Holy Week Reflections

As we prepare to enter into Holy Week, we wanted to re-share these reflections written by some of our Brothers a few years ago. They are quick, three-minute reads, but we hope they will lead you to a time of deeper prayer as we remember Christ’s death and resurrection.

Palm Sunday - Partake in the Cross to Share in the Resurrection

-Br. Patrick Reilly

Each year, when we experience the unique liturgy of Palm Sunday, the opening prayers and the rearranged Scripture readings make it very clear that something is DIFFERENT!

The opening greeting says, “...since the beginning of Lent until now we have prepared our hearts by penance and charitable works." The prayer continues that the Lord’s entry into the city is for our salvation and beckons us to follow in His footsteps.

Palm Sunday is the beginning of the holiest of weeks for us as Christians, and we start towards the summit, which will peak at the Easter Vigil. Our prayer, fasting and almsgiving during this Lenten season have been moments of grace to be partakers of the Cross and to share also in the Resurrection and in His life.

Hopefully, our Lent has purified us from attachments, illumined us with His word and united us in prayer and the sacraments - especially the Eucharist.

Palm Sunday begins the consummation of the mission for which Jesus was sent by the Father. Jesus foretold that he was to suffer, die and rise on the Third Day. Palm Sunday begins this incredible reality for our salvation.

When the Pharisees heard that the disciples proclaim Jesus as the King, they wanted Him to rebuke the disciples.

However, Jesus replied, "I tell you, even if they kept silent, the stones will cry out!"

May we not be silent in welcoming the Lord into our hearts this Palm Sunday.  Our hearts are His Temple, the house of prayer that Jesus wants to enter. We proclaim with great joy the salvation won by Jesus as we cry aloud, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest."

 

Holy Thursday - Remain with the Lord in his Hour of Agony

-Br. Brandt Haglund

Tonight, after Holy Thursday Mass, we will depart in silence, with a underlying motif that Jesus is heading for a post meal walk, a constitutional walk if you will, with His friends.

At the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tells His apostles to watch and pray. Meanwhile, He enters into an intense conversation with His Father saying, “My soul is sorrowful even to death.” St. Luke, a physician, claims Jesus’ anguish is to the point of sweating blood. He is suffering a real medical condition known as hematohidrosis where under extreme physical or emotional stress, capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands actually rupture, causing them to exude blood.

Each time He returns to His apostles, His closest friends, He finds them sleeping, and says, “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

At many of our campuses on Holy Thursday, we invite students to stay with us to more deeply enter into the Holy Triduum. Throughout the night, students will keep watch with Jesus during His agony in the garden through a vigil, an ancient practice in the Church. 

I would like to invite you, our friends to join me and many of us Brothers and students in this practice on Holy Thursday. Are we able to remain with the Lord in His hour of agony? I encourage you to place yourself in the scene with us. What was the weather like? How did Jesus look? What did He say, how can you console Him in the midst of his agony?

I invite you to consider joining us for an hour overnight. You can do this from your home or your parish chapel. If it would be imprudent to do that time, try staying up an extra hour, or waking up an hour early.

I pray you may remain watchful with the Lord, and that you gain deeper spiritual insight into His personal love for you.

 

Good Friday - Abandoned and Forsaken

Br. Gary Davis

“Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”

Jesus experienced the absence of God while in mortal anguish and pain. Can we relate? Yes, we can. At times we feel abandoned and forsaken.

We ask that question, “Why have you forgotten me?” In our spiritual desolations it is easy to forget all the graces and consolations we have received in life. They seem like a distant memory or a dream.

Jesus’ desolation and suffering inspire the good thief to ask, on the cross right next to Him, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

He got the response he was hoping for and even more than he could ask or imagine, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

The same is true for us. Even though we feel forgotten, we are not alone in our suffering. Remember the Father will never abandon us and always provides the timely grace for our eternal salvation.

Ultimately, our greatest triumphs come from suffering with Jesus. And one day we will hear that same encouragement from Him, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

 

Holy Saturday - Awaiting a Savior

Jason Dudziak, former novice, now married and living with his wife and son in Tallahassee 
 

“We Adore You O Christ and we praise You because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.”

By your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world. A lot is said in this single line. A lot can be said about this Holy Saturday.

Something different has happened on this day. Normally when a man is crucified, he dies and is held captive by Death. Prior to Jesus, every one of our human ancestors has been held captive in darkness, since Adam. For Adam sinned against God in the garden, and before this relationship could be restored, that sin needed to be paid for. Something needs to be done to right the wrong.

Now today we have the results of the price being paid, the wrong being made right. That price is the cross.

As Jesus’ crucified body lies wrapped in the sealed tomb, His Spirit descends into hell. The dominions of darkness that used to rule ravenously on their own turf scatter in terror and panic as the King of Kings enters eminently, unexpectedly. The Christ Light begins to stretch over the far span of this dark abyss as He touches those who have been lost and awaiting a savior. Their eyes are lifted and life touches their being. They reach up and touch the light and join His train.

How can we connect to this day? I propose we have all personally known a horrifying darkness in life of one sort or another. Maybe as a child, a literal fear of the dark, maybe a fear of the darkness within, maybe a dark and difficult time in life.

But on this day, we reflect on Jesus. The light of life appearing in that first darkness and in our own personal darkness, offering His hand and leading us out of captivity. By walking hand-in-hand with Him, we now share His power over sin and death.

Let us reflect today on how Christ has reached into our own darkness to save us and acknowledge how we are free now to walk hand-in-hand with Jesus, into the triumphant Resurrection which He has won for us. The Triumphant Resurrection which we will soon celebrate, and that final Triumphant Resurrection, which in Hope, we await.

 

 

Easter Sunday - Leave our Former Selves in the Tomb

Br. Logan Murray

He has risen! Hallelujah, hallelujah!

Well brothers and sisters, it’s a great joy and a great privilege to be able to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus with you this day.

I was struck by the Resurrection account in Luke’s Gospel, where the women who were following Jesus go to the tomb carrying spices to anoint His body. When they encounter the empty the tomb, they see these two men wearing dazzling white garments. The two men ask them the question, “Why are you searching for the living among the dead?” 

I think it asks the question in us, how often do we give things up in our lives for the sake of the Lord - whatever it might be, the sacrifices that we make for the sake of Christ, let alone the sins we’ve given up in our lives - how often do we still dwell on them in our hearts?

In essence we’re taking spices to anoint those parts of our hearts. To keep alive in our memory, to draw more and more pleasure out of them.

But this is the day brothers and sisters that calls us to leave our former selves in the tomb. To depart from the tomb. To look for the Lord Jesus in our lives as we live them here and now. And when we encounter Him, we are actually strengthened because we see that He truly is alive. That He truly is active in our lives and in our hearts, and that He is so present to us. 

And so, this is the day of thanksgiving. This is the day of rejoicing in the Lord. This is the day of great rest for ourselves. Because He has rolled back the stone for us. He has unlocked the Father’s house for us. So, brothers and sisters, let us run out of the tomb with the new life in Christ. Let us run into the Father’s house. Let us run towards the Father’s open arms and rest secure in His loving embrace.

Amen. Hallelujah.