I was out to dinner the other night with some of my Jewish friends. We were discussing our experiences of the Holy Land especially our time in Jerusalem. After my time in Jerusalem I said Holy Week for me can never be the same. I found myself explaining that Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum are the holiest and most important time in our Liturgical Year; that the Liturgies of the Sacred Triduum, which together are a single liturgy, celebrate the Paschal Mystery which is the very foundation on which our faith based. Do we truly profess that reality with our hearts and our lives or has Easter Sunday simply become for us an opportunity for Easter Baskets and Easter egg hunts? Perhaps this might be a thought for this week.
Usually Lent is a time for me to pray and reflect on my relationship with the Lord. This year Lent has flown by and I have hardly taken notice of this sacred time. It is only in the last couple of days that have had to sit and catch my breath and been able to take the time to reflect on and bring to prayer what has happened these last few weeks.
I spent the last two weeks in February driving back and forth to New York to be with a dying cousin-in-law (and dear friend) and her family. A friend of mine who is also an only child recently wrote on Facebook, “Being an only child my cousins have always been like my siblings. And with both my parents gone they are the bond of my heart and childhood. When one is in pain, we all hurt.” How true this is. We laughed together and cried together; renewed friendships and mended broken fences; we talked about dying, death and resurrection. What a gift they gave to me to let me walk with them through her illness and end of life decisions.
I came home from New York with less than a week to get ready and pack for my long anticipated pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I still am having trouble wrapping my head around all the things I saw and did. I do know that, for me as I said before, nothing will ever be the same. As I write up the notes I took, I realize that AWEsome is the only word that even begins to describe my experiences. I’m afraid that I won’t truly understand what happened until I re-read the Holy Scriptures, both the Hebrew and the New Testaments, in light of what I saw and experienced.
I thank all of you who prayed for me during these weeks and I assure you that the priests and parishioners of St. Bartholomew were remembered every day at Mass while we were in the Holy Land.
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I was out to dinner the other night with some of my Jewish friends. We were discussing our experiences of the Holy Land especially our time in Jerusalem. After my time in Jerusalem I said Holy Week for me can never be the same. I found myself explaining that Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum are the holiest and most important time in our Liturgical Year; that the Liturgies of the Sacred Triduum, which together are a single liturgy, celebrate the Paschal Mystery which is the very foundation on which our faith based. Do we truly profess that reality with our hearts and our lives or has Easter Sunday simply become for us an opportunity for Easter Baskets and Easter egg hunts? Perhaps this might be a thought for this week.
Usually Lent is a time for me to pray and reflect on my relationship with the Lord. This year Lent has flown by and I have hardly taken notice of this sacred time. It is only in the last couple of days that have had to sit and catch my breath and been able to take the time to reflect on and bring to prayer what has happened these last few weeks.
I spent the last two weeks in February driving back and forth to New York to be with a dying cousin-in-law (and dear friend) and her family. A friend of mine who is also an only child recently wrote on Facebook, “Being an only child my cousins have always been like my siblings. And with both my parents gone they are the bond of my heart and childhood. When one is in pain, we all hurt.” How true this is. We laughed together and cried together; renewed friendships and mended broken fences; we talked about dying, death and resurrection. What a gift they gave to me to let me walk with them through her illness and end of life decisions.
I came home from New York with less than a week to get ready and pack for my long anticipated pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I still am having trouble wrapping my head around all the things I saw and did. I do know that, for me as I said before, nothing will ever be the same. As I write up the notes I took, I realize that AWEsome is the only word that even begins to describe my experiences. I’m afraid that I won’t truly understand what happened until I re-read the Holy Scriptures, both the Hebrew and the New Testaments, in light of what I saw and experienced.
I thank all of you who prayed for me during these weeks and I assure you that the priests and parishioners of St. Bartholomew were remembered every day at Mass while we were in the Holy Land.