Palm Sunday, the beginning of one of the holiest weeks of the year dawned upon the start of the Holy Week power hour for friends and family in the Benedictine College community.
A Week of Prayer
The Holy Week Power Hour was a 168 hour stretch where 355 participants signed up to pray a holy hour from midnight on Palm Sunday to midnight of Holy Saturday.
Jonathan Jesik, senior and coordinator of the Evangelization Team, felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to take up a biblical tradition in the present day physical and spiritual battle of the COVID-19.
“The Holy Week Power Hour is supposed to reflect the model of the Israelites because the Israelites would go into war and place the worshipers at the front line. And by doing this, God always provided a victory for the war for the Israelites,” Jesik said.
Word of the event was sent to those who registered for the Spiritual Gifts Conference hosted by the evangelization team in late February as well as having video posted on their student run Instagram account ardemus.evangeli. From there students shared it with friends and family.
“Just being able to see familiar names praying, I think gives me a lot of hope and assurance in the Lord’s presence,” Jesik said.
Ravens Will Rise
Lindsay Young, senior, aided Jesik in discerning the will of the Holy Spirit and strongly believed that the Holy Week power hour was vital in helping restore hope lost to Satan during this trying time.
Having only advertised the event the night before Palm Sunday, she was apprehensive that not enough people would see it in time to sign up for all the slots but was heartened by the community coming together to emulate the college’s recent hashtag #Ravenswillrise.
Throughout the week, Young saw Ravens rising to the call of being at the front lines during this time of spiritual warfare.
“They will rise to proclaim the victory of Jesus Christ. They will rise to hope, they will rise to faith, they will rise to love. I’ve just seen Ravens rising in that manner,” Lara said.
A Reminder
Gabby Lara, sophomore, found the idea of the Holy Week power hour refreshing because it helped her prepare for Easter Sunday.
“It doesn’t feel like holy week to me but it has made it feel like holy week but in a different way and has helped me get used to the new normal too,” Lara said
For her, without the adoration chapel she is more reluctant to pray because of her home location; but having a holy hour has taught her to be patient, especially in prayer.
“It teaches you in this time of drought to just really fully trust in the Lord because there’s something the Lord wants to tell us through this holy week and through these hard times,” Lara said.
“We don’t know what it is yet but I’m pretty sure it’s taught a lot of people a lot of things. Maybe it’s time with your family or praying more or relying on him more. But I think there’s going to be fruit that comes out of this.”
Below are pictures students sent in of the prayer spaces used during the Holy Week Power Hour.
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