Spending Holy Week in Chartres was my plan for 2020. I was looking forward to being encouraged, inspired, and deepened by the beautiful, meaningful services. While COVID-19 may have made travel impossible and emptied the cathedral, photographs of past Holy Weeks can still help us to enter into this time of reflection and prayer.
My Prayer:
God, as the Chartres Cathedral can not welcome worshippers, tourists, the curious, the devout, or even more than one or two of the clergy that serves there, may its beauty still move us all deeper into Your heart of Love.
Life of Christ Window (1145-55)
Invitation to Prayer:
of Chartres Cathedral
Remember those you have worshipped with in the past. Pray for them, that this Holy Week might draw them deeper into the heart of Christ.
Sculptural Frieze on the West Wall (1145)
Pray that we will all find new ways to be in community.
Ask that you might discover ways to encourage others to walk with Jesus this Holy Week.
Scriptural Touchstone:
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival. Psalms 42:4 NRSV
Images
All images were taken on Palm Sundays in the past decade.
To Understand These Images Better
Jesus’s Entry into Jerusalem: The Life of Christ Window
Jesus’s Entry into Jerusalem: Sculptural Frieze
Previous blog on Palm Sunday in Chartres by Jill
The Sunday Mass (Palm Sunday 2020–Bishop & 4 liturgists) at Chartres (in France)
Worship Sheet: Palm Sunday Liturgy 2020 in Chartres
to be blessed.
Posts from recent blogs:
Images of Death in Chartres Cathedral
Life and Death
Talking about Death
Suffering
Hanging On Before Letting Go
Goodbye
Considering Our Lives
Possibilities in Times of Grief
Pray with Jill Geoffrion 
From her archives.
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Barbara, thanks for your comment. It says From her archives. Not sure if this is what you meant to post? If not, please try again. Blessings!
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Simple, lovely. touching. Thank you.
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Thank you for the beautiful photos, prayers, verses, and suggestions for prayer. They also draw me into so many rich memories I have of Holy Week spent in Chartres. They also help me transcend my current context–which, as lovely as it is, does not (yet) have the ability to inspire worship and prayer in the same ways.
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Ah, Jill, I remember my Holy Week in Chartres 2004, an absolute revelation. Thank you for recalling it. i do hope there will be more images through the week. I wonder about Yves who is here at my computer desk in a picture from 2005. Much love to you.
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Judith, I have always enjoyed our encounters in Chartres. Now is the time to pray for all those who have sheltered in shadow of the cathedral, including Yves. He is most likely at home in his apartment near Chartres, but those who have begged near the cathedral are surely in greater need now than ever.
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