There is no week of the year more replete with rituals than Holy Week. Rituals are not routines, even when we have memorized the gestures and words.  When ritual is done well—and that’s why lectors and singers practice—it helps us transcend our limits in sensing God’s presence. Ritual also strengthens community in its praise, hopes, sorrows. Although the actions are done over and over, the gestures are what it means to be a baptized Catholic. When spouses kiss, it’s not routine. In the same way, our gestures of Sign of the Cross, genuflection, bowing, reciting, singing are not routine; they are transformative as they shape and deepen our spiritual lives. We transcend our capacity to know God’s unending love for us through the gift of simple signs and saving responses and song. Give your full attention to these rituals that connect us to God and one another.