Since the beginning of Lent until now we have prepared our hearts by penance and charitable works. Today we gather together to herald with the whole Church the beginning of the celebration of our Lord's Paschal Mystery, that is to say, of his Passion and Resurrection. For it was to accomplish this mystery that he entered his own city of Jerusalem. Therefore, with all faith and devotion, let us commemorate the Lord's entry into the city for our salvation, following in his footsteps, so that, being made by his grace partakers of the cross, we may have a share also in his Resurrection and in his life.

Opening Prayer:

Almighty ever-living God,
who as an example of humility for the human race to follow
caused our savior to take flesh and submit to the Cross,
graciously grant that we may head his lesson of patient suffering and so merit a share in his Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings: (Alternate)
Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14 - 23:56

Daily Meditation:

For a closer union with Jesus
in his humility, in his suffering.
This Sunday we hold palm branches in our hands,
and wave them to greet our Lord's entry into the city of our salvation.
Last year's palms were burned to form the ashes
that marked our foreheads to begin this Lenten journey.
We can place these palm branches - perhaps from each member of the family -
in a special place in our home
(maybe cutting a small piece and putting it some place where I work).

Each day this week they can represent our celebration of his love for me.
That symbol can say so many words -
all that I am about to celebrate and accept as love for me,
and all the entry into Jerusalem experiences in my life.

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Hosts,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory!
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!

Palm Sunday Reflection

by Laurence Freeman OSB

The curtain lifts again and we begin to recount ritually and relive interiorly the great events that took place over a few days a long time ago. The world did not stop when they happened. Only symbolically did the sun darken and the veil of temple split. Peoples’ commercial and emotional lives carried on as usual through the short tragic drama of the humiliation and extinction of a powerless pawn in the politics of the world. A short show-trial, public torture to keep the crowds satisfied, another execution of a religious (or political) activist who flared briefly in popular imagination and then lost their favour and sunk between the bigger waves of public affairs and personal concerns.

His close friends ran away, disappointed and maybe angry with him, to save themselves. He was left to die with only his mother, one disciple he loved and a few loyal women at the foot of his cross.

And here we are in 2012 telling the story again from the slightly disjointed but unforgettable accounts written down several decades afterwards. We do not have his own words except in translation. He put nothing in writing himself. We don’t know what he liked for breakfast or exactly who he thought he was. He is more present than any other historical or fictional figure and yet when you look at him closely he becomes transparent and disappears. If we meet him we are changed but we cannot get a grip on him.

These inconsistencies and paradoxes that so irritate the rational mind, when it operates in isolation, are the medium of a great transmission.

Children who like a story and those who recognise the value of a great work art are happy to repeat it indefinitely. In this story the repetition itself is an act of faith that strengthens faith and so clarifies vision.

It is more powerful if we act theatrically in the telling rather than sitting like a passive audience. In this story there are no mere observers.

We have a limited number of chances in one life to replay the drama and penetrate its meaning. Not knowing how many is a part of the process that connects us with the one who suffered and died but did not stay dead.

Today's Daily Reflection

Intercessions:

As Christ entered Jerusalem he was greeted as King and Messiah,
Let us adore him, and joyfully praise him:
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna to you, Son of David, King of the ages,
-hosanna to you, victor over death and the powers of darkness.
You went up to Jerusalem to suffer and so enter into your glory,
-lead your Church into the paschal feast of heaven.
You made your cross the tree of life,
- give its fruit to those reborn in baptism.
Savior of mankind, you came to save sinners,
- bring into your kingdom all who have faith, hope, and love.

Closing Prayer:

Loving God,
I am just beginning to realize how much you love me.
Your son, Jesus was humble and obedient.
He fulfilled your will for him by becoming human and suffering with us.
I ask you for the desire to become more humble
so that my own life might also bear witness to you.
I want to use the small sufferings I have in this world to give you glory.

Please, Lord, guide my mind with your truth.
Strengthen my life by the example of Jesus.
Help me to be with Jesus in this week
as he demonstrates again his total love for me.
He died so that I would no longer be separated from you.
Help me to feel how close you are and to live in union with you.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that, though in our weakness we fail,
we may be revived through the Passion of your Only Begotten Son.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings (alternate):
Isaiah 42:1-7; Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14; John 12:1-11

Daily Meditation:

Strengthen and protect me in my weakness.
We read the first Suffering Servant song in Isaiah.
We imagine the powerful scene at Lazarus' home -
Jesus had wept as he peered into Lazarus' tomb;
now his sister Mary anoints Jesus' feet for the journey to his own tomb.

Whatever we do today,
we might memorize the simple Opening Prayer and personalize it,
asking for the strength we need,
the protection we depend upon, for our journey ahead.

I have called you for the victory of justice.
I have grasped you by the hand.
I formed you and set you
as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Isaiah 42

Monday of Holy Week Reflections

by Laurence Freeman OSB

We began the Holy Week retreat on Bere Island yesterday. Between the liturgies, the meditation times, the times of reflection and sharing on the elusive and unforgettable symbols of the Passion, we will try with all of you who have been reading these reflections to prepare for the three great days.

Each of these spiritual practices - meditation, liturgy, lectio - reinforces the others. Like a dance they swirl together without competing or clashing, like the divine communion itself.

The deeper we go with their help the more we realise our wholeness. We become less divided and conflicted within ourselves and so between ourselves and others. The journey deeper is a healing of everything in our lives that has pained or damaged us, holding us back from the fullness of being we are designed for.

But the focus is Jesus not ourselves. If we focus on ourselves the imminent danger is that we get stuck in self-centredness (often without knowing it). But to be focused on him is to elude the trap of egotism and fall into the great freedom of the true self where we are one with him; and then we fall into the even greater freedom of the divine communion in which all that is human is divinised.

The focus on Jesus shows us that it is not through a series of triumphs and gains that we do this but by defeats and dispossessions. It is not the way the ego likes to go but it is the secret path direct to the Kingdom.

Monday Reflections from All Hallows in Leeds, England

Reading: Mark 14.1-10

Reflection

I am the woman who anointed Jesus. I am unnamed, as many women of my time are unnamed and unnoticed. But not by Jesus - he speaks to us, takes us seriously , argues with us , unselfconsciously accepts us - he is different from the other men. I've been following him for a while, inspired by his teaching. I have felt that he is increasingly troubled, struggling with something he knows he must do or face. Many of his women followers have noticed this change in him. He has become more annoyed with his inner circle's failure to comprehend what he is trying to tell them. I and some of the other women decided we needed to tell him, needed to let him know, that we could see his pain, his fear, the struggle he is going through, and although we are not sure, we too fear that it is his life that is at stake. We decided to act and to reach out to him. We bought nard and decided that we would anoint him - we would acknowledge him as our King. And also tell him that if he fears he will die, we know that fear too, we lovingly prepare him for facing death.

Our law says that for us to do so would make him ritually unclean, but we know in our hearts that Jesus would pay no heed to such nonsense. We know too that we were casting ourselves in the role of prophets by doing so, but has he not taught us to speak out, to say what we feel? We gathered the money together - some of the women following him are quite wealthy - and we bought the perfume - it cost the equivalent of a labourer's wages for a year. It was easy to get to him at Simon's, because Simon the leper is part of our group of women, healed lepers, possessed and others who meet together sometimes to talk about Jesus' teaching - the inner circle of men around Jesus find us a bit odd, and I think threatening.

---

We are the men at the table, and all we have to say is: who does this woman think she is?! She has broken the law, and spending all that money on poncy Roman affectations is disgusting when so many are poor. Does she think she's some kind of prophet? We know Jesus is our Messiah and our King - we don't need her to tell us that with her pseudo-ritualism - but what is Jesus going on about death and burial for, if he's the Messiah who will triumph? He won't make many friends or get many good Jews following him if he carries on behaving like that and letting women touch him in that way - can't he see people think it's odd and unclean? He's too familiar with the women.

All in all, he's behaving very strangely, and we don't understand what he wants of us or what he is talking about half the time.

---

I am Judas, and I am disappointed and angry. I thought this guy was really going to take on the Romans and get them out, but he's just another religious weirdo riding on the back of the people - my Zealot mates were right. And accepting the gift of nard that was imported from India by the Romans! Why didn't he sell it and give the money to the poor instead, or put it in our kitty? As treasurer I know we need it, but no, instead Jesus praised her for doing it. So much for being on the side of the poor. I've had enough.

---

I am Jesus. I am tired of trying to explain to the Twelve about how I feel things are going to unfold. They don't seem to hear. I increasingly feel that I am going to have to die soon: God is calling me to face this possibility. And I am scared, and feel so alone with it. That is until she came forward - Mary, part of that interesting group of women, healed lepers and possessed who worry the Twelve with their radical unorthodoxy. Peter says they go a bit too far and are doing my cause no good.

But she understands, and through her touch and her action she has let me know. I feel she is saying to me 'No, you are not mad to feel and think what you do - I can see too where all this may lead, I can see the burden you bear - let me reach out to you … I do understand.' It is such a relief, and it is beautiful.

I worry for Judas, though: he is so bitter and angry. I've noticed he has been distant with me lately. He is full of so much anger and hate, he still can't forgive the Romans for what they did to his family. O God, please don't let him come to harm; bring him healing for his wounds; don't let his bitterness destroy him.

---

The possible feelings surrounding this group are complex and the above is merely speculation. But there is no doubt that the woman has understood Jesus. Intuitively she has responded to what Jesus has been saying - it is she who understands what he believes is going to happen to him. And lets him know through lovingly anointing him - communicating through touch what perhaps is impossible or too risky to speak out about in words.

She has done a beautiful thing for him.

Ray Gaston, drawing upon Women Believing by Ruth Musgrove

Prayer

O Jesus, stretch forth your wounded hands over your people to heal and to restore, and to draw us to yourself and to one another in love. Amen.

Intercessions:

Let us pray to Christ our Savior, who redeemed us by his death and resurrection:
Lord, have mercy on us.

You went up to Jerusalem to suffer and so enter into your glory,
-bring your Church to the Passover feast of heaven.

You were lifted high on the cross and pierced by the soldier's lance,
-heal our wounds.

You made the cross the tree of life,
- give its fruit to those reborn in baptism.

On the cross you forgave the repentant thief,
- forgive us our sins.

Closing Prayer:

God of love,
My prayer is simple:
Your son, Jesus, suffered and died for me.
I know only
that I cannot have real strength
unless I rely on you.
I cannot feel protected
from my many weaknesses
until I turn to you
for forgiveness and your unalterable love.
Help me to share this
strength, protection and love with others.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Sources:

Almighty ever-living God,
grant us so to celebrate
the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion
that we may merit to receive your pardon.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings (alternate):

Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17; John 13:21-33, 36-38

Daily Meditation:

Let me receive your forgiveness and mercy.
The second Servant song shapes our reflection today
as we watch that amazing dinner scene on Tuesday of this passion week.

We experience the pain of his knowing
that he will be betrayed and denied.
Yet, the hour he is about to face is the hour of his Glory.
And he promises that where he is going, we will surely follow.

Our desire is to celebrate the gift being offered us.

It is too little, he says,
for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel.
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach
to the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 49

Tuesday of Holy Week Reflections

by Laurence Freeman OSB

'Now has the Son of Man been glorified.' This is his response to the moment when his fate is sealed and one of his close disciples, 'filled with Satan', leaves the common table to betray him.

The act of personal treachery hangs strangely loose in the story without explanation. No one is convinced he did it just for money. Inexplicably it seems necessary because it brings the main player to his supreme moment.

We speak of glory in battle, glorious weather and the glory of God. But what is this kind of glory that happens at a moment of defeat and disappointment. When someone in whom we have placed our trust or hope lets us down or when a plan we have been working on collapses it seems an odd time to speak of glory.

When you open a fresh scallop it firmly resists you. It clams its shell tight against the probing knife you are trying to slip between the two hinged halves of its protecting world. The art of this cruel act, without which there would be no scallop farmers, is to find the muscle that holds it closed and slice through it. Then the shell springs open, the luscious looking food is there and the food chain continues.

We prefer not to see this done or to hear of it but it is part of the world we inhabit. The ending of a life is the feeding of another in the chain of being. One should acknowledge the individual sacrifice and feel the loss of life as some native Americans are said to thank a tree before they cut it down.

If the end of a life is accepted in this humble way it is as if something opens. The dark side of it is the shadow cast by the intense light that has been released.

Tuesday Reflections from All Hallows in Leeds, England

Reading: 1 Corinthians 1.18-31

Reflection

Perhaps like people who cower away from the light, lest their own sins are exposed, we cannot bear to be in the presence of total Love, so we destroy it. The jealous, small-minded childishness of wanting to destroy what we cannot be and cannot have. Or is it the weakness of Jesus we despise, the weakness that reminds us of our own, which we try constantly to conceal and deny? His total humanity reveals our inability to be human. God lets himself be pushed out of the world onto the cross. He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This is the foolishness of the cross to which Paul refers: this absurdity that the story of a supposedly broken, defeated and executed prophet, healer and lover of humanity becomes the story of God's saving action in the world and potentially of God's saving action in us all.

This is standing with Christ, accepting the foolishness of the cross as the way of salvation - that in this vulnerable Messiah is a truth that needs to be lived and made known.

It is in accepting our brokenness and our vulnerability, acknowledging our confusion and our sense of loss - in that lies the seeds of resurrection hope. We are not perfect, and neither will we be perfect, but the way of love is not about perfection but about forgiveness and healing. It is about being weak enough to lament the realities of the pain of our world, the realities of our own sorrow and confusion, and then again and again turning back to the light and welcoming through love what it reveals. It is in accepting our brokenness that we know we are loved, and we learn again what we were made to be and what we can seek to become.

Ray Gaston

Prayer

O Jesus, stretch forth your wounded hands over your people to heal and to restore, and to draw us to yourself and to one another in love. Amen.

---

Intercessions:

Let us pray to Christ our Savior, who redeemed us by his death and resurrection:
Lord, have mercy on us.

You went up to Jerusalem to suffer and so enter into your glory,
- bring your Church to the Passover feast of heaven.

You were lifted high on the cross and pierced by the soldier’s lance,
- heal our wounds.

You made the cross the tree of life,
- give its fruit to those reborn in baptism.

On the cross you forgave the repentant thief,
- forgive us our sins.

Closing Prayer:

God of such unwavering love,
how do I "celebrate"
the passion and death of Jesus?
I often want to look the other way
and not watch,
not stay with Jesus in his suffering.
Give me the strength
to see his love with honesty and compassion
and to feel deeply
your own forgiveness and mercy for me.

Help me to understand
how to "celebrate" this week.
I want be able to bring
my weaknesses and imperfections with me
as I journey with Jesus this week,
so aware of his love.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Sources:

O God, Who willed your Son to submit for our sake
to the yoke of the Cross,
so that you might drive from us the power of the enemy,
grant us, your servants, to attain the grace of the resurrection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings (alternate):

Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34; Matthew 26:14-25

Daily Meditation:

He freed us from the power of the enemy.
This is the last day of Lent.
It is "Spy Wednesday," remembering the day Judas asked,
"What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?"

We read the third song of the Servant who suffers.
And we sense the acceptance, the surrender and the peace of Jesus.
I can imagine the treachery and tranquility of this day,
as I go through the real life drama of my day.
I can begin to feel the joy of the liberation being offered me.

If I haven't done so already,
this can be a wonderful day to pray through the Stations of the Cross.

The Son of Man came not to be served,
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
Communion Antiphon Matthew 20:28

Wednesday Holy Week Reflections

by Laurence Freeman OSB

Toothache is bad enough. While it lasts, extreme physical pain blocks out the other stimuli of the world, good and bad. It becomes the centre of our field of perception. We can be annoyed that our minds are so absorbed by something so accidental; and also that it makes us so self-centred. We may say to ourselves that it won't last forever but while we are going through it is like a demanding animal that expects all our attention.

It is no only toothache of course. Great grief at the loss of someone we love weighs on our cardiac region and pierces the solar plexus exactly as a physical pain. The body is a sacrament and a medium of expression of our awareness at all levels of consciousness.

While they were eating he said 'I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me'

The experience of betrayal as many marriages and friendships testify is also terrible suffering.

Where does Jesus get this knowledge that he will be betrayed? We don't know. But he holds it with reserve. He does not demonise Judas as some of the gospel writers seem to do. The traitor's motives remain hidden and it is hard to forgive without insight into why someone in whom we had placed our trust and love throws it away.

If we do have that insight, as Jesus must have had, we are silent rather than condemnatory. And forgiveness rather than recrimination enters the damaged system of our relationships.

Wednesday Reflections from All Hallows in Leeds, England

Reading: John 13.21-32

Reflection

If we believe that Jesus knew all along what was going to happen, and if we believe that Judas was a mere puppet having to take his allotted role because he was part of the great plan laid down in Scripture, then I fear there can be no hope for us. This would mean that we are programmed, controlled, without freedom to grow or develop. It would also mean that we are quite beyond each other's reach, unable to choose intimacy or separation, closeness or distance, love or indifference … So Jesus leaves the upper room and goes out into the night, his heart breaking for Judas and weighted down with sorrow at the apparent indifference of the others to Judas' plight. It was as if they had been paralysed by the apparent powerlessness of his own love: if Jesus could not keep Judas within their company, what hope had they? For Jesus, I suggest it must have felt very different. Why was it, he must have asked himself, that nobody, not even John whom he loved so dearly, had been able to say to Judas: 'We love you, you are one of us: where are you going? what are you intending to do?' Why was it that not one of them had seen that Jesus' impotent love needed the expression of theirs to regain its power? Why had they not been able to see that being truly human is impossible on your own?

Brian Thorne

Prayer

O Jesus, stretch forth your wounded hands over your people to heal and to restore, and to draw us to yourself and to one another in love. Amen.

===

Intercessions:

Blessed be God, the giver of salvation, who decreed that mankind should become a new creation in himself, when all would be made new. With great confidence let us ask him:
Lord, renew us in your Spirit.

Lord, you promised a new heaven and a new earth; renew us daily through your Spirit,
- that we may enjoy your presence for ever in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Help us to work with you to make this world alive with your Spirit,
- and to build on earth a city of justice, love and peace.
Free us from all negligence and sloth,
- and give us joy in your gifts of grace.
Deliver us from evil,
- and from slavery to the senses, which blinds us to goodness.

Closing Prayer:

My Savior,
do you invite me to share
in the glory of the resurrection?
Please stay with me
as I struggle to see
how accepting the crosses of my life
will free me from the power
of the one who wants only
to destroy my love and trust in you.

Help me to be humble and accepting
like your son, Jesus.
I want to turn to you
with the same trust he had in your love.
Save me, Lord. Only you can save me.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Sources:

O God, who anointed your Only Begotten Son with the Holy Spirit
and made him Christ and Lord,
graciously grant
that, being made sharers in his consecration,
we may bear witness to your Redemption in the world.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings (alternate)

Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; Psalm 116; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15

Daily Meditation:

You gave us an example to imitate.
Holy Thursday is one of the truly marvelous days in our faith community.
We celebrate the gift of the love of Jesus,
given to us for our nourishment -
given to us as an example of self-less love.

In our prayer today, we let our Lord wash our feet - love us unconditionally -
and we let Jesus be broken and given for us.
We pray that we might be faithful to the one commandment of Jesus -
that we might love others in the same way that we have been loved.

Where charity and love are found,
there is God.

Holy Thursday Reflections

by Laurence Freeman OSB

Do this in remembrance of me.

We feel offended or diminished if we meet someone we know and they don't remember who we are. To have significant days or events in our lives remembered by those whose affection or opinion we value means a lot to the sense of our own worth.

Yet remembering in a positive way - affirming we are still there and that the important things in life have not finally sunk out of remembrance under the waves of time - requires effort.

'Thank you for remembering', we say because the natural lethargy of egoism makes it easier to forget. Negative remembering - hanging on to past hurts and dead actions - is easier although sometimes we can feel a twinge of regret that even a negative memory is fading from our minds.

The Greek word that we translate as 'remembrance' and use to speak of the 'memorial of the Eucharist' is not just about remembering what we might (and one day probably will) forget as our brain cells run out. It means making present an event that had a historical beginning but whose life and influence has not yet expired.

Because we forget so much so quickly - what happened two days ago in a twenty-four hour period? - the things that ride the waves of time and do not disappear are the significant and life-enhancing forces. It requires effort and time to recall them but then we are called to life by their becoming present.

The gift of self never dies. It is ever present and can be called to mind at any time in order to renew and reassure us that life, for all its fatalities, is not just about survival. It is about flourishing, fullness.

This is what the Eucharist is. Despite the fact that it has been ringed round by rules and regulations and the politics of religion, its life-enhancing energies never cease to amaze. It is a channel of the endless generosity of one who cannot forget us.

Maundy Thursday Reflections from All Hallows in Leeds, England

Reading: Luke 22.23-34 and 54-62

Reflection

Peter seeks to be the perfect disciple. He fails, and is absolutely desolate. But Jesus told him he would betray him. Peter is not ready, or rather it is not necessary for him to make such a stand. He fails to hear Jesus telling him so. Perhaps Jesus' words should be read as less of a prediction and more as a gentle warning: 'Don't do this to yourself, Peter'.

In our discipleship, are we like Peter, striving to be the perfect disciple? So busy trying so hard, relying on our own resources, that we fail to hear the words of Jesus to us: 'Do not do this to yourself; it is not what I require'?

Peter's time came. His faith was tested: we are told in the Acts of the Apostles he had to change his mind and be open to God in a dream. And tradition tells us he was ultimately tested when he too faced crucifixion.

And we too face our own tests of faith. They will come; we don't need to create them for ourselves. We don't need to seek to prove we are the perfect disciples. Instead we need simply and prayerfully to be open to the wonder of God's grace working in us now. God loves us and knows us as we are, and if we let him he will use who we are now to his glory.

Ray Gaston

Prayer

O Jesus, stretch forth your wounded hands over your people to heal and to restore, and to draw us to yourself and to one another in love. Amen.

Intercessions:

The Father anointed Christ with the Holy Spirit
to proclaim forgiveness to those in bondage.

Let us humbly call upon the eternal priest:
Lord, have mercy on us.

You went up to Jerusalem to suffer and so enter into your glory,
- bring your Church to the Passover feast of heaven.

You were lifted high on the cross and pierced by the soldier's lance,
- heal our wounds.

You made the cross the tree of life,
- give its fruit to those reborn in baptism.

On the cross you forgave the repentant thief,
- forgive us our sins.

Closing Prayer:

Loving Provider,
you gather me in this upper room with your son,
to be fed by your love.
At that supper, Jesus told us to "love one another"
and I know that is the heart of his gift,
his sacrifice for me.

I ask that I might find the source of my own heart,
the meaning for my own life,
in that Eucharist.
Guide me to the fullness of your love and life.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Sources:

Remember your mercies, O Lord,
and with your eternal protection sanctify your servants,
for whom Christ your Son,
by the shedding of his Blood,
established the Paschal Mystery.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Or,

O God, who by the Passion of Christ your Son, our Lord,
abolished the death inherited from ancient sin
by every succeeding generation,
grant that just as, being conformed to him,
we have borne by the law of nature
the image of the man on earth,
so by the sanctification of grace
we may bear the image of the Man of heaven.
Through Christ our Lord.

The Readings (alternate)

Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42

Daily Meditation:

This is the wood of the cross,
on which hung the Savior of the world.
Come, let us worship.
This is a very special day of intimacy with our Lord.

It is a day to pray the Stations of the Cross.
A day of fasting and abstinence, in order to sharpen our awareness and openness.
A day to stand at the foot of the cross as a forgiven sinner -
to stand there side-by-side with everyone else who is forgiven.
It is a day of profound gratitude.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you? Answer me.

Good Friday Reflections

by Laurence Freeman OSB

What's 'good' about a day when an innocent and good man is convicted of a trumped up charge, betrayed and deserted by his friends, rejected by the people he spoke the truth to, physically and mentally tortured, crucified and killed?

The first vein of goodness is in his way of acceptance. When bad things happen we can try to deny them or they can turn us into bitter and hateful people seeking revenge.

Clearly in his case this did not happen. Out of what deep well of goodness and love in himself did he draw on to meet his oppressors with forgiveness and to embrace what happened with an equanimity of soul that turned the evil done to him into good for others?

'Only God is good,' he once said to the rich young man seeking eternal life but still entrapped by his possessions.

The other vein of goodness in today's events is the transformative effect they have on others. It began at the historical moment they occurred and it continues, indeed continues to accumulate in its effect. Through today a new consciousness entered the human realm which has begun to undermine the very roots of the darkness in the human soul which allows us to do such inhumane things to each other by forgetting who we are and forgetting that the well of divine being is sourced in each us.

With most terrible things we breathe a sigh of relief when they have passed. In this case we see that it has much more to do to lift humanity out of the cycle of violence into which we fell and which is our original sin. A violence that is born of Cain's anguished and illusory feeling that we are not loved.

On the Bere Island mountain a cross stands, still, steady, shining at night, silently faithful. Not far away from it someone has illegally put up a wind turbine. The windmill spins like the ego in the wind making short-term profit at the cost of a greater integrity.

The cross has greater energy than the ego and to contemplate it in our lives, to embrace its transformative effect, is what makes this Friday good.

Good Friday Reflections from All Hallows in Leeds, England

Reading: Hebrews 4.14-16, 5.7-9

Reflection

He leaves the bright heavens
comes again
condemned to hang
between heaven and earth.

And there he remains
he absolves the guards
lets the tortured forget
makes hatred subside

teaches the weary to breathe
the trembling to sleep
the dreamers to act
the doers to dream.

Dorothee Solle

Prayer

O Jesus, stretch forth your wounded hands over your people to heal and to restore, and to draw us to yourself and to one another in love. Amen.

Intercessions:

For our sake our Redeemer suffered death and was buried, and rose again. With heartfelt love let us adore him, and pray:
Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ our teacher, for our sake you were obedient even to accepting death,
- teach us to obey the Father's will in all things.

Christ our life, by your death on the cross you destroyed the power of evil and death,
- may we die with you, to rise with you in glory.

Christ our King, you became an outcast among us, a worm and no man,
- teach us the humility by which you saved the world.

Christ our salvation, you gave yourself up to death out of love for us,
- help us to show your love to one another.

Christ our Savior, on the cross you embraced all time with your outstretched arms,
- unite God's scattered children in your kingdom of salvation.

Closing Prayer:

My Lord,
your son has suffered so much, shed so much blood.
I was born with so many faults
and my nature is so full of weakness,
and yet your son Jesus has died on the cross.
For me.

I know your grace has the power
to cleanse me of my many sins
and to make me more like your Son.
Thank you for your goodness and love for me.
I ask you, Father, to watch over me - always.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Sources:

We spend the day reflecting upon the powerful reality of Jesus' death.

What is important is that we keep this day holy, and let our "sense" of the mystery of death shape our reflection, and our longing to celebrate the Easter gift of Jesus alive, for us and with us.

If we are able to celebrate the Easter Vigil, we can renew our Baptismal Promises in a way the completes our Lenten journey to the font. We offer a renewal of our Baptismal promises here, which we might do, in these or similar words, which any of us might make as we keep a vigil of readings and prayer Saturday night, or early Easter Sunday Morning.

"On Holy Saturday, the Church waits at the Lord's tomb in prayer and fasting, meditating on his Passion and Death and on his Descent into Hell, and awaiting his Resurrection.

Daily Reflection

by Andy Alexander, S.J.

Vice President for University Ministry, Creighton University

On Holy Saturday we enter into the mystery. Today we contemplate Jesus, there in the tomb, dead. In that tomb, he is dead, exactly the way each of us will be dead. We don't easily contemplate dying, but we rarely contemplate being dead. I have had the blessed experience of being with a number of people who have died, of arriving at a hospital shortly after someone has died, of attending an autopsy, and of praying with health sciences students over donated bodies in gross anatomy class. These are blessed experiences because they all brought me face-to-face with the mystery of death itself. With death, life ends. Breathing stops, and in an instant, the life of this person has ended. And, in a matter of hours, the body becomes quite cold and life-less - dramatic evidence that this person no longer exists. All that is left is this decaying shell that once held his or her life.

Death is our ultimate fear. Everything else we fear, every struggle we have, is some taste of, some chilling approach to, the experience of losing our life. This fear is responsible for so much of our lust and greed, so much of our denial and arrogance, so much of our silly clinging to power, so much of our hectic and anxiety-driven activity. It is the one, inevitable reality we all will face. There is not enough time, money, joy, fulfillment, success. Our physical beauty and strength, our mental competency and agility, all that we have and use to define ourselves, slip away from us with time. Our lives are limited. Our existence is coming to an end. We will all die. In a matter of time, all that will be left of any of us is a decomposing body.

Today is a day to soberly put aside the blinders we have about the mystery of death and our fear of it. Death is very real and its approach holds great power in our lives. The "good news" we are about to celebrate has no real power in our lives unless we have faced the reality of death. To contemplate Jesus' body, there in that tomb, is to look our death in the face.

Today's reflection will lead us to the vigil of Easter. This night, communities from all over the world will gather in darkness, a darkness that represents all that we have been reflecting upon today. And there, in that darkness, a fire is lit. That flame is shared around the community until its light fills the room. Then, a song of exultation is sung, proclaiming that Christ is the light of this night. And, there, in the light of Christ, we will read the scriptures that prepare us to celebrate God's revelation. This is the story of our salvation - how God prepared to rescue us from the power of sin and death. The God who created us, who led a chosen people out of slavery, raised Jesus from death. We can rejoice that death has no final victory over us. We can celebrate our faith that we have been baptized into the death of Jesus, so that we might be baptized into his life.

As we behold the body of Jesus in the tomb today, and as we contemplate the mystery of our death, we prepare our hearts to receive the Good News of life. We know that tomb will be empty and remain empty forever as a sign that our lives will not really end, but only be transformed. One day, we will all rest in the embrace of Jesus, who knows our death, and who prepares a place for us in everlasting life. Our reflection on this holy Saturday, and our anticipation of celebrating the gift of life tonight and tomorrow, can bring immense peace and joy, powerful freedom and vitality to our lives. For if we truly believe that death holds no true power over us, we can walk each day in the grace being offered us - to give our lives away in love.

Holy Saturday Reflections

by Laurence Freeman OSB

An early Christian writer whose name is lost to us wrote these words in a homily to describe the meaning of this silent day of transition:

Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

After the drama of trauma there is the long aftermath of ordinariness.

It is like a powerful wave of the sea that hit the land with great force and is now being sucked back into the ocean. You even wonder if the great crash ever happened at all, so quiet and empty and mundane everything seems.

As we accept the uneventfulness and the untimed waiting, however, something emerges. It transpires through the immeasurable emptiness that is all that is left. A sense grows of union with what we will not ever again see in the same way. A mutual inwelling and presence to one another in a greater presence that contains everything. Even in the residual grief of the loss a new kind of peace also shows in an awareness that this new union is as definitive and permanent as the very loss that lies behind it.

So even when nothing is happening – as we learn in the emptiness of meditation where we experience death and resurrection daily – new life has begun to emerge. In the mind of Christ we see that there are two creations, both beautiful and terrible. The first is marked by mortality, the horizon beyond which we can see nothing. The new creation is known by those who awaken to their being one person with the one person who comes back to us over that horizon.

Brothers and sisters:

Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?

We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him
through a death like his,
we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
Romans 6:3-11

Contemplating the Day After the Crucifixion with the Mother of James & John

Inspired by: The Gospel According to Matthew 27: 55-61

Mary has finally fallen asleep so I'll step outside for a minute. Just sitting here in the sun feels healing. I don't know how Mary got through yesterday, but I'm glad Magdalene and I were there for her. I have seen crucifixions from a distance because the Romans always like to be public about them and want us to watch – and they want us to be afraid. In the past I have always hurried past them, covering my ears from the screams of pain in the air. Yet yesterday it was Jesus, our Jesus, in that agonizing death.

Even with all of her strength, Mary almost fainted a few times; first, while Jesus was scourged and again when he fell dragging the cross. My son, John, was with us all day and helped to support Mary. I'm not sure how much more she could have borne. I was glad Jesus' death was quicker than most so he was out of his pain. John lowered the body from the cross as gently as he could but it was heavy and I could see that Mary was worried it would drop. When he was down, she cradled Jesus in her arms, she put her head on the wounds on his chest and just stayed there for a while. There were no tears left. Magdalene and I pulled the thorns out from his matted hair while John spoke to a man who had a tomb for Jesus. I tried to wipe his face off, but I didn't have water. Then he was taken to the tomb, not even anointed, and we brought Mary back here. Magdalene tried to get her to eat. I know she hasn't slept in a couple of days.

And through all of this, where was my son, James? James and John were like brothers to Jesus and how I wish James had the courage to stay with him yesterday. A mother loves her children but a mother knows her children and courage has never been strong in James. When they first met Jesus, John told me that Jesus had laughed and called them "Sons of Thunder." I thought he was mocking my younger son because James has always been so afraid. Then I met Jesus and knew he would not do anything to hurt either of them. It is almost as if he was inspiring each of them to be something beyond what they believed they could do - beyond their fears.

In the last three years, Jesus spent a lot of time at our house with my boys, stopping by for a rest or meal as they traveled around. I could see the great love Jesus had for James and John, and they for him. He was older than my sons, warm and funny, and would regale us with stories at the table. At times he was serious, compelling as he talked about speaking with God as his father, as someone who loved us all. He talked to us about the poor and how people needed to get out from under the heavy hand of the religious authorities and care for each other. As I listened, I could see the impact this was having on my sons. They agreed, they seemed to understand his message. John is quiet and humble but has always been fearless and he spoke up quite easily. But I was surprised that my timid James seemed bolder as they talked.

Once, after Jesus had been at our table talking about the Kingdom, I just did what any mother would do - I asked him to save special places in his Kingdom for my sons. The others in the group got upset when they heard what I had asked Jesus, but my sons don't push themselves forward enough. I want them to be taken care of and I thought Jesus could do it.

I started getting worried for them all as rumors began to fly about Jesus and the authorities. I didn't want any of them to get into trouble. When James came running into the house so late on Thursday, I knew there was trouble. Jesus had been arrested. John had gone to get Mary. I pulled on my cloak immediately to go to Mary, and could only look sadly at James as he ran the other direction, unable to look at me.

Now on this long Saturday, a few of us quietly take care of Mary and try to think of what to do next. Sitting out here in the sun, I think of my sons. My John hasn't spoken much and has been gone most of the morning. What will become of these "Sons of Thunder"? Have these past three years with Jesus made any difference or meant anything? What happens to them now that he is dead? They are good sons, but simple men. I know they will not be remembered when they are gone. They will not make a difference in this world. Neither one of them seems to want to be someone in life. They don't seem to have anything to give their lives to, nothing that inspires them.

Jesus is never far from my mind. What a crushing blow his death is to all of us. What now? I put my face to the sun and feel its warmth. I remember what Jesus used to say about praying to God as if he were my father.

Please, Father. I know my sons are good men, but they need some guidance. James, especially, is so timid and fearful. Help them to find the way to you. Give them some hope now that Jesus is gone, some ‘spirit' or courage to become what you created them to be.

Help me to be with Mary in the days ahead. Help me to forget what I saw yesterday. I want life to go back to the way it was.

I get up slowly and go back to the house. So, so much sadness, disappointment and emptiness in this day.

Now I have to go to the market and buy the spices for his body. Magdalene and I will go up early in the morning and do the anointing. What a sad duty that will be. Where is the hope in our lives?

Holy Saturday Reflections from All Hallows in Leeds, England

Reading: John 19.38-42

Reflection

Drink deep of the chalice of grief and sorrow,
held out to you by your dark angel of Gethsemane:
the angel is not your enemy,
the drink, though sharp, is nourishing,
by which you may come to a deeper peace
than if you pass it by,
a 'health of opened heart' …

From a slow accepting of our wounds, life within us begins to move outward, bitterness waning, compassion growing …

True prayer is the source, the prayer that comes not from the mouth, but as from the lips of wounds …

Hidden in that prayer is both the crucified Christ and our fellow-sufferers, those whom, in intercession and compassion, we need in order to be ourselves.

There is no higher aim
than to reclaim
another, blinded by life's pain,
to help him see again.

Seek love in the pity of another's woe,
In the gentle relief of another's care,
In the darkness of night and the winter's snow,
In the naked and outcast - seek love there.

Jim Cotter

Prayer

O Jesus, stretch forth your wounded hands over your people to heal and to restore, and to draw us to yourself and to one another in love. Amen.

Sources:

Through the resurrection of Jesus
God has redeemeed us and made us his children.
May God bless us with joy.
Amen.

Our Redeemer has given us lasting freedom.

May we inherit everlasting life.
Amen.

By faith, we rose with Jesus in baptism.

May our lives be holy,
so that we will be united with Jesus for ever.
Amen.

May almighty God bless us,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Opening Prayer:

O God, who on this day,
through your Only Begotten Son,
have conquered death
and unlocked for us the path to eternity,
grant, we pray, that we who keep
the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection
may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit,
rise up in the light of life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Today's Readings (alternate)

Acts 10:34, 37-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23;
Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; John 20:1-9

Daily Meditation:

May our celebration
raise us up and renew our lives!

One of the great songs we often sing on Easter has the words,
"This is the feast of victory of our God. Alleluia!"
Everything with which we struggle,
and every hope and desire we have,
come together in this day.
The tomb is empty!

Sometimes Easter Sunday can be a busy day,
with visiting, meals, and travel.
Our prayer when we wake,
and our "calling to mind" throughout the day,
can help us remember what we are grateful for today.
There is Light in the midst of every darkness.
New life, ever lasting life is ours.
Our journey to the font of renewal
has helped us remember we have been placed with Jesus.
If we haven't done so at liturgy this morning,
we might renew our Baptismal promises today.

Easter Sunday Reflections

by Laurence Freeman OSB

The angel said to the women he was not there, where they were looking for him, because he was risen. After death we know him no longer after the manner of the flesh - which includes the manner of the imagination. Like meditation, he is not what we think. Like the kingdom , not here, not there.

Then the angel told them that he was going before them to Galilee where they would see him. "Now I have told you", he concludes matter-of-factly. There is no explanation, simply the proclamation. Job done. How could this be made readily understood or explained satisfactorily?

The job is to communicate it and hope. If it's not true, after having seen the possibility and heard the proclamation, everything is drained of colour and energy.

The stakes of the human condition have suddenly increased dramatically.

Strangely, we can't say exactly what it is the early Christians were communicating and that has formed a continuous chain of transmission since. It was an experience that could not be held in thought or imagination or in the senses, of his being present, in a way that touched and changed them indubitably, not as a memory or an archetype but as a personal presence.

How do we explain any of the most important occurrences in our life?

The women turn back, to do all they could do in the circumstances - speak about it to others. Then there he is. Coming towards them to meet them. Didn't the angel say he would see them in Galilee? They aren't in Galilee. Why he is here when they were supposed to see him there? Is he there too?

In seeing him they begin to see that they were in his mind despite (or because) of all he had been through. Death, the great oblivion, had not made him forget them. They must be worth more than they thought. He must be more than they imagined.

Do not be afraid, he tells them. It is fear that shrivels the mind and makes us incapable of the expansion needed to see him and to realise that we can live now in a quite different and fearless way. (Even the angel had told them not to be afraid). Perhaps we are more afraid than we acknowledge even to ourselves.

He too gives no explanation just the experience in itself, of hmself. It leads to an action, a new priority in life, that defines the life of his friends and disciples henceforth - to share this life-changing news with others.

Alleuia, he is risen indeed. Job done. A new creation. Where do we go from here?

Easter Sunday Reflections from All Hallows in Leeds, England

Reading: Isaiah 65.17-25

Reflection

I do not know
what resurrection is
(though I'm almost sure
it has something to do
with hallowing the common ground.)

Of course, that's not all of it.
I expect one day I'll get up
and find that it sneaked up on me
while I wasn't looking,
and maybe even that it's been there all along.

That's as may be.
There's no point in trying to see things
before you're ready.
You have to walk before you can run.

In the meantime,
I believe in it
And that feels like an initial step.

For now,
it will do.

It is enough.

Kathy Galloway

Prayer

Thanks be to God for this new dawn
This new beginning of a day and of our lives
Creation's re-creation through pain and sorrow.

Life-giving strength bursts from the grave,
And from an ending comes the promise of a new tomorrow.

Amen.

O Jesus, stretch forth your wounded hands over your people to heal and to restore, and to draw us to yourself and to one another in love. Amen.

Intercessions:

Christ is the Lord of life, raised up by the Father;
in his turn he will raise us up by his power.
Let us pray to him, saying:
Christ our life, save us.

Lord Jesus, light shining in the darkness, you lead your people into life, and give our mortal nature the gift of holiness,
- may we spend this day in praise of your glory.

Lord, you walked the way of suffering and crucifixion,
- may we suffer and die with you, and rise again to share your glory.

Son of the Father, our master and our brother, you have made us a kingdom of priests for our God,
- may we offer you our joyful sacrifice of praise.

King of glory, we look forward to the great day of your coming in splendor,
- that we may see you face to face, and be transformed in your likeness.

Closing Prayer:

Raise me up! Renew my life!
Father of life, I see the light again!
I was in darkness and had lost hope
but Jesus Christ, your son,
has won out over death - for me.
I celebrate today, your love, the life you give me.
I feel your presence as you breathe on my mind
and open my heart.
So many times in my life my eyes are closed
but today I see the risen Lord
in the breaking of the bread.
Thank you for this morning of hope,
thank you for such incredible love.

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.

Sources: