Welcoming the Holy

Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God. 

“The huge crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while some began to cut

branches from the trees and laid them along his path.       (Matthew 21.6)

Opening Prayer

Gracious Father of Jesus, we stand with Your Son as He approaches Jerusalem. He sees the adulation of the crowds, but all too soon, the crowds will turn against Him. Today and in the week ahead, help us to stand firm with Him, though the enticements to do otherwise remain strong in us. Help us to let His generous heart beat in time with ours. Let us be faithful to Jesus this week that demands so much of Him. Amen.

Reading

 “As he entered Jerusalem the whole city was stirred to its depths, demanding, “Who is this?” And the crowd kept answering, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galillee.”(Matthew 21.11)

Reflection

Jesus could have been caught in the moment when everyone seemed to honor him. But he was His Father’s Son, first and foremost, and not taken in by the apparent support of others. He knew things would be different as the days went on. Glory would give way to disinterest, the people’s distancing from Jesus would be like the distancing we are called upon today to save others and ourselves from the coronavirus. But Jesus walked in their midst all week, until he could walk no more and was taken into bondage, mistreated and taken off to die. So few stayed the course with him to the end. What will we do in this unusual time , when we can’t worship the way we do each Holy Week? Will we do nothing, or will we hold Jesus close, become for Him what He has become for us , the voice of tenderness, accepting his suffering and weaving it into our own. This week, let us treasure all He has given us.

Closing Prayer        

Father of Jesus, and Our Father , teach me to be creative in the ways I come to be with your Son this Holy Week. Let me not simply stand by and watch but enter into his suffering so as to enter into his glory. Let me live as closely with Him as I can. Every day this week, and not just on Good Friday and Easter. Let me be as close as I can be to Him. Amen.