“In the midst of this pandemic, isolation, anxiety, sickness, bereavement, have already weighed heavily on all of us. So how might we, on this Palm Sunday, prepare ourselves for this Holy Week, a Holy Week perhaps like no other we have ever experienced?”

On this Palm Sunday in the midst of pandemic, Br. Geoffrey Tristram invites us to be guided by our thirst and trust that God will meet us there.

“Who among us has not buried a Lazarus? Who among us is not burying a Lazarus, or weeping outside his tomb right now? Your Lazarus may be literal. You know someone who has died, or who is dying, or who is in grave danger of death if something does not happen soon.”

Br. Keith Nelson returns to the passage on Lazarus in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic, looking for hope.

“We use the Bible as a weapon whenever we insist on our own interpretation or meaning-making, even if another person’s experience of the text or teaching, different than ours, bears the fruit of Christ’s Love in their heart.”

Br. Nicholas Bartoli invites us to adopt a hermeneutics of trust not just for the bible, but for the Word of God present in all creation

“Mary is not merely a type; not merely a model of an unattainable gentleness or meekness; not some kind of surrogate for figures Venus, Brigid, or Minerva; and certainly not queen of some distant heaven. For Mary is a woman. A flesh, blood, and soul woman. A woman caught, as are we, within the same messy, ill-defined workings of a sin-sick world.”

Br. Sean Glenn invites us to encounter Mary afresh, in her humanity.

“Suffering is not always the last word. So much strength and beauty can come out of so much pain. How amazing it is when we realize a painful life experience full of loss nevertheless yields something of such gain. I’m not denying the pain nor the loss; but I am saying that amazing good can paradoxically come out of appalling bad. That’s what is called “redemption.”

At a time of great suffering, Br. Curtis Almquist offers hopeful words on the good that can come out of suffering – for us, and from us, for others.