Exploring the depth of our prayers
We rely on God’s love and mercy every moment of every day. And boy, do we need it!
But mercy isn’t exclusive to God, as we find in a couple of our prayers.
We name Mary as mother of mercy, which can mean two things. First, she’s the mother of Jesus, and Jesus embodies mercy in action. And second, we honor Mary’s role in heaven as a pathway to receiving mercy from God and the Son.
Today is the Third Day.
We are here, in joyous hope and unbelievable gratitude for what our God has given us.
And it’s for me, personally, not just the big picture of Saving Humanity. Which is great, of course.
There are lots of ideas about why Jesus descended to Hell between His death and resurrection. I’m no theologian, so I read some of the discussions but I confess that I don’t really know what was going on there.
And I’m OK with that. My understanding will continue to develop. And maybe this is one of the things I won’t understand until I’m on the other side of death myself.
For me, though, I’m pondering the idea that … Jesus went to Hell, yes, but then He came back.
The more I learn about crucifixion, the more horrified I am.
It’s an unbelievably terrible way to treat someone. And a terrible way to die.
Of course, I want my own death to be peaceful. Quiet. Private.
Today we begin our Holy Triduum, the time when God and humanity intersect in the Glory of Jesus, our Christ.
I’m thinking about how we ask God to give us this day our daily bread. Why bread? I can go days without having bread, if I have other food to replace it with. And I can survive much longer without food than I can water.
Where have I heard about bread before? Hmm… maybe I’ll head off to Mass and think about it.
Continue reading “Our bread”
Holy week begins today. The most holy time of our entire year.
When I think about Jesus’ passion, the crown of thorns seems to be unbelievably cruel. The whole event is unfathomable, of course, but this hits my heart in a special way.
I think it came from portrayals I’ve seen in movies and plays. Can you imagine the pain involved with penetrating the skin on your head? I’ve whacked my head many times during my lifetime, and I see stars.
When we talk about the Trinity, we have a customary order. Father first. Son second. Holy Spirit third.
I’m wondering if there’s a deeper reason for this.
I’ve heard that it might have something to do with the Son proceeding from the Father, while the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Maybe just me, but that doesn’t seem like a compelling reason. I might use that logic to reverse the order, as I did in the first sentence of this paragraph.
We’re asking our Father forgiveness – for our trespasses, our sins. But then we ask this is as we forgive those who trespass against us.
This means a lot of things.
We’re asking forgiveness to the same degree as we forgive others. Maybe we should think that there’s some kind of accounting: if I haven’t forgiven five times today, then maybe I’m not worthy to receive God’s grace the five times I need it.
I have to get to forgiving!
My understanding of what happened in the Garden on Holy Thursday is … so limited.
Sure, I know the story, and I even see images in my mind. We read it every year.
But still, there are so many more layers to the story.
I’ve been confused about this for decades. Why do we declare: as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end?
First, we believe that our world will come to an end. At the Second Coming.
Second, that phrase doesn’t exist in the Latin version. Et in saecula saeculorum means something like for a really really long time. We have a perfectly good phrase for it in English: forever and ever.