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We give glory to You, Lord, who raised up Your cross to span the jaws of death like a bridge by which souls might pass from the region of the dead to the land of the living. We give glory to You who put on the body of a single mortal man and made it the source of life for every other human.
– St. Ephrem of Edessa
(Good Friday! How will you keep this Feast Day this year?)
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IS 52:13—53:12; PS 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
HEB 4:14-16; 5:7-9
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has similarly been tested in every way,
yet without sin.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
In the days when Christ was in the flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
JN 18:1—19:42 (The Passion of Our Lord)
Read in your bible or from the link to these readings.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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"Take courage and be stouthearted, all you who hope in the Lord." —Psalm 31:25
As Jesus agonized over His decision to lay down His life for us, He was so severely tempted to give in to fear that His sweat became as drops of blood (Lk 22:44). Nonetheless, Jesus refused to be intimidated by Satan. He stood up to a cohort of soldiers and several police officers (Jn 18:3). "They retreated slightly and fell to the ground" (Jn 18:6) in the face of Jesus' love and courage. Then Jesus fearlessly died
on the cross for us. However, except for the beloved disciple and the three Marys at the foot of His cross (Jn 19:25-26), Jesus' apostles and disciples succumbed to fear and abandoned Christ.
After Jesus' death, fear began to lose its stranglehold on the world. First, Joseph of Arimathea, one of Jesus' secret disciples "for fear of the Jews," fearlessly came forth and asked Pilate for Jesus' body (Jn 19:38). Then Nicodemus, a formerly intimidated member of the Sanhedrin (see Jn 7:50ff), brought about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to prepare Jesus' body for burial (Jn 19:39). However, Jesus'
apostles continued to be locked in fear (Jn 20:19) until Pentecost, when the power of fear was put to death and the Church was born. Fear not. Jesus has died! Jesus has risen! Jesus will come again! Fear not (see Mk 5:36).
Prayer: Father, by my Baptism into Jesus' death, burial, and Resurrection, I will not give in to fear.
Promise: "Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered; and when perfected, He became the Source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him." —Heb 5:8-9
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
BOOK II,
CHAPTER II. THE DUTIES OF THOSE SOULS CALLED BY GOD TO THE STATE OF ABANDONMENT
SECTION V. The Duty of the Present Moment: The Only Rule
From souls in this state God exacts the most perfect docility to the action of His grace.
It is necessary to be detached from all that one feels, and from all that one does, to follow this method, by which one subsists in God alone, and in the present duty. All regard to what is beyond this should be cut off as superfluous. One must restrict oneself to the present duty without thinking of the preceding one, or of the one which is to follow. I imagine the law of God to be always before you, and that the
practice of abandonment has rendered your soul docile to the divine action. You feel some impulse that makes you say, "I have a drawing towards this person‚"; or "I have an inclination to read a certain book, to receive, or to give certain advice, to complain of certain things, to open my mind to another, or to receive confidence; to give away something, or to perform some action.‚" Well! obey this impulse according to the inspiration of grace without stopping to reflect, to reason, or to make
efforts. Give yourself up to these things for as long as God wishes without doing so through any self-will. In the state in question the will of God is shown to us because He dwells within us. This will ought to supplant all our usual supports. At each moment we have to practise some virtue. To this the obedient soul is faithful; nothing of what it has learnt by reading, or hearing is forgotten, and the most mortified novice could not fulfil her duties better. It is for this that these souls are
attracted sometimes to one book, sometimes to another; or else to make some remark, some reflexion on what may seem but a trifling circumstance. At one time God gives them the attraction to learn something that at some future time will encourage them in the practice of virtue. Whatever these souls do, they do because they feel an attraction for it, without knowing why. All they can explain on the subject can be reduced to this: "I feel myself drawn to write, to read, to ask, to examine this; I
follow this attraction, and God who gives it to me keeps these particular things in reserve in my faculties to become in future the nucleus of other attractions which will become useful to myself and others.‚" This is what makes it necessary for these souls to be simple, gentle, yielding, and submissive to the faintest breath of these scarcely perceptible impressions.
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