John 20:1-9 I’ve always loved the early morning. I was usually the first up at home and loved to be in school extra early. There is something about the quiet and the dark that prepares me for the day. Often in the morning I find that my heart and my mind have found a solution …
Category Archives: Monastic
Holy Saturday
Holy Saturday is often spoken about as a day of ‘emptiness and numbness’. On one level this is true, but since entering the monastery I have discovered another dimension. On a day when you could feel out of sorts and not quite know what to do the for best, the framework of the monastic liturgy …
Good Friday
Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9 Every piece of text in the Good Friday liturgy is heavy with meaning. Pieces of scripture that I may have heard throughout the year have a whole new resonance today. I found it hard to pick just one text. I settled on the text from Hebrews. In a series of fairly complicated …
Maundy Thursday
Exodus 12:1-8,11-14John 13:1-15 Each year I am stuck by how much the liturgy invites us to engage our senses during Holy Week. We wave a palm branch, we hear the story of the anointing and can imagine the smell of the perfume filling the house, we picture the silver coins of betrayal and the darkness …
Wednesday In Holy Week
Isaiah 50:4-9 Matthew 26:14-25 Today we have Matthew’s telling of the Last Supper. Once again Judas is in full focus and his actions seem inevitable. Those thirty pieces of silver are lodged in our collective imagination through art, poetry and hymnody. Stories of betrayal are always uncomfortable. Betrayal can happen in a matter of seconds. We …
Tuesday in Holy Week
Isaiah 49:1-6John 13:21-33,36-38 While at supper with his disciples, Jesus was troubled in spirit and declared, ‘I tell you most solemnly, one of you will betray me. In today’s Gospel the mood intensifies. We can easily imagine the scene of Jesus sharing a meal with his disciples. When film producers portray this they build the …
Monday in Holy Week
Isaiah 42:1-7John 12:1-11 The anointing at Bethany stops me in my tracks each year. For much of the liturgical year the lectionary leads us through the teaching and miracles of Jesus. From time to time we have a personal encounter: Zacchaeus, the Syro-Phoenecian woman, the Samaritan woman etc. Each encounter is life-changing. Today’s text from …
Women of Holy Week (1) Miriam’s Story
Listen to Miriam’s StoryRead Ps 118 and Mark 11:1-11 Imagine that you are part of the crowd.What do you see? What do you hear? Miriam sings Ps 118, longing for the Messiah to come.What do you long for as Holy Week begins? Image © Ally Barrett (www.reverendally.org) and used with permission.
Palm Sunday
Isaiah 50:4-7Philippians 2:6-11Luke 22:14-23:56 Each morning he wakes me to hear,to listen like a disciple.The Lord has opened my ear. As we begin Holy Week the Church invites us on a journey. This week is like no other in the year. The Church tells her story in words and images, in ritual and drama, and …
Lent Alphabet (Z)
ZION For ZION was saying: ‘The Lord has abandoned me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? In the language of Isaiah the covenantal bond between God and the Israelites is often spoken about in relational terms. The chosen …