Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.

By: Sister Ruth Maier

“Behold, your king comes to meet you.”

Opening Prayer

Almighty ever-living God,
who as an example of humility for the human race to follow
caused our Savior to take flesh and submit to the Cross,
graciously grant that we may heed his lesson of patient suffering
and so merit a share in his Resurrection.

We make our prayer through Jesus in unity with the Holy Spirit.

Scripture

Matthew 21: 1—10

As the crowd drew close to Jerusalem, Jesus sent off two of his disciples with the instruction: “Go to the village straight ahead of you, and as soon as you enter it you will find tethered there a colt on which no one has ridden. Untie it and bring it back. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing that?’ say, ‘The Master needs it but he will send it back here at once.’”

So they went off, and finding a colt tethered out on the street near a gate, they untied it. Some of the bystanders said to them, “What do you mean by untying that colt?” They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the men let them take it.

They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks across its back, and Jesus sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread reeds which they had cut in the fields. Those preceding him as well as those who followed cried out:
“Hosannah! Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the reign of our Father David to come !
God save him from on high!”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Reflection

Today we begin the most sacred week of our Liturgical Year. Our first Gospel Reading recalls Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem as a very large crowd had gathered and strewed palm branches on the road – thus we celebrate Palm Sunday.

The Second Gospel Reading is Matthew’s account of the Passion of Jesus: Mathew 26: 14 – 27: 66, which you may wish to read from you Bible.

These dramatic readings plunge us into the events of the Paschal Mystery. We are reminded of Jesus’ betrayal, abandonment, suffering and death. As God’s Son, Jesus remained faithful to his Mission even to the point of death: “not my will but thine be done.”

Like Jesus, we are called to remain faithful to God, trusting God’s wisdom and providential care, embracing the death of daily self-giving, if we to are to pass through death to new life.

As you reflect on your own knowledge of Jesus, how do you respond when asked: Who is this? Who is Jesus for you?
How do you confess to knowing Jesus in your daily living?

Closing Prayer

We humbly beseech You, O Lord,
that just as through the death of Your Son,
You have brought us to hope for what You have promised,
that by His Resurrection You may lead us to new life.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Welcoming the Holy