Flexibility for Future

The pandemic continues. It will for some time. Reuters posted a video in which children share, among others things, their difficulties with physical distancing. How to help them?

The Guardian tweeted a post from its Family Section:

At no point do the makers of Sesame Street say any of this will be easy [for parents]. But neither did they suggest the future has to be grim.

“I hope [people can see] a picture of joy within this moment,” Gibson said. “The act of rallying together toward a common goal is not a sad occasion.”

Sesame Street's pandemic advice for parents: 'Find rituals, be flexible, take a breath' https://t.co/zMtbsu0rFs

— The Guardian (@guardian) April 11, 2020

Three-Day Drama

During the Triduum each day has its liturgy, and each liturgy is compete. Yet after each liturgy the momentum of the mystery is not resolved. That momentum builds and finds itself complete on Easter.

From its archives Thinking Faith posted Jesuit Peter Knott’s insight on the Triduum. Fr. Knott “de-scribes how the events of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday form a narrative which helps us to make sense of our own lives, particularly our disappointments and failings.“

The pandemic is a steep challenge to making sense of our lives this Holy Week.

___________________

Wiki-image Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Dülmen, St.-Viktor-Kirche, Innenansicht--2018--0596-8” / CC BY-SA 4.0

Unwarranted Use Does Not Implicate

The fragile—because of time, language and culture—documents Christians call their scriptures remain a timeless resource for memory, consolation as well as personal and communal conversion and growth. Like other resources they have been misused to promote selfish, misguided ends. Misuse does not mean a resource itself is flawed or abysmal.

Some have misused the New Testament writings to vilify Jewish people. To Jesuit Nicholas King that misuse is shameful. He concisely shows that the “extraordinary library that is the New Testament…was written by good Jews, and that it is unfounded, even perverse, to call it ‘anti-Jewish.’”

___________________

Wiki-image P46 | PD-US

“Reclaiming Holy Week”

From its archives Sojourners tweeted Shane Claiborne’s post of 2015. That year Africa had seen one year without deaths by polio, and China had ended its 1-child policy. In the U.S. the majority of citizens were not middle class, and the rate of deaths by gun was the same as by motor vehicle (about 93 people per day).

In his post Mr. Claiborne recalled joining others one Good Friday: ”We carried the cross into the streets and planted it outside the gun shop in our neighborhood. We had our services there.”

God was alive among the gathered Christians. Remembering the death of God’s son was a prelude to living the resurrection—just as during the 2020 pandemic Holy Week.

From the Sojourners archives: "Holy week is about a God who suffers with us — bleeds with us, cries with us, hopes with us." https://t.co/TpX6S6TIAV

— Sojourners (@Sojourners) April 7, 2020

Praying the Supper

Contemplative praying lets scenes of scripture happen to us. We make ourselves available in ways that are conducive for us; God’s life does the rest. Jesuit Tucker Redding at America Magazine calls his series "Imagine."

The final four episodes of my new podcast "Imagine: A Guide to Jesuit Prayer" go up over the next four days. Today, celebrate Holy Thursday by picturing yourself at the Last Supper. #HolyWeek #Triduum #HolyThursday https://t.co/oD30le5OrC

— Tucker Redding, SJ (@treddingsj) April 9, 2020

Postponed Renewal, Ongoing Praying

Each year the bishop of a diocese gathers with faithful and priests to bless the sacred oils used in sacraments throughout the year. This year those masses have been postponed.

At the mass the bishop asks the priests to renew their priestly commitment and asks the assembled faithful to pray for the priests. In a kind gesture Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, posted a request for prayers for priests.

Pope Francis on Palm Sunday

In 2 ½ minutes.

Meditate for a Minute

From Franciscan Media Twitter feed:

Wounded and Forgivenhttps://t.co/1JRc60s1xw

— Franciscan Media (@FranciscanMedia) April 6, 2020

Deeper to Reach the Destination

A media post was on target Palm Sunday. “Some Christians…are leaning deeper into their faith, using contemplative prayers to stay centered throughout difficult and death-filled days.” Contemplative evokes different connotations. In Christian spirituality it connotes a focused relationship with God.

Deepening relationship with God is the common denominator in invitations from Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomew I (“may the blessing of the Lord…accompany us in our journey, transform our voluntary isolation into genuine communion, and become our prayer and destination to appreciate the meaning of this”), local leaders, media of different kinds.

“Leaning deeper” is not for a select few. The import of this afternoon’s post on confronting a sacramental challenge equals leaning deeper. Noticing what we have overlooked until the pandemic arrived; noticing things differently because of the pandemic; noticing in new ways and stretching to notice: they are a few examples of “leaning deeper.” Perhaps noticing voices in Palm Sunday’s passion reading can add depth to the leaning.

___________________

Wiki-image Feuille de palmier by “Eric Freyssinge| CC BY-SA 4.0"

Gain in Loss: an Interview

A

s Christians accompany Jesus during Holy Week a guide could assist this year’s different experience of it. “Dominican Father Paul Murray is one of English-language Catholicism’s most prominent contemporary theologians and poets,” Mr. John L. Allen prefaced his 2-part interview. Part 1 looks at history and the necessity for “spiritual communion.” “Forced solitude” and “affliction” shape Part 2. (The link to Part1 is at the top.)

Dominican Father Paul Murray is one of English-language Catholicism’s most prominent contemporary theologians and poets, and he reflects on the spiritual significance and fall out of the coronavirus pandemic.https://t.co/VxI4Mgn8OS

— Crux (@Crux) April 4, 2020

5 in 1

Thinking Faith tweeted five helps to enter Palm Sunday. Though it and all the days of Holy Week are starkly different, “we can still walk with Jesus.”

In our latest email alert. Contemplate the scripture & symbols of the Palm Sunday liturgy from which we will be physically absent but through which we can still walk with Jesus. https://t.co/HAbvnAcJ67 pic.twitter.com/rN3x5qUOFr

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) April 4, 2020

Sunday word, 13 Apr 14

Mario Lanza and J.S. Bach

(While We Hail our King With Palm Branches)

Passion Sunday A (13 April 2014)

Mt 21. 1-11; Is 50. 4-7; Ps 22; Phil 2. 6-11; Mt 26. 14-27. 66

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

I wager Mario Lanza and J.S. Bach rarely appear in the same sentence. The composer Bach lived and died centuries before the tenor Lanza. Separated by time they had passion in common.

Mario was full-throated “When They Beg[a]n the Beguine.” He gave his love “Only a Rose”; he lent the “Desert Song” vocal passion that made it sound more an adventure than a dry, dusty, dangerous affair its lyrics suggested.

Bach’s passion was writing music. He gave scripture musical shape so we could feel its call and respond to it. Some of his cantatas thrill with the grandeur of God; others show me my shadow made bright in God’s grandeur.

We will hail Jesus as our King. We will recall his passion that followed after hosannas faded. By his music Bach helps us feel Jesus’ passion.¹ Someone² I met described it this way: The episodes of Jesus’ passion Matthew painted in words; Bach “record[ed] in music the impact of each episode on his mind.” I add, and heart: minds alone do not interpret God’s word or respond to it.

For Bach Jesus’ Passion³ was most real, most human. When Jesus will tell his disciples, Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, Bach’s music cues most frantic, frightened voices to deny, one following another, Surely not I Lord?⁴

Lent prepared us to face our heart’s frenzy and fear; to see ourselves as we are at this season of our lives. If anyone has slogged through Lent, close it and make room in your heart for our most holy, potent days ahead. If anyone began Lent late, you are not disgraced. Ask Jesus to help you admit what causes you to tremble and take energy from it and Jesus. If anyone has yet to begin Lent, do not be ashamed. Walk with Jesus or just stand with him in one moment of his Passion. Allow Isaiah, St. Paul and Matthew, whose words we will hear in a moment, to present you to Jesus.

Lent isn’t dry—we are. Lent has no dust—we do. Lent isn’t dangerous—we court danger. Lent has been our key to notice passion: our suffering; the suffering of others; and now the passion of our Love, Jesus our King.

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise

____________

1. Bach has helped us feel Jesus’ suffering as this familiar minute of passion attests.
2. Paul Sevier Minear (†2007), Winkley Professor of Biblical Theology Emeritus, The Divinity School, Yale University, paid close attention to the way Bach (and other artists) interpreted Scripture. His “Matthew, Evangelist and Johann, Composer” appeared in Theology Today (30) 1973, pp. 243-55. He contributed to a symposium at Yale some years ago that focused on Bach’s Matthew’s Passion.
3. This site sketches the history of setting the Passion to music.
4. The voices sound at 1:16 in this 2-minute video portion of “St. Matthew’s Passion.” Text and translation.

________________________________________________________________

Wiki-images of Jesus’ procession in Jerusalem PD-Art 

Stations of the Cross

Yesterday ThinkingFaith began its series on this “very old devotion.”  Monday’s post also included a link to a scripture-based version at Pray-as-you-go.

_________________________________________________

Wiki-image of Jesus before Pilate is in the public domain.

Meaning of the Passion

The Passion of the Lord is often considered as something that happened to Jesus thousands of years ago. The church remembers it solemnly each year as embracing each person. Jesuit Paul Coutinho considers two meanings of the passion. The second engages us.

...the Passion is Good News in action. The Good News that Jesus came to give us is freedom—not freedom from suffering, sickness, and death, but freedom that we experience in suffering, in sickness, and in the face of death.

Read both meanings in their context here.

______________________________________________________

Wiki-image of detail of Jesus’ Agony in the Garden is in the public domain.

Holy Week Guide

O ur Sunday Visitor Publishing offers an online Guide to Holy Week. It includes customs as well as a quiz to help people enter this week.








________________________________________________________________
Wiki-image of Entry into Jerusalem is in the public domain.