Palm Sunday
God of crowds and God of crowns: in your humility, on the back of a donkey, at the start of a week of great pain, you showed a determination to save us not with overwhelming force but with self-giving, revolutionary love. May we see in your life and death, and in your resurrection, the way to face the foes within. May we overcome our fears, and put down our selfish wants; may we stop our tendency to blame, and fight for others first. As you shield us from what we can’t control, save us from ourselves. Amen.
Good Friday
God of the crowds crying, ‘crucify!’ God on the cross crying, ‘forgive them’:
by doing and not doing, we have repeated that Friday scene in countless ways, in countless places, to countless sons and daughters. We know not what we do even when we know too well.
We are now facing death in a new way.
And human frailty. And human need.
And human solidarity. Perhaps as we begin to see as you see the reality of who we are, we can finally begin to love as you love, answer compassionately the cries we hear, and be able to forgive, ourselves. Amen.
Easter Day
God of unbounded joy, God of undying love: the women went to the tomb to tend to the crucified dead and came back the first preachers of resurrection. As we come back from our tomb today, and begin to live again, may we deliver with unbridled joy what the world is dying to hear:
that death is never the end; that love remains what is most divine; and that you continue to live in the beating heart of our humanity.
Amen.
Am I shouting and waving- am I excited to see this hero arriving in town?
Puzzled at just who this is, he seems very humble and maybe does not want all this fuss?
Am I confused at what all this noise is about, who is this and why are they making such a commotion about him?
Is this guy going to bring peace and a new meaning to life? Life after Covid?
Has my shout changed from “Welcome” to “crucify him – kill him?”
Am I Peter and deny I even know my friends or family? or Judas and betray them?
When I see someone struggling do I stop to offer help, or carry their burden?
What do I think about when Jesus is taunted and made fun of, do I taunt and mock others?
He calls out “Father forgive them!” – what’s that about?
Am I sad and full of grief, or is it just self-pity?
Do I comfort and console others?
Do I have the courage to come out of he tomb I have built for myself?
Do I have the courage to face others and be joyful?
What calls me to live again?
Do I have the faith to know that death is not the end?
Do I Know on this Easter day that love remains what is most divine; and that Jesus continues to live in my beating heart?