Commontide
Liturgical Color: Violet
Palm Sunday
Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the Cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Holy Week
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. For our sins he was lifted high upon the Cross, that he might draw the whole world to himself; and by his suffering and death he became the author of eternal salvation for all who put their trust in him.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Red Letter Day
Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Red Letter Day
Wednesday in Holy Week is the fourth day of the week of the Passion, kept with the Gospel of the bargain struck between Judas Iscariot and the chief priests. The earliest description of the day comes from Egeria, a pilgrim in Jerusalem in the early 380s, who heard that reading in the cave of the Anastasis at night. In the East the day sets the woman with her ointment against the price paid for the Lord; in the West it long carried the evening office of Tenebrae.
Wednesday of Holy Week carries the informal name 'Spy Wednesday' — a medieval English designation recalling Judas Iscariot's agreement to betray Jesus to the chief priests (Matthew 26:14–16, Mark 14:10–11, Luke 22:3–6). The Synoptic Gospels place this arrangement two days before Passover, and the tradition of associating Wednesday with Judas's treachery is attested from at least the early medieval period. In the Byzantine tradition, this day is called 'Holy and Great Wednesday' and is associated with the anointing at Bethany (Matthew 26:6–13), where the woman's lavish devotion stands in deliberate contrast to Judas's calculating betrayal — the one pouring out costly nard, the other selling his Master for thirty pieces of silver. The Western lectionary tradition has varied over the centuries in which Gospel passage it assigns: some years emphasizing the anointing, others the conspiracy. The day also holds typological significance as the last 'ordinary' day before the Triduum begins at sundown on Thursday. In the early Church, Wednesday and Friday were already established as station days — days of fasting and prayer — which gave Wednesday of Holy Week a natural intensification of the regular Wednesday fast. The overlap with Passover preparation in Jesus's own time adds a further layer: as the Jewish community prepared lambs for slaughter, the Lamb of God was being handed over by one of his own.
The liturgical observance of Wednesday in Holy Week has been shaped by two parallel streams. In the East, the emphasis falls heavily on the anointing at Bethany and the contrast between devotion and betrayal; Byzantine hymnography for this day is rich with references to 'the sinful woman' who recognized Christ while Judas did not. In the West, the medieval tradition gave the day its popular name 'Spy Wednesday,' and the focus shifted more toward the conspiracy narrative. The BCP 2019 places this day within the protected days of Holy Week — no other observance can displace its propers. When the Annunciation (March 25) falls during Holy Week, it is transferred, illustrating the absolute liturgical precedence of these days. Some parishes observe Tenebrae services on Wednesday evening as anticipatory preparation for the Triduum, though the BCP itself assigns the principal Tenebrae elements to Maundy Thursday. The day serves as a hinge between the teaching ministry of Holy Week's earlier days (when Jesus taught in the Temple) and the Passion narrative that begins in earnest at the Last Supper.
The husband of Mary and the legal father of Jesus, a working man of Nazareth who is never once quoted in Scripture. What the Gospels give him instead is a pattern: he is told something in a dream, he gets up, and he does it. He named the child, which was the father's act and made the fatherhood legal, and then he disappears from the record so completely that the Church has had to infer his death from silence.
Joseph is introduced in the Gospels as 'the husband of Mary' (Matthew 1:16) and as 'the carpenter' (Mark 6:3, though some manuscripts attribute this description to Jesus). Matthew 1:18–25 presents Joseph's dilemma and its resolution: Mary is found to be with child before they have lived together; Joseph, 'being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,' resolves to dismiss her quietly. But an angel appears to him in a dream and says, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.' Joseph awakes and does as the angel commands — he takes Mary as his wife and names the child Jesus.
Matthew's infancy narrative (1:18–2:23) presents Joseph as the protector of the holy family. He travels with Mary to Bethlehem for the census, witnesses the birth, receives the Magi, and is warned in a dream of Herod's intention to kill the child. He flees with Mary and Jesus to Egypt and remains there until another dream directs him to return to the land of Israel. He settles in Nazareth in Galilee, fulfilling the prophecy 'He shall be called a Nazorean.'
Luke's infancy narrative (1:26–2:52) assigns Joseph a more secondary role. Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem for his circumcision and presentation. After the Transfiguration is past, Luke notes that Jesus's parents 'did not understand the saying that he spoke to them' (2:50), indicating the mystery surrounding Jesus's divine identity.
After Luke 2:43, Joseph disappears from the Gospel narratives. Jesus's public ministry begins with no mention of Joseph, and the Gospels make clear that Jesus's family — including Joseph — did not initially understand or support his ministry (Mark 3:21, John 7:5). Joseph is not mentioned at the Cross or after the Resurrection. The traditional explanation is that Joseph died before Jesus's public ministry began, sometime between Jesus's childhood and the beginning of his ministry at approximately age thirty.
Traditionally, Joseph is described as an elderly man — older than Mary — at the time of their betrothal. The Protoevangelium of James (2nd century) presents Joseph as a widower with children from a previous marriage, introduced as a guardian rather than a true husband. This tradition developed to preserve the conviction that Mary bore only one child, Jesus, and that the 'brothers and sisters' of Jesus mentioned in the Gospels were Joseph's children from a previous marriage or, in the Eastern tradition, cousins.
Joseph's profession as a carpenter and his role as Jesus's earthly father became the basis for medieval devotion to Joseph as the model of humble labor, family fidelity, and the sanctity of ordinary work. He is invoked as the patron of workers and of the dying (because tradition holds that Jesus was present at Joseph's deathbed, granting him a 'happy death'). Late medieval and post-Reformation Catholic piety expanded Joseph's veneration significantly, though this expansion has no patristic foundation.
Joseph's silence in the Gospels — he speaks no words in any Gospel account — became a theme in spiritual theology, interpreted as the silence of faith and obedience.