How we celebrated Holy Week 2025

Reaffirmation of Alfonso Torres.

"But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15.

 On Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, we  received into membership Alfonso Torres. We have known him and his family for 23 years. Five of his children were among the first to be baptized at our mission on March 25, 2007: 

Psalm 37:4

    • Yexi Karina;

    • Deisy Yovana;

    • Yaneth Andreina;

    • Yovanny Javier;

    • Jhonny Alexander.

Yaneth was the youngest at 18 months. Deisy brought Yaneth to our Sunday school classes and, from 2 to 6 years of age, Yaneth was a 

 in our preschool. Deisy and Yovanny received first communion on October 25, 2009 (Reformation Sunday). Jhonny received first communion on October 31, 2010 (again Reformation Sunday). 

Alfonso and his wife, Maria Cecilia, welcomed another daughter, Diana Carolina, and she was baptized on January 8, 2017 (the dedication of our current sanctuary). Diana also would attend our Sunday school and preschool. She received first communion on October 31, 2021.
Deisy’s daughter, Emely Antonella Estrada Torres, was baptized on December 24, 2017. Two more of Alfonso and Maria Cecilia's grandchildren, Jesuly and Josué Fernández Torres, were baptized on January 6, 2019. We received Maria Cecilia into membership by reaffirmation of faith on September 15, 2024.

Reaffirmation of Maria Cecilia.

The Torres are an example of how family can strengthen the faith and faith can strengthen the family. The great outflow of people from Venezuela has had a devastating effect on many marriages, which have not survived lengthy separations. Of the Torres children, only Yaneth and Diana remain in La Caramuca, but we give thanks to God that they have a home with both parents present and a church home in our mission.

Second part of the Sanctus

Of  course, we began our observance of Holy Week seven days earlier, on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025.

According to John 12:1, six days before the Feast of Passover Jesus arrived in Bethany, where He had raised Lazarus from the dead. When he left for Jerusalem the next morning, a large crowd came out of the city to greet him. Having heard of Lazarus's resurrection and Jesus' other signs, both the residents of Jerusalem and Passover pilgrims came out to greet him as the multitude had welcomed Simon Maccabeus when he entered to drive the Gentiles from the holy city (1 Maccabees 13:51). But Jesus did not approach Jerusalem as a conqueror coming to free Jerusalem from its oppressors and establish his kingdom by force. He was not mounted on a white charger, but on a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9.

He entered Jerusalem as the true King of Kings whose “dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river, the Euphrates, even to the ends of the earth”, but not to make war but to “speak peace to the nations” (Zechariah 9:10).

We remembered this mission with our annual procession of palms and, as we do every Sunday, sang with joy, “Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" in the second part of the Sanctus in our Holy Communion liturgy. As on the first Palm Sunday, the words are drawn from Psalm 118:25-26. The first part of the Sanctus is based on the prophet Isaiah 6:1-5.

 The vocation of womanhood

April 13 also was the fifteenth birthday of Luz Maria’s granddaughter, Anyi Vanesa Garrido Santana. We celebrated her quinceañera that afternoon. The quinceañera is celebrated across Latin America as a religious and a social event that emphasizes the importance of family and society in the life of a young woman as she passes from childhood into adulthood. The Roman Catholic version includes a mass and vows to the Virgin Mary, 

But in our Lutheran quinceañera reaffirmed her baptismal vows. She was baptized here on June 19, 2010. Her parents, along with the entire congregation, spoke the vows for her. Why repeat the baptismal vows at this time? Truly, we should remember our baptism daily, every time we pray in the name of the Trinity. Dr. Martin Luther said to remember your baptism every time you wash your face. But it was a special moment for Anyi to reaffirm her identity as a child of God as she contemplated her future direction in life. Especially because, as a woman, that might involve carrying new life in her womb, something no man will ever experience.

Nor did we forget that most blessed among women, the mother of our Lord (Luke 1:28). When the angel told Mary heard that the fruit of her womb would be the Word made flesh, she simply said, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to your word.” (verse 38). When she heard nearly same words from her relative, Elizabeth, “Blessed are you among and blessed is the fruit of your womb”, Mary broke out into the song of praise we call the Magnificat (Luke 1:47-55). We sang it at Anyi’s quinceañera.

Come, Tell the Story of Salvation
After Palm Sunday, we began a vacation Bible school with the theme, "Come, Tell the Story of Salvation." There are many Pentecostal sects in our area that don't celebrate Holy Week. Their pastors tell them it's a pagan holiday. From Monday to Wednesday, we explained the biblical basis of Holy Week to 20 children. We encouraged them to use the chronology of Holy Week to tell their parents the story of Christ's death and resurrection. It also was the occasion to celebrate the seventh birthday of Emmanuel David Sanchez, Luz Maria’s grandson.

Maundy Thursday in Barinas

We celebrated Maundy Thursday with divine service at the Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barrio El Cambio, Barinas. The epistle designated for Maundy Thursday (1 Corinthians 11:23-32) contains the same words of institution of the Lord's Supper as in the three synoptic gospels. For Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it is part of their account of the Passover meal that Jesus shared with the apostles before his crucifixion. However, in John's gospel, we do not find these words, but rather the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet. In the ancient world, footwashing helped prepare people for specific tasks. 

In the Old Testament ritual context, footwashing was a symbol of purification. Priests were required to wash their hands and feet before entering the Holy Place and offering the sacrifice on the altar (Exodus 30:17-21; 40:30-32; 2 Chronicles 4:6). In Exodus 29:4 and Leviticus 8:6, footwashing is part of the priestly consecration rite. There are parallels in Greco-Roman literature. In the works of Homer and Strabo, people routinely wash their feet before entering a sacred place.

We observed Good Friday at La Caramuca with a Tenebrae service. This liturgical ceremony originated seven or eight centuries after Christ. The purpose of this service was to remember the dark moments that occurred in Jesus' life, from his euphoric entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday until the night of Jesus' burial on Good Friday. The most notable aspect of the service is several lit candlesextinguished one by one while Scripture readings are shared to tell the story of Holy Week.

Praying for peace and liberty

Holy Week of 2017 began with an explosion heard around the world as two suicide bombings killed 44 people at Coptic churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday. The attacks constituted one of the deadliest days of violence against Christians in Egypt in decades.

But some of the violence that marred Holy Week 2017 struck much closer to home for us. Political tension in Venezuela came to a head and five people died as encounters between anti-government protesters and the authorities turned violent.

On Wednesday, a pro-government mob attacked Jorge Urosa Savino, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Caracas as he prepared to celebrate Mass at Santa Teresa Basilica. According to reports, members of the news media also were attacked, and worshippers attending the Mass were robbed of cell phones and other valuables.

 Thousands took to the streets on Caracas on Maundy Thursday for a rally that remained peaceful until the end, when young men clashed with hundreds of riot police who lobbed tear gas to break up the crowd.

During our Holy Week services on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, we remembered in prayer both the Coptic Christians and Archbishop Urosa and his flock in Caracas. We have stressed, for the benefit of those confused by such events as Pope Francis participating last year in a Reformation Day Service with officials of the Lutheran World Federation in Lund, Sweden, that as confessional Lutherans we are not in full doctrinal agreement with either the Roman Catholic Church or the Lutheran World Federation. However, we recognize freedom of conscience and belief as a basic human right, because faith properly belongs to God's kingdom of grace, not to His kingdom of power. Furthermore, any attack on the name and symbols of Christ is a threat and an offense to us as well.

The events of Holy Week 2017 reminded us that as the shouts of “Hosannah to the Son of David” on Palm Sunday turned to “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” on Good Friday, the fame and favor of the unbelieving world is fleeting. We understand that good government, which preserves the safety of the streets and national borders, is a blessing from God, part of the “daily bread” for which we pray in the Lord's Prayer. But we also understand that the only true peace in this world is that which we have in anticipation of our own resurrections on the day when the Lord returns in glory.

Therefore we prayed a prayer based on this collect suggested by the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod Worship Ministry:

Almighty God, heavenly Father, Your beloved Son assured His own that they would suffer in this world and yet called them to rejoice in His promise of a life no death could ever take from them. Strengthen all Your children living under persecution and threat of violence; fill them with Your unshakable peace and use their witness to bring salvation even to their persecutors and slanderers and, according to Your gracious will, bring an end to the bloodshed and violence; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.