Holy Week 2024 – Tuesday

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God surprises us by doing things we don’t expect and inverting the status quo

 

John 12 27 Now I am deeply troubled, and I don’t know what to say. But I must not ask my Father to keep me from this time of suffering. In fact, I came into the world to suffer. 28 So Father, bring glory to yourself.

A voice from heaven then said, “I have already brought glory to myself, and I will do it again!” 29 When the crowd heard the voice, some of them thought it was thunder. Others thought an angel had spoken to Jesus.

30 Then Jesus told the crowd, “That voice spoke to help you, not me. 31 This world’s people are now being judged, and the ruler of this world is already being thrown out! 32 If I am lifted up above the earth, I will make everyone want to come to me.” 33 Jesus was talking about the way he would be put to death.

34  The crowd said to Jesus, “The Scriptures teach that the Messiah will live forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

35 Jesus answered, “The light will be with you for only a little longer. Walk in the light while you can. Then you won’t be caught walking blindly in the dark. 36 Have faith in the light while it is with you, and you will be children of the light.”

 

Prayers

 

from St. John chrysostom (349-407 CE)

So let us all be sober and watchful, and prepared for everything, so that we may be well disciplined in prosperity and restrained under the onset of adversity, showing great prudence and constantly rendered thanks to the loving God… and thus be able to pass our life on earth securely and having much confidence regarding the life to come. May we all reach it, through the love and goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, sovereignty, and praise, now and forever, for ages and ages. Amen.

 

Egeria in the Holy land, c. 380 CE

Egeria was a nun from France who was touring the Holy Land in the late 4th century. She was in Jerusalem during Holy Week and provides the only eye witness account of how the early church celebrated.

On Tuesday they do everything in the same way as on Monday. Only this is added on Tuesday: late at night after the dismissal has been given in the Martyrium and they have gone to the Anastasis, and a second dismissal has been given at the Anastasis, they all go at that hour in the night to the church which is located on Mount Eleona. As soon as they have arrived in this church, the bishop goes into the grotto where the Lord used to teach His disciples. There the bishop takes up the book of the Gospels and, while standing, reads the words of the Lord which are written in the Gospel according to Matthew at the place where He said: “Take heed that no man seduce you.” Then the bishop reads the Lord’s entire discourse. When he has finished reading it, he says a prayer and blesses the catechumens and then the faithful. The dismissal is given, and they return from the mountain, and everyone goes to his own home, for it is now very late at night.

Holy Week 2024 – Monday

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God surprises us by doing things we don’t expect and inverting the status quo

 

John 12 Six days before Passover Jesus went back to Bethany, where he had raised Lazarus from death. 2 A meal had been prepared for Jesus. Martha was doing the serving, and Lazarus himself was there.

3  Mary took a very expensive bottle of perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet. She wiped them with her hair, and the sweet smell of the perfume filled the house.

4 A disciple named Judas Iscariot was there. He was the one who was going to betray Jesus, and he asked, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for 300 silver coins and the money given to the poor?” 6 Judas did not really care about the poor. He asked this because he carried the moneybag and sometimes would steal from it.

7 Jesus replied, “Leave her alone! She has kept this perfume for the day of my burial. 8  You will always have the poor with you, but you won’t always have me.”

9 A lot of people came when they heard that Jesus was there. They also wanted to see Lazarus, because Jesus had raised him from death. 10 So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus. 11 He was the reason that many of the people were turning from them and putting their faith in Jesus.

 

Prayer

 

from origen (184-253 CE)

Let us pray, however, the mercy of the omnipotent God to make us not only hearers of the word, but also doers and to bring upon our souls also a flood of God’s water and destroy in us what God knows should be destroyed, and encourage what God knows should be encouraged, through Christ our Lord and through the Holy Spirit. To God be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

Egeria in the Holy land, c. 380 CE

Egeria was a nun from France who was touring the Holy Land in the late 4th century. She was in Jerusalem during Holy Week and provides the only eye witness account of how the early church celebrated.

On Monday, the following day, they carry out in the Anastasis (rotunda built on site assumed to be Christ’s tomb) whatever ceremonies are customarily performed from the first cockcrow until dawn, as well as whatever is done at the third and sixth hours throughout Lent. However, at the ninth hour everyone comes together in the major church or Martyrium, and until the first hour of the night they continually sing hymns and antiphons, and read passages from the Scriptures fitting to the day and the place, always interrupting them with prayers. Vespers is celebrated in the Martyraim, when the hour for it is at hand. The results is that it is already night when the dismissal is given at the Martyrium. As soon as the dismissal has been given, the bishop is led from there to the Anastasis to the accompaniment of hymns. When he has entered the Anastasis, a hymn is sung, a prayer is said, first the catechumens and then the faithful are blessed, and finally the dismissal is given.

Sunday Reflection – Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024

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Jesus in Jerusalem

John 12 12 The next day a large crowd was in Jerusalem for Passover. When they heard that Jesus was coming for the festival, 13  they took palm branches and went out to greet him. They shouted,

“Hosanna!
God bless the one who comes
    in the name of the Lord!
God bless the King
    of Israel!”

14 Jesus found a donkey and rode on it, just as the Scriptures say,

15 “People of Jerusalem,
    don’t be afraid!
Your King is now coming,
and he is riding
    on a donkey.”

16 At first, Jesus’ disciples did not understand. But after he had been given his glory, they remembered all this. Everything had happened exactly as the Scriptures said it would.

Kids Korner: Hosanna!! (Mar. 24th)

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Read Mark 11:1-11 with your family.

There are a lot of ideas about who Jesus was 2000 years ago and who he is today. People have ideas about God… some of them about a God who love us, and some of the ideas are that God is always judging us.

Our story of Palm Sunday reminds us that people misunderstood Jesus as Messiah 2000 years ago just like they do today.

The people in Jerusalem were expecting the Messiah to be a king, like King David, who would have armies and huge parades of soldiers. He would be dressed in the richest, most colourful clothing they could find, and when he entered Jerusalem it would be to tell the Romans to get out of Judea and Galilee. The Messiah was supposed to save the people from the Romans and restore the Hebrew people to independent government and no more foreign taxes or soldiers.

However, that was not who Jesus was, and it is understandable that the people who didn’t know Jesus were disappointed.

Instead of riding a big horse like a king, Jesus rode a small donkey. Instead of wearing rich clothes, he looked like everyone else. Instead of a big parade, he had his followers and children waving palm branches walking beside him. And when Jesus came, he did not tell the Romans to get out. Instead he told the leaders in the Temple to smarten up and behave the way God wanted them to behave.

Jesus was not the Messiah they had been expecting.

Episode 27: The Square One Episode

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In this episode, Debb and Deb discuss the tools needed for having difficult conversations with people from opposing viewpoints. From Square One. which is mutual respect, all the way through understanding and accepting that the only solution may be agreeing there is no easy solution, this episode digs deep into the core of conflict resolution and healthy communication.

Lenten Study 2024 – Week 5

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There are many children in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, but they are often overlooked or by-passed by Sunday lectionaries and Bible studies. Even Sunday School curriculums rarely take time just to focus on the children, or the childhood of significant people in Scripture.

Through this Lenten series we will be looking at some of the children found in Scripture, why their stories are significant, how they are related, and their influence on the growth of our spiritual tradition.

Week 5

Children in the Christian Scriptures

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Sunday Reflection – Lent V, March 17, 2024

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Jesus at the Temple

John 12 20 Some Greeks had gone to Jerusalem to worship during Passover. 21 Philip from Bethsaida in Galilee was there too. So they went to him and said, “Sir, we would like to meet Jesus.” 22 Philip told Andrew. Then the two of them went to Jesus and told him.

23 Jesus said:

The time has come for the Son of Man to be given his glory. 24 I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat. 25  If you love your life, you will lose it. If you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life. 26 If you serve me, you must go with me. My servants will be with me wherever I am. If you serve me, my Father will honor you.

27 Now I am deeply troubled, and I don’t know what to say. But I must not ask my Father to keep me from this time of suffering. In fact, I came into the world to suffer. 28 So Father, bring glory to yourself.

A voice from heaven then said, “I have already brought glory to myself, and I will do it again!” 29 When the crowd heard the voice, some of them thought it was thunder. Others thought an angel had spoken to Jesus.

30 Then Jesus told the crowd, “That voice spoke to help you, not me. 31 This world’s people are now being judged, and the ruler of this world is already being thrown out! 32 If I am lifted up above the earth, I will make everyone want to come to me.” 33 Jesus was talking about the way he would be put to death.

Kids Korner: Loving the world (Mar. 17th)

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Read John 12:20-33 with your family.

The idea of ‘losing your life to find it’ is very confusing for adults as well as kids.

Jesus gave a different word picture – seeds. If you have a package of seeds sitting on the counter, nothing happens. However, if you take those seeds out of the package and plant them in soil, water them when they need it, soon a plant will grown. The part that happens underground is that the seed cracks open so the new plant can be made. If the seed doesn’t crack open, there won’t be a new plant.

People are like that too. If we keep all our love and happiness to ourselves, after a while we don’t really feel very happy or loved. But when we give our love and happiness to others, then we feel even more love and happiness. When we share what we have in the spirit of generosity, when we “crack open our hearts”, we feel wonderful.

God wants us to think about others more than we think about ourselves. That can be really hard especially if we are having a bad day. But even on bad days, we can be kind.

Lenten Study 2024 – Week 4

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There are many children in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, but they are often overlooked or by-passed by Sunday lectionaries and Bible studies. Even Sunday School curriculums rarely take time just to focus on the children, or the childhood of significant people in Scripture.

Through this Lenten series we will be looking at some of the children found in Scripture, why their stories are significant, how they are related, and their influence on the growth of our spiritual tradition.

Week 4

Jesus as a child & teenager

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Sunday Reflection – Lent IV, March 10, 2024

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Recorded 2022

Jesus at the Temple

John 3 14  And the Son of Man must be lifted up, just as the metal snake was lifted up by Moses in the desert. 15 Then everyone who has faith in the Son of Man will have eternal life.

16 God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! 18 No one who has faith in God’s Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn’t have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God’s only Son.

19 The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. 20 People who do evil hate the light and won’t come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done. 21 But everyone who lives by the truth will come to the light, because they want others to know that God is really the one doing what they do.