Praying Monday in Holy Week
Jesus was fully prepared for his death, and we should be too. Death for the Christian is no enemy, but rather a kind angel waiting to lead us into the presence of our heavenly Father. This Holy Week might be a good time to prepare for our own death. As our Rule puts it, ‘The anticipation of death is essential if we are to live each day to the full as a precious gift.’
– Br. Geoffrey Tristram
Monday in Holy Week offers a pause, a chance to recollect from the drama of yesterday before plunging into the sacred events to come.
What are the lessons Holy Week has to offer you this year?
Since Holy Scripture is the living word of God, as we encounter again the events of the final week of Jesus’ life, look for those passages, those haunting details of the story that seem to rise up from the page to snare your attention, things you had not noticed before. Ponder what special meaning these passages might hold for you this year? Why is God bringing them to your attention at this time? What might God be saying to you? Take time to meditate on these questions. Be especially alert to listen because God will be speaking to us through the liturgies, through scripture, homilies and also in other unexpected ways this week.
Audio:
Sermons:
Praying Your Way Through Holy Week: A Meditation – Br. Eldridge Pendleton (1940-2015)
God who loves us so much and continually delights in our creation, is continually offering us grace in the form of answered prayers, healing, reconciliation, hope and deeper faith, and in the Paschal mystery has given us the means to triumph over death. Two practices to deepen your awareness of this love during Holy Week.
For my Lenten spiritual reading I have been using the booklet “Are we there yet?” from Forward Movement. The Holy Week readings focus on. a married couple attempting to walk the Adirondack Trail from end to end in one six month period. Today’s reading talks of them almost being out of water on a very hot day; they left the trail to seek fresh water, found a house with a hose coiled beside it, and asked the homemaker if they could get a drink and fill their canteens from the hose. She and her husband invited them in, gave them large glasses of cold lemonade, filled their canteens with ice cubes and fresh water, and served them fresh-baked cookies., After the couple finished their walking of the trail, they phoned the lady to thank her for her kindness, and she responded, ” You seemed to enjoy the cookies so much that I have started baking cookies every day, and some other hikers have stopped for cookies and a drink after hearing your story, now they are calling me ‘The Cookie Lady.’ ”
I think this just goes to show that allowing others to help us in a need can sometimes show our helper a grace for a vocation that benefits others as well as the helper and those she/he originally was called upon to help.
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Thank you.