TRAVELLING. to EASTER LENT Year B PATMOS ABBEY

Transcription

1 TRAVELLING to EASTER as LENT 2012 Year B PATMOS ABBEY

2 Friends, I would like to commend to you our Lenten program Travelling to Easter with Jesus as our Guide. It is an invitation to reflect on our journey in faith, and to be sure that our good and gracious God has a central place in our lives. This program has a focus on the Gospels for the Sundays of Lent, stories from the life of Jesus, words of Jesus which give direction to our spiritual travels. These Gospels relate clearly to our own experience of life. We have much to fill our days, yet we need to exercise some self discipline and take time out to reflect. How many of the activities of each day are essential and how much time do we set aside for quietness and reflection. Reflection leads to prayer and prayer is simply connecting with God in whatever way we choose, through prayers we recite or our prayers without words. Some say that prayer is allowing God to connect with us, seeking to slow down our many thoughts to allow God to break through. I ask you to take up this program each week as a family, as a group of parishioners or friends, or simply alone, to allow in your travelling to Easter, more time for the Lord. I am sure you will find the Commentary on the Gospel helpful as you come to know the background to Jesus life even more. You will then be dra T R A V E L L I N G T O E A S T E R W I TH J E S U S A S O U R G U I D E

3 USING THIS RESOURCE Before the session Take time to read the Gospel passage Have copies of lyrics/music if you intend to sing. (Hymn suggestions are from the As One Voice books as these are the primary source of music for the Abbey Set up a sacred space Prepare a prayer space in the centre which may include a piece of purple cloth (liturgical colour for Lent), Bible, Candle, a Cross and/or a bowl of ashes The Notes for this Session give a brief suggestion as to how to conduct the session for the week. Some additional items may be required Week 1: A5 piece of paper for each participant and pen or pencil, instrumental music Week 2: A picture or pictures of mountains, instrumental music Week 3: Thermometer Week 4: A5 piece of paper for each participant and pen or pencil During the session Settle into a quiet and comfortable setting around the sacred space Say the Opening Prayer together One person reads the Gospel Reading aloud, slowly All reflect on the reading in silence Share with the group, a word or phrase that struck you The Gospel is read a second time Ponder why the word or phrase touched you and share the experience with the group Read the Gospel Commentary Discuss the Reflection Questions In the During the Week section are some suggestions of positive things that we could do during Lent Sing/listen to one of the suggested hymns or something else of your choice ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Extracts from scripture from the Jerusalem Bible version of the scripture 1966,1967 and 1968, Darton, Longman & Todd. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Y E A R B L E N T

4 Week 1 NOTES FOR THIS SESSION As this is the first week of Lent, be sure that all participants have been introduced and are comfortable. Everyone seated around the sacred space is preferable. Have some soothing instrumental music playing in the background. After the Gospel reading have participants close their eyes and try to think of a time when they felt as if they were alone, as if in an emotional desert, alone with temptation. After a few moments have them jot down on the paper words or images that represent how they felt. After a few moments have participants close their eyes again and try to think of a time when they felt safe, where they felt they were being taken care of. After a few moments have them jot down on the other side of the paper words or images that represent how they felt. Invite participants to share their words, thoughts and feelings about the two scenarios. OPENING PRAYER Loving God, As we begin our Lenten journey let us take the time to recognise your will in our lives. Help us to acknowledge the importance of silence as the time and place where we can be attentive to Your voice in our hearts. We pray that with the help of the Holy Spirit we may turn back to You and believe in the Good News. This we pray in the name of Jesus, our model of strength. Amen DURING THE WEEK Find a place to retreat into your own wilderness this Lenten season. Take a few minutes each day in this wilderness to let God speak to you Read and reflect on a short passage of Scripture each day during Lent T R A V E L L I N G T O E A S T E R W I TH J E S U S A S O U R G U I D E A LENTEN CREED We believe that our lives are held within the encircling love of God, who knows our names and recognises our deepest needs. We believe that Christ is the divine Child of the living God, and that his grace is like living waters that can never be exhausted. We believe in the birthing, renewing, enabling Spirit of God who yearns over our welfare as a mother yearns for her child. We believe that God is in the arid desert as well as in green pastures, and that hard times and disciplines are also loving gifts. We believe that our journey has a purpose and a destination, and that our path leads to a human glory we cannot yet imagine. We believe that in the church we are fellow pilgrims on the road, and that we are called to love one another as God loves us. This is our faith and we are humbled to profess in Jesus the Christ. Amen

5 GOSPEL READING MARK 1:12-15 The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him. After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. The time has come he said and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News. GOSPEL COMMENTARY MARK 1:12-15 We begin this liturgical season with a brief reading from the Gospel of Mark. As we begin our Lenten journey, we enter into the story of Jesus beginning his public ministry, proclaiming the good news of the reign of God. Before we read Mark 1:12-15, we need to recall events that Mark portrayed very succinctly in the preceding eleven verses with which he opens his Gospel. In these verses we meet John the Baptizer who dipped people in the River Jordan to express repentance for their sins. This John also preached that someone would come after him, who would drench or baptize people not merely in water but in the Holy Spirit. No sooner has John made this statement than the Gospel shows Jesus coming to John and being baptized by him in the River Jordan. The river Jordan is the one that the people of Israel had to cross at the end of their journey of wandering in the wilderness, to come into their new, settled life in the land God had promised to them. For most of the people who go out to John, going down into the waters of the Jordan and coming up again expresses their desire to enter into a new life free from their sins. When Jesus comes up out of the water of the Jordan, he sees into the heavens which have been torn apart for him and he sees the Spirit coming down upon him, like a dove. At the same time he hears a voice from heaven which calls Jesus beloved son and tells Jesus with you I am well pleased. Today s Gospel takes up the story at this point. The Spirit acts very forcefully: it drives Jesus out into the wilderness. In the Greek in which Mark writes, the verb translated drives means literally throw out. Thus, we see Jesus being sent into the wilderness in which his ancestors had wandered before they came into the land God had promised to them. Like his ancestors who wandered in the wilderness for forty years, Jesus remains apart in this wild place for a long period of time, forty days. Mark describes this wilderness in a very spare yet powerful way. It is a place perhaps like Eden, where Jesus is able to be with the wild beasts. Yet it is also a place where both Satan and angels operate. Satan puts Jesus, the beloved and pleasing son of God, to the test. Satan tries the limits of Jesus identity as son of God, testing whether Jesus will remain faithful to that relationship. While Satan tests and thus proves Jesus identity; angels from heaven care for Jesus, showing in another way that he truly is the favoured one of heaven. Satan and the angels represent forces for evil and for good. Thus, in this long time in the desert, Jesus is alone in a testing ground where both forces operate. In his public ministry, Jesus will enter with this conflict between good and evil, declaring that he has already tied up the strong man [Satan] and is plundering his house (Mark 3:22-27). After he completes this period in the wilderness, Jesus returns, coming into Galilee with a message for the world. Jesus return is associated with an event in history: John, who had preached a baptism of repentance and had baptized Jesus, is arrested. We don t hear the details of how John came to be arrested until several chapters later in the Gospel of Mark (Mark 6:14-29). For now, it is an unexplained event that sits in the background. When Mark writes that Jesus proclaimed good news from God, he uses a word that referred in ancient times to a herald making public announcements for governors or rulers. This word gives us the term kerygma, to refer to the core message of Christian faith. Jesus begins his public ministry proclaiming this message. Jesus declares that the reign of God is close to us. That is, the time has come when it is possible for us to live according to the way God sees the world and desires it to be. To prepare to welcome the reign of God, we need to experience a metanoia, that is, a change of mind and heart. When we repent in this way, opening our minds and hearts to the way of God, we will trust Jesus word about God s abundant love for us. That is, we will believe the Good News. There is no better way to begin our own journey of Lent, than to place our trust in the word of Jesus, the beloved son of God. MUSIC God of Day and God of Darkness Marty Haugen AOV #56 Hosea Greg Norbet AOV #30 REFLECTION QUESTIONS What are your thoughts or feelings as you begin this Lenten journey? Do you have a story to share about how someone used their gifts to make a difference? What have you learned from science or from the world around you that has helped you to know more about God? How do you sense that God is inviting you to change something in your mind or heart? Y E A R B L E N T

6 Week 2 NOTES FOR THIS SESSION Everyone seated around the sacred space is the preferred arrangement of seating. After the reading of the gospel light the candle as a reminder that Jesus is our light and always a ready listener. Have each participant choose a word from the Gospel reading that really speaks to them. This word will become their mantra as a short meditation is carried out. Play soft instrumental music and have participants concentrate on their breathing as they repeat their mantra silently. Participants who are comfortable may like to share with the group a mountain they are climbing in their life at the moment. OPENING PRAYER Loving God, With the help of the Holy Spirit guide us in our quest to be aware of the sacred moments in our lives. Help us to be open to Your presence and see how it can transform our lives and our world. As we continue to scale the mountains in our lives, may we draw upon courage in the midst of our fear and continue to live out the Good News of salvation. This we pray, in the name of Jesus, the light unto our path. Amen. DURING THE WEEK Pray the Lord s Prayer each day Identify a gift that God has entrusted you with. Each day this week, use this gift in worship or in the service of others T R A V E L L I N G T O E A S T E R W I TH J E S U S A S O U R G U I D E CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE God has set before us life and death. The choice is ours. Let us acknowledge our misuse of the liberty of choice. Let us pray silent prayer---- Let us ask to be forgiven for the times when we have chosen badly, opting for the easy way of habit and social convention, rather that the higher and harder ways of Jesus. Let us confess that sometimes our choices have been made from rank selfishness, with scant concern for those around us, even for those who love us dearly. Let us ask to be forgiven for putting off decisions, for dithering and avoiding choice until opportunity has gone by. Let us confess that we have at times made outwardly good decisions for the wrong reasons, driven by selfish motives. Holy God, Saviour and Friend, we thank you that long before we face up to ourselves and frame our confessions, your mercy in Jesus is here waiting for us. We rest our mortal lives in your immortal Life, allowing your grace, mercy and peace to cleanse, refresh and straighten us. Breathe into our humanity, loving God, that we may fully live. Please breathe your Spirit in our brains, that our decision making may be pure and wise. Breathe your Spirit on our lips, that our speech may witness to life and light and holy joy. Breathe your Spirit on our hands, that in their busyness they may serve you before all else. Breathe your Spirit on our feet, that we may tread this earth with gentleness and respect. Through Christ Jesus, our liberator. Amen!

7 GOSPEL READING MARK 9:2-10 Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone by themselves. There in their presence he was transfigured: his clothes became dazzlingly white, whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them. Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter spoke to Jesus. Rabbi, he said it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. He did not know what to say; they were so frightened. And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and there came a voice from the cloud, This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him. Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus. As they came down the mountain he warned them to tell no one what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They observed the warning faithfully, though among themselves they discussed what rising from the dead could mean. GOSPEL COMMENTARY MARK 9:2-10 In last week s Gospel reading, we heard a voice from heaven declare Jesus to be God s beloved son, with whom God is well pleased. This week, in a very similar scene we hear a voice from heaven speak the same message, but in a slightly different way. The difference is highly significant as we shall see. A first difference that we notice is that whereas last week s story of the baptism and temptation of Jesus was set at the very beginning of Mark s Gospel, today s story of the Transfiguration of Jesus occurs halfway through it. In this new story, Jesus is no longer alone but is accompanied by an inner circle of three of his chosen disciples. Rather than going down into the waters of the Jordan, Jesus goes up a high mountain where they can be together. There, in the presence of his disciples, Jesus is now revealed to them in his full glory, shining with light that only heaven can produce. A second difference is that here, people from heaven appear, to consult with Jesus. Moses, the great leader who brought the people of Israel through the wilderness as they learned how to become a people dedicated to God, talks with Jesus. So does Elijah, the prophet of Israel who kept the people faithful to the one, true and living God. This serious consultation that these heavenly figures from Israel s past hold with Jesus contrasts strongly with the behaviour of Jesus own disciples, who have begun to doubt his leadership. Immediately preceding this story in Mark, Peter had disagreed very strongly with Jesus, when Jesus foretold that he would suffer, die and rise from the dead after three days. Jesus spoke very forcefully to Peter, calling him Satan and insisting that any disciple who follows Jesus must put his own concerns aside and take up his own cross (Mark 8:31-38). Being forced to consider the death of their master and his promise that they too, would suffer, is a very sobering experience for Jesus disciples. Perhaps it is enough to make them lose faith in him altogether. In this event on the mountain, Jesus allows these few handpicked disciples a momentary glimpse of his full identity as someone with whom the greatest figures of Israel s history seek an audience. It is not surprising that seeing Jesus in this way is overwhelming for Jesus disciples, who can offer only to make three tents that would honour the presence of Moses and Elijah with Jesus. The Markan narrator s voice tells us that it is Peter who suggests this, out of fear and awe at the situation. There is another voice, however, that speaks much more persuasively than Peter. A cloud overshadows them and the voice speaks from the cloud. Here, the overshadowing cloud recalls the cloud that covered the mountain when Moses went up to meet God on Mount Sinai (Exod 24:15-16). There, God spoke to Moses out of the cloud. Here, God speaks out of the cloud very clearly to Jesus disciples, those who have begun to doubt Jesus. In the baptism scene, God spoke to Jesus alone, saying, You are my beloved son. With you I am well pleased. Here at the Transfiguration of Jesus, God speaks to Jesus disciples, saying to them, This is my beloved son. Listen to him. The grammar of the final sentence makes it plain that God is speaking not to a single individual but to more than one and that God is giving a command, namely Listen! This is the culminating difference between the two stories of Jesus baptism and his transfiguration. Listening to the Gospel of Mark, we are enabled to overhear both these scenes in Jesus life. Like the disciples we too may waiver in our trust of Jesus, our belief that he truly makes known to us the ways, the desires and the intentions of God. This can be especially the case when we feel the weight of the cross that a disciple of Jesus carries. Following Jesus, we are called to live honestly, justly and compassionately with all people in our lives, at home, at work or in the world at large. Merely doing this authentically and well can require great courage and selflessness. Ultimately, it is our faith in the Jesus who has been revealed to us in the Gospel and in our everyday lives, that directs, inspires and sustains us as we follow Jesus down the mountain, back to the everyday, pondering what rising from the dead might mean in our own lives, here and now. MUSIC A Trusting Psalm Kevin Bates AOV #115 Will you Love Me Brian Boniwell AOV #40 REFLECTION QUESTIONS What would you like to thank God for? How do you show your love for God, your neighbour? How have you cultivated gifts in yourself or others? What do you think Jesus wants to say to you about your gifts? Y E A R B L E N T

8 Week 3 NOTES FOR THIS SESSION Everyone seated around the sacred space is the preferred arrangement of seating. The injustice displayed in the temple stirred in Jesus a response of anger and action. Reflect for a few moments on the scene in the temple and the injustice inflicted upon the poor who were seeking God. Have each participant in turn hold the thermometer and share a situation in the world which, raises their temperature. How as an individual or community can we do our part to better this situation? OPENING PRAYER Loving God, Help us in this our modern world of materialism and technology, to not lose sight of the importance of people and love. May we remember during this our Lenten journey, those less fortunate than ourselves and may we strive for compassion and justice for all. This we pray in the name of Jesus, our liberator. Amen. DURING THE WEEK Give a cross or crucifix a prominent place in your life Identify another gift God has given you (different from the one last week). Use this gift this week Reflect on the gifts of a family member or friend. Tell them that you recognise this gift in them T R A V E L L I N G T O E A S T E R W I TH J E S U S A S O U R G U I D E A time of turning round Truly dust we are, and to dust we shall return; and truly yours we are, and to you we shall return. Help this to be a time of turning round and beginning again. Through the forty days of Lent, help us to follow you and to find you: in the discipline of praying and in the drudgery of caring in whatever we deny ourselves, and whatever we set ourselves to learn or do. Help us to discover you in our loneliness and in community, in our emptiness and our fulfilment, in our sadness and our laughter. Help us to find you when we ourselves are lost. Help us to follow you on the journey to Jerusalem to the waving palms of the people s hope, to their rejection, to the cross and empty tomb. Help us to perceive new growth amid the ashes of the old. Help us, carrying your cross, to be signs of your Kingdom. AMEN Jan Sutch Pickard

9 GOSPEL READING JOHN 2:13-25 Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers coins, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers, Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father s house into a market. Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: Zeal for your house will devour me. The Jews intervened and said, What sign can you show us to justify what you have done? Jesus answered, Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews replied, It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the words he had said. During his stay in Jerusalem for the Passover many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he gave, but Jesus knew them all and did not trust himself to them; he never needed evidence about any man; he could tell what a man had in him. GOSPEL COMMENTARY JOHN 2:13-25 For the next three weeks we encounter Jesus as he is presented in the Gospel of John. Today we hear a story from very early in the Gospel of John, the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple. Jesus declares that if this Temple were destroyed, he could raise it up in only three days. Given that it took a powerful king forty-six years to build that is, to refurbish the Temple, Jesus claim is extraordinary. By itself, this very extraordinary claim by Jesus is a hint that in this event, there is more than meets the eye at first glance. John invites us to look more deeply into the event to find its full meaning. A first point to note is that this story occurs in a very different place in the Gospel of John than it does in the Synoptic Gospels. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, this event occurs towards the end of Jesus life, when Jesus is in Jerusalem for the last time. In those Gospels, Jesus action is the final straw that leads the religious authorities in charge of the Temple, to seek to destroy Jesus. To see the reason for this we need to understand the significance of the Temple for Judaism in the first century C.E. There was only one recognized Temple in Judaism, the one originally built in Jerusalem by Solomon, son of David and restored by others after him. The Jewish people believed that the presence of God dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Only here in the Temple in Jerusalem did the Jewish people practise their ancient ritual cult of sacrificing animals to God, as part of the way they lived out the covenant God had made with them through Abraham and Moses. Highly educated and trained priests and scholars of the Law administered the Temple, which was a pilgrimage site for Jewish and non-jewish people from all around the known world. The Temple was a very large site with a rich religious tradition; like all ancient temples it had a complex role to play not just in the religion but also in the economics and politics of the city of Jerusalem and for the Jewish people as a whole. For this reason, it is quite startling to envisage Jesus from Nazareth, a peasant from the northern countryside, bringing the worship in the Temple to a standstill, even if only briefly and symbolically. The second point to note is that the Gospel of John interprets in a very distinct way, Jesus action in the Temple. One way John does this is by a shift in the language he uses to describe the place. First, the narrator refers to the Temple, the physical space where the Jews worship God. Second, as he clears the Temple Jesus calls it his Father s house, which suggests that the Father of Jesus is God. In a sense, Jesus is the heir to this house: he has the right to act with authority in it. Jesus disciples understand Jesus action by remembering the words of a Psalm (Ps 69:9), zeal for your house will devour me. We have moved from reference to a physical place, to speaking of it in intimate terms, the house of my Father. Third, when Jesus is questioned by the authorities about why he acted in this way, he shifts the language to speaking of the sanctuary which he would raise up in three days. The Johannine narrator tells us that Jesus was really speaking about the sanctuary that was his body. In the original language used to write this Gospel, the word we translate as sanctuary referred to the inner part of a temple, where a divine being was believed to dwell. In the Jerusalem Temple, this was the Holy of Holies. What Jesus is really saying is that his body will become the new sanctuary where God dwells. In the light of his death and resurrection, Jesus disciples also remember these words of Jesus, seeing at last the full depth of their meaning. When they do this, they understand the scriptures and Jesus entire life and mission. The Gospel of John will use the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-57) as the final straw in the relationship between Jesus and the religious authorities of Judaism. John s story of Jesus clearing the Temple invites all Jesus disciples to see Jesus as the new sanctuary where God now dwells. MUSIC Blest be the Lord Dan Schutte SJ AOV #179 Song of the Body of Christ David Haas AOV #27 REFLECTION QUESTIONS Can you think of any people who impressed you because Jesus was a real presence in their lives? What is the junk that clutters your life? How would Jesus challenge you to de-clutter your life? Can you name and claim your gifts? Where do you aim to use them? Y E A R B L E N T

10 Week NOTES FOR THIS SESSION Everyone seated around the sacred space is the preferred arrangement of seating. Have everyone draw a full body outline depicting an image of a person with their name indicated at the top of the page. Have each participant write three or four words around the image that would describe their gifts and/or talents. The participants will then pass their paper in a clockwise direction to the person next to them. They will add a word or two that describes a virtue or talent that is demonstrated by this person. Papers will continue to circulate until everyone has had a chance to add a few words to each person s sheet and each sheet is then returned to the correct participant. We are a work of art created by God. OPENING PRAYER Loving God, You sent Your only Son as a sign of Your unconditional love for us, empowering us with the gifts of life and hope. May we live each day to the fullest, drawing upon our precious gifts and talents to further Your work here on earth. Father, we are Your work of art, created by You to live our lives in the embrace of Your love. This we pray in the name of Jesus, our merciful teacher and nurturer. Amen DURING THE WEEK Read a something that you find encourages your spirituality..and sahre it with one other person Identify another gift God has given you (different from previous weeks). Use this gift this week T R A V E L L I N G T O E A S T E R W I TH J E S U S A S O U R G U I D E Marked by a cross Marked by a cross, cherished and forgiven WE ARE TRAVELLING HOME Called to be holy, called to be happy WE ARE TRAVELLING HOME Across deserts, over mountains WE ARE TRAVELLING HOME God in our hearts, God in our lives WE ARE TRAVELLING HOME Ruth Burgess

11 GOSPEL READING JOHN 3:14-21 Jesus said to Nicodemus: The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God s only Son. On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God. GOSPEL COMMENTARY JOHN 3:14-21 Today s reading is the second half of a long passage from the Gospel of John, which flows on immediately after the Gospel story we heard last Sunday. In today s story Nicodemus, a teacher of the Jewish people, had come to Jesus under cover of darkness to ask him whether he really was from God. Jesus and Nicodemus have a long conversation in which Jesus insists that anything he says comes from things he truly knows. Jesus uses the image of a person coming down from heaven to describe himself, the Son of Man. Today s reading picks up from this point, where Jesus reply to Nicodemus develops into a lengthy speech, a dramatic monologue. Speaking to a fellow Jew, Jesus begins by using an image that he takes from Numbers 12:4-9. There is a story behind this image Jesus uses of a serpent being lifted up by Moses. As they wandered in the wilderness, the people of Israel became impatient with the harsh conditions of their journey and complained to Moses. Deadly serpents came among the people, many of whom were bitten and died. When Moses prayed to God for relief from the serpents, God told Moses to make a bronze image of a serpent and put it up on a pole for the people to look at. Anyone bitten by a serpent who looked at this raised up serpent would not die, but would live. As Jews familiar with the Scriptures, both Jesus and Nicodemus would hear this imagery operating behind Jesus description of himself as the Son of Man who must be lifted up. The purpose, Jesus says at the outset, is so that anyone who believes in the Son of Man lifted up may live. Obviously, to believe in this Son of Man lifted up, one would have to look at him as the people of Israel looked at the bronze serpent and lived. The difference is that whereas the people of Israel were saved for this life on earth, people who gaze on Jesus the Son of Man and believe in him will gain eternal life. The analogy between the two images is clear. However, there are depths to the image in the way Jesus uses it. First, Jesus does not explain what being lifted up would mean. For any person in the ancient world, however, the primary image that would come to mind of a person lifted up on a pole is of someone crucified. In the ancient world, crucifixion was always carried out in public as a lesson to troublemakers. Crucifixion was a punishment that was always seen. By means of this image, which is repeated at John 8:28, 12:32 and 34, Jesus prepares his hearers for two things. First, they will be prepared for the sight of Jesus raised up on the cross at the climactic moment of the Gospel s narrative. Second, they will be prepared to see in this vision of a man raised up on a cross, a means for all human beings to be saved and to have eternal life. A further depth to the image that comes originally from Numbers is Jesus explanation of how it is that gazing on the Son of Man raised up will save a person. Immediately after presenting himself in the imagery of the serpent on the pole, Jesus says, Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. In an extraordinary way, Jesus brings together an image of death by crucifixion, a saving contemplation of this horror and the love of God. What makes it possible to hold all these elements together is Jesus insistence that God loves human beings to such an extent that God is prepared to give God s only Son to live in the world and to reconcile it with God.The rest of Jesus commentary after this statement explains it more fully. Jesus insists that the purpose of his being lifted up is so that the world may be saved. He has not come to condemn the world but to save it. The only way a person is condemned is by refusing to believe in Jesus, the gift above all others that God has made for us. Jesus then links judgement with rejection of Jesus as light. At the very beginning of the Gospel Jesus was introduced as the light which is the life of human beings. We hear a stark warning for Nicodemus who came to Jesus under cover of darkness: it is those who prefer darkness to the light, so that their deeds cannot be seen, who bring judgment upon themselves. We hear nothing about Nicodemus response to Jesus warning until the end of the Gospel. Today, this Gospel reading calls us to see Jesus imagery and to hear his call: to prepare to see Jesus raised up for us as an image of God s love that will save us and will bathe us in light. MUSIC I have loved you Michael Joncas AOV #126 And the Father will Dance Carey Landry AOV #113 Y E A R B REFLECTION QUESTIONS How do you like to pray? How can we support them as they bring light to so many lives? How can you bring the light of God s love to someone? L E N T

12 Week 5 NOTES FOR THIS SESSION Everyone seated around the sacred space is the preferred arrangement of seating. All participants reflect on the Gospel and choose a word or phrase that surprised or inspired them. They write this word or phrase on the piece of paper and keep it with them. Pass the bowl of seeds around the circle and each participant takes a seed. Everyone is encouraged to think of a time in their life when they planted a seed to encourage something positive and had to wait patiently for the seed to take root and positive change to occur. Invite people to share their stories. To end the ritual, ask participants to place their word or phrase in the sacred space next to the bowl of seeds and the cross. OPENING PRAYER Loving God, As we near the end of our Lenten journey may we find the strength to cultivate the virtues of compassion, selflessness and justice. Help us commit to continuing our search for a more complete understanding of the paschal mystery in our daily lives. This we pray in the name of Jesus, cultivator of men. Amen DURING THE WEEK Pray for someone who has died Continue to use the gifts you have identified We will follow you, O Christ (Matthew 5:3 11) (A and B could be two readers or two halves of the congregation.) Leader: Jesus says to his disciples: A: Happy are you needy ones: B: The kingdom of God is yours. A: Happy are you who are hungry: B: You will be satisfied. A: Happy are you who weep now: B: You will be filled with laughter. A: Rejected, insulted, happy are you; B: Be glad and dance with joy. Leader: Jesus said: Take up your cross. ALL: AMEN WE WILL FOLLOW YOU, O CHRIST, INTO THE NEEDS OF THE WORLD, INTO THE TRUTH OF OUR LIVES, INTO THE PAIN OF OUR HEARTS, INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD. Brian Woodcock T R A V E L L I N G T O E A S T E R W I TH J E S U S A S O U R G U I D E

13 GOSPEL READING JOHN 12:20-30 Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. These approached Philip, who came from Bethsaida in Galilee, and put this request to him, Sir, we should like to see Jesus. Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together went to tell Jesus. Jesus replied to them: Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life. If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too. If anyone serves me, my Father will honour him. Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father, save me from this hour? But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name! A voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. People standing by, who heard this, said it was a clap of thunder; others said, It was an angel speaking to him. Jesus answered, It was not for my sake that this voice came, but for yours. Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be overthrown. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself. By these words he indicated the kind of death he would die. GOSPEL COMMENTARY JOHN 12:20-33 Today, Jesus is in Jerusalem to celebrate the great Jewish feast of Passover. In its previous chapter, the Gospel of John had depicted Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Set just outside Jerusalem, this event showed to the Jewish religious authorities the extraordinary and thus frightening power of Jesus. For people opposed to Jesus, his capacity to raise people from the dead makes Jesus appear to be an extremely dangerous enemy. For this reason, the religious authorities decide that for the good of the Jewish people as a whole, it is necessary for Jesus to die. Seeing the crowds welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem like a great hero, waving palm branches and greeting him as the king of Israel, the religious authorities felt powerless against Jesus popularity. As they said to each other, the world has gone after him. Today s reading begins showing us that indeed the whole world is seeking Jesus. Not only do the Jewish people welcome Jesus, but now the Greeks come, seeking Jesus. In a world perceived as consisting of Jews and Gentiles, once people from both groups seek Jesus, the whole world has become symbolically united in their desire for him. When some of Jesus disciples who have Greek names (Philip and Andrew) are approached by these Greeks, they tell Jesus about them. For Jesus, this announces a moment that this Gospel has called the hour. At various points in the Gospel, Jesus has referred to this hour as the moment when the will of the Father will be fully realized in his life. For example, at the wedding of Cana, Jesus protested initially to his mother that his hour had not yet come (2:4). Talking to the woman of Samaria, Jesus promised that an hour of great significance was coming (4:21, 23). Explaining why he healed a man on the Sabbath, Jesus says that an hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man (5:25, 28). Twice, John tells us that Jesus enemies do not succeed in arresting him because his hour had not yet come (7:30; 8:20). Today, when the whole world has come to him, Jesus announces, The hour has come. This is the moment for which the whole Gospel has been waiting. Yet in true Johannine fashion, this hour is a complex and paradoxical one. On the one hand, it is the hour when the Son of Man will be glorified. On the other hand, Jesus speaks immediately in the next breath of death and of various ways of seeing this death that he associates so closely with glory and the arrival of his hour. First, Jesus resorts to imagery. He speaks of a wheat grain which can never be more than itself if it does not fall into the ground, break apart and die so that a whole new plant containing many wheat grains can grow from it. In this sense, a person must lose his life in order to live. Jesus reminds Andrew and Philip that anyone who wants to follow him will stand in this same place in which Jesus finds himself, facing his death. Having unfolded this image, Jesus speaks plainly, saying that his soul is troubled. In this Gospel, this is Jesus moment of agony. He considers whether he will ask his Father to save him from this long-awaited hour. But then he resolves that the hour was his very purpose for coming and he prays, Father, glorify your name! Immediately, a voice from heaven affirms that Jesus name is already glorified and will be glorified again. Bystanders do not hear this voice clearly, yet Jesus insists that it spoke nor for his sake but for theirs. Now, says Jesus, now that he has committed himself to enter the hour of his glory, two things happen. First, those like the prince of this world who oppose Jesus will bring down a sentence on themselves. Second, Jesus will be lifted up from the earth, drawing all people to himself. Now that we are on the verge of the suffering and death of Jesus, the Gospel tells us plainly that being lifted up indicates the kind of death Jesus would die, on the cross. This Gospel calls us to enter into Jesus hour with him, joining our hours of suffering with his. Trusting in the power that raised Lazarus from the dead, we look forward to rising with Jesus. MUSIC Jesus, Come to Us. David Haas AOV #148 Be not Afraid Bob Dufford AOV #114 Y E A R B REFLECTION QUESTIONS Can you recall any examples of people who have had to overcome a tragedy or some hardship? Can you think of ways that you serve other people? Do you know of someone who is suffering and needs prayers and support at this time? L E N T

14 Palm / Passion Sunday NOTES FOR THIS SESSION Everyone seated around the sacred space is the preferred arrangement of seating. Participants reflect on the Gospel reading and choose a word that holds a special meaning for them. As soft music is played participants pass the cardboard cross around and each person inscribes their chosen word onto the cross using the coloured textas. When this activity has been completed, give everyone a palm leaf and have them reflect on a time when the support of others helped to carry them through a difficult situation. Invite participants to share their story. OPENING PRAYER Loving God, Give us the perseverance to love as courageously as Jesus. May we strive to bear the crosses in our lives with steadfastness and dignity, knowing that You are by our side walking each step with us. We draw our strength from You in order to remain obedient and to persist in working to make our world a better place. This we pray in the name of Jesus, our Saviour. Amen DURING THE WEEK Make the Stations of the Cross this week Tell someone about the Stations of the Cross or the Palm Sunday celebration at a Christian community n Ask God to help you continue to cultivate and use your gifts T R A V E L L I N G T O E A S T E R W I TH J E S U S A S O U R G U I D E

15 GOSPEL READING FOR PROCESSION INTO THE CHURCH MARK 11:1-10 When they were approaching Jerusalem, in sight of Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, Go off to the village facing you, and as soon as you enter it you will find a tethered colt that no one has yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, What are you doing? say, The Master needs it and will send it back here directly. They went off and found a colt tethered near a door in the open street. As they untied it, some men standing there said, What are you doing, untying that colt? They gave the answer Jesus had told them, and the men let them go. Then they took the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on its back, and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, others greenery which they had cut in the fields. And those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting, Hosanna! Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heavens! GOSPEL COMMENTARY MARK 11:1-10 Today begins Passion Week, culminating in the great three-day celebration of Jesus last supper with his disciples, his arrest, death and burial and his resurrection. We make Jesus ritual entry into Jerusalem our own pathway into Passion Week. Hearing the story, we can imagine approaching Jerusalem from the west, through Bethphage and Bethany. These small hamlets lie on the hills east of Jerusalem, a little over three kilometres away. As travellers come up from Jericho, they wend their way through these villages, always looking for a sight of Jerusalem as they round each bend. Each village as they come to it is one point closer to Jerusalem, the pilgrimage city that sits across the valley of the Kidron from the Mount of Olives. Jerusalem was built on Mount Zion. The first thing that ancient pilgrims would see as they came around the Mount of Olives was the monumental Temple Mount, an immense architectural structure on which the sacred space, the Temple proper, was located. The Temple itself was surfaced with polished stone, the local creamy pink limestone, the outlines picked out with gold leaf. In sunshine it must have gleamed with light and seemed truly a marvellous thing for pilgrims from Galilee in the north. As Mark depicts it for us, Jesus sends off two of his disciples to find a colt for him to ride. They go under instructions from Jesus and find everything as he had predicted they would. This fits in with a pattern Mark is building at this point in his narrative, of Jesus predicting with great authority, things that do indeed come to pass. It is one way in which Mark is able to portray Jesus as the one who has a truly authoritative voice. All that he says comes true. The most important thing that Jesus has been saying for some time in this gospel is that he will necessarily suffer, die and rise from the dead. The availability of the donkey, just as Jesus had said, is a very simple example of the utter reliability of Jesus word, as he approaches Jerusalem and the death and resurrection that he has also foretold. The scene where Jesus enters the city on a donkey echoes for Jewish readers with memories of similar stories where a royal figure approaches Jerusalem. The First Book of Kings tells the story of Solomon, the son of David who succeeded his father to the throne, who entered the city of Jerusalem in triumph to be anointed king, riding on his father s own mule. As Solomon went up to Jerusalem the trumpet was sounded and all the people said, Long live King Solomon! And all the people went up following him, playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth quaked at their noise (1 Kings 1:38-40). The prophet Zechariah looks forward to another such day, saying, Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zech 9:9). Against this backdrop of both memory and expectation, it is easy to hear Mark s portrayal of Jesus triumphal entry to the city of David as a royal welcome for one who is truly a son of David. People cut greenery and lay their cloaks over it, to even out the surface of the road as was fitting for a great dignitary. The words that bless Jesus as one who comes in the name of the Lord are taken from one of the great praise psalms of Israel, Ps 118:26. This psalm was sung at all the great festivals in Jerusalem. The fact that Jesus approaches the city in a manner that recalls the history of another son of David coming to be crowned and also in a way that a prophet has predicted will be a day of rejoicing for Jerusalem shows what a dramatic moment this is. Jesus, hailed as the son of David, will threaten both the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman controllers of the city, who want no royal Jewish pretenders disturbing the uneasy Roman management of the city. This is especially so as the city approaches its largest feast, Passover, where Jewish pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean come to celebrate the great memory of their ancestors exodus from the tyranny of their foreign overlords, the Egyptians. Jesus royal procession into Jerusalem carries us into the city where all these conflicting forces will lead to the events of Jesus death and resurrection. These are dramatic events of history indeed; but for us Christians they are far more: they are the moments in which our salvation is won. MUSIC Glory and Praise to our God. Dan Schutte AOV #16 Hail Redeemer, King Divine Public Domain REFLECTION QUESTIONS What worries or complaints would you raise in a conversation with Jesus? How important is it for us to seek out a soul friend? What difference has this Lenten program made to your life? What stories will you remember? What will you do differently? Y E A R B L E N T

16 Easter T riduum Holy T hursday OPENING PRAYER Loving God, You invite us to share in the Eucharist and remember what Jesus did at his last meal with his disciples. May Jesus nourish and strengthen us with his presence, and unite us with all other faith-filled people on earth. May Jesus live in us, and we in him. Help us to follow his example of serving without expecting anything in return, until we share the eternal banquet with Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Tonight the church celebrates the origin of the Eucharist, by recalling what Jesus did at the Last Supper. A night to give thanks for the Mass and what it means to us and the place it holds in our lives. Some of us have been a part of the celebration of the Eucharist for as long as we can remember. Some of us may have only come to the Eucharist more recently. I wonder if we were asked to express what the Eucharist means to each of us what would we say? Perhaps we might answer by recalling it as a daily or weekly moment of thanksgiving to God who has breathed his life into us; or as a way of belonging to a Catholic community and being part of the church ; or perhaps we might describe it as a time to draw spiritual strength from the Lord himself. Whatever it might be, on Holy Thursday we remember the significance of the Eucharist for Christians all over the world. In the Mass of the Lord s Supper we gave thanks for this gift given to us by Jesus at the Last Supper as a way of celebrating his presence until he comes again...how he left his disciples this holy meal to remember his own self-giving all in the hope that they would continue to gather with other faith filled people and be his body here on earth. On Holy Thursday we also recall that Jesus did something else at the Last Supper. He carried out the ritual of the footwashing. This was an unusual gesture for someone like Jesus to make he was the Master, the disciples were the followers. In those days, everyone wore sandals. Walking over unpaved, dusty roads, feet got very dirty very quickly. As an act of hospitality, a household servant would kneel before guests, to wash and dry their feet. For the guests, a washing of their feet was refreshing. For the household servant, it was a duty to perform. But for the Master this was unusual but quite deliberate on the part of Jesus. Christ offered a gift, a gift of himself. Jesus had no obligation to wash the feet of the disciples. Servants had that duty. No, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, he was trying to show his disciples how he wanted them to treat one another to be there for one another and freely choose to serve one another out of love. Jesus gave an example of serving which expected nothing in return, which is what we call Christian service today. MUSIC I have Loved You. Michael Joncas AOV #126 We Remember Marty Haugen AOV #81 REFLECTION QUESTIONS What does the Eucharist mean to you? When do you find it hard to serve someone? Why? T R A V E L L I N G T O E A S T E R W I TH J E S U S A S O U R G U I D E

17 Good Friday OPENING PRAYER Loving God, With your help we strive to understand the meaning of Jesus life and death in our lives. He loved us so much that he died for us. May we affirm in ourselves a promise to help those who are wounded and suffering. May we offer ourselves to help others in Your name and see our lives as an opportunity to serve others as Jesus served us. This we pray in the name of Jesus, our hope and salvation. Amen It is one thing to love others when you feel they understand you and appreciate you. It is quite another thing when everything around you speaks of misunderstanding, or conflict or even hatred. It is one thing to feel good about life when everything is going well...when things just fall nicely into place...when life seems fair; it is quite another thing when things are unfair, when you are unjustly criticized, or when life has too many problems. It is one thing to be gracious to others when you feel respected and liked by them. It is quite another thing when others are disrespectful to you or what you believe in. It is one thing to forgive others when that forgiveness seems fair, when it is possible to overcome the hurt because the wrong done to you is not that serious ; it is quite another thing to forgive someone when it isn t fair, when the wound dealt to you is mortal, when you feel like someone hasn t supported you or maybe even betrayed you. When we reflect on what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, Good Friday can speak to so many of those situations that we encounter in our daily lives. Looking at today s passion reading we might notice that the Lord s Passion and his death were dramas of the heart, not simply an endurance test for his body. Over the years there has been a lot of emphasis, particularly in movies, on the physical sufferings Jesus endured. Yet if we focus too much on the physical aspects of the crucifixion we can actually overlook what was happening more deeply to Jesus at another level. The passion reading we share today doesn t actually emphasize the physical sufferings of Jesus. It mentions them but it doesn t dwell on them. If we look closely, the passion reading seems to put more emphasis on his betrayal and loneliness and how he was humiliated and mocked by a crowd of people who knew him and had received great kindness from him. What made the death of Jesus so profound was that this was God s Son in all the aloneness, betrayal and suffering, and yet he gave himself over to the Father s will, still holding his ideals intact, and even managing to forgive his persecutors from the cross itself. It s a powerful message and with all the contrasts we experience in our world between good and evil, and love and hatred, it s one that we can carry with us into so many aspects of our lives. Jesus sacrifice was such an extraordinary example because, despite all that was happening to him he still held on to his forgiveness, and his love. The struggle to do that, to remain faithful, is the real drama inside the passion and death of Jesus and in the end it is a struggle of the heart, not just of the body. Good Friday is a powerful day for us as Christians. This is the day when Christian hope was born. In the passion of Christ there is a witness and a message for our daily lives... that ultimately God is always there with us...nothing so dark that life is without hope...that God s love always wins through. MUSIC Were You There American Spiritual AOV #103 Will You Love Me Brian Boniwell AOV #40 REFLECTION QUESTIONS How do you respond to these insights into how Jesus must have felt in his heart? Y E A R B L E N T

18 Easter Vigil / Easter Sunday. OPENING PRAYER Loving God, You shine in our lives with a blinding brightness and set us aflame with the fire of your love. May the light of Christ banish all darkness from our hearts and minds. Guide us and strengthen us by the Holy Spirit and keep us faithful to our baptism. Send us like Jesus to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to seek and save those who are lost, to share the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. MUSIC Behold the Glory of God Roc O Connor SJ AOV #156 The Lord of the Dance Sydney Carter REFLECTION QUESTIONS What does Jesus resurrection really mean to you? AOV #18 T R A V E L L I N G T O E A S T E R W I TH J E S U S A S O U R G U I D E.

19 PATMOS ABBEY Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your comments about Travelling to Easter with Jesus as our Guide and suggestions on how we can continue to improve on the future issues of the program. Your feedback is much appreciated because only by hearing from you, what works and doesn t work for you, can we continue to improve. How you found out about the program I received this Lenten program from: Name of Priory Town/Suburb: How you used this program I followed this program by myself with a group that one of the members organized with my family There were...people in my group. Please rate the current sections/aspects in this program. Circle a number from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) for each of the following: Other comments / Things I would like to see in future Lenten programs: Good general layout of program Program was easy to follow Program was useful in my personal Lenten preparation Group work (where applicable) was good Notes for this Session were useful Opening Prayers were relevant Hymn Suggestions were useful Included Gospel Texts were useful Gospel Commentaries were useful Good quality of Gospel Commentaries Reflections Questions were relevant During the Week suggestions were practical Further Reading suggestions were useful Program useful for ongoing conversion Please send this feedback form to: Guardian PO Box 242 SEBASTOPOL VIC 3350 Y E A R B L E N T

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