Good Friday

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister,
Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his
mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother
"Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother."
(John 18:1-19; 42)

None of the other three Gospels mention that any of the family of Jesus--or any of the disciples--were near the cross

But the Gospel of John has two family members there--Jesus' mother and his aunt. We seldom think of his aunt at the cross. She was probably there mostly for her sister, Mary, who she knew was having a hard time.

There they are. His mother, his aunt, the beloved disciple, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Each of them concerned about Jesus and about each other.

At Christmas, we are touched by the crib scene. On Good Friday, we should let ourselves be touched by the cross scene. The wood of the crib has become the wood of the cross.

Put yourself in the scene. Spend some time with the Lord...and with his mother, her sister, Mary Magdalene and the beloved disciple.

The Little Black Book

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Thanks be to God!

Holy Thursday

Descending to Feet

The Last Supper picture of Jesus washing feet describes the process of incarnation, of spirit becoming flesh.

Jesus is aware "that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God" (John 13:2). This is his interior God-consciousness, in common with God and ready, in his very next action, to manifest God in whatever he does. All things are in his hands. He takes off his outer garment to reveal the inner self and, behold, he wraps a towel around his waist. The one whom the disciples know as Lord and Teacher is, in truth, a servant. Then he pours water into a basin. "Pouring" is how Spirit feels as it becomes flesh. It flows, coming from the inside to the outside. Then Jesus completes the action by washing and drying his disciple's feet. In other words, he refreshes their feet so that they might continue the journey of life.

What Jesus does, we can also do. We can share in his incarnation dynamics. First, we must realize that we are in communion with God and commissioned to manifest God's love in everything we do. Second, we must choose acts that have this revelatory potential, acts that get people back on the path to living the gospel. third, we must do in the flesh what we have conceived in the Spirit.

This may sound like drudgery and sacrifice, but it is not. Once you know you are a spiritual being becoming flesh through special acts of service, you will have found the joy that cannot be taken from you.

Daybreaks, Daily Reflections for Lent and Easter
by John Shea

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Thanks be to God!

Holy Wednesday~~Be Not Afraid~~

Music that touches the heart as we begin the journey into the Three Days of Ultimate Sacrifice, Salvation and Glory!

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Thanks be to God!

Holy Tuesday

Peep Hole 2
Originally uploaded by suzy33

Reflections from two whom I admire.

Like the air I breathe
this Divine Presence
is all around me and
within me
but never separate from me.
Thomas Merton

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Try today then to deliver into the hands of our Jesus all the care of the future, as well as all the anxiety about the past, and be assured that in leaving the past to the mercy of God and the future to [God's] Providence you will derive from your offering very great peace and very great consolation. ~Saint Mother Theodore Guerin~

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Thanks be to God!

An Understanding...

"An Understanding"

If it is almost dark
(or almost light)
and I bump into you
in living out becoming...
mistake me,
as only a friend can,
for what I intend to be.

Continue toward
what I should most want to say,
taking as realities
these boundless bewildering capacities.
Let your love rain down
to my parched places
and stay
shining through my muddled seasons
in presence to insure
an actual awakening
from laughing potential.
See tomorrow in me today
with quiet patience
until time and times merge as one
and I am grown up
into a full child
of God,
And we are one.

~~Gilchrist Conway, S.P.~~
+1984

From Gilchrist Revisited-for Hers is the Kingdom
By Betty Rysdon Moebs, Editor

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Thanks be to God!