Join us on Wednesday of Holy Week at 5:30 p.m. in Miller Hall as we remember Mary Magdalene’s loving anointing of Jesus. The liturgy includes wisdom chant, readings, silence, and anointing of one another. All are welcome.

The Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, who developed this contemplative liturgy invites us to anoint one another, “as the sacramental seal upon all our human passages through those things which would appear to destroy or separate us, but in fact draws us more deeply toward the heart of divine love.”

Bourgeault writes of the impact of adding this service to our Holy Week commemoration: “With the anointing ceremony repositioned as the opening act in the Holy Week drama, the entire shape of Holy Week shifts subtly but decisively…. Thematically, this restoration of the central place of Mary Magdalene in the Holy Week cycle also shifts the emphasis away from the traditional liturgical presentation that Jesus died alone and abandoned, to the scripturally attested witness of Mary Magdalene’s loving accompaniment at every stage in his journey: crucifixion, entombment, resurrection…. The theme shifts from abandonment…to sacrificial love…a course of action voluntarily chosen as the consummation of all that Jesus had lived and taught.”