What do you think?
Rate this book
Walking Through Holy Week
As we approach the Easter season, many of us strive to keep the season intentional and inspirational for ourselves and for our families. However, in our busy and commercial world of fancy baskets and chocolate bunnies, the sacredness of the holiday is sometimes missed, like a well-hidden Easter egg.
This Lent, join Karen May on a journey through Holy Week, discovering the stories and events that will lead to a deeply meaningful experience of Easter.
Each chapter contains
– Scripture from each Mass
– Reflection questions
– Explanations of items, actions, and events from Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday
– An additional chapter devoted to the Stations of the Cross - a traditional practice of Lent.
Done on a weekly basis or simply daily study during Holy Week, Walking Through Holy Week will deepen your understanding and personal connection with the events of Holy Week.
This is also a powerful tool for people entering the Catholic Church on Holy Saturday through RCIA, this book allows the new members to fully experience and understand the events surrounding their entry into the Church.
This Lent, join Karen May on a journey through Holy Week, discovering the stories and events that will lead to a deeply meaningful experience of Easter.
Each chapter contains
– Scripture from each Mass
– Reflection questions
– Explanations of items, actions, and events from Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday
– An additional chapter devoted to the Stations of the Cross - a traditional practice of Lent.
Done on a weekly basis or simply daily study during Holy Week, Walking Through Holy Week will deepen your understanding and personal connection with the events of Holy Week.
This is also a powerful tool for people entering the Catholic Church on Holy Saturday through RCIA, this book allows the new members to fully experience and understand the events surrounding their entry into the Church.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 15, 2018
6 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 14, 2019
The Holy week masses are carefully designed to allow us to walk with Jesus through His passion, crucifixion, and resurrection. I love it whenever I learn more about the context and scripture because it opens up the stories and helps transform it into a personal experience. But I know there's plenty more to discover.
That's why I was so interested in Walking Through Holy Week and I really love it. Each mass is broken down by section, with an introduction to each reading, brief commentary, and questions for reflection. I really like that full scriptural readings are included so you don't have to look anything up. And there are additional scriptural references in the back for anything else that's referred to. I also like that the questions are thoughtful. They make you dig deeper.
For example, the first reading for Palm Sunday has the phrase, "This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled."
Well, no, it never occurred to me to ask that question. I always just take the gospel's word for it. The quoted verses are included with scriptural references in an appendix so they are easily found ... and they give much food for thought, especially when paired with the next two questions:
Modern parallels are also included to help you relate to how regular people at the time would have thought and felt. They are particularly effective especially since they stay away from dwelling on the sentimental. For example, to give an idea of how Jesus' arrest would have struck faithful believers, we are asked to imagine that Pope Francis has been captured by ISIS and put on trial. There is a thrill of shock at the idea and it helps us remember the vivid horror of events covered in Holy week.
Since stations of the cross are traditional for Good Friday, each of them is covered with the same thoroughness.
Use it during Holy Week or use it all during Lent as a study. This book is a real treasure for anyone who wants to enter into Lent and especially Holy Week more fully. Although it is centered on the mass readings and Stations of the Cross, any Christian is going to get a deeper understanding of Christ's passion, crucifixion, and resurrection.
That's why I was so interested in Walking Through Holy Week and I really love it. Each mass is broken down by section, with an introduction to each reading, brief commentary, and questions for reflection. I really like that full scriptural readings are included so you don't have to look anything up. And there are additional scriptural references in the back for anything else that's referred to. I also like that the questions are thoughtful. They make you dig deeper.
For example, the first reading for Palm Sunday has the phrase, "This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled."
Have you ever wondered who that prophet might be, and how the reader is supposed to know about it? This reference is a combination of two verses. Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9, and would have been easily recognized by the Jewish people.
Well, no, it never occurred to me to ask that question. I always just take the gospel's word for it. The quoted verses are included with scriptural references in an appendix so they are easily found ... and they give much food for thought, especially when paired with the next two questions:
1. Read the passages from Isaiah and Zechariah 9. After reading these scriptures, what would you have expected Jesus to do after he entered Jerusalem?I suddenly understood why people expected a triumphal political leader ... and what the reality was that Jesus had come to achieve. It is all there, set up for us by the two ancient prophets.
2. The Book of Zechariah continues with descriptions of battle and triumph, but changes suddenly from tales of success and glory to descriptions of grief and desolation. Read Zechariah 12:10-13:1. What are some of the things that point to what Jesus is about to do?
Modern parallels are also included to help you relate to how regular people at the time would have thought and felt. They are particularly effective especially since they stay away from dwelling on the sentimental. For example, to give an idea of how Jesus' arrest would have struck faithful believers, we are asked to imagine that Pope Francis has been captured by ISIS and put on trial. There is a thrill of shock at the idea and it helps us remember the vivid horror of events covered in Holy week.
Since stations of the cross are traditional for Good Friday, each of them is covered with the same thoroughness.
Use it during Holy Week or use it all during Lent as a study. This book is a real treasure for anyone who wants to enter into Lent and especially Holy Week more fully. Although it is centered on the mass readings and Stations of the Cross, any Christian is going to get a deeper understanding of Christ's passion, crucifixion, and resurrection.
March 4, 2019
Lent is a time of preparing for Easter in the Christian Church, and Holy Week is that week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday—a time that encompasses delighted welcome, confusing celebration, dire despair and amazing wonder. In the Catholic church, Holy Week is celebrated with a series of special events, and Karen May’s Walking Through Holy Week introduces each of these, including texts of the prescribed readings (so the book is easy to read without needing to look things up), and bringing each part of the story vividly to life. She invites her readers not just to share the experience, but also to allow themselves to be changed by the events, offering well-thought-out “Food for Thought” questions, together with intriguing insights, context and personal involvement.
Walking Through Holy Week, to my mongrel-Christian mind anyway, is not just for Catholics. A non-Catholic Christian seeking to experience more of Easter will be quickly drawn in. Follow the Stations of the Cross and feel like you’ve really walked that road with Christ. Read the Psalms and find them tied to other Scriptures—a holy unity that we too easily forget. On Good Friday share the desolation of an empty tabernacle and mourning disciples. Then on Holy Saturday read the whole story in (the whole) Scripture, “Waiting, remembering, rejoicing.”
Walking Through Holy Week invites readers into a personal experience of Easter, an all-encompassing experience of past, present and promise, and a beautiful exploration of familiar Biblical passages. It’s highly recommended.
Disclosure: I was given a copy and I freely offer my honest review.
Walking Through Holy Week, to my mongrel-Christian mind anyway, is not just for Catholics. A non-Catholic Christian seeking to experience more of Easter will be quickly drawn in. Follow the Stations of the Cross and feel like you’ve really walked that road with Christ. Read the Psalms and find them tied to other Scriptures—a holy unity that we too easily forget. On Good Friday share the desolation of an empty tabernacle and mourning disciples. Then on Holy Saturday read the whole story in (the whole) Scripture, “Waiting, remembering, rejoicing.”
Walking Through Holy Week invites readers into a personal experience of Easter, an all-encompassing experience of past, present and promise, and a beautiful exploration of familiar Biblical passages. It’s highly recommended.
Disclosure: I was given a copy and I freely offer my honest review.
April 21, 2019
I am one of those people that believe in God but I also don’t know that much about the bible. I do know about Jesus’ trial, the crucifixion, and resurrection, I saw the movie. I also know there is more to the story and that I really need to sit down and learn. So when I was asked to review this book I jumped at the chance. This would be a great way to learn more about Holy Week, even if I didn’t know what that was.
Walking Through Holy Week broke the week and explained it to me and showed me there was so much more to Easter than what I knew. It breaks down the masses for each day, gives you scripture, and then asks you questions to think about what you just read. Really place yourself into the scripture and understand it in your way. I love how it drew me into each section and made me question myself, my feeling, and understanding.
I am writing this review the day before Easter for an amazing book that should have been posted a week earlier. But it has taken me this long to formulate what I wanted to say about this book. The book is written for Catholic mass but being Christian it helped to broaden my understanding.
If you have ever wanted to know more about Holy Week I strongly recommend getting a copy of Walking Through Holy Week. It is an engrossing and enlightening book that will help broaden your understanding of such an important time of year and worship.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.
Walking Through Holy Week broke the week and explained it to me and showed me there was so much more to Easter than what I knew. It breaks down the masses for each day, gives you scripture, and then asks you questions to think about what you just read. Really place yourself into the scripture and understand it in your way. I love how it drew me into each section and made me question myself, my feeling, and understanding.
I am writing this review the day before Easter for an amazing book that should have been posted a week earlier. But it has taken me this long to formulate what I wanted to say about this book. The book is written for Catholic mass but being Christian it helped to broaden my understanding.
If you have ever wanted to know more about Holy Week I strongly recommend getting a copy of Walking Through Holy Week. It is an engrossing and enlightening book that will help broaden your understanding of such an important time of year and worship.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.
March 19, 2019
Making the Events of Holy Week More Personal
Many Christians are so familiar with the events of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, that we don’t think deeply about how it must have felt to live those events. Karen May wanted to make the events of Holy Week more personal so that people could experience the tragic events as a reality.
In the preface, she tells the story of Alice, a convert to Catholicism. Karen believed that Alice’s understanding of the mass was limited so, as her Confirmation sponsor, she set out to make the experience of Holy Week more meaningful. This is the genesis of much of the personal material in this book.
The book takes each event in Holy Week giving Bible readings, questions, and personal observations. I found the personal discussions particularly interesting. Early in the book, she gives a description of how a modern parallel might play out and how we would feel. It makes you think about the people in Jerusalem at the time of Christ’s crucifixion and how average people might have reacted to it.
Although this book is written around the Catholic mass, I think it’s appropriate for any Christian. It helps to make the story of the last days of Christ on earth come to life.
I received this book from PR by the Book for this review.
Many Christians are so familiar with the events of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, that we don’t think deeply about how it must have felt to live those events. Karen May wanted to make the events of Holy Week more personal so that people could experience the tragic events as a reality.
In the preface, she tells the story of Alice, a convert to Catholicism. Karen believed that Alice’s understanding of the mass was limited so, as her Confirmation sponsor, she set out to make the experience of Holy Week more meaningful. This is the genesis of much of the personal material in this book.
The book takes each event in Holy Week giving Bible readings, questions, and personal observations. I found the personal discussions particularly interesting. Early in the book, she gives a description of how a modern parallel might play out and how we would feel. It makes you think about the people in Jerusalem at the time of Christ’s crucifixion and how average people might have reacted to it.
Although this book is written around the Catholic mass, I think it’s appropriate for any Christian. It helps to make the story of the last days of Christ on earth come to life.
I received this book from PR by the Book for this review.
April 19, 2023
We covered this study for our Lenten Mom’s Group Bible study and it was the perfect companion to prepare for Holy Week. It offered thoughtful reflections and great discussion. This is a study that can be used year after year and I look forward to revisiting it in the future!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews