Category: Lent & Holy Week

Entering the Sacred Triduum

“This is a warning to all Catholics & Orthodox. Holy Week is Serious Business for serious disciples of Jesus Christ. The Sacred Rites (aka “ceremonies”) are not incidentally or accidentally lengthly. They are deliberately lush with the symbols of Worship at the heart of which is the Lord Jesus the Christ Himself. Entering into the Mysteries of the Triduum (Holy Thursday/Good Friday/Holy Saturday) sweeps us from lenten preparation and plunges us into the waters of Baptism where we drown to worldly allurements and arise to Easter Joy. These are deep waters, still waters where the testimony of the apostles and disciples churn among the testimonies of evangelists, martyrs, monks, nuns, and Households in Christ made holy through wives and husbands dedicated to Christian Living among truly heathen tribes and cultures. Here we join this communion of saints to refresh our souls, rededicate our bodily existence to the announcement of the Gospel — In Christ, God and Man are reconciled. May the Blessings of this Holy Week drive from us whatever is insipid and feeble. May it revest us with such Grace that will make us “strong, loving, wise” witnesses to Christ in this place and age.”

Courtesy of Fr. William Seifert

The week we call great and holy

We call the week great, not because it has a greater number of hours – other weeks having many more hours, after all – not because it has more days, there being the same number of days in this and the other weeks, of course. So why do we call this week great? Because in it many ineffable good things come our way: in it protracted war is concluded, death is eliminated, curses are lifted, the devil’s tyranny is relaxed, his pomps are despoiled, the reconciliation of God and man is achieved, heaven is made accessible, human beings are brought to resemble angels, those things which were at odds are united, the wall is laid low, the bar is removed, the God of peace having brought peace to things on high and things on earth. This, then, is the reason we call the week great, because in it the Lord lavished on us such a plethora of gifts. This is the reason many people intensify their fasting as well as their sacred watching and vigils, and practice almsgiving, thus showing by their behavior the regard they have for the week. After all, since the Lord in this week has regaled us with such great goods, how are we not obliged to demonstrate our reverence and regard as far as we can?”

St. John Chrysostome

Palm Sunday

Christ the King

“Let us confidently acknowledge and openly proclaim that Christ was crucified for our sake, declaring it with joy and pride, not with fear and shame. In this, the apostle Paul saw reason for boasting. He could have told us many great and holy things about Christ: how as God he shared with his Father the work of creation, and how as man like us he was Lord of the world. But he would not glory in any one of these marvelous things: ‘God forbid that I should boast of anything’, he said, ‘except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’” (St Augustine)

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Today in the Novus Ordo Mass for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) there is a distinct the of light. In contrast to the darkness of sin and death, light illumines the soul, wipes out the shadows, it is curative, and reveals that which is previously concealed. Theologically we follow what is revealed in sacred Scripture that Jesus is the Light of the Nations. Our enduring prayer ought to be the Father: send us the grace of Light, allow us to receive the Light of your Son, Jesus.

St. John Paul II once said: “The man born blind represents the man marked by sin, who wishes to know the truth about himself and his own destiny, but is impeded by a congenital malady. Only Jesus can cure him: He is “the light of the world” (John 9:5). By entrusting oneself to him, every human being, spiritually blind from birth, has the possibility of ‘coming to the light’ again, that is, to supernatural life.“

Lent is a time for change

The Great Fast is a time for change. We try to spend more time focused on how to please God and others. When things take us away from God, we can sin. We need to confess our sins to God and change the things that lead us to sin. This is called “repentance.”

In the Liturgy we pray “that the rest of our lives may be spent in peace and repentance.” We do that by learning more about the ways of God and then putting them into practice in our lives. 

When we think about God’s Commandments we are on the first step to repentance. When we were baptized the priest asked us to renounce Satan and his sinful ways. We promised to serve Christ the Son of God in faith and in truth. When we forget these promises, we sin. But the Lord never forgets His promise to us: “I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

If we have fallen into sin we can repent and God will raise us up because He is always with us.

QUICK FACTS &THOUGHTS:

• In the Ten Commandments which God gave through Moses the first three concern life with God. Find them in your Bible or prayerbook.
• Do you honor God by praying to Him every day? By not using His name as a swear word? By sharing in the Liturgy every Sunday?
• The rest of the Commandments teach us to respect others. What are these Commandments? • How do you treat your parents? Are you violent with others? Do you take what belongs to others? Do you envy them for what they have?
• In the New Commandment which God gave through Christ we are called to love one another as God loves us. What do you do to show that you love God? That you love others?
• Prepare to go to Confession by loving God and others more during the Great Fast.

(Living with Christ Great Lent at Home)

Maundy Thursday

MandatumIn John 13:34-35 we read: I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

“Jesus represents the whole of his saving ministry in one symbolic act” ….It “signifies the whole of Jesus’ saving ministry”…”this humble gesture expressing the entire ministry of Jesus’ life and death…”

(J. Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, p. 57, 72, 74; see “The Washing of the Feet” pp 53-75)

Spy Wednesday

Judas kisses JesusWe call today Spy Wednesday (the Wednesday of Holy Week) because it is the day on which the gospel reading for Mass (Matthew 26:14-25) is the one which speaks of Judas Iscariot acts as a spy for the Sanhedrin. The act of spying earned Judas 30 pieces of silver and thus he betrayed Jesus.

Pope Benedict once said, “Judas is neither a master of evil nor the figure of a demoniacal power of darkness but rather a sycophant who bows down before the anonymous power of changing moods and current fashion. But it is precisely this  anonymous power that crucified Jesus, for it was anonymous voices that cried, “Away with him! Crucify him!”

In another place the emeritus Pope wrote:

“His second tragedy — after the betrayal — is that he can no longer believes in forgiveness. His remorse turns into despair. Now he sees only himself and his darkness; he no longer sees the light of Jesus, which can illumine and overcome the darkness. He shows us the wrong type of remorse: the type that is unable to hope, that sees only its own darkness, the type that is destructive and in no way authentic. Genuine remorse is marked by the certainty of hope born of faith in the superior power of the light that was made flesh in Jesus.” (Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, 69)

Let us pray as Saint Paul said: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bend…to the glory of God the Father.”

 

Palm Sunday procession

verso01bPope Benedict said,  “Our procession today is meant, then, to be an image of something deeper, to reflect the fact that, together with Jesus, we are setting out on pilgrimage along the high road that leads to the living God. This is the ascent that matters. This is the journey which Jesus invites us to make.”

From whatever our vantage point on the road, be sure to follow the path Christ has given you. You ought not avoid the given-ness of Providence.

Transfiguration

Transfiguration Raffaello“Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them…” (Mark 9:2)

Jesus takes them up Mount Tabor, “to show them the full truth about himself, about his divinity, so that they can have hope in eternal life and they remember this experience of divinity, of bliss, of eternity, when it comes time to suffer through the passion. In considering this scene at Tabor, we try to go to Jesus, to look at him, so that we may be enlightened. So that whether we are ill, suffering or dying– or sick and tired– we actually try to discover the Tabors behind the Calvaries” (Fr Javier del Castillo).

This gospel reading is reading twice per year: today on the second Sunday of Lent and in August on the feast of the Transfiguration. Do we recognize that Jesus is the center of our life of faith? Do we recognize that the death and resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate gift given to us that is foretold with this great of event personally experienced by Peter, James and John?

Detail of Raffaella’s “Transfiguration.”