Lent at St James Cathedral
The Season of Lent ... Where is God inviting you to go?
Ash Wednesday
February 22 @ 7:30AM in St Andrew Chapel, and 12:10PM and 6:00PM in St James Cathedral
Ash Wednesday is a sober, beautiful, dusty rite that invites us into the Lenten journey.
Inquirer's Class
March 5, 19 and 26 @ 9:30AM in the Cathedral Undercroft, enter at 671 N Wabash
The Cathedral's Inquirer's Class is is and engaging conversation where seekers ponder and reflect on the questions of faith.
The Way of the Cross with Sabeel
Sundays @ 10:00AM in St Andrew Chapel on March 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th
The Cathedral's seminarian interns lead us through the Stations of the Cross in our chapel, inviting us to meditate on the agony of the people of the Holy Land and pray for a just peace.
Evensong
Sundays @ 4:00PM in St James Cathedral on February 26th, March 4th, 11th, 25th and April 1st (No Evensong on March 18th)
A quiet, intimate form of our Lenten Sunday Evensongs, week after week, prompt us to engage the Prayer Book daily offices with new attention.
A Practical Christianity
on-line book study
Bishop Lee leads the diocese in his virtual book study, pondering the wisdom of Jane Shaw, Dean of Grace Cathedral, as she holds out A Practical Christianity."
Brahms at St James
Sunday, March 18 @ 3:00PM in the Cathedral, $10 suggested donation
With organ accompaniment provided by visiting artist Jonathan Ryan, the Cathedral Choir and soloists present one of the most powerful works of the Romantic period: Johannes Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem. Capturing the essence of human grief, the German Requiem is not so much a mass for the dead, but rather a mass for those who live and grieve.
Holy Week
We move through Holy Week and come to Easter out of the experience of being the Church at prayer and worship. This is how faithful Christians have entered the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection for close to two thousand years.
The Holy Week liturgies, as found in our Prayer Book, have their roots in the practices of the early church. Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil take us to the heart of the Gospel and they are essential rites of worship for a Christian community.
These are curious and complicated liturgies in many ways, full of unusual ceremonies and lengthy scripture readings. Over the course of three days, the church reenacts the fullness of the Paschal Mystery, the dying and rising of Christ, and our own incorporation into that mystery.
Palm Sunday
April 1 @ 8:00AM in St Andrew Chapel, and 9:00AM and 11:00AM in St James Cathedral
Palm Sunday carries two distinct themes and the mood shifts in the middle of the service. The church, the altar, clergy and crosses will be garbed in blood red, as a reminder that all we do this week is shadowed by a death on the Cross.
The liturgy of the Palms recalls the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The congregation gathers outside of the Cathedral doors. We bless and distribute palms and then move in procession into the Cathedral. The symbol of the Holy City for us this week is the holy space of our own church and the procession enters it, as followers of our Lord.
The moment of triumph is short lived. Those who shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David,” soon find themselves shouting “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The Passion from the Gospel is chanted this year. Ancient voices become our own, and we are drawn into the Way of the Cross. The story of the Crucifixion prepares us to rehearse the events of Jesus’ last days during the week to come. We move to the altar for Eucharist, in mind of Jesus’ suffering act of love for all humankind.
CROSSwalk
April 2 @ 5:30PM beginning at St James Cathedral
CROSSwalk is a four-mile Holy Week procession across the heart of the city to remember murdered youth and connect participants with opportunities to protect children, mitigate violence and support families struggling with these issues. CROSSwalk is not a protest march. It is a vigil, one tied directly to follow-up action.
CROSSwalk will take place on Monday, April 2, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at St. James Cathedral (Huron and Wabash). It will travel through the Loop to a stop at Daley Plaza (Washington and Dearborn), proceed to Old St. Patrick’s Church (Adams and Des Plaines) and end at the lawn outside Stroger Hospital. Participants are welcome to walk the entire route, walk part of it, or simply join us for short programs at any of the stops along the way. Buses will also be available to help transport people from place to place.
Franz Joesef Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ
Tuesday, April 3 @ 7:00PM for the lecture, 8:00PM performance, $10 suggested donation
During their career which began in 1970 at Marlboro, the Vermeer Quartet earned a reputation as one of the world's great chamber music ensembles. Four years after retiring from the concert stage, they return to Chicago to perform Haydn's Good Friday Masterpiece.
Triduum
Maundy Thursday | Good Friday | The Great Vigil of Easter
Maundy Thursday
April 5 @ 6:00PM
We come to church this night as if to join Jesus in an upper room. He knows, as do we, that the hour of betrayal is at hand. He leaves his disciples with mysterious words and simple rituals that will be forever signs of his loving presence in their midst.
On this night, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples as a concrete act of love and service. So we wash the feet of those in the congregation who are moved to participate in this act. It is a messy, uncomfortable ritual for most of us. It was for the apostle Peter.
We offer the Eucharist, as always, in remembrance of Him. In bread and wine, Jesus gives us the Sacrament of his Body and Blood, on the night before he died.
At the end of the Eucharist, the clergy carry the Sacrament to the altar in the narthex (the Altar of Repose). Then, the ministers, acolytes and altar guild strip the altar and sanctuary; the choir chants the 88th psalm. We are reminded that our Lord’s body was stripped of his garments. The bishop washes the altar, as the women would have washed the dead body of their friend. The church is left bare and darkened. The congregation leaves in silence.
Good Friday Liturgy
April 6 @ 12:10PM in St James Cathedral
The most solemn day of the Christian year calls us to the Cross. The Prayer Book Liturgy picks up where the Maundy Thursday service left off, in silence and in a darkened church. We hear the Passion from St. John’s Gospel, where the Crucifixion is described as Jesus’ victory over the powers of the world, and his return to the Father in glory.
Then follow the Solemn Collects—ancient prayers of the church, that place all of creation under the judgment and mercy of Almighty God, in light of Jesus’ offering of himself. A wooden cross is carried to the front of the Church so that the congregation might meditate upon this symbol of our redemption.
The Sacrament (consecrated the night before) is brought from the Altar of Repose. We confess our sins, pray the Lord’s Prayer, and receive this sign of God’s love for us.
The church is left in silence, bleak and bare, like a tomb. But we leave with a sense of peace and confidence that God is not done yet.
The Great Vigil of Easter
April 7 @ 8:00PM
The Bishop of Chicago baptizes, confirms and receives candidates at this service.
The Great Vigil of Easter is the celebration of the Christian Passover. God led the Hebrews out of the bondage of slavery into freedom. So God leads us from the bondage of sin into new life, from the clutches of death into the promise of eternal life.
We begin in darkness, lighting the new fire of Easter. We light the Easter Candle, and from it will light our own candles. The procession follows the candle bearer into the dark church as the minister proclaims, "The Light of Christ."
The sanctuary is dark and the organ is silent. A minister sings the Exsultet, an Easter hymn of the early church. Then, still in a dark church, we hear a series of Old Testament Lessons about the mighty acts of God: the creation of all life, the covenant with Abraham, and the liberation of the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt.
We move to the font for Baptisms. In the early church, the Easter Vigil was always the traditional time to baptize new converts to the faith. And then as we welcome the newly baptized the Bishop proclaims the Easter Acclamation, "Alleluia! Christ is risen!"
And the congregation responds, "The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!"
The lights in the church come up; the altar is decked with festal raiment and the flowers are placed all round. The organ comes alive and we sing and ring bells as we announce the Resurrection. We read the Easter Gospel and joyfully celebrate the first Eucharist of Easter.
The Feast of the Resurrection
April 8 @ 7:30AM, 9:00AM and 11:00AM in St James Cathedral
We celebrate the Queen of Feasts on Easter Morning. All Easter Day liturgies are celebrated in the cathedral. The 7:30 Eucharist is a simple celebration. The 9:00 Choral Eucharist is followed by an Easter Egg Hunt in the cathedral. A Festal Eucharist is celebrated at 11:00 am.
Where is God inviting you to go?
