Mar 31: Christ Appears to His Apostles

William Blake: Christ Appearing to his Apostles
Tate Gallery, London, c.1795

Thursday in the Octave of Easter

Gospel: Lk 24:35-48

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (NRSV, Lk 24:45-47).”

Father, you reveal yourself to us in every moment in your one act that is your being, even from our first moment in the womb. Throughout our lives we long to grow in understanding of the Word spoken to us. Some of us, we call them prophets, see more clearly than the rest of us and show us the way to deeper understanding of your revelation made to all through the Word always present to us.

Father, our sisters and brothers, disciples of the Lord Jesus, only came to grasp who Jesus was in the experience of him raised from the dead. Their response as the risen Jesus opened their minds was that they should have realized it all along. Even then the understanding of those gathered in the Church continued to grow over the decades with further reflection, prayer and discussion.

Help us, Father, in this Easter season, to come to a fuller understanding of the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Word made flesh, and of the life in which you always, through him, call us to grow. May we live the resurrection even now in this world in preparation for the world to come.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 30: Encounter at Emmaus

Caravaggio: Supper at Emmaus
The National Gallery of Art, London, 1601-02

Wednesday in the Octave of Easter

Gospel: Lk 24:13-35

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight (NRSV, Lk 24:30-31).

Father, there are moments when even the holiest and the wisest among us becomes confused as to your presence in our lives. Your Holy Spirit, who animates us whenever we accept him into ourselves, can often seem so far from us. Even your Word, who never abandons us, can, in the midst of our sinfulness, seem absent. Because of the sin of world and our own tendency to selfishness, bewilderment can overcome us and we can sense ourselves as lost.

It is then, Lord, that the blessing of the Eucharist becomes clear. It is in leaving the workaday world and entering sacred space to listen to the rehearsal of your written word and in breaking bread together that it can all become clear. Like the disciples on the way to Emmaus we too can become lost on the way only to find ourselves and you, Father, when we share the body and blood of Christ your Son and our brother in the Eucharist.

We believe, Father, that every moment is the saving moment and that we can find you in every situation but we remain grateful to you nevertheless for the tangible presence of the Word in holy scripture and in the breaking of bread, the Word who is always for us the Way and the Truth and the Life.

Alleluia. Amen.

Mar 29: The Risen Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

Lavinia Fontana: Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 1581

Tuesday of the Octave of Easter


Gospel: Jn 20:11-18

Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God (NRSV, Jn 20:17).’”

Father, even as in Matthew’s gospel, for John, the first appearance of Jesus risen from the dead is to a woman. Here it is not the three Maries but Mary Magdalene alone. She is, for John, the first apostle, the first one, not only to have seen the risen Lord, but the first to be sent to bring the good news to the others. Mary is the proto-apostle.

Jesus speaks to Mary of his ascension which we so often, Father, fail to understand. To begin, all of the paschal mystery (Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension and the sending of the Spirit) is one moment that is anchored in space and time but also transcends it. The ascension of Jesus, to isolate an aspect of this one mystery, speaks, not of Jesus’ final departure from us, but of his definite presence among us.

In the ascension of Jesus, the Word, your eternal Son, always present to us in the depth of our being, calling us to growth in divine life, defining our very existence as human beings, is recognized as being hypostatically united to one of us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus not only lived on this earth and walked among us. The Word made flesh, Jesus, enthroned with you in heaven, Father, lives as well in the depth of our being, never abandoning us, even when we sin, but always challenging us to repentance and the acceptance of new life.

This, Father, is the message given to Mary to bring to the others. Many we always be faithful to it.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 28: Christ Appears to the Women

Jerome Nadal: Christ Appears to the Women
Adnotationes et Meditationes in Evangelia, 1595

Monday in the Octave of Easter

Gospel: Mt 28:8-15

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me (NRSV, Mt 28:10).”

Father, your apostle Paul teaches us that an apostle is one who has seen the risen Lord and is then sent to bring the good news to others. Paul understood himself as the least but also the last of the apostles, one born out of undue time.

In Matthew’s gospel, then, the first of the apostles are the three Maries, the holy women who went to anoint the body of Christ, who encountered Jesus in his risen body and were told to bring the good news of his resurrection to the others.

Father, as your bless the holy women who were the first to be sent, bless us also who have received the good news of Jesus’ resurrection in our time that we we also may be effective instruments of your grace to all of our sisters and brothers.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Mar 27: The Resurrection of our Lord

Piero della Francesca: The Resurrection of our Lord
Pinocateca Communale, Sansepolcro, 1463-65

Easter Sunday

Reading II: Col 3:1-4

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Col 3:1).

Father, as we reflect on the mystery of this most import day on which we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, it becomes clear that Jesus was not resurrected only after his crucifixion, death and burial. Jesus was truly resurrected throughout his entire human existence. The life and the power which brought him through death was indeed his from the very beginning. That life was a gift from you, Father, to your Son, the Word, from all eternity and that life filled Jesus from the very first moment of his existence. It is because of that life that healing power went out of Jesus to others, that he was indeed the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The life which you have given to the Word from all eternity, Father, you share also with every one of us, if we accept it, even from the womb. It is the life that you give to us in baptism and that we celebrate and share with one another in the Eucharist. Because of our participation in this life, we too are resurrected beings from the beginning. This life and power enables us to face all of life’s difficulties, as Jesus faced them, and to be victorious over them. As healing went out from Jesus to others, it can also be shared by others with our sisters and brothers.

And most of all, death, which so often seems the enemy and our undoing, can be seen as passage, as an hour of glory, summing up everything we have been, and leading us to fuller life, Father, with you.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 25: The Crucifixion of our Lord

Matthias Grünewald: The Small Crucifixion
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., c. 1511-20

Good Friday

Gospel: Jn 18:1--19:42

When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished." And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit (NAB, Jn 19:30).

Father, so often the passion and death and death of your Son Jesus are presented as momentary defeat that is then definitively reversed in the resurrection. But Jesus’ death, even in the midst of such terrible pain and suffering is really, as John puts it, his hour of glory. This is true, Father, not only in John’s gospel, in which Jesus is clearly in triumph on the cross, but in the other gospels as well.

In Mark’s gospel, the pagan centurion is able, for the first time for anyone to grasp the divinity of Jesus: this, not in spite of Jesus’ suffering but radiating out through his suffering. “This is truly the Son of God.”

In Luke’s gospel, healing goes out to the women of Jerusalem and forgiveness to Jesus persecutors and the good thief.

In Matthew’s gospel all of nature is convulsed by Jesus death. The earth quakes and even the dead rise from their graves.

But it is in John’s gospel that Jesus’ crucifixion is truly presented as victory. The Church begins from the cross and the sacraments of the Eucharist and baptism have their foundation in the blood and water that flows from Jesus side. Even the Holy Spirit is handed over to the Church as Jesus breathes his last.

Help us, Father, through Jesus the Word that death may be for us as well not even temporary defeat and undoing but a glorious passage to a fuller life in you.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 24: Wash One Another's Feet

Ford Madox Ford: Jesus Washing Peter's Feet at the Last Supper

Holy Thursday

Gospel: Jn 13:1-15

“So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet (NRSV, Jn 13:14).”

Father, your being and your act which are one consist in giving life, receiving life and sharing life in love. At every moment you invite everyone human to take part in that life, to share in it. In our Lord Jesus Christ, beyond inviting us to share in your life, you take upon yourself our human life and make it your own. In Jesus your life of giving, receiving and sharing is made visible for us in this world.

Father, your Word is always present to every one of us at our innermost being. He also remains present for us in a visible way in the sacred meal he has left as a memorial of his physical life, death, and resurrection. Whenever we gather to remember that last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples, we are aware that it is Jesus himself who is present with us blessing the bread and the cup and in these visible signs giving of himself so completely to us that as we partake of what appears to be bread and the wine we can say in faith that they are truly the body and blood of Christ.

At every moment when we say “yes” to you, Father, at the depth of our being, we are caught up more fully in the true sacrifice of sharing that is your life. Whenever we celebrate the Eucharist that life which we are called to share with you at every moment becomes ritually visibly and acted out in this sacred meal.

Father, we are grateful for your gift of your life always offered. We are grateful to you as well for loving us so much that you also in your Word take upon yourself our life and a human nature, and for remaining visibly present for us in your Church and the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist in which we ritually share under the appearances of bread and wine in everything that is our Lord Jesus Christ.

As Jesus shared everything that he is with us even to death, may we who partake of the Eucharist and his body and blood also serve one another.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Mar 23: Judas Betrays Jesus

Giotto di Bondone: Judas Betraying the Christ
Cappella Scrovegni, Padua, 1304-06

Wednesday of Holy Week

Gospel: Mt 26:14-25

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him (NRSV, Mt 26:14-16).

Father, when Judas heard Jesus calling him to be his disciple, he did not realize that the voice he heard was one that spoke to him constantly at his innermost being, every moment from the first within his mother’s womb. It was the voice of your Word, Father, which speaks to every one of us in every moment, the voice of your Word who became a human being in our Lord Jesus Christ.

When Judas, for money, thirty pieces of silver, succumbed to betraying Jesus, he thought that Jesus would just vanish from his life. But the Word, always present to us at the depth of our being, is who defines our being. We are humans called to share in your divine life, Father, because the Word is always there pressing in upon us, inviting us, challenging us, to greater growth. Or if we sin, calling us to accept forgiveness and to redirect our life.

Father, Judas thought that we would betray Jesus and it would be done with but there was no way in which he could banish the Word from his life. Nor is your Word ever vindictive, Father. No, in the face of Judas’ great sin, your Word only continued to offer the gift of life and Love that is the Holy Spirit.

Poor Judas! How unfortunate we all are in our sinfulness! Choosing evil but still having to live in the embrace of Love! Help us, Father, through the Word in the Holy Spirit never to turn away from you but always to accept your gift of a fuller life that you offer us in every moment.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 22: Betrayal Then Denial

Michiel van der Borch: Last Supper Christ gives a piece of bread to Judas
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, 1332

Tuesday of Holy Week

Gospel: Jn 13:21-33, 36-38

After Judas received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “Do quickly what you are going to do (NRSV, Jn 13:27).”

Father, how easy for us to keep our distance from Judas. To us, he is the consummate doer of evil. But, if we read on just a bit, we find Jesus confronting Peter and warning him, against Peter’s protests, that he will deny him. And then, shortly afterwards, in the garden, every one of the others flees. Jesus goes to his death betrayed, denied and abandoned. In the first three gospels there is no one at the foot of the cross to comfort the dying Jesus. Only the holy women watched from afar. True, in John’s gospel, his mother, the beloved disciple, and the two other Marys are there but their presence is clearly for a symbolic reason. John has the Church begin, not on Pentecost, but from the Cross.

And so Jesus was alone as he lay dying, with only you, his Father, to comfort him as you vindicated the just man in the 22nd psalm. It was not only Judas but all of Jesus’ disciples who finally turned away from him. And we too betray, deny and abandon, every time that we turn away in sin.

Yet in our sinfulness, Jesus never abandons us. The Word remains ever present to us, in the worst of sin, always offering us your forgiveness, Father, and challenging us to accept the Holy Spirit once more into our lives.

Father, keep us ever mindful of the great love that you show us in your Word who became a human being to be with us, not only at our innermost being, but to be present visibly showing us the way to you.

Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 21: Anointing for Death

Master of Jean Rollin II: The Supper at Bethany
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, c. 1455

Monday of Holy Week

Gospel: Jn 12:1-11

Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair (NRSV, Jn 12:3a).

Father, you speak to us, everyone of us who has every lived, at each moment of our lives, through your Word at the depth of our being. But that one Word is also made manifest and visible in many particular situations.

In the great sacrament of human existence, your Word is made flesh; he becomes a human being, in our Lord Jesus Christ. He shares our life, everything we are; he teaches us and heals us; he even passes through death with us.

Your Word is also visibly present in the world through the gathering of those who believe in him, your Church, as it proclaims your written Word contained in Sacred Scripture and celebrates your one saving work among us in sacramental actions, especially in baptism and the Eucharist.

Father, even from ancient times, kings and priests were set aside for your service through sacred anointing with oil. Prophets were understood to be anointed immediately by your Spirit.

The evangelists are in agreement that the Lord Jesus, after his baptism by John, was anointed by the Holy Spirit who descended upon him in the form of a dove. In baptism, and when we are confirmed in our ongoing faith in you, Father, we, your daughters and sons, are anointed with oil as a visible sign of our calling in the Holy Spirit. Your presbyters are likewise anointed with oil as are the sick and those facing the great passage through death.

Father, we are ever grateful to you for your presence in the Word and in the Spirit at our innermost being, uniting us all in one divine life, and for your visible presence in the Word made flesh and in the Church, in which we celebrate your sacraments.

As Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, anointed the feet of Jesus in preparation for his death, may we too anoint our sisters and brothers as they prepare for the journey through death and thus encourage them to join with the Word on this passage which can be for all their hour of glory.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Mar 20: Hosanna to the Son of David!

Giotto di Bondone: The Entry into Jerusalem
Cappella Srovegni, Padua, 1304-06

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

At the Procession with Palms
Gospel: Mt 21:1-11

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven (NRSV, Mt 21:9b)!”

Father, in the gospel of Luke, Jesus’ physical life here on earth begins with a pilgrimage from Nazareth to Bethlehem. For Matthew, there is also pilgrimage, to save the infant from death, pilgrimage from Bethlehem to Egypt and eventually to Nazareth. In the entire synoptic tradition, Jesus’ public ministry is a great pilgrimage from Galilee to Jerusalem where the paschal mystery of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection then unfolds.

So much, Father, of our story as your people is pilgrimage: out of Egypt through the desert and into the land. Centuries before Moses, Abraham also went on pilgrimage leaving his home in Mesopotamia in search of you on a quest that brought him to the land.

Today, Father, we celebrate Jesus’ final ceremonial pilgrimage over the crest of the Mount of Olives down across the Kedron Valley into Jerusalem. It was a day of triumph for Jesus leading, however, as the days went on, to his eventual betrayal, arrest, passion, and crucifixion; his passage through death, which John describes as his hour of glory.

Father, all of human life is pilgrimage, from that first moment, still in the womb, when in response to your Word, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we say “yes” to your gift of life, human and divine. All of life, from that moment on, is an everlasting journey towards you, Father, who are our only true Future.

Whenever we foolishly turn away from you in sin, you are always there in your Word challenging us to accept your forgiveness and renewal of your life in the Holy Spirit. You are there with us especially as the Word guides us through physical death as he himself, during this Holy Week, passed through it in his human nature. The Word is our Way to you, Father, on a journey that never ends but leads on and on into an ever increasing share in your life.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 19: A Family of Faith

Rogier van der Weyden: St. Joseph (fragment)
Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, 1445

Solemnity of St. Joseph

Gospel: Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him (NRSV, Mt 1:24a)

Father, all who believe, who accept you in faith are your children. You offer a share in your divine life to all who will accept it and make it their own. On this solemnity of St. Joseph we look to St. Joseph as a model of faith because he trusted in your revelation, perceived as spoken to him in dreams by the presence of an angel.

Father, you speak your one Word to all of us at the depth of our being, from the first moment of our existence, the same Word that we then hear at every moment of our lives.

To each of us, according to our time and place and our history, this same one Word is appropriately heard. To Joseph it was to care for Jesus, to Abraham to come forth from Mesopotamia, to Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt.

Because of circumstances, many have difficulty acknowledging you, Father, as the source of this Word spoken to us, or even to acknowledge the Word, especially the Word made flesh. Many who have said “yes” to you by committing themselves to a life of Love do not recognize that Love is your Holy Spirit living in them, or much less that you are the source of that Spirit always given through the Word.

Father, we pray that we shall always be a people of faith, trusting in you and committing ourselves to you. May more of your children come to conscious realization of your grace working in them.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 18: I Am the Son of God

Raffaello Sanzio: La Disputa (detail)
Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican, 1510-11

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Gospel: Jn 10:31-42

“The Father is in me and I am in the Father (NRSV, Jn 10:38b).”

Father, over the centuries, from the time that we first recognized you as God-for-us, as you called forth out of Egypt, we tried to win over your favor by offering gifts of incense, the first fruits of the land and the sacrifice of animals. Finally, in what had to be for us the fullness of time, we recognized in your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of this had been to no avail. We finally came to see that it was in Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection that we become one with you. Jesus who receives life from you as his Son, the uncreated Word made flesh, gives himself totally to you in everything that he is. Jesus is the gift that unites us to you because his Spirit, your Spirit, has been poured out upon us so that we may join in offering ourselves to you with and through him. Jesus is therefore the one true Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

Father you are one, one as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As your being is one so is your act. We, your created children, act here and there, now and then. You just act. In fact, because you are one, your being is your act and your act your being. Father, as you give us your life in our Lord Jesus, so you give us your life in all that you do. Every moment is then the saving moment. You save us in creating the universe and humanity. You save us as we accept the gift of your Spirit in the womb through the Word always present to us. You save as we say “yes” to you in faith in each moment. You save as we accept forgiveness and reconciliation with you after having sinned and turned away from you, a forgiveness which is always freely offered. You save us in the visible, effective signs of your one act that is your being: in baptism, in the Eucharist and in all the sacraments and in your written Word.

Father, we are grateful to you for the great gift of your life that you share with us, life offered to all, in every moment in every place. And we thank you for the great effective sign of that gift, our Lord Jesus, your only begotten Son, the uncreated Word made flesh, who makes you, Father, and your saving act, visible in the world.

Alleluia. Amen.

Mar 17: Serve One Another

Anonymous Irish Monk: Christ
The Book of Kells
Trinity College Library, Dublin, 8th or 9th cent.

Solemnity of Saint Patrick, bishop, patron of Ireland

First Reading: 1 Pet 4:7-11

Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received (NRSV, 1 Pet 4:10).

Father, your life is one of giving, receiving and sharing. You give life to your begotten but uncreated Son, the Word, and the Word and you share that life in Love who is the Holy Spirit who proceeds from you, Father, and the Word.

Through the Word, always present to us, at our innermost being, from the beginning in the womb, even when we turn away from you in sin, you challenge us at every moment to accept your life in the Holy Spirit.

The gift of your life, Father, manifests itself in us always in Love but, according to our particular situation, also in certain special gifts directed towards the service of others. As you share your life with the Word in Love, in our accepting of your gift of life through the Word, the Word challenges us to give ourselves completely to you, Father, in Love through him. The same challenge is directed also towards all of our sisters and brothers: that we love one another as well and that we serve one another with the particular gifts each of us has from you.

Father as you and the Word and the Holy Spirit are one, so also are all human beings called by their very nature, which is always super-nature, to be one with you and with one another, in the life that is offered to all, and in the mutual service to which we are called.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Mar 16: The Truth Will Make You Free

Simeon Solomon: Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego
Preserved from the Burning, Fiery Furnace
Private Collection, 1863

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Gospel: Jn 8:31-42

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (NRSV, Jn 8:31-32).”

Father, so often, when we long to be free, it is freedom “from” something that we seek. As long as the Israelites understood their freedom as merely freedom from slavery in Egypt, they simply exchanged one form of slavery for another. Once across the sea into the desert they could only bemoan their condition and murmur and rebel against you, Father. Freed from their Egyptian taskmasters, they were still enslaved.

Freedom, Father, is always found in accepting your life, of being caught up in you, receiving life from you, yes, but also fully giving of self to you through the Word in Love that is the Holy Spirit. True freedom is always finally never merely freedom “from” but always freedom “for.”

The prophet Daniel tells the wonderful story of the three boys cast into the fiery furnace. They lived not for themselves, Father, but only for you. They were victorious over their fiery fate even as your Son Jesus was victorious on the cross and we can be victorious as well, in any situation however dark, if only we forget ourselves and live for you, Father, and for all of our sisters and brothers.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 15: Salvation is Through the Word Made Flesh

Anthony van Dyck: Moses and the Serpent
Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1621

Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Lent

Reading I: Nm 21:4-9

And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live (NRSV, Nm 21:8)."

Father, at no moment is it clearer to us that the Word made flesh gives of himself totally to you than as he lay dying on the cross. That moment sums up everything that Jesus is: He receives his life from you and he gives all that he is in return. This giving, receiving and sharing in Love, however, takes place not only on the cross. It is, Father, your very life as God. You, Father, give life to the Word. The Word receives that life from you. You, Father, and the Word share your life in Love who is the Holy Spirit.

The Cross is our salvation, indeed, but so is every moment a saving moment. Your act, Father, is one and cannot be separated from your being. In the one act that is your being, Father, you generate the Word and the Holy Spirit proceeds from Father and Word. In this same act that is your being you create the world and each one of us, you share your life with us through the Word, you become one of us in Jesus Christ, and you manifest yourself in Church and sacraments.

We, Father, have a history, each one of us and your people as a family, but you are beyond time and place. You are at once nowhere and everywhere and because of this your salvation for us is always available.

Thank you, Father, for the gift of your life and for the gift of your Son. You are made manifest for us in him and your salvation is made visible in his life and death. May we understand you ever more clearly by keeping our eyes up the cross of your Son. May we find everlasting life through his life and death.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 14: Go, And Sin No More

Lorenzo Lotto: Christ and the Adulteress
Private Collection, 1530-32

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Gospel: Jn 8:1-11

Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again (NRSV, Jn 8: 11).”

Father, The forgiveness which you offer us through the Word is without condition. There is nothing that we must do to earn it. It is gift, only to be accepted and to allow it to transform us so that we are ready in turn to offer it to those who have offended us.

Jesus never inquires into the past of a sinner. He never demands a promise for the future. He merely offers forgiveness with the challenge to sin no more.

Father, may we in our sinfulness always be responsive to your Word, made flesh in the Lord Jesus, who in every instant offers us your life. May we accept the gift of new life, allow it to change us, and then share it with others. Thus may we become one with you Father, in the Spirit, through the Word, and may we ever grow in that unity which for us who are your created daughters and sons a neverending journey.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 13: The Raising of Lazarus

Juan de Flandes: The Raising of Lazarus
Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1514

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Gospel: Jn 11:1-45

Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die (NRSV, Jn 11:25-26).”

Father, today, in preparation for the coming celebration of the great solemnity of Easter, we rehearse the wonderful story of the restoration to physical life of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. It gives us the opportunity to reflect in advance on the true significance of death.

We realize, to begin, Father, that the story of Lazarus involves not a true resurrection at all but rather a resuscitation, not a passage through death to a new and fuller life, but rather a summons back to this earthly life with all of its magnificence but also all of its limitations. A person who is resuscitated (if that were possible) would once again be subject to the restrictions of space and time, of knowledge always conditioned by a point of view, of being misunderstood, of injury, further sickness, yes, and inevitably death again. Yes, Lazarus brought back to this life would still have to pass through physical death for a second time.

At every moment, Father, your Word, present to us from the womb, his presence defining our human existence, calls us to accept a share in divine life. Over and over again, he challenges us to die to self and selfishness, everything we have been up to that moment, to become something truly new. Physical death is not our undoing but the culmination of everything that has gone before. In physical death, everything must be let go in a complete emptying of self. Physical death is not defeat but can be the final hour of glory in which a definitive choice for you, Father, is made.

Through your Word, Father, continue to enlighten us so that we may realize that it is only the blindness brought about by sin that makes us afraid of death as defeat, that in reality death is passage to a life that can be more complete, that it is the final act of our earthly existence and should be for us, as for Jesus, an hour of glory.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 12: God is My Shield

Anonymous French Master: Jeremiah Being Stoned to Death
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, c 1297-1320

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12

God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart (NRSV, Ps 7:10).

Father, you reveal yourself to us at every moment, even from the first moment in our mother’s womb, through your Word, who challenges us to accept and to grow in your life. Even though you reveal yourself once and for all in each moment, because of our finite human condition intensified by the sin of the world, we can only grow gradually in understanding as in grace. Even the psalmists and your prophets, so sensitive to your presence and your call, only see in part. They often cry out for you to swoop down and rescue them from an oppressive situation and then to wreak vengeance on those who maltreat them.

Father, you anticipate all our needs. You have in every situation one gift that you offer to us even before we ask: a share in your divine life. This gift is all we ever need. It does not rescue us however bleak the situation may be. Rather it empowers us to transform the darkest moment into blessing for ourselves and others. Strengthened by your grace, Father, we can always be victors even as Jesus was victor on the cross.

Psalmist and prophet sometimes call upon you to take vengeance on their enemies. Father, when we committed the most heinous of crimes by crucifying your beloved Son and banishing him from this world, what was your response? Through your power given to him, Jesus passed in triumph through death to new life and you, Father, poured out your Spirit upon all humankind, as you always do, through the Word, now risen from the dead, that we might in every instance be able to say “yes” to your gift of life.

Father, the gift of your life is salvation in every moment and your vengeance is rather forgiveness to all who will accept it and share it with others.

Alleluia. Amen.

Mar 11: The Lord is Near to the Brokenhearted

Fritz Eichenberg:
Christ of the Breadlines, 1950

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 34:17-18, 19-20, 21 and 23

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all (NRSV, Ps 34:18-19).

Father, you reveal who you are to us at every moment at the depths of our innermost being through your Word who is always present to us. This revelation, only brought to conscious comprehension by us gradually, has been made clearer to us through your prophets, who seem to respond to you more sensitively than many of the rest of us, and especially through the Word made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom you share our human life with us.

When Jesus lay dying on the cross, your presence to him was most manifest. In Mark’s gospel the pagan centurion at the foot of the cross, alone in the whole gospel, comes to recognize your divine presence in your Son. In Matthew the universe goes into convulsion in union with our Lord. Luke speaks eloquently of the healing that goes from Jesus to those around him. John sums it all up by indicating that passage through death, a human being’s most difficult moment, can be truly an hour of glory.

Father, you were with your Son Jesus as he passed through death and you will be also with us empowering us as you did your Son. As death is the saving moment, Lord, so is every moment. I truly believe that there is no time when you are not present to us. In every moment, even the bleakest, when all others seem to have abandoned us, you are there, sharing your life with us, or, if we are in serious sin, calling us back to you through your Word. Every moment then can be blessing opening up to new and even more glorious future.

Help us, Father, to find you when we are most troubled and seemingly most abandoned, that we may rejoice in the life that you always share with us.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 10: The Lord Forgives All

Emil Nolde: Dance around the Golden Calf
Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, Munich, 1910

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Reading I: Ex 32:7-14

And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people (NRSV, Ex 32:14).

Father, as you at every moment call us, through the Word, to transcend ourselves to grow in your life, we, foolish ones, so often try to bring you down to our size. Because, when we are sinned against, we have a tendency to become angry with the transgressor, we assume, Lord, that you become angry also with us when we sin.

When Moses tarried on the Holy Mountain, the people below became impatient with him and forced Aaron to make for them a golden calf which they might worship. When Moses descended, so outraged was he at the spectacle of the idolatrous dance, that he smashed the tablets of stone. As to be expected, Moses’ anger was transferred to you, Lord, and even intensified. Moses great love for the people soon overcame his rage and then he turned (Oh, how very foolish we are!) to placate you, Father. The psalmist even says that Moses withstood you in the breach to turn away your destroying anger (As if Moses, or anyone, could stand against you, O Lord our God!).

How strange it is that, whenever we sin, we experience this great chasm that separates us from you, Father, but then, when we repent of our sin (And how could we possibly do that without your immediate aid?), there you are, without delay, present once more to us, any anger that we sensed coming from you abated.

Lord, the truth is (if only we could make it permanently ours) that even in sin you never leave us. It is we who reject the gift of your Holy Spirit dwelling in us but through your Word you remain ever present to us. Your Word is unfailing in challenging us to change our ways, to repent, to accept once again the indwelling of your Spirit. You, Lord, are Love and forgiveness. Any anger that we experience coming from you is our projection upon you. Since the anger is really of our making, it vanishes whenever we accept anew the gift of your Spirit and your life.

Father, through your Word, help us to recognize that you are all-forgiving, in every situation, however grievous, and then help us to accept that forgiveness and the renewal of your Spirit and your life in us. Moreover, empower us to share that same forgiveness with all who have sinned against us.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 9: All from the Father through the Son

Anonymous German Master:
Altarpiece with Mercy Seat (central panel)
Staatliche Museen, Berlin, 1260-70

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Gospel: Jn 5:17-30

Jesus said to them, “For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself (NRSV, Jn 5:26).”

Father, we are grateful for your gift of the Word made flesh in your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In him, we see the expression of your great love for us in taking upon yourself a human body and becoming one with us and showing the way to the fullness of everlasting life by passing through death with us.

Jesus remains present to believers in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist in which we share his body and blood, under the appearance of bread and wine, and are ritually caught up in the one, true sacrifice which is your own inner life of giving, receiving and sharing in love.

We are also grateful, Father, for your Word as he is present at the innermost being of all of your daughters and sons. It is through your Word that you challenge us even in the womb, still without the benefit of language or logic, but in the power of the Spirit, to accept the gift of your divine life, Father, and become human beings.

Your Word remains ever present to us in each subsequent moment always challenging us to grow in your divine life. We may turn away from you, Father, in sin but your Word remains present to us challenging us to accept forgiveness and renewal of divine life.

Everything we are, Father, that makes us to be your daughters and sons, is through your Word. It is through your Word that we receive life from you, Father, and it is through your Word, in the Holy Spirit, that we are caught up in your inner being of giving, receiving and sharing. It is through your Word that in every moment we can move forward toward you who are our only future.

Alleluia. Amen.

Mar 8: Heal Us and Make Us Whole

Artus Wolfart: Christ at the Pool of Bethesda
Ontario Art Gallery, Toronto, 1620-30

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Gospel: Jn 5:1-16

Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk (NRSV, Jn 5: 8-9a).

Father, so often healing comes about in our lives and we are not explicitly aware of how it is taking place. I am not referring now, Lord, to the usual physical healing that occurs following causes within the physical order of things. I mean the deeper spiritual healing that brings forgiveness of sin and which overcomes the alienation which always accompanies sin. This deeper spiritual healing often has effects as well within the physical order, effects which puzzles the natural scientist.

Before the coming of Jesus, no one recognized that we are called to share in your divine life, which life always brings healing to us. So many then have, through your Word, said “yes” to you, Father, at the depth of their being without being conscious of the full significance of their response. Such it was with our parents who preceded Jesus and our sisters and brothers who have come after him, never having heard his name or not fully understanding the gift that he shares with us. Even those who openly reject you, Father, and your Son, often do so out of confusion and really embrace you at their innermost being.

Your healing, Father, is accessible to all who accept your life even implicitly. It is available in a tangible way in your sacraments but, even when the sacraments are not to be had or are not appreciated; there is no moment in human experience that is not the saving moment.

Your healing power, made our own, brings forgiveness and new life. It overcomes the alienating effects of sin and is sufficient for us to greet death, with Jesus, as our hour of glory. No wonder then that spiritual healing often brings with it physical healing that confounds the wise of this world.

Father, heals us and make us whole.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 7: New Heavens and a New Earth

William Blake: The Ancient of Days (God as Architect)
British Museum, London, 1794

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Reading I: Is 65:17-21

“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind (NRSV, Is 65:17).”

Father, there is no situation in which we find ourselves but that we cry out to be delivered from it. When we were slaves in Egypt we longed for freedom. Yet once across the sea, we murmured in discontent in the desert and longed for something more. Centuries later, we lamented our return to captivity, this time to Babylon. Even when we were released from that captivity by Cyrus the Persian and allowed to return to the land, all still seemed bleak, without reason for rejoicing. There is in fact, Lord, no circumstance, however blessed that it may seem, that satisfies. The reason, Lord, that it is only in you that we find happiness.

You have created us, Lord, to become one with you, to share your life into eternity. From the first moment, Father, your Word, always present to us, challenges us to accept the gift of your life and then to grow constantly in that life. It is this life and the continual growth in it that gives meaning to everything we are and everything we do. It alone gives us the power and strength to serve our neighbor in need. No matter how bleak a particular situation may seem, it is the acceptance of your life into that circumstance and the sharing of that life with one another that makes of it a moment of salvation.

Help us, Lord, not to bless or curse our present condition but rather to lift our eyes up out of the present and to keep them always on you who are our future. We look to your promise of new heavens and a new earth that will overshadow former things and brings us to the fullness of life in you. May we become instruments of that future now by living transformed lives in the service of our sisters and brothers.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 6: That the Blind May See

Duccio di Buoninsegna: Healing of the Blind Man
National Gallery, London, 1308

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Gospel: Jn 9:1-41

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind (NRSV, Jn 9:39).”

Father, as you called your people out of slavery in Egypt and we first recognized you as God for us, we were so sure that we knew exactly who you are. We came away from the encounter in the storm at Mt. Sinai certain that you had made a covenant, a sort of treaty, with us. You promised us the land as our destiny and you demanded that we should accept you as our God, and you alone, and that, as you love us, we should love you and one another. How certain we were then of the behavior that you required of us. The provisions were carved in stone, written once and for all, to be your commandments for us.

We thought we saw clearly, Father, but how blind we were. Gradually over the centuries, even without our acknowledging it, the provisions of the moral code by which we lived gradually changed and were transformed. It was only with the resurrection of Jesus, the Word made flesh, your Anointed One sent to announce the end time, that we realized our blindness. It was not the land at all that you promised. It was eternal life shared with you, a future that began already here, a future that we had already been living without even realizing it. And your people? Not the narrow tribe that we had thought even though we were the first ones to recognize you as God for us. No, your people included everyone who had existed and would exist in every time and place. All called to share your life into eternity. And all called to grow not only in your life but also in your love, life and love which for you, of course, are one. Whenever we are sure that we see, whenever we are certain of who you are and the life that you call us to lead, you are there, through your Word, summoning us to a greater understanding and a more perfect morality than transcends what had gone before.

Father, we think we see but we are really blind as to the possibilities to which you call us. Help us in each moment to see.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Mar 5: The Humble will be Exalted

Christian Dare: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Gospel: Lk 18:9-14

“All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted (NRSV, Lk 18:14b).”

Father, the life which you share with us, and in which we are called to grow at every moment, makes us to be divine beings in you capable of constant increase. Alone of all your earthly creatures we share in the ability to love because, as long as we accept the gift, the Holy Spirit who is love abides in us. In union with your Word, we are empowered to share in the ongoing formation of the world with the ability to soar to the heights in the creation of great art and music. As companions of your Word who is always present to every one of us, your Word through whom you set in motion and sustain everything that is, we too can utter great works of spoken and written speechcraft. So great is the power that is ours that death, Father, can be for us, as it was for Jesus our brother, an hour of glory, not the unconquerable enemy but a passage to a still greater life.

What a glorious existence to which you have called us, Lord, that we alone may raise our heads above all of your earthly creatures in singing your praise.

But how we must be grateful to you, Father, because in the midst of all of this glory which we enjoy, none of it has its origin in us. Of ourselves we are nothing. Everything we are, everything we do, everything we have, it all comes from you. And in the midst of all these gifts, so often, Lord, we turn away from you in sin. We act as if we are center of all things when in reality we are nothing without you. And when we sin, when we turn away from you as if you did not even exist, when we heap abuse upon sister and brother; you, Lord, never abandon us. In your great love, you always maintain your presence with us through your Word, challenging us, pleading with us to accept your forgiveness. Such is your love that no payment is ever required for our waywardness, merely the acceptance of forgiveness and the renewal of your life within us.

How great you are, Father, to call us over and over again, not only out of the nothingness of non-being, but then out of the nothingness of sin. In all the glory of the summons to share in divinity, may we be ever mindful of the nonbeing from which we come and, without the constant presence of Your Word, into which we would return.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 4: Love of God and Neighbor

Vincent Van Gogh: The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix)
Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands, 1890

Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Gospel: Mk 12:28-34

“‘to love the Lord your God with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices (NRSV, Mt 12:33).”

Father, in each moment that we say “yes” to you, we grow in your life. As we grow in your life, we also grow in love. That, Lord, is because your life is love, love that is the mutual sharing in the Holy Spirit both of you, Father, who gives life to the Word, and of the Word who receives life from you.

To be a human being, Father, is to be on journey towards you our future. As well as a journey of growth in life and love, there is also growth in understanding of the one revelation that the Word always speaks to us at the depth of our being. Our understanding of the dignity of life grows as we make progress on the journey as does also our understanding of the meaning of love. Progress can be made as individuals but also as a human family.

There was a time when we first recognized you, Father, as God for us, as we came out of slavery in Egypt, that our understanding of the dignity of life and what it means to love was much more limited than it is today. Thou shalt not kill, we thought, but that was limited only to members of the tribe. Slavery was permissible even within the tribe. Women were treated like chattel, things to be owned. Death was imposed as penalty even for minor crimes.

And the neighbors we were challenged to love were only our own people, not the others.

Much has changed, Father, as we progress on our journey towards you. We are especially thankful for the teaching of the Word made flesh, your only begotten son, Jesus, who has enlightened us in so many ways. Continue to help us, Father, through your Word, to increase our understanding of your truth that is revealed to us from the beginning that we may grow constantly in the life and love which in you are one.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 3: My People Do Not Pay Heed

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino:
Study for the Prophet Jeremiah
Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1626

Reading I: Jer 7:23-28

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backward rather than forward (NRSV, Jer 7:24).”

Father, in every situation you are our future. Your Word is given to us to be our guide on the journey. Jesus said of himself: I am the way and the truth and the life. In every moment the Word challenges us to move forward through the present towards you. Yet so often, Father, not only do we refuse to advance but, under the sway of the sin of the world and our own selfishness, we actually turn our backs on you, as if it were possible to remove ourselves from your presence, you who are in all things.

Your Word, Father, is always there to guide us if only we would listen to him as he speaks at the depth of our being. There are among us, those more sensitive than the rest of us, however, who do listen and understand with greater clarity. They, Father, are your prophets, who then do their best to interpret the Word for us. So often we reject them. Instead of listening, we stone them, we banish them from our midst, we put them to death.

Help us, Father, to give up our sinful ways that we may look always towards you. May we not only listen more faithfully to your Word ever present to guide and challenge us on our journey, but may we also be more open to those among us, our sisters and brothers, who are your prophets. Because they are more sensitive and responsive, they have so much to teach us. May your prophets make us more open to the Word and may they help to guide us on our journey to you.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mar 1: With a Contrite Heart and a Humble Spirit

Gianlorenzo Bernini: Daniel
Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1650

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent

Reading I: NAB, Dn 3:25, 34-43b

“Yet with a contrite heart and a humble spirit may we be accepted,
as though it were with burnt offerings of rams and bulls,
or with tens of thousands of fat lambs;
such may our sacrifice be in your sight today,
and may we unreservedly follow you,
for no shame will come to those who trust in you (NRSV, vv. 16-17 following Dn 3:24) .”

Father, Bernini’s statue of Daniel in Santa Maria del Popolo might just as well be a representation of Azariah as he prayed to you in the fiery furnace: “Yet with a contrite heart and a humble spirit may we be accepted, as though it were with burnt offerings of rams and bulls.”

How strange it is, Lord, that in the most difficult situations, when all seems on the verge of being lost, that suddenly we see so much more clearly and that actually things are better than we ever could have thought. It was during the captivity in Babylon, when there was no longer temple or priesthood and so animal sacrifice and the offering of incense and first fruits were no longer possible, that it became obvious that the true offering to you, Lord, is a contrite heart and a humble spirit.

Today, in the risen Jesus, we recognize that a contrite heart and humble spirit are really the acceptance of your life, Father, into our own and of our being caught up in your inner life of giving, receiving and sharing in love that is true sacrifice. This true sacrifice, the archetype of all others, is offered to you, Father, in the Holy Spirit through your Word who became one of us and died with and for us. It is the sacrifice made present for us visibly in the Eucharist.

Help us, Father, to realize that there is nothing that we can give you on our own. All we can do is accept with gratitude the life that you share with us. But, once having received life from you through the Word, we are empowered to share that very life with you in the love of the Holy Spirit.

Father, as you heard the prayer of Daniel, and of Azariah in the fiery furnace, hear also our prayer that we too may offer back to you, in sacrifice, through your Word, the gift you give to us: a contrite heart and a humble spirit.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.