Holy Week at Oak Lawn UMC
Sunday, 3/29
- Palm Sunday | Procession of the Palms
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Join us on Palm Sunday, Sunday, March 29, for worship at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church as we begin Holy Weekwith the procession of palms
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Together we will wave branches, sing hosanna, and remember that, as Rev. Rachel often says, “Palm Sunday was a protest!” — a bold public witness to the kind of kin-dom Jesus came announcing: one shaped not by empire, but by peace, justice, humility, and holy courage.
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Come ready to enter the story, lift your voice, and walk with us into the sacred tension of the week ahea
Thursday, 4/2
- Maundy Thursday | 7 p.m.
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Join us on Maundy Thursday, April 2 at 7:00 p.m. at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church for a prayerful evening of worship, Holy Communion, and Master, Is It I? — a moving living tableau presented by members of Grace Avenue United Methodist Church in which The Last Supper comes to life through the voices of the disciples.
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Participants are invited to arrive early or stay after worship to walk the Stations of the Cross, a contemplative prayer journey through Christ’s passion in conversation with the realities of today’s world
Friday, 4/3
- Good Friday | 7 p.m.
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Join us on Good Friday at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church for a solemn Service of Tenebrae, as scripture, prayer, and music lead us through the final hours of Christ’s cruxifiction
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Our English & Spanish choirs will help guide the evening as light gradually fades, candles are extinguished, and we hold space for the weight of the cross, grief, and holy silence. Together we remember the depth of love revealed in the darkest hour
Saturday, 4/4
- Easter Vigil on the Lawn | Union | 7 p.m.
- TBD – Come back for inforamtion
Sunday, 4/5
- Easter Worship & Festival
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Join us for Easter worship and festival at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church. Worship begins Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m., where we will celebrate the resurrection, receive new members, and proclaim the hope that shapes who we are: we are Easter people.
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As chosen family, this holiest day of our faith gathers us in joy, belonging, and new life, with our Easter Festival immediately following worship. Please be sure to register so we can prepare to welcome everyone well.
Lent at Oak Lawn UMC
Lent is a forty-day season to slow down and prepare for Easter — not through guilt or self-punishment, but through attention. This year, we’re entering Lent through a simple image: a cup.
Inspired by The Cup of Our Life by Joyce Rupp, we’ll reflect on how transformation happens in ordinary, everyday moments. A cup is simple. It gets filled and emptied. It gets chipped and washed. And still — it holds what we need.
Some of us come to Lent feeling full.
Some empty.
Some cracked.
Most of us — a mix of it all.
This season, we’ll pay attention to our cups.
Our Focus: Practice
This Lent is about steady spiritual practice — small, daily invitations to pray, reflect, and pay attention in the “common crevices” of life. Nothing dramatic. Just faithful beginning again.
Giving as Practice
Consider setting aside $1 per day during Lent — forty days, forty dollars — as a simple act of generosity. You can dedicate it to our Sacred Steps Giving Program, helping sustain the everyday, holy work of hospitality, justice, recovery, and chosen family.
Lent isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about tending the life you already carry. Let’s walk these forty days together — gently and honestly.
Lent Spiritual Practices
You are a love song, beauty set to music. You are a love song, I have chosen you. – Theresa Hucul.
Breathpraver:
- Breathing in: i am.
- Breathing out: … a love song
Reflection: Hold the cup in your hands. Notice its style, shape, color, size. Be conscious of yourself as a cup held in God’s hands. Accept your uniqueness and your goodness. Thank God for creating you as you are.
Scriptures
- Mon: Isaiah 43:1-7
- Tue: John 15:1-11 or 1 Corinthians 3:1-17
- Wed: 2 Corinthians 4:5-12
- Thu: Matthew 14:22-27
- Fri: Luke 12:22-31
- Sat: Psalm 63
Journaling:
- When I think about God loving me unconditionally as I am, . . .
- As I pray through these six weeks of spiritual guidance, I most desire..
- Dear God . .. (write a letter, a song, a psalm, a poem . . . to God)
Prayer:
I turn to you, Divine Creator, and I thank you for the person I am. I am a cup of life.
I have love and goodness within me. Help me to hear your music in my soul today and to smile in gratitude when I think of my own uniqueness. Let me not doubt my value or question my worth. Help me to know and to accept who I am. I am yours. May I bring life to my world.
Today: I will try to be a love song for others. this day.
Space for Listening
When we pray, how often do we say: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”? More often, I think, we say: “Listen, Lord, for your servant is speaking!” – Robert Wicks.
Breath Prayer: Breathing in: I listen… Breathing out: . . . You are here
Reflection: Hold the cup in your open hands. See how the cup sits there quietly. Picture yourself in the Divine One’s hands. Go to the stillness deep within yourself. Allow yourself to be attentive. Just “be” with God. Listen.
Scriptures
- Mon: Matthew 6:19-21
- Tue: Psalm 85:8-13
- Wed: Philippians 2:1-11
- Thu: Psalm 81
- Fri: Psalm 56
- Sat: Matthew 6:5-6
Journaling:
- Dear God, what do you want me to know about “be-ing?”
- What keeps me from listening to the voice of the Holy One?
- I have connected with my inner world recently when….
Prayer: O God, you constantly try to get my attention. You stir and call in the most unlikely places of my lite-people and situations that 1 dismiss as not being able to contain your presence. You beckon me to those corners of my inner being where I’ve yet to discover you. Open me so that I will not miss your presence today. Help me to learn how to “be” and to let go of my need to be swallowed in activity.
Today: For one hour today, I will be especially attentive to every piece of my life so that I will find God there.
The Chipped Cup
The dialogue with God that begins with the confession of our failures is not depressing; it is liberating. Perhaps for the first time we become honest with ourselves and honest before God. Where there is honesty, there is no deception. – Emilie Griffin
Breath Prayer: Breathing in: Held in your mercy… Breathing out:… held in your love
Reflection: Remember one of the failures of your life. Write a word for this failure on a small piece of paper. Place this paper in your cup, symbolic of your self. Hold the cup in your hands. Notice any emotions you have as you hold the failure. Speak to God about your thoughts and emotions. Ask to receive God’s understanding and mercy. Listen quietly to God’s response.
Then take out the piece of paper and tear it to shreds as a sign o f your letting go of this failure.
Scriptures
- Mon: Psalm 139
- Tue: Matthew 7:1-5
- Wed: Psalm 51
- Thu: Psalm 25
- Fri: Romans 9:19-26
- Sat: Psalm 16
Journaling: One failure I still need to forgive myself for is… What do you think and feel about your failures? Have you changed because of them? If so, how? God of mercy,…. speak to God.
Prayer: Wellspring of Mercy, you welcome me home. You understand my human failings. You embrace me in m y incompleteness. You help me move on from failures and defeat. How good and gracious is your kindness to me.
Today: I will greet myself mercifully at least once today.
The Mended Cup – Ezekiel 34:11-16 (CEB)
Waiting is endless…. I wait because I am powerless to do anything else. I wait because what I most treasure is what is deepest within and protected by silence. Out of waiting comes patience. Out of accepting my powerlessness comes strength, love, and the courage to dare. — Christina Lore Weber
Breath Prayer: Breathing in: Healing God… Breathing out:… I hope in you
Reflection:
Turn the cup sideways in your hands. Picture your old wounds and hurts in it. Mentally take them out, one by one. Give them into the Divine Healer’s hands. Now hold the cup upright in your hands. Think about the broken pieces that have been mended. Thank God for these mending times. Ask for patience and hope.
Scriptures
Mon: John 12:20-26; John 16:25-33
Tue: Mark 8:34-38
Wed: Revelation 7:13-17; Jeremiah 31:1-4
Thu: Isaiah 43:14-21
Fri: John 11:1-44
Sat: Ezekiel 34:11-16
Journaling:
What aspect of healing is easiest for me? What aspect of healing is most difficult or challenging?
Write your own life version of “Amazing Grace.” Dialogue with one of the mended parts of
your life (or with one of the wounded parts that is still in the process of being ealed).
Prayer:
God of healing, help me to mend he broken places of my life. Direct my mind and heart to sources of hope and healing. Let me not forget all that remains for me as I ponder what has gone from my life. Be my vision and my strength. Anoint me with the oil of your love and take my
hand as move forward into ever greater healing.
Today:
I will wear a Band-Aid as a sign of my trust in God to heal whatever is broken in my life and as a thank you for what has already been healed
There now flows a constant stream of tenderness, a stream in which all petty desires seem to have been extinguished. Al that matters now is to be kind to each other with all the goodness that is in us. — Etty Hillisum
Breath Prayer:
- Breathing in: We are many …
- Breathing out: . we are one
Reflection:
Hold your cup out in front of you. Stand and face the East. Unite with all beings of the East. Let your heart extend compassion to them. Turn and face the South. Hold your cup out to all who dwell in the South. Unite with these beings. Let your heart extend compassion to them.
Scriptures
- Mon: Matthew 10:40-42
- Tue: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
- Wed: Matthew 25:31-45
- Thu: John 19:25-27
- Fri: Luke 6:37-38
- Sat: Matthew 26:36-46
Journaling:
- I am a fountain of God’s love when. .
- I hesitate, or refuse, to offer the cup of compassion to . . . because…
- Dialogue with an individual or a group toward whom you feel biased or prejudiced.
Prayer:
Dear God, help me to spread your love every-where I go. Penetrate and possess my whole being so fully that all my life will reflect your compassion. Shine through me and be so in me that every person I meet will feel your presence in my spirit. (adapted from the prayer of John Cardinal Newman)
Today:
- I will intentionally offer compassion to someone
- I know who needs my understanding, kindness, and care.
- Ahora fluye un río constante de ternura,
This week, we walk with Jesus—through table, towel, cross, silence, and resurrection.
Breath Praver:
- Breathing in: We belong to one another
- Breathing out: We are one
Reflection:
Hold your hands open as if receiving a cup. This week, notice what is being poured out — love, grief, surrender, courage. On Holy Thursday, we receive love at the table. On Good Friday, we witness love poured out on the cross. On Holy Saturday, we sit with the silence of waiting. And on Easter, we discover that love cannot be contained. The cup of Christ is not only something we receive— it is something we become.
Scriptures
- Sunday: Luke 19:28–40 (Entry into Jerusalem)
- Monday: John 12:1–8 (Anointing)
- Tuesday: John 13:21–32 (Betrayal)
- Wednesday: Matthew 26:14–25 (Preparation)
- Thursday: John 13:1–17 (Foot Washing)
- Friday: John 19:16–30 (Crucifixion)
- Saturday: Psalm 130 (Waiting)
- Sunday: Luke 24:1–12 (Resurrection)
Journaling:
- Where do I see love being poured out this week?
- What part of the journey feels hardest to walk with Jesus?
- What is being asked of me to release, to trust, or to become?
Prayer:
God of the cross and the empty tomb, walk with us through every step of this holy journey. Teach us to receive, to stay, and to love—even when it costs us something. Make us vessels of your compassion. Amen.
Today:
Today, do not rush past this moment. Holy Week is not something we only emember— it is something we enter.
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