Holy Saturday

O GOD, Creator of heaven and earth: grant that, as the crucified body of thy dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Painting: "Burial of Christ"

by Carl Bloch (1834-1890)

What Christ Saw

It is not entirely accurate to say that wicked people crucified Jesus. Those who caused the crucifixion so long ago in Jerusalem were community leaders and religious leaders - people of good reputation, but who were acting from misguided motives of preserving the peace and with a false understanding of how to protect what was sacred in their society and in their religious life. Certainly the responsibility for Jesus' crucifixion lies with them, but it lies also with those like us, who also passively accept those things.

Imagine, for a moment, seeing as the Crucified Christ sees. As He looks out from His place on the Cross, what is it His eyes rest upon? Us. It’s all of us whom Christ sees as He looks down in agony from His cross. We should remember that we, too, bear some responsibility for all of this. It’s futile to blame any one person or group of people. The fault is everywhere and it’s no further away than our own hearts and wills. Sinfulness is universal and, like a deadly disease, it infects us - every one of us. So, with St. Paul, we must confess that the good we want to do, we do not do; and what we want avoid doing is the very thing we do.

So we watch now with Christ. But as we watch, we had best do it with contrite and humble hearts, praying for our own forgiveness and for the forgiveness of the entire world. Pray with the understanding that Jesus Christ, knowing all there is to know about each and every one of us, submitted to death on a cross so that we might be forgiven and restored to unity with God and with each other through the merits of His sacrificial self-offering.

And so we behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. May we accept his forgiveness so that we may do the good; and in doing the good, may we receive His peace.

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Painting: "What Jesus Saw From The Cross"

by James Tissot (1836-1902)

Good Friday: Consummatum est

Today Golgotha is sheltered within an ancient basilica, but on that Friday called “good” it was a barren hill outside the city walls of Jerusalem. It is a hill soaked with the blood of criminals, executed for crimes both petty and grave, and it is a hill consecrated by the Blood of our Lord, our God-made-Flesh.

He is the innocent Victim, surrounded by a cruel mob. His ears hear the animosity of those who bear hatred in their hearts. The sentence of death by crucifixion had been dragged reluctantly from the lips of the civil authority. And if we could see, we would be appalled by the hideous efficiency of the soldiers as they complete their brutal work of inflicting death.

Also here are the temple priests who will hurry away from the scene even before the Victim takes His final breath. They have a Passover to keep, but it is a Passover now emptied of any real meaning or power because the Passover lambs have been made impotent by the one true Passover Lamb who is shedding the only blood which can fend off the angel of death.

The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. His last powerful cry will prove that no man has taken His life from Him, but that He has laid it down of His own divine Will. He will bow His head in token of assent to that deed which was not understood by those who did it. It will be finished. The price of sin paid, the kingdom of heaven opened to all believers, the redemption of man accomplished.

The disrespect and the ill-treatment by those who were there will cease. The mockery and the spite and the violence done to the Saviour of the world will give way to the silent anguish of mournful hearts and the tender care of loving hands. The soldiers will have satisfied their discharge of duty. They will gather up their instruments of execution and they will leave. The people who had come to satisfy their morbid curiosity and spiteful feelings will feel cheated that the spectacle was so brief. The loiterers will disperse. And this hill, this Golgotha which had been the scene of such cruelty will be wrapped in the silence of death, deserted by all except those few faithful souls who keep a watch of love around the Cross, wondering in their aching hearts what they should do.

It is nearly over, and yet it continues. Loving hands yearn to take the Lord down from the Cross, and yet we leave Him hanging there. Our own sin, our own inaction, our own lukewarm love will not let Him come down from the Cross. How often have we “hid our faces from Him,” and have been ashamed to confess Him before the world, and so have left Him hanging there. How often, when the world has denied Him and insulted Him and abused His mercy and blasphemed His Name and ridiculed His Body the Church, we have held our tongues, and so have left Him hanging there.

So we find ourselves on a barren hill outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem, and we remember how often we have ignored the very truth for which Christ died, as we look upon the Cross and see that battered and bruised face, and view that lifeless form, and realize the part that we have taken in that cruel death.

It is almost more than we can bear. It is as though we should go away and hide our faces from Him for very shame and grief – except His love constrains us and asks us to stay. Our hearts cry out in sorrow for what we have done and for what we have failed to do, and we know that we cannot leave Him hanging there any longer. Our Lord Jesus Christ is no dead body left on a cross. No, His is a living and life-giving Body waiting to be taken down even by those who have despised and rejected him. He is the Bread of Life, of Whom whosoever shall eat, will live.

Therefore, let us draw near in faith and wrap our Lord’s Body in that fine linen which is the righteousness that comes from God. Let us place within the folds of that linen the bitter herbs of our penitence and anoint him with the oils and spices of our gratitude and our love. With reverence and with true devotion let us lay that Sacred Body in the sepulcher of our hearts, so that the miracle of Christ’s love will rise up in our lives, just as He rose up from the grave on the third day.

“It is finished,” He declared from the Cross. So let it be finished. Let it be completed. Let it be fulfilled in us, so that with hands and hearts and lives cleansed by His blood and enlivened by His love, we may not leave Him hanging there, but take Him down from the Cross, and let Him live in us.

Almighty God: we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the Cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Pictured: "The Small Crucifixion"

ca. 1511/1520

by Matthias Grünewald

Remembering The Royal Maundy, 52 Years Ago!

It was in 1974 that I was privileged to be present at the ceremony of the Royal Maundy, and as it happened, to have a place which put me right next to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, at least briefly.

That was the year she came to Salisbury Cathedral for the Royal Maundy.

At that time I was a student at Salisbury and Wells Theological College, and we were fortunate to have a flat just a few doors away from the College, in the Cathedral Close, at the residence of Archdeacon Basil Wingfield-Digby. The archdeacon had a few tickets which allowed entry into the Cathedral for the ceremony, and he was kind enough to give one to me.

My seat was near the back of the Cathedral, but serendipitously, it was right next to the table where the Queen would be signing the official book, the record attesting to the fact that the Royal Maundy had taken place.

After a magnificent ceremony the Queen was brought to the table, just a few feet from where I was. It meant I was able to see her signing her name to the document.

It was a memorable day for this young American student!

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The following description is taken from The Royal Mint Museum.

[https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/].

The Royal Maundy is an ancient ceremony which has its origin in the commandment Christ gave after washing the feet of his disciples on the day before Good Friday. The commandment, or mandatum, 'that ye love one another' (John XIII 34) is still recalled regularly by Christian churches throughout the world and the ceremony of monarchs washing the feet of the poor, accompanied by gifts of food and clothing, can be traced back to the fourth century.It seems to have been the custom as early as the 13th century for members of the royal family to take part in Maundy ceremonies, to distribute money and gifts, and to recall Christ's simple act of humility by washing the feet of the poor. Henry IV began the practice of relating the number of recipients of gifts to the monarch's age, and as it became the custom of the monarch to perform the ceremony, the event became known as the Royal Maundy. In the 18th century the act of washing the feet of the poor was discontinued and in the 19th century money allowances were distributed in place of the various gifts of food and clothing. Today's recipients of Royal Maundy, as many elderly men and as many elderly women as there are years in the sovereign's age, are chosen because of the Christian service they have given to the Church and community. At the ceremony, which takes place annually on Maundy Thursday the monarch hands to each recipient two small leather string purses. One, a red purse, contains - in ordinary coinage - money in lieu of food and clothing; the other, a white purse, contains silver Maundy coins consisting of the same number of pence as the years of the monarch's age. At first ordinary coinage was used for Maundy gifts, silver pennies alone being supplied in Tudor and Stuart times for the ceremony. Specially-struck Maundy Money started in 1662 in the reign of Charles II with an undated issue of fourpenny, threepenny, twopenny and one penny pieces. It was not until 1670 that a dated set of all four coins appeared. Maundy Money has remained much the same since 1670, the coins used for the Maundy ceremony traditionally being struck in sterling silver. A Maundy set still consists of four small silver coins, but in 1971, at the time of decimalisation, the face values of the coins were changed from old to new pence. 

Maundy Thursday: A New Commandment

An upper room had been prepared. The unleavened bread was baked. The Passover lamb had been sacrificed and roasted. Jesus was at the head of the table with His Israel, His family. He took the large piece of unleavened flat bread that signaled the opening of the Passover meal. He gave thanks to His Father for the gifts. He broke it and gave the pieces to His disciples.

Until this point, it had been a Passover like any other Passover, recalling God's mercy and love to Israel when He had brought them out of slavery in Egypt into freedom, through the blood of the Passover lamb smeared on their doorposts.

Then Jesus spoke, and what He said at that moment had never before been said at a Passover meal. "Take, eat. This is my body, which is given for you." And again, after the supper, Jesus took a chalice of wine, gave thanks and then said something that had never before been said at a Passover meal, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood." And in doing this, Christ treated the Passover as if it was His own to do with as He pleased – and in fact He could, because it was and is the Lord’s Passover.

With these words, Jesus transformed the Passover meal forever. Under the outward form of the bread, He gives His body as food – the very body He received from His mother Mary; the body that was conceived in her through the Word spoken by the angel in the power of the Holy Spirit; the body that was wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in a manger; the body that was whipped and beaten, spit at and slapped; the body that was nailed to the cross, laid in the tomb, and raised from the dead on the third day.

And in the cup, He gives His blood. This is the blood of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. The medieval artists who depicted a chalice at the foot of the cross and a stream of blood pouring into it from the wounded side of Jesus understood the force of Christ’s words, because the blood that was shed on Calvary's cross is our drink.

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. He was offered up for our sins on the Cross, and in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, this offering is perpetually brought before the throne of Almighty God.

It is in the context of the Upper Room, of Jesus' washing the feet of His disciples and His feeding them His body and blood, of His humbling Himself to His coming death on a cross, that Jesus then says to His disciples, "A new commandment, I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you that you also love one another." Two more times, Jesus says it in His Upper Room sermon: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." And again, "These things I command you that you love one another."

Of what things does Christ speak? What is new about this so-called "new commandment?" It's not love – that’s not new. The commandment to love is an old one. No, what's new is in how Jesus gives His love, by washing us and feeding us. Through baptism and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – and indeed through all the Sacraments – this is how our Lord communicates His love to us. These are Christ’s mandates, His "commandments" by which we are able to love one another as we have been loved by Him. This is what Jesus is saying: "This is my commandment, that you be fed with my Body and my Blood, just as a branch is fed by the vine to which it is attached, so that you may love one another with the love with which I have loved you." "A new commandment I give to you, that you be washed by me and be fed at my table, so that you may love one another as I have loved you."

Jesus' new commandment to His disciples is to receive His love in all the ways He has to give, to be loved by Him so that His love would flow through them to one another. His love poured out for us in His death, poured into us through Baptism and through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, bears fruit as His love has its way with us. The same Body that bent down as a servant to wash the feet of His disciples, now bends our bodies down to help cleanse one another, by forgiving one another, by loving one another. He said, "By this all will know that you are my disciples, when you have love for one another."

We do not love in order to be loved by God. Jesus loved us, long before we loved Him. While we were yet sinners, He loved us and laid down His life for us. His was "love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be."

We love one another because we already are loved by God in Jesus Christ. And we now receive His love so that we can love one another as He has loved each one of us. This is the commandment given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ – and with that truth, we celebrate this Holy Night so that we can be prepared for the glory of our Lord’s resurrection.

O God, who in a wonderful Sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of thy Passion: grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood; that we may ever know within ourselves the fruit of thy redemption; who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Pictured: "The Last Supper"

by Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929)

Spy Wednesday

Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What will you give me if I deliver him to you?" And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?" He said, "Go into the city to a certain one, and say to him, `The Teacher says, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.'" And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he sat at table with the twelve disciples; and as they were eating, he said, "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." And they were very sorrowful, and began to say to him one after another, "Is it I, Lord?" He answered, "He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me, will betray me. The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." Judas, who betrayed him, said, "Is it I, Master?" He said to him, "You have said so."

-Matthew 26:14-25

Elsewhere the Gospel tells us that Satan entered into Judas, but even before this, Judas had shown himself to be dishonest and a lover of money. He kept the money box which was used for the needs of Jesus and the disciples, but he was accustomed to taking money out for himself. When the expensive perfume was used to anoint Jesus, he complained that it could have been sold and the money given to the poor – although he was more likely thinking that he could take the money himself. And now, he goes to the chief priests and asks what they would give him if he delivered Jesus to them. The bargain was struck: thirty silver pieces for the Son of God.

Could the betrayal by Judas have been because of something as common and low as his love for money? Certainly, it looks that way. There could have been other reasons – some have said that he was trying to force Christ into revealing himself as the Messiah. Some have said that Judas was jealous of all the other disciples and so wanted to do something to ruin their common life together. But if Judas betrayed Jesus for those reasons, why did he ask for money when he went to the high priests? He could have handed Jesus over to them without asking for money.

No, Judas was a lover of money, a worldly man who was looking for personal gain. As St. Paul wrote to St. Timothy, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” And this, no doubt, was an evil act. When Judas approached Jesus in the garden, our Lord asked him, “Judas would you betray the Son of man with a kiss?” Judas had given his betraying kiss before, when he took money into his filthy hands, caressing it as a lover would his beloved.

Spy Wednesday serves as a reminder to us, too, that we can betray Christ for common, low things. We tend to think about our own wants before we think of Christ. We sometimes spend time trying to get things for ourselves while forgetting the needs of others. When we put things before what we owe to God, we are betraying Christ. When we are cruel or when we bully someone weaker than we are, we are betraying Christ. When we delight in gossip, we are betraying Christ. When we cheat someone, or when we take something which isn’t ours, we are betraying Christ. When we use foul language, speaking filthy words from the same mouth in which we receive the Body of Christ, we are betraying Him.

We are horrified by what Judas did. But we need to look at our own lives, too, lest we betray Jesus.

O God, who didst will that thy Son should suffer death upon the Cross that thou mightest deliver us from the snares of the enemy: grant that by the merits of his Passion and Death we may know the power of his Resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Pictured: "The Payment of Judas"

by Gerard Seghers (1591-1651)

Tuesday in Holy Week

When Jesus had thus spoken, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus; so Simon Peter beckoned to him and said, "Tell us who it is of whom he speaks." So lying thus, close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the money box, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the feast"; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the morsel, he immediately went out; and it was night. When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, `Where I am going you cannot come.' A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered, "Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward." Peter said to him, "Lord, why cannot I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the cock will not crow, till you have denied me three times."

- St. John 13:21-38

O God, who by the passion of thy blessed Son didst make an instrument of shameful death to be unto us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Pictured: "The Last Supper"

by Carl Bloch (1834-1890)

The Divine Artist

The world's best and finest art is that which serves as a kind of window through which one can grasp a fuller knowledge of life, of truth, of beauty. It becomes a passageway for light which illuminates one's mind and soul, so that reality is made a little clearer, a little richer.

The artist who can achieve this we call a master, but such a one is the merest shadow of the truly artistic Master - the One Who does not fashion great works with clay or canvas, but Whose crowning creation is mankind. It is He Who makes saints, forming them after His own image, colouring them with grace, and placing them in the world as windows through which we see something of God's divine beauty and truth, and through whom we are illumined by God's own Light.

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Image: "God as Creator"

Paris ca. 1220–1230

Monday in Holy Week

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with him. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. Jesus said, "Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me." When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus also to death, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

- St. John 12:1-11

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Painting: "Mary Anointing the Feet of Jesus"

by Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib 

Late 17th c., Coptic monk

Entering Holy Week

The first day of this holiest of all weeks is the Second Sunday of the Passion, also known as Palm Sunday. We begin by commemorating the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, and He is seated on a donkey. This wasn’t just a sign of humility, but it was also a sign of peace.

In ancient times, when a king rode upon a horse, it was a sign that he was entering into battle; but if a king wanted to show that he was coming in peace, he would ride upon a donkey. Jesus did this to show the true nature of the Messiah. The Jews had the mistaken idea that the Messiah would come as a great military leader who would lead them in battle against worldly powers, restoring their nation to a place of military prominence.

But Jesus came with a different message. He teaches us that the Messiah is actually one who comes to lead God’s people in a different kind of battle - a battle against sin and wickedness, a battle to conquer satan, and a battle to restore our relationship with God.

This Holy Week gives us exactly that opportunity – to grow closer to Christ, so that we’re prepared to take part in the blessing of His great resurrection.

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Painting: "Entry Into Jerusalem"

by H. Siddons Mowbray(1858-1928)

The Blood That Speaks Forgiveness

From palm branches to passion, from hosannas to heckling, from majesty to mockery. This is the Sunday of the Passion, and the blood of Jesus Christ is the scarlet thread running throughout the entire passion history. As God said to the Israelites (Leviticus 17:11), "…the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life." So then, throughout this holiest of all weeks, we are carried upon the river of the Most Precious Blood of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

What had been the cup of the Passover is now the Cup of our salvation, transformed by Jesus when He said, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is the Cup of my blood in the New Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." The God who turned the water of the Nile into a river of blood in Egypt, the God who made water into wine at Cana, now makes Passover wine His own blood. It is the Lord's Passover, and such a Passover there had never been before.

At the first Passover, it was the blood of the sacrificial lamb, smeared upon the doorposts of the houses, which protected the lives of the first-born from death. The Angel of Death “passed over” where the blood was. But now, at this Passover, the Lamb is not only the sacrifice, but He is the Lord to whom the sacrifice is offered. His blood, the Blood of the Lamb, isn’t smeared on doorposts, but it’s drunk from His Chalice, and it covers our sins and shields us from death. His blood is the blood of the covenant, both ancient and new. The covenant is God's claim on His people. "I will be your God, and you will be my people." At Mt. Sinai, Moses sprinkled the covenant blood upon the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” In the upper room, Jesus gave His blood of the new covenant to His Twelve, His new Israel. “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus binds Himself to His people in every generation by His blood.

On the cross, Christ’s blood was shed, once for all people. It is Covenant blood; innocent blood; cleansing blood; poured out for you and for all mankind. It was the blood of God’s Passover Lamb which stained the wood of the cross, and it’s the cross which is the doorpost of the Church – and death passes over the house where the Passover Lamb’s blood has been smeared. And so, the blood is for us.

In the Mass, we come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and we come through the blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel. Here Christ delivers, offers and applies His blood to us. And we must receive the blood of the Lamb in all the ways He promises to give it to us - in Baptism, in Absolution, in the Mass. For completely different reasons than they were for that crowd in Jerusalem screaming for his death, we say, “Let His innocent and cleansing blood of the covenant be upon us and upon our children,” because there is life in His blood, and there is forgiveness.

Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the Cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: mercifully grant that we may follow the example of his patience, and so be made partakers of his Resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Image: "Christ's Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem"

by Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864)

Our Lady in Passiontide

Friday of the Fifth Week in Lent is a day traditionally set aside to honour Our Lady in Passiontide, which is to remind us of the special role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is day when we remember Mary as the Woman of Compassion. In our culture, compassion is often thought of as kindness, or mercy. But there is more to it. It comes to us from two Latin words (cum= "with” and passio= "to suffer”) and literally means "to suffer with." So to be a person of compassion means that we share in the sufferings of another person. It is not simply empathy, but it means that we see the other almost as an extension of ourselves. If they are suffering, we, too, experience their pain.

This commemoration helps us to remember Mary’s sacrifice for our salvation, and also the importance of avoiding things in our own lives which would cause further sorrow to Mary, who is our Mother.

O Lord in whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, the sword of sorrow did pierce the most loving soul of thy glorious Virgin Mother Mary: mercifully grant that we, who devoutly call to mind the suffering whereby she was pierced, may, by the glorious merits and prayers of all the Saints who have stood beneath the Cross, obtain with gladness the benefits of thy Passion; who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Image: "Mater Dolorosa"

by Rogier van der Weyden (c.1399-1464)

The Greatest Love

There is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to merit God’s love, or earn our own salvation. The purpose of seeking spiritual growth is only so that we can better serve the One who has earned our salvation for us, Jesus Christ. He was lifted up upon the Cross, so that we can be lifted up to heaven. He was broken so that we can be made whole.

The lesson is to be learned at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ; namely, that even though we are sinful and fall short of the glory of God, in spite of it all, God loves us with that yearning, passionate love which led Him to give Himself to be lifted up for us. And because of that, our hearts cannot help but be broken open to receive the Greatest Love, the Love which knows no rest and which never tires until it has found us, and has brought us to our true home in Christ’s kingdom.

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Painting: "Crucifixion"

by Gabriel Wüger (1829–1892)

The Solemnity of the Annunciation

At the Annunciation, God sent His messenger, the archangel Gabriel, to announce to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would bear the Incarnate Son of God, and it would be Jesus who would take human flesh from her, to bring salvation into the world. When Mary heard these words, she was filled with awe and wonder, and she asked for clarification: “How can this be…?” When Gabriel told her that it would be by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary responded by saying, “Let it be unto me according to thy word.”

That is an important phrase, “Let it be…” It takes us back to creation itself, when by the word of God, all things came into being.

In the beginning, God said “Let there be light,” and there was. God brought into being everything there was – by His word there came into being all of creation, including man himself. In fact, creation itself is the larger context for the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As God spoke His creative word in the beginning, so in our remembrance of the beginning of the Incarnation we call to mind Mary’s words, “Let it be…. Let it be unto me according to thy word.” The Virgin Mary’s words, “Let it be,” echo God’s words, “Let there be.” It is, in a way, the continuation of creation and the beginning of our salvation.

God says, “Let there be…” and His word brings forth creation. Mary says, “Let it be,” and her words bring forth the Incarnate God into the world.

We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts: that, as we have known the Incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel; so by his Cross and Passion we may be brought unto the glory of his Resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Pictured: "The Annunciation"

by Arthur Hacker, 1892

A Sign of God's Mercy

The LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live."

- Numbers 21:8

God had no more rescued the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt before they started to complain because the journey was difficult, and they didn’t like the food, the manna, which God provided for them. As a result of their sin they were afflicted with serpents in the wilderness. But God showed mercy, and He instructed Moses: "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

The visible sign of the "fiery bronze serpent" being lifted up in the sight of the people reminded them of two important facts: that sin leads to death, but repentance leads to God's mercy and healing. And, of course, the lifting up of the bronze serpent on a wooden pole points to Jesus Christ being lifted up on the wooden cross at Calvary where He took our sins upon Himself to make atonement to the Father on our behalf.

The sacrifice of Jesus' life on the cross is the ultimate proof of God's love for us. The cross broke the curse of sin and death and won pardon, healing, and everlasting life for all who believe in Jesus, the Son of God and Saviour of the world.

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Pictured: "The Brazen Serpent"

by James Tissot (1836-1902)