Holy Week Journal

The deacon chants… and you?

There were many years in my youth that I didn't know what I was supposed to do while the deacon chanted the Psalm for each hour of Pascha services.

I would daydream. I would twiddle my thumbs. I would hum the chant under my breath. I would just wait and try not to fall asleep. It all felt wrong.

- WHAT TO DO? -

The Church that instilled meaning into every nook and cranny of the sanctuary and its prayers--surely she didn't intend for me to twiddle my thumbs through the Psalm chants. 

Surely there was something I was supposed to be doing.

Finally, I decided to do with the time what I do whenever I really want to talk to God. I decided to write. I wrote what I thought. I wrote what I prayed. I wrote my apologies to God. I wrote them on little Post-It notes throughout my Pascha book until the advent of Coptic Reader.

- SOMETHING MISSING -

After using Coptic Reader for a few years, it felt like something was missing. I needed that tactile approach to the Psalm.

I needed to see it in my hands. I needed to be able to run my fingers over the words. I needed to be able to write--with a pen (!) and not my texting fingers. I needed to be able to get back into my true inner room--the place in my heart that I am supposed to open to God.

Finally, I decided to make what I need and share it with you: the Holy Week Journal.

The response to the Holy Week Journal has been overwhelming. So many of you needed something like this, too.

144 pages. Simple and elegant.
The Psalm on one side, lines on the other.
From the first Pascha prayer
on Sunday to the burial Psalm on Friday evening.