Easter Sunday

Hark! The songs of peaceful Zion thunder like a mighty flood:
“Jesus out of every nation has redeemed us by his blood.”

Alleluia—sing to Jesus! After spending the past forty days in prayerful song, the celebration today gathers all that musical anticipation and preparation and thunders like a mighty flood of praise. We lift up Jesus’s triumph and victory today because he has also made it our triumph and victory; he has redeemed us by his blood. He is true to his promise that he will always be with us (see Matthew 28:20), which means that he gives us the faith, hope, and love we need in our journey through this life, no matter what it brings.

Our task now is to join with all Christians—from cradle Catholics to newly baptized—to embrace the Resurrection with full-hearted joy. Christ
has conquered death and opened for us a way to heaven, making us a new
people. He is risen, indeed!

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, firstborn from the dead, your victory over death opens a path to new and abundant life for us. As I strive to follow you, grant me the consolation of your peace and joy so I may live anew with your radiant love. My Lord and my God, raise me to new life.

Ponder Today
How can I carry Easter joy with me through the weeks ahead?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, firstborn from the dead, you give us your Body and Blood in the Eucharist to sustain our faith and infuse us with hope. Nourish me with the feast of your love so I may become anew a vital part of your Body, the Church, for the sake of the world. My Lord and my God, show me your way.

Holy Saturday

This is the night when Christ broke the prison-bars of death
and rose victorious from the underworld.

Tonight, at the great Easter Vigil, the Church sings the Exsultet, an ancient Easter proclamation that captures the foundations of our hope. This hymn helps us ponder the faith we were baptized into and remember in prayer the catechumens who will join the Church this very night through the waters of Baptism, the oil of Confirmation, and Christ’s Body and Blood.

We are in the midst of a jubilee year focused on hope, and there’s no better day to practice this virtue than today. Having walked together through Jesus’s Passion these past two days, today we recall how Jesus joined us even in death, and we begin to keep vigil with hope-filled anticipation to celebrate the new life God brings us. Our quiet waiting today is a time to remember and re-collect ourselves to receive the gift of new life in Christ and celebrate this sacred mystery with joy and hope everlasting.

Prayer for Morning
Mary, Mother of the Church, even when you couldn’t make sense of things, you continued to believe in God’s goodness. Mother Mary, help me increase in hope.

Ponder Today
What final step can I take in preparation for Easter?

Prayer for Evening
Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for all believers that our faith will be renewed. Mother Mary, help me increase in faith.

Good Friday

O agony and dying! O love to sinners free!
Jesus, all grace supplying, O turn your face on me.

We stand at the foot of the Cross today and behold Jesus’s suffering and dying. For those who knew him in his earthly life, it must have been a shocking sight. As a builder, he had a strong body; as a teacher, he had a strong mind and heart. But here at the end we see his strength and vigor all fading in the strife, and death with cruel rigor, bereaving [him] of life.

We don’t just stand here as sad witnesses—we participate in this scene with the fickle and cruel crowd, with the fearful disciples, with his sorrow- ful mother, and most of all as recipients of this great gift. We, too, have our own crosses to bear, so we embrace them with the same resolute faith as Jesus did, knowing it is our only source of hope.

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, reluctantly, yet willingly, you entered the pain and death that sin inflicts. I stand here with you at the foot of the Cross; give me the courageous love to lay down my life with you and for you. Loving Savior, I will follow you to the Cross.

Ponder Today
What is the suffering in my life that I can unite to Jesus’s suffering on the
Cross?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, you spent your life—right to the end—loving us with all of your strength. Let me draw on your love when I feel far from God or have distanced myself from you or others, for there’s nothing I can do to lessen your love for me. Loving Savior, bring me back to you.

Holy Thursday

Down in adoration falling, lo! The Sacred Host we hail,
o’er ancient forms departing newer rites of grace prevail;
faith for all defects supplying, where the feeble senses fail.

We sing “Tantum Ergo” together at the conclusion of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper this evening when we process with the Blessed Sacrament to a place of repose where it will be kept for quiet adoration until the Easter Vigil. This song is also often sung during Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. These Latin verses form the last two stanzas of a longer hymn, “Pange Lingua” (“Sing My Tongue the Savior’s Glory”).

Tonight we remember and celebrate the gift of Christ’s very self—Body and Blood, soul and divinity—which he offered at the Last Supper. Our “feeble senses fail” to physically see the bread and wine become the Real Presence of our Lord, but we perceive it with faith—a faith that strengthens us to follow Christ’s example and offer our lives in service to others.

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, Word-made-Flesh, at your Last Supper, you gave yourself as food to
your disciples. Bread from Heaven, feed me with your love.

Ponder Today
How can I “wash the feet” of someone today through an act of service?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, Word-made-Flesh, you poured out your own life in the wine you
shared with your followers. Bread from Heaven, break me open, pour me
out.

Wednesday of Holy Week

To God and to the Lamb, I will sing.
To God and to the Lamb who is the great “I am,”
while millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing.

Our baptism joins us with a body of believers: the Church, a great cloud of witnesses, both those we see in church and those who have gone before us through the ages—all on the same journey toward holiness by following the way of Jesus Christ. We travel together, lifting each other up and filling what is lacking in each other.
The singing we do at Mass is a perfect image of this communion, which has its source in God. Some of us couldn’t carry a tune with a bucket; others are in the choir; singing together makes one voice, one people, as we lift our voices and hearts. Our unity with each other reflects the inner life of the Trinity, which is a communion of persons. It is not a stretch to say that God becomes real for us in each other when we gather in worship to lift our hearts and voices.

Prayer for Morning
Almighty and everlasting God, you dwell by grace within our souls. Make me holy and be my source of joy. Blessed Trinity, one God, abide with me.

Ponder Today
Call to mind loved ones who have died, then imagine all of our voices joining together in song at Mass.

Prayer for Evening
Almighty and everlasting God, you are our beginning and end, and all creation gives you praise. Help me taste and see your beauty and wisdom as it colors every moment of my life. Blessed Trinity, glory be to you forever.

Tuesday of Holy Week

What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

Love is a common human experience, but the events that we commemorate this week reveal what makes Jesus’s sacrificial love redemptive. He gave his life for us even when he was rejected by us (see Romans 5:8). Though he was blameless, Jesus laid aside his crown and underwent suffering so that nothing could separate us from God; though he is eternal, he accepted the “dreadful curse” of death so he could destroy it. And because the Father raised him to new life, which he shares with us, we are now participants in the divine love of the Trinity. What wondrous love is this?

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, Lord of bliss, you emptied yourself to take on the pain and death of the Cross. Help me to humble myself in self-giving love today. Christ, king of my soul, transform me with your wondrous love.

Ponder Today
What is one small way in which I will have an opportunity today to love as Jesus does?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, Lord of bliss, you died for us though we are sinners undeserving of the magnitude of the new life you offer. Help me to live with the same generosity, especially to forgive those who have wronged me. Christ, king of my soul, bring me into your abundant life.

Monday of Holy Week

Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble! The key component in the composition of our song today is the silence: the space in between the questions and the trembling. That’s where we feel the weight of the Cross. Our faith leads us to seek to better understand what we believe. But before it gets to our brain, faith passes through the heart that place at the center of ourselves that we’ve been cultivating throughout Lent.
That’s where we tremble with this song.

This week we walk with Jesus through his Passion and Death, which is full of drama and movement. We don’t often imagine him in the quiet, in-between moments away from the action: on the dark, quiet walk up the Mount of Olives, waking up in the quiet of a jail cell, and catching his breath after the scourging. He would not have wasted the stillness of these moments, and neither should we this week.

Prayer for Morning
Faithful Father, you sent your Son to bring us the fullness of your love. Speak to my heart this week as I walk through your Son’s Passion. Holy One, I listen for your Word.

Ponder Today
What is the prayer I want to bring to the quiet moments in between all the action of this week?

Prayer for Evening
Faithful Father, though your Son suffered and died, you did not abandon him—and you do not abandon us. Help me to take on Jesus’s faithfulness. Holy One, I give you gratitude and praise for your grace.

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

The song we pray with today and tomorrow comes to us from the tradition of African American spirituals. The verses are straightforward, raw, and provocative; the repetition of the questions compels us to respond. We weren’t in Jerusalem thousands of years ago when they crucified our Lord, of course, but by calling it to mind through sacramental ritual and prayer, we make that event present here and now. Whenever we unite our suffering to Jesus’s, the Cross becomes real for us.
So today, on Palm Sunday, we step into the mystery of Jesus’s self-gift: his acceptance of the manic mob, accusations and slander, abandonment, and torture and death. We take up our own roles in this drama—first with the crowd, then with the disciples, and finally at the foot of the Cross—to be touched by his saving love.

Prayer for Morning
Savior of the world, you accepted your suffering and death out of faithful- ness to the Father and love for us. Grant me the same faithfulness today. Holy Redeemer, I will remain with you.

Ponder Today
How might I stand with someone who is suffering today?

Prayer for Evening

Savior of the world, our lives take on the shape of your saving love through the Sacrament of Baptism. Grant us hope as we renew our participation in the mystery of your love. Holy Redeemer, remain with me.

Palm Sunday and Holy Week

Were You There
African-American spiritual

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble!
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble!
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble!
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?
Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble!
Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?

Fifth Week of Lent

Just a closer walk with thee, grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
daily walking close to thee, let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

Neither Lazarus nor his sisters knew that he would die when he did. His sickness came upon him as a surprise, and suddenly their whole reality radically changed. Their faith in Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life was vindicated, but even after Lazarus was raised, he died again when his natural life was over. Their experience reminds us that each of us has limited time to do good in this life.
Our own deaths may well also come as a surprise; at a time we are not expecting, our whole reality will radically change and we will find ourselves stepping into eternity. As we sing here, When my feeble life is o’er, time for me will be no more. In that moment, Jesus will break into our existence in a whole new way—as the Resurrection and the Life—but we don’t have unlimited time to prepare for that amazing glory.

Prayer for Morning
Jesus, our beginning and end, you know our joys and our sorrows, and
you share our laughter and our tears. Help me to remember that you are
walking with me through life. Jesus, our brother, I need you.

Ponder Today
What is one thing I would change about my life if I knew that my death would arrive soon?

Prayer for Evening
Jesus, our beginning and end, you created us to cooperate with you in building your kingdom. Help me use my time to love well and deeply in my corner of the world. Jesus, our brother, let me not delay in turning to you.