service at the edge of a lake early Easter Sunday morning. I plan to attend that next Sunday. It sounds like a beautiful way to begin Easter morning. It might be a bit chilly. We have been blessed with some desperately needed snow this week but I am looking forward to it. Wearing boots and gloves as needed
Niki-la, I feel your pain with testimony meeting on Easter. A few years ago, our main Easter speaker was a high councilor (because it was HC Sunday) who spoke about the stake’s employment program that they were trying to set up. I wish that I was joking. It is easy for outsiders to look at us and call us non-Christian. It isn’t that we have to act like them, but can’t we at least focus on Christ on Easter Sunday? Apparently not–because having 12 testimony meetings per year, or talking about employment programs, trumps focusing on the Savior on Easter. If I hear that my ward is doing testimony meeting on Easter (I haven’t heard yet), I would take my family and go elsewhere. Maybe the argument is Easter, Smeaster: we worship Christ all year long, so who needs Easter. I think a day for remembrance isn’t a bad thing, and joining with the rest of the Christian world in praising Christ might build a little solidarity. We remember what Jesus told John, when the latter asked Jesus to stop others who were casting out devils in Jesus’ name without authority: “For he that is not against us is on our part.”
Today was stake conference for me, and Palm Sunday was briefly mentioned by one of the speakers in passing, but none of the talks contained any messages from the Gospels or the life of Christ. However, every speaker made a point to mention General Conference coming up in 2 weeks, and gushed about how wonderful it is to have a living prophet, etc. It reminds me of Brad Wilcox’s insensitive remark about how all non-LDS denominations are just “playing church”. With our lame attempts at recognizing Holy Week, it looks as though we are the ones pretending to be real Christians, and doing a rather poor job of it.
Some other thoughts about Palm Sunday come to mind. I remember years ago, during an institute class while studying the NT, I privately wondered how it was possible that the devoted followers of Christ who laid palms at His feet on a Sunday were also probably the same people who were calling for His crucifixion just a few days later. I couldn’t comprehend how a literal witness (and possible direct recipient) of Christ’s goodness could turn against Him so quickly. At the time, I put it on the shelf as just another one of those many biblical paradoxes. But years later, as I watched an antichrist run for president and overwhelmingly win in Utah both times, it became a bit more apparent to me how easy it is for large numbers of supposedly righteous followers of Christ to be misled (despite being baptized, confirmed members possessing the Gift of the Holy Ghost), and how truly hypocritical some devout “Christians” can be. These feeble attempts at Holy week nowadays are not helping my overall outlook for the future of the Church.
Yesterday’s talks? Zero about Palm Sunday.
Attended a United Church Good Friday service this morning. I enjoyed it very much. The sanctuary is bare, the usual tapestry and decorations all removed. The hymns were new to me, all focused very tightly on the death and sacrifice of Jesus. As were the scriptures. The sermon placed us the congregation in the place of those who desired Jesus’s death, a message repeated in the beautiful choir number. The service ended with the Solemn Remonstrance call and response which again placed us the congregation in a place of guilt, where we plead for mercy from the Lord. Then the Pastor blows out the Christ Candle, which had been lit at the beginning of the service and walks out in silence carrying the darkened candle. The congregation leaves also in silence. All in all, a moving and somewhat disconcerting experience. I’m glad I went
For some reason, our small 1A Utah rural school drama students are at a state meet in Kanab, UT. Not only is it Easter week but it’s also Spring Break. Being with a couple of hundred high school drama students in a town that lives on being in the middle of ring of National Parks makes me wonder if Easter is even happening. My wife, the drama teacher, and I will celebrate Easter Sunday by overcoming exhaustion, and staying away from our local ward just to avoid further aggravation from a Testimony Meeting.
I will say that in years past, observing Easter and/or Christmas at a Catholic or Lutheran Church or our small local Methodist Church has always be a special experience.
Instereo,
It wasn’t testimony meeting this week. Just a meeting on Easter with Easter music, and no meetings afterwards. My understanding is that’s specifically what RMN directed the wards to do.