THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER They paid him THIRTY silver pieces, and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him. The figure of Judas looms large in Holy Week. Those thirty pieces of silver are lodged in our collective imagination through art, poetry and hymnody. Stories of betrayal are always uncomfortable. Betrayal can …
Monthly Archives: March 2024
Lent Alphabet (S)
SHAKEN TOGETHER Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back. I love this text. It opens up a whole world for me. I have spent …
Lent Alphabet (R)
REPENT The time has come and the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. REPENT, and believe the Good News. The evangelist Mark is the most concise of the Gospel writers. In just four verses Jesus is baptised, goes into the wilderness and then emerges to begin his public ministry. There is an air of …
Lent Alphabet (Q)
QUIVER. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow and concealed me in his QUIVER. During the course of Lent and Holy Week we read from the parts of Isaiah which are known as the Servant Songs. The identity …
Lent Alphabet (P)
Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the passover?’ ‘Go to so-and-so in the city’ he replied ‘and say to him, “The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that …
Lent Alphabet (O)
OBEY Although he was son,he learned to OBEY through suffering. We sing this text as an antiphon at Vespers during Lent in our monastic liturgy. In fact, as soon as I start to read it the tune begins playing in my head. It is very much one of the sounds of Lent in the monastery. …
Lent Alphabet (N)
As soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. Night had fallen. These verses always chill me. I imagine a sultry night, heavy with expectation and fear. But the very next lines in the text shift the focus sharply ‘now has the Son of man been glorified’. There is no portrayal …
Lent Alphabet (M)
MILK The Lord brought us out of Egypt with mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. He brought us here and has given us this country, a country flowing with MILK and honey. References to a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’ appear 20 times in the Old Testament. …