HOLY WEEK STARTING WITH PALM--PASSION SUNDAY

MARCH 20: PALM/ PASSION SUNDAY

We often associate "passion" with sexuality, but any strong emotional movement constitutes a passion. So what are the passions on this Sunday of Palms. Amomg the people at the gates of Jerusalem?

Unrestrained joy. And for us, who have made our spiritual journey through the desert of Lent?

We will have just heard the reading of the entire passion account at mass. We must be left with a somber mood.

When Jesus passed through the gates of the Holy City he passed from joy unto sorrow. From safety into danger, from friends unto enemies.

The Gate is a powerful symbol. So for us our life journey is a passage through many gateways.

So many liminal events: joy to sorrow, safety to dangeer.

And so we pray:

As we walk with you Jesus, we share your passion.

Help us to walk with hope,

with renewed energy,

with a sense of purpose,

for our journey is meaningful

and always a passage

through death unto new life.

Amen

 March 24, Holy Thursday

On this holy night the angel of death passed over the ancient Hebrew people on their way out of enslavement toward the promised land.

Still today, this week, modern Jews will celebrate this liberation of their ancestors/

When Jesus gathered his disciples, they thought it was for the anceint Jewish celebration, but it was for a New Eucharistic Pass Over.

And so we pray:

Jesus let me pass over:

from discouragement to renewed energy.

Fed by the NEW Pass Over bread,

give me nourishment for my spirit.

May I pass over:

from dejection to hope,

from cynicism to anticipation,

from death to life through eating:

"The Holy banquet, in which Christ is received,

the soul is filled with grace,

and there is given to us:

a pledge of future glory."

Amen

St Thomas Aquinas

 March 25, Good Friday

We adore you O Christ and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

Scudding clouds blot out the sun. A black shroud falls uoon the earth. The round trembles. Rain begins to lash the cross. Flashes of lightning break through the gloom. One flash illumines the face of Christ. His head drops. He expires.

 The Holy Dark! Good Friday's dark is the womb of Easter rebirth. How often in my life I must pass through the dark on the way to the light.

 And so we pray:

Jesus help me to realize that the dark can be a pregnant place filled with promise. I began in the darkness of the womb. When the darkness of misfortune, accident, perhaps depression descends n me or those I love, help me to be consoled that the darkness of Good Friday was the closest to the dawning of Easter morn.

"Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over."

JN 12-24

Soul of Christ, be my santification.

Body of Christ be my salvation.

Blood of Christ fill all my veins,

Water from Christ's side wash out my stains.

Passion of Christ my comfort be.

Let it be Jesus.

Let it be.

{From A Contemporary Way of the Cross.}