SCRIPTURE
READINGS (A)
Isaiah
50:4-7
The victim is silent
before his tormentors
Psalm
21
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Philippians
2:6-11
He was humbler yet, even to death on a cross
Matthew
26:14-27:66 The
Passion of Christ
PALM SUNDAY
For
the past few weeks we have been trying to prepare ourselves
to celebrate the coming feast of
Easter. Maybe we have "given something up",
maybe we have been spending a little more time
in prayer or reading the gospels, maybe we have been doing
some practical good deeds for other people. All of these
things are good in themselves, but we must not see them
as some kind of exercise in stoical self-perfection; rather,
they must be undertaken with our eyes constantly fixed
on Christ, they must be part of our gradual growth in
sharing his outlook on life, his attitudes, his reactions.
We must let ourselves be drawn into the pattern of his
life. We know
that to some extent we have already been drawn into that
pattern but we are also painfully
aware that there are areas in our life which are still
resistant to the pull of Christ. Palm Sunday is a good
opportunity to examine those opposing movements in our
life, for it is with examples of precisely those movements
that the two gospel readings provide us.
The
first gospel tells us of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
; welcomed
by people, sought out, perhaps
firstly just out of curiosity, but then grow-
ing
into a deeper sense of recognition of his true nature
and our need for him. In other words, an acceptance of
him as the One who was to come,
the one sent by God. We have much of that in our life.
Indeed, it is very unlikely that we
would be at Mass today were that not the case.
The
second gospel, the Passion, could hardly be more different;
a sombre tale of rejection, the desire
to exclude Jesus from our lives, to neutralise him, to
minimise his influence on human affairs,
to drag him out of the "city" where people live
and move and have their being and dispose
of him in the wilderness. That too is part of our attitude
to Jesus, difficult though it may
be to admit. Sometimes we pay him lip service and leave
it at that, sometimes we are even more
overtly hostile to him.
We
know which of these two attitudes we prefer, but we need
God's help in cultivating the first.
All our prayer, all our meditation on the life of Christ,
all our reception of the sacraments, is
to help us grow in that first attitude until it gradually
takes over and forms our whole life. Saint
Paul said
that with Christ it was always "yes" to God.
With us it is not always yes to God,
and the yes we do say is never total, but with Christ's
grace and companionship through life
that "yes" can become gradually more frequent
and of greater scope.
Hugh
Duffy SJ
“MAKE
POVERTY HISTORY”
There
is a strong Jesuit involvement in this global campaign
for justice which has been making the news recently. We
encourage you to keep informed by visiting:
www.jesuitmissions.org.uk
.
Next
action days in Jesuit schools and parishes: May 15 th
-16 th . See posters for details.
HOLY
WEEK
PALM
SUNDAY March
20 th
Usual
Sunday Mass times. Palms will be blessed at all Masses.
10.45am
: Joint Ceremony of
Blessing of Palms in the Mount
Street
Gardens
with members of Grosvenor
Street Chapel (Church of England).
MAUNDY
THURSDAY
March 24 th
There
is only one Mass today. 6pm
: Concelebrated Mass
of the Lord's Supper with Washing of Feet, Stripping of
the Altar, Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Watching
at the Altar of Repose until midnight
.
Confessions:
12noon-1pm, 5-6pm
GOOD
FRIDAY March
25 th
12noon:
Stations of the Cross
3pm
: Solemn Liturgy of
Good Friday, Veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion
6pm
: Meditation on the
Seven Last Words and Veneration of the Relic of the True
Cross
Confessions:
a half hour before and after each of these services
HOLY
SATURDAY
March 26 th
Confessions:
11.30am-12.30pm ,
7pm-8pm
8pm
: Easter Vigil and
Mass
EASTER
SUNDAY March
27 th
Usual
Sunday Mass times
EASTER
MONDAY March
28 th (Bank Holiday)
Masses
7.30am ,
8.30am 11am
, 6pm
FARM
STREET CHURCH APPEAL
Our
Tsunami appeal in aid of relief and reconstruction in
devastated areas on the island of Sri Lanka resulted in
donations exceeding£20,000.
To this sum will be added another £4,000
in tax refunds from Gift Aid. Heartfelt thanks are due
to all who contributed to this inspiring Christian response.
This help has been sent to the Jesuits working in Sri
Lanka and we have received a thank you from Fr Chryso
Pieris SJ who is the Socius (Assistant) to the Provincial
Superior. It might be timely also to add that, quite separately
from donations being made through Jesuit organisations,
parishes, schools and other works in the UK , the British
Province of the Society of Jesus has allocated
£250,000 from
its own resources for use in Jesuit-led relief programmes
in the entire region affected by the tsunami. The
parish appeal will continue as long as funds are needed
and we are working in partnership with Jesuit
Missions, the Jesuit
Refugee Service (JRS) and Young
British Jesuit Alumni (YBJA). Donations
are chanelled directly through the Society of Jesus to
the locations in Sri Lanka which we have targeted for
help.Cheques may be made to Farm Street Church and there
are Gift Aid envelopes available. May God continue to
bless our efforts.
