Trinity Alumni

Retreat

PALM SUNDAY Visual Reflection for HOLY WEEK: https://youtu.be/7OGTWXiWIAY In her book “The Cloister Walk,” spiritual writer Kathleen Norris shares her Holy Week schedule. It includes morning prayers and evening liturgy services. But what I really noticed, The story of tells of how though, was that right smack in the middle of the afternoons, people removed their cloaks and spread them out there appeared the word “NAP!!!” Yes, in capital letters and with in front of as he entered Jerusalem. extra exclamation points. The cloak we wear every day to face the world is both the persona we wish to present, I was grateful to read this, as if I was given permission to and our defense against the elements. admit the exhaustion of Holy Week. As the author walks through As we come to worship may we be willing the story of Christ’s passion, she says she feels the moment in to lay down our defenses and disguises every atom of both her body and her soul. at the feet of the One who sees us as we really are. On Palm Sunday, she recalls processing with palms and And then, set free for worship, may we offer our praises singing, “Christ Jesus, victor!” with full force. As she marches with open hearts and lives. around and through the church and then starts the move down

Ann Siddall the center aisle she sees and hears a lone bagpiper, playing a different tune, one foreshadowing death. She is reminded that just as this week proceeds forward, the joyous crowd transforms to a jeering mob, calling for our Lord’s death. It’s a vulnerability the author feels in her own body. Listening to the Passion readings, she senses her knees shake. This grief stays all week, as the story churns over in her heart. On Holy Thursday, the she imagines the repulsion of the men as they watched Jesus wash their feet. “How could he lower himself to serve us in this way?” What next is in store for their beloved Christ? That Thursday night, Kathleen begins to think of Peter’s denial and how that could so easily have been her. She make a mental note… “I do need to take that NAP after the service.” On , her legs wobble as she inches slowly forward in the line to personally venerate the cross. She imagines, there before her, pain… dying. It’s hard to control the emotions. Then the last words of Jesus on that cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ring eerily in her ears and in her heart. Loneliness and grief surpasses. She understands. Time to pray for peace. Kathleen Norris writes, through her reflections in her book, that it’s not just that first Passion that she relives. It’s personal, it’s her own walk with Christ, this Holy Week. Desperately, she and WE so desperately need the season of and, especially, Holy Week to refocus our love and desire on him. And yet, our soul grieves too for the day when all creation is united with Christ, when WE are all made new. IT’S NOW OUR TURN… OUR JOURNEY THROUGH HOLY WEEK BEGINS…... Bagpipe solo: https://youtu.be/EGCSB3wmqnU Great little video onHOLY WEEK IN 3 MINUTES: https://youtu.be/qdrPhxqRP9I As we re-enter the week Christians call Holy, we are there with Christ on the heady road into Jerusalem, in the Temple as he predicts its (his) doom and third day triumph, we recline at the meal he shares with his disciples and he serves us by cleansing our dusty feet, we join with those who condemn him before Pilate, weep with Mary and the women at the hard wood of the cross, hope against hope that he can somehow fulfill his mission without leaving us for what appears to be good, we wait for one last miracle. Are you ready not simply to remember, or call to mind, but to now ENTER by the Spirit of God the events that brought us so great a redemption? I urge you in love to be aware of this week, even with our inability to physically be present in our parishes for the rich symbolic liturgies. Do your best for yourself and your family to bring Holy Week Home. Make some determined time to participate in the Lord's active, sacrificial charity toward us at the Last Supper, on the Cross, and beyond… even while confined in the smaller community of your home. Journey with heartfelt compassion, insightful mission and arrive to the joy that comes at . When these days come around each year, they are ever-new for us, not because the events themselves change but because WE do. Each new year, as we come to Holy Week—as we encounter the unchanging reality of this sacred time and others—we are different people in different places than we were the last time. As we grow deeper in the imitation of Jesus Christ, we see and hear things we missed before. As we have read and reread passages of Scripture we’ve read before, somehow we read it anew as if for the first time. Do not abandon Jesus at any point of his journey but stay close. You will then be his blessed witnesses, his genuine followers. Let us be reminded that we do not experience an IDEA during Holy Week buy a "living, concrete reality," Jesus Christ himself ever with us to the end of the world.

Commonly known as the Feast of the Lord’s Supper. The Holy Thursday celebration has two ritual actions that stand out among the rest: The Washing of the Feet Jesus took a basin and a towel, got down on his hands and knees and washed the feet of all of his apostles. After this action, he commanded the apostles, “I have given you a model to follow, “Remember me” so that as I have done for you, you should also do” (John 13:15). This is the commandment of Jesus: Just as Jesus has been a servant to his apostles, so the apostles must go out into the world and be servants to everyone around them. We are called to do the same in our daily lives. The action of washing one another’s feet reminds us of the call to humble service. Foot washing is not a re-enactment or re-creation of a past event, but rather, it is a commemorative action that reminds us that God calls us first and foremost to be servants to others in our daily lives. Foot washing should always be a reminder that Christ has called us to be servants to the entire world.

The Celebration of the Eucharist and the Eucharistic The second ritual action is the very first Last Supper where Jesus also instituted the Eucharist for the Church. At this Holy Thursday celebration, we are reminded of who we are in Jesus Christ and that, through the sacrament of the Eucharist, we are and we become even more the Body of Christ together. At the conclusion of the Holy Thursday celebration, there is no concluding prayer. Once the celebration of the Eucharist is completed, there is a Eucharistic Procession (where the Eucharist that is left from Communion is processed to a small separate Chapel). This procession to the Chapel of Reservation reminds us of Jesus’ time in the garden of Gethsemane when he prayed so fervently through the night. The entire community is invited to join in this procession and then join in the silent prayer and adoration until night prayer is prayed and the Eucharist is put in the Tabernacle. The gathered community leaves in silence only to return in prayer the next day for the Good Friday celebration.

God of My Bitter Hours by Joyce Rupp GOOD FRIDAY You knelt in the Gethsemane garden A new and interesting In the final hours before your death, Virtual Stations of the Cross The sweat of bloody regret on your brow. designed for personal devotion. These stations relate to Jesus’ teachings We, too, have our painful episodes about the Kingdom of God and the When the bitter taste of obvious defeat reason his vision of this Kingdom led to his death. Find a quiet place to watch Barricades any hope of these stations,and as you do the comfort and release. devotions be open to how God is speaking to you through these Stations. You join us in our bitter hours of struggle https://youtu.be/UKMmQbeIRxw When opposition, discontent, or lament Block the corridors to our peacefulness. You reassure us, “This, too, will pass.” Ever notice the VERBS that are found in the readings from Maunday Thursday and Good Friday? We often speak and write about faith IN Jesus and ignore the faith OF Jesus. Jesus’ words, prayers, tears, humility, and suffering during this point of the Holy Week story illustrate His faith. The VERBS – the part of speech that shows action and perhaps the most important word in a sentence – show us the Faith OF Jesus. Breathe in their meanings and ponder their lessons as you worship this holy week. Below are the VERBS that are used on Maunday Thursday and Good Friday in the week that changed everything……

Jesus spoke He was seized Replied Stood before Pilate Answered Answered questions Took bread Gave no answers Gave thanks Heard the cries, “Crucify him!” Broke it He was flogged Gave it to the disciples Humiliated Took the cup Betrayed Gave thanks Deserted Offered it to the disciples Stripped Sang Blindfolded Predicted Beaten, Knelt in the garden Mocked Fell on his face Spit upon Prayed more Rebuked Found the disciples sleeping Denied Prayed a second time Condemned Found them sleeping again Nailed to a cross He healed. CRUCIFIED

All these VERBS – show the Faith OF Jesus. As Christians, we know the story doesn’t stop here. We learn from these VERBS. We can take them into our hearts and allow them to transform our wills into holy actions too. All these VERBS are past tense, but the BEST VERB IN ALL OF HOLY WEEK is in the present tense. HE LIVES! HE LIVES! And that is the living, present tense faith OF Jesus. Amen!

Reflection on the TRIDUUM: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, : https://youtu.be/yYaZwK_uqso HOLY SATURDAY We must not see Holy Saturday as an “interval” that separates Good Friday and Easter Saturday, but we must see Holy Saturday as an indispensable LINK between those days. To see Holy Saturday as only an “interval,” somehow “skipping over it,” we deprive ourselves of a sacred time of silence and darkness. On the other hand, when we are willing to view Holy Saturday as an indispensable “link” between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we open ourselves to a waiting time that is filled with fruitfulness. To reject the experience of Holy Saturday’s signature darkness and silence, is to question whether Jesus wasted His time in the tomb, implying that Jesus’ Resurrection should have immediately followed His Crucifixion. In this respect, to expand the meaning of the Holy Saturday experience, we allow ourselves to live a significant amount of our lives of Faith in a silent, often apparently dark, frustrating, and seemingly fruitless waiting time (our Holy Saturdays). As humble disciples of Jesus, we need to reconcile ourselves to wait in the shadow of His Cross, joining our suffering to His Suffering, patiently enduring the darkness, inactivity and silence of Holy Saturday. When we allow ourselves to get in touch with our silence we trust that spiritual growth is taking place, and that there will be a resurrection, a full- flowering of our holy desires to know, love, and serve Him. To encourage us to endure the suffering of unfulfilled and frustrated desires that we often experience in our own Holy Saturdays, we are reminded that the Creation of the world took place against a backdrop of silence and darkness. Holy Saturday and all its potential reminds me of the soil into which the broken grain of wheat is entombed in the soil in order that after a time of unwitnessed activity, signs of fruitfulness appear. That’s what we are reminded of with the Lord’s Death, Entombment, and Resurrection. Jesus explains it this way “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (John 12:24) In the end, Holy Saturday is an indispensable gift that connects Good Friday sorrow with Easter Sunday jubilation, so that, as St. Paul says, we grieve, but, not like those without hope in God, since we have the assurance…. thanks to the Death and Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…. that we have an invitation to live in eternal bliss with Him. (adapted from article by Dom Van Zeller)

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECibetK2EYI

Watch prayerfully and listen to what happens on that Sacred Night at the Vigil:

https://youtu.be/gO5romstsQY

EASTER SUNDAY

Easter Sunday Reflection: https://youtu.be/_WtdzHjpSuA EASTER POEM

God of openness, of life and of resurrection, Come into this Easter season and bless me. Look around the tight dead spaces of my heart That still refuse to give you an entrance. Bring your gentle but firm love. Begin to lift the layers of resistance that hang on tightly deep inside of me. Open, one by one, those places in my life Where I refuse to be overcome by surprise. Open, one by one, those parts of my heart https://youtu.be/MC1Nvn4Bk0Y Where I fight the entrance of real growth. Open, one by one, those aspects of my spirit Where my security struggles with the truth. Keep me open to the different and the strange Help me to accept the unusual and the ordinary. God of the Resurrection, God of the living, Untomb and uncover all that needs to live in me. Take me to people, events and situations and stretch me into greater openness. Open me, open me, open me. For it is only then that I will grow and change. For it is only then that I will be transformed. For it is only then that I will know how it is To be in the moment of rising from the dead. https://youtu.be/xCQsK1t9EKY (Joyce Rupp)

My Prayer for You all this Easter is for OPENNESS 1. Touch your fingertips to your forehead, saying: Open my mind to remember your presence. 2. Touch your fingertips to your mouth, saying: Open my mouth to speak your wisdom. 3. Touch your fingertips to your heart, saying: Open my heart to extend your love. 4. Hold both hands out, open, palms up, saying: Open my hands to serve you generously. 5. Holding arms wide open, saying: Open my whole being to you. Bring hands together as in prayer near your heart. Make a deep bow to the loving presence in you. (Open the Door, Joyce Rupp)