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Posts from the ‘Holy Thursday’ Category

Apr 17

Crosses and Tables

“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us. ”― A. W. Tozer

“I want to be outside with the misfits, with the rebels, the dreamers, second-chance givers, the radical grace lavishers, the ones with arms wide open, the courageously vulnerable, and among even—or maybe especially—the ones rejected by the Table as not worthy enough or right enough.”― Sarah Bessey, Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women

Grace, overflowing
Mercy, unending
Love, without no bottom, no endpoint, no boundaries, no limits
Beyond comprehension
Without viable explanation
Third day coming, not yet, not yet, not yet

“We are freed to free others.
We are affirmed to affirm others.
We are loved to love others.”
― Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem

Mar 28

No Greater Love

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” – John 13:34

“No greater love has anyone than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” – John 15:13

Sacrifice.
Suffering.
Friendship.
Service.
Yielding.
Kindness.
Humility.
Companionship.
Generosity.
Compassion.
Redemption.
Unconditional.
Love.
All alive this day and each day.
Available to everyone.
Holy Thursday, the threshold to the Easter journey.
No greater love.

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” – John 13:14

Apr 6

The Wilderness

“I believe in God – not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God. There is God, and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being.” – Pope Francis

“When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord.” – Pope Francis

The three-day journey to Easter begins with Holy Thursday.
Resurrection Sunday, calling to spring and new life.
Don’t rush to Sunday.
Take the entire journey, no shortcuts.
Enter the wilderness for a few days.
Last supper, washing of feet, communion, the garden, denial, 30 silver coins, Pilate, the Cross, Simon, Veronica, Mary, the women who stayed to the end to witness and remain.
It is finished.
Holy sacred days through the wilderness.
Walk with hope, held in grace, do not fall asleep.
Wilderness to Easter.
The journey to Easter.

“Hope does not tell us that soon life will be the same again as it was before the loss. No, hope tells us that life will go on, differently, yes, but go on nevertheless. Hope tells us that the pieces are there for us to put together, if only we will give ourselves to the doing of it. When Jesus dies on the cross, something entirely different rises. And that something is the call to us to make the best in life live again.” – Joan Chittister, The Way of the Cross: The Path to New Life

Apr 1

Models

“Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should do also do’” – John 13:12-15

From the Last Supper, to the denial of the denials to come, to betrayal, to washing of feet, to the Garden of Gethsemane, awaiting for the suffering to begin, Jesus models the way for us.

Who wants to take that journey? To take up crosses, none like the Cross, but burdens the same. To wash feet of others. To love amidst hate and fear. A journey to run from, avoid, look for a short cut. There’s got to be another way. And yet, this is the only way. We do not go alone. He has gone before and carries our crosses for us if we allow right in this very moment, in the past and in the future.

When all of the other paths and models we follow lead to dead ends, again and again, return to this place to rest in love. That’s the story of the Cross. Love that transcends and transforms.