utaziprincereflection

  COMMENTARY ON HOLY THURSDAY A. INTRODUCTION Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Today is Holy Thursday. The liturgical ceremonies of today mark in a special solemn way, the commencement of what we call the Easter Triduum, which refers to the three days before Easter Sunday. The Easter Triduum begins on Holy Thursday with the mass of our the Supper of Our Lord in which we celebrate the commemoration of the paschal event and the newness of life which flows from the crucified, buried and risen Christ. You will recall that the five weeks of lent have been an intensive period of preparation through prayer, fasting and corporal works of mercy, particularly alms giving, which we, as followers and disciples of our Lord, gain personal sanctification in proof of our discipleship. Our Lord has consistently enjoined us to take up our cross and follow Him daily if we indeed want to be His disciples. For those of us who have passed through thick and tin, and varying vicissitudes of life in th...

  HOMILY FOR 28 MARCH 2024 MAUNDY THURSDAY - EVENING MASS Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15 DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME I pray that you will find the time to reflect and pray during the Triduum. May you be able to make present this moment of our salvation. May your reflection on this most holy day draw you ever closer to your Master and Teacher and Lord. And may you model Him in your service of others. AMEN   On Holy Thursday, we begin the liturgy which celebrates OUR SAVING EVENTS. Some scholars speak of the one great liturgical rite which begins with the Evening Liturgy of the  Supper of the Lord Jesus Christ and ends with the Easter Vigil.  Today, our journey with the Master and Teacher takes us to the celebration of the Passover Feast which celebrates the saving of the Chosen People of God through the blood of the lamb by God himself.  Today, we also see our Great Master and Teacher perform an act of loving...

  HOMILY FOR 24 MARCH 2024 PALM SUNDAY YEAR B Mark 11: 1-10 or John 12:12-16; Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22:8-9,17-18,19-20,23-24; Philippians 2: 6-11; Mark 14:1--15:47 JESUS THE SON OF GOD IS MY REDEEMER I pray for you: During this most Holy Week, may the time you spend reflecting on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus bring you a greater awareness of Gods love for you! Dear brother and sisters, today begins the Holy Week, the most solemn week in the calendar of the church. We reflect upon the events that brought about our salvation. Jesus triumphantly enters into Jerusalem, the City of Peace, in order to announce the Good News, not just with His words but by His act of loving sacrifice for all people. We journey along with Him as He celebrates the great feast of Passover and becomes the New Paschal Lamb whose blood is poured out so that we, the New Israel, might experience the liberation from sin and the new life of grace. We look on as Jesus Christ suffers His passion and cruci...

  GENERAL KNOWLEDGE ON PALM SUNDAY II 1. BRIEF HISTORY OF PALM SUNDAY Palm Sunday, also called Passion Sunday, in the Christian tradition, is the first day of Holy Week and the Sunday before Easter, commemorating the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. It is associated in many churches with the blessing and procession of palms (leaves of the date palm or twigs from locally available trees).   The oldest known account of a Palm Sunday service dates back to about 380 A.D. It reveals the palm procession to be the oldest custom associated with the day. According to Egeria, a late fourth-century pilgrim to the Holy Land, Jerusalem Christians celebrated Palm Sunday with a procession that led from the Mount of Olives into the city. They gathered on the Mount of Olives around five in the afternoon to listen to a reading from one of the Gospel accounts of the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Then the bishop, representing Jesus Christ, led them down the hill into ...

  GENERAL KNOWLEDGE ON PALM SUNDAY I 1. THE PALMS USED ON PALM SUNDAY ARE SACRAMENTAL The palms we receive on Palm Sunday are blessed objects or sacramentals that need to be treated reverently, not as toys, mere craft material or trash. The Blessing of Palms At the beginning of Mass on Palm Sunday, the palms are blessed with either of these prayers: Almighty ever-living God, sanctify + these branches with your blessing, that we, who follow Christ the King in exultation, may reach the eternal Jerusalem through him. Who lives and reigns forever and ever... OR Increase the faith of those who place their hope in you, O God, and graciously hear the prayers of those who call on you that we, who today hold high these branches to hail Christ in his triumph, may bear fruit for you by good works accomplished in him. Who lives and reigns forever and ever... Amen. After this blessing and the sprinkling of holy water, the palms are now sacramentals, or little sacraments. Every part of the palm ...

 PALM SUNDAY (1) The blessings and processions of palms go back deep into early Christianity.  Palm Sunday, officially referred to as Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, marks the beginning of the Christian Holy Week, commemorating the triumphant entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem before his arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection.  (2) In most churches, palms are blessed and used in processions, but the core of the liturgy is a lengthy reading of the Passion, often with parts taken by the priest, lectors, and the whole congregation.  (3) It is in this reading where we find the passages of the Gospel of Matthew narrating how palm branches were placed in the path of Jesus Christ and waived at him as he entered the city.  (4). Christian iconography would then use the image of the palm branch (or palm leaves) to represent the victory of martyrs, Jesus Christ himself being the martyr par excellence.  (5) After the liturgy, Catholics take their palms home...

  THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF HOSANNA Hosanna is often translated Please Save Us. It is a Greek word “ὡσαννά” that most scholars believe is the transliteration of two Hebrew words- יָשַׁע- “yasha” which means “to save or deliver” and אָנּאָ, “anna” which means “please, I beseech.” Other scholars believe its Hebrew roots come from a different verb tense of “yasha” הוֹשַׁ֣ע which means to cause or to bring about salvation. In this tense, hosanna becomes a command to bring about or cause salvation. Hosanna is also an Aramaic Word. Mark 11:10 Hosanna in the highest. The simple Hebrew phrase HOSHANA RABBAH has more depth and spiritual significance than first meets the eye. How? First of all, it was this phrase hosanna in the highest (Heb. hoshana rabbah) that the crowds of Jews exclaimed as Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem riding a colt in Matthew 21:9 (cf. Mark 11:9; Luke 19:38). This event has become known as the Triumphal Entry of Jesus Christ. Hoshana rabbah, in part, derives from Psalm 1...

VEILING THE CRUCIFIXES AND STATUES WITH PURPLE DURING PASSIONTIDE   A. SIGNIFICANCE OF VEILING CRUCIFIXES AND STATUES DURING PASSIONTIDE  The last two weeks in the season of Lent are called Passiontide which begins on the Fifth Sunday of Lent. This is when the Church shifts her focus from Christ in the desert (the Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent) to Christ during His Passion.  So, the Fifth Sunday of Lent is the beginning of the two weeks of Passiontide in the Catholic Church. The Fifth week of Lent is known as the Passion Week and the Sixth Week of Lent which begins with the celebration of Palm Sunday is known as HOLY WEEK. Going through the readings of the Passion Week (that is, FIFTH WEEK), you will notice the INCREASING HATRED the Jews had for Christ. They accused him of being a blasphemer, sorcerer, being possessed by an evil spirit and so on.   The old Gospel reading for Passion Sunday (fifth Sunday of Lent) ends with these words: They took up sto...