Holy Week

I'm feeling very frustrated right now.  Today was Palm Sunday, as many of you will know.  For those of you who don't know, it's a BIG deal.  It's the start of the week often referred to as Holy Week or Passion week.  It's the week that starts with glory, ends with glory and has a whole lot of darkness in the middle.  As a Christian, this is the biggest week in the year, the time when we are pondering the biggest mysteries of our faith and celebrating Jesus and who He was and is.  Why doesn't it seem like anyone is paying attention?

I get frustrated every year.  I'm not Catholic and I'm from a background that teaches me not to celebrate too soon - the pain has to come before the joy.  Most Protestant churches don't do Holy Week to the same extend that Catholic ones do (our former church in Toronto did a Thursday night service but neither the church we used to worship at or our current church even have a Maundy Thursday service and while there are mentions of Holy Week, we aren't given much guidance as to how to honour it).  Here I am, in the midst of what is supposed to be so important and yet I can't seem to find a way to make the world slow down or to make the world around me notice.  I'm just as busy and in fact, probably busier as I try to get Easter treats purchased and made, attend Worship Team rehearsals and clean my house to host family when really, I'd like to go to a retreat and hide away.  It seems so strange to be at work on Thursday and dealing with all that busyness and yet also try to be read for church (both practically and in my head) that evening.  It's even worse on the years that Passover corresponds with Maundy Thursday - Dh and I try to do a Messianic Seder and trying cooking lamb and doing a lingering meal in that madness. 

I don't know what the secret is and I can honestly say after spending some time online and browsing Pinterest, nobody else seems to have the answer.  I guess it can be said that there is a lesson here in terms of focusing on Jesus and the Story while I am in the midst of a very insanely busy life but it's a lesson I'm having trouble learning and I'm finding it very frustrating.