Passion/Palm Sunday - 2 April 🌴⛪️✝️

2nd April 2023
Passion/Palm Sunday - 2 April 🌴⛪️✝️
 
“O souls! Seek a refuge, like pure doves, in the shadow of the crucifix. There, mourn the Passion of your divine Spouse, and drawing from your hearts flames of love and rivers of tears, make of them a precious balm with which to anoint the wounds of your Saviour.” - St Paul of the Cross
 
 
A reflection on today's Gospel by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
 
"The first word Our Lord is recorded as speaking in Scripture is at the age of twelve: ‘I must be about my father’s business’ (Luke 2:49). During His public life, He reaffirmed His obedience to His Father: ‘I do always the things that please Him’ (John 8:29). Now on the Cross, when He goes out to meet death and freely surrenders His life, His last words are: ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit’ (Luke 23:46). The last words of other men are spoken in whispers, but He spoke these words in a loud voice.
 
"Death, therefore, did not come to Him; He went to death. No one took His life away; He laid it down of Himself. He was strong enough to live, but He died by an act of will. This was not an emphasis on dying, but an affirmation of uninterrupted divine life. It was the beginning of His return to the glory which He had with the Father before the foundations of the world were laid.
 
"‘Father’: Note the word of eternal parenthood. He did not say ‘Our Father,’ as we do, for the Father was not His and ours in the same way. He is the natural Son of the Father; we are only the adopted sons.
 
"‘Into Thy hands’: These were the hands the prophet called “good”; the hands that guided Israel to its historical fulfilment; the hands that provided good things even for the birds of the air and the grass of the field.
 
"‘I commend my spirit’: Surrender! Consecration. Life is a cycle. We come from God, and we go back again to God. Hence the purpose of living is to do God’s will.
 
"When Our Blessed Mother saw Him bow His head and deliver His spirit, she remembered that last Word that she ever is recorded to have spoken in Scripture. It was to the wine steward at the marriage feast of Cana: ‘Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye’ (John 2:5). What a beautiful valedictory! They are the most magnificent words that ever came from the lips of a woman. At the Transfiguration, the Heavenly Father spoke from the Heavens and said: ‘This is my beloved Son…Hear ye Him’ (Matt. 17:5). Now Our Blessed Mother speaks and says, ‘Do His will.’
 
"The sweet relationship of three decades in Nazareth now draws to a close, and Mary is about to give Emmanuel to us all, and she does it by pointing out to us the one and only way of salvation: complete consecration to her Divine Son. Nowhere in the Scripture is it ever said that Mary loved her Son. Words do not prove love. But that love is hidden under the submission of her mind to Him and her final injunction to us: ‘Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye.’
 
"Both the last recorded word of Jesus and the last recorded word of Mary were words of surrender: Jesus surrendered Himself to the Father; Mary asked us to surrender ourselves to the Son. This is the law of the universe. ‘For all are yours; and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s’ (1 Cor. 3:22-23)." (The Cries of Jesus From the Cross)
 
 
Palm Sunday Prayer
 
Lord, give us the grace and the courage to follow You this Holy Week, from death to resurrection, from darkness to fullness of light. We need You, O Christ our Saviour. Hosanna! Amen! 💐🙏💖
 
 
A Lenten Prayer (St Pope Pius V)
 
Look with favour, O Lord, on Your household. Grant that, though our flesh be humbled by abstinence from food, our souls, hungering after You, may be resplendent in Your sight. Amen. 🙏💖💐