Holy Thursday 2024 - Morning Prayer - Sanctifying the Hours through the Psalms

 Over the next three days, we will gather for morning prayer. Morning prayer is one of the official prayers of the Church—it is part of the Liturgy of the Hours—official & liturgical prayers recited at fixed hours throughout the day by clergy, religious orders, and some lay Catholics. 

From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the liturgy of the hours. The practice is based on the Jewish tradition of praying at fixed times: morning, afternoon, and evening corresponding to different sacrificial offerings that were offered in the Temple.

Every morning, a burnt offering would be offered in the Temple. Prayers would be offered in gratitude to God: for various aspects of daily life, such as the ability to see, freedom from bondage, and the strength to overcome weakness. Psalms would be offered, particularly Psalms of praise, like Psalm 30: “Sing praise to the LORD, you faithful; give thanks to his holy memory.” The Temple priests offered these prayers and sacrifices on behalf of the whole Jewish people and the world, just as priests today pray the liturgy of the hours on behalf of the Church.

“To the very end of his life, as his passion was approaching, at the last supper, in the agony in the garden, and on the cross, the divine teacher showed that prayer was the soul of his Messianic ministry and paschal death. 

And so it is fitting for us, in these final hours of Lent, as we prepare for the celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, for us to gather to offers prayers, that Jesus himself offered up to God. Psalms of praise, psalms of trust, psalms pleading God’s mercy.

Each of the different prayers and psalms of morning prayer take on special significance during Holy Week. Consider our first Psalm, Psalm 80, how it intertwined themes of redemption, suffering, and restoration.

The psalm opens with the image of God as the shepherd of Israel. During the Triduum, Jesus, the Good Shepherd leads His flock through the cross to the new life of the resurrection, he lays down his life for his sheep.

The Psalms repeated plea, "God of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved," is significant. For during the Triduum, we consider how God fulfills this plea. Through Christ’s Paschal mystery—God brings back scattered humanity—humanity scattered due to sin, back into the one flock—that purified of sin—we might come to see the face of God in eternity.

The Psalm’s vivid descriptions of suffering, being fed with "tears for their bread" and being the "taunt of our neighbors," foreshadows the suffering of Jesus during the Passion, but how through Jesus—God unites himself with all those who suffer hunger, thirst, mockery, injustice. 

The final verses of Psalm 80, "May your hand be on the man you have chosen", encapsulates the trust Jesus had during his Passion—trust that His Father was with him, guiding his mission—and how Christians too are to trust in God’s presence with us in our trials—trusting that the cross leads to the resurrection and eternal life. 

I invite you to pray the liturgy of the hours throughout the Triduum, slowly and reflectively. The point isn’t to rush through them, but to consider how these beautiful prophecies are fulfilled by Our Lord, and how God desires to fulfill them in our lives as well, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Good Friday 2023 - Morning Prayer - Weep for your sins

 

Following the Last Supper, Jesus and the disciples left the Upper Room, and processed to the Garden of Gethsemane up on the mount of olives. 

And there on the mountain he began to pray. He asked his disciples to stay awake with him and pray. But they kept falling asleep. Even Peter, James and John, his inner circle, who had witnessed his transfiguration on Mount Horeb, could not keep their eyes open.

And so, the Lord suffered, agony alone. St. Matthew tells us that his suffering was out of sorrow. Sorrow for who? Sorrow for Judas. Sorrow for Peter. Sorrow for his disciples’ indifference. Sorrow for the souls of those who would reject him ultimately, and spend eternity in hell. Suffering for those who call themselves Christians, yet persist in indifference to their vocation to holiness. Sorrow for priests who break their vows. Sorrow for married couples who break theirs. Sorrow for children whose hearts turn hateful toward their parents. And sorrow for parents who drive their children to such hatred. Sorrow for all the sins of the world. He took on himself not simply our sins, but the sorrow we should pay for them.

He sweat blood because we have failed to even shed sufficient tears for our sins.

Likely around 4am, the Lord was arrested and brought before Annas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin who brought false witnesses to testify against him. 

Around the time most of us were getting up this morning, between 6 and 8am, the Gospels are not clear Jesus was brought before the governor Pontius Pilate who found no reason to condemn Him, but sent him to the puppet-king Herod, who also failed to find a crime. 

Now with the crowd stirred up by the Sanhedrin, Pilate has Jesus scourged and then agrees to have him crucified, out of fear of a rebellion. Around 8am, Jesus begins to carry his cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and probably around the time you were starting your rosary, around 8:30am, Simon of Cyrene is tasked to help this stranger with the heavy burden.

Around 9am, the time we began our morning prayer, Jesus was nailed to the cross.

Following morning prayer we will depart in silence, but we will return to Church at the hour of the Lord’s final breath—“the ninth hour of the day”.

The Lord was sorrowful for us, and tells us that we ourselves should be sorrowful. He told the women of Jerusalem, “weep not for me, but weep for your sins and the sins of your children.”

Today, rightfully is a day of sorrow. We fittingly weep for our sins today. And we plead God’s mercy for ourselves, for all mankind, for priests and religious, for those who reject God, for those who seem to be stuck in cycles of sin, for those who have become lukewarm, for those who near death, especially those in danger of hell, that maybe, just maybe, if God wills it, a last opportunity for repentance may be given to them.

There is a tradition that of praying the Seven Penitential Psalms today: Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143. Today also begins The Divine Mercy Novena, which is prayed from Good Friday until Divine Mercy Saturday. 

We plead God’s mercy today through the passion and death of our Lord, to help us grieve our sins sufficiently, and to save souls by bringing them to repentance, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Holy Week 2021 - Good Friday Morning Prayer - Sanctifying the Hours

 Following the Lord’s Supper, he went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, where after a period of agonizing prayer, he was approached by Judas who kissed him as a sign of betrayal. Likely around 4 to 6am he was arrested and brought before Annas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin who brought him up on trumped up charges. Around the time most of us were getting up this morning, between 6 and 8am, the Gospels are not clear about the exact timeline, Jesus was brought before the governor Pontius Pilate who found no reason to condemn Him, but sent him to the puppet-king Herod, who also failed to find a crime. Now with the crowd stirred up by the Sanhedrin, Pilate has Jesus scourged and then agrees to have him crucified, out of fear of a rebellion. Around 8am, Jesus begins to carry his cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and probably around the time you were starting your rosary, around 8:30am, Simon of Cyrene is tasked to help this stranger with the heavy burden.

Around the time we began morning prayer, with the words, “God come to my assistance”, “at the third hour of the day” as St. Mark puts it, Jesus was nailed to the cross, and experienced those first excruciating agonies as we prayed the penitential psalm 51 calling for God to have mercy on us in our offenses. Considering our own responsibility for the crucifixion of Our Lord, this prayer, psalm 51, is certainly an appropriate response.

Following morning prayer we will depart in silence and return to Church at the hour of the Lord’s final breath—“the ninth hour of the day” as Matthew calls it for the Good Friday liturgy of the Lord’s Passion. 

Today is a powerful day for pleading God’s mercy, for ourselves, for all mankind, for priests and religious, for those who reject God, for those who seem to be stuck in cycles of sin, for those who have become lukewarm, for those who near death, and the souls in purgatory. Today also begins The Divine Mercy Novena, which is prayed from Good Friday until Divine Mercy Saturday.

There is a tradition that  the Penitential Psalms, Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143 are prayed until we gather again at 3pm, sanctifying the hours with recollection of what the Lord is suffering. We do well to fast and pray, pleading to God for the purifying and washing that only he can accomplish, that he does accomplish, through the passion and death of His Son, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Holy Saturday 2019 - Hell trembles with fear

The ancient homily on Holy Saturday states: “there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.”

In the Apostle’s Creed we profess that after Christ was crucified, died and buried, “He descended into Hell.” Christ was not condemned to Hell, like the rest of humanity. Rather he descended; he went willingly and with purpose.
From the time of Adam, all who died, whether evil or righteous were deprived of the vision of God. And Christ went to those who souls who awaited their Savior. The ancient homily says, “he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve…the Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory.”

Holy Saturday is a quiet day. Yet, in the quiet, if we listen, and If we grow silent enough, and listen well, we hear hell trembling, and the voice of the Lord, victorious through the cross, proclaiming a word of life, a word of freedom. The Catechism says, “Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."

In the Canticle from morning prayer this morning from Isaiah chapter 38, one of God’s faithful ones ponders how, though he shall come to the gates of the netherworld, the pit of destruction, because of his sins, God will save him, his sins will be put behind him, death will not get the final word. “Fathers will pass on to their children the truth of your faithfulness”. This is the truth that is passed on through the generations by the Christian faithful. The truth that salvation is found in Jesus Christ, mercy and forgiveness, freedom from sin and death is found in Jesus Christ: through His death, burial, and resurrection.

Yes, there is a great silence on earth today. But we incline our ear passed the silence, to a Word which cannot be silenced. Not by the world, not by the powers of corruption and selfishness, sin, evil or malice.

Though much evil still fills the world, and the powers of death seek to swallow us whole, we open our hearts to the new life-giving Word, to the one who holds the keys of death and of hell, and opens the doors of heaven, resurrection and eternal life to those who would follow Him, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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All-powerful and ever-living God, your only Son went down among the dead and rose again in glory. In your goodness raise up your faithful people, buried with him in baptism, to be one with him in the everlasting life of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Holy Week 2018 - Thursday Morning - Passover Preparations

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke each tell us how Jesus sent his disciples to make preparations for the Last Supper: they were to inspect the room in which it was to be celebrated, and to ensure that it was furnished for the ritual meal.

Just as we’ve already begun to prepare for the evening mass of the Lord’s supper, by filling the communion cups, filling the ciboria with hosts, placing the chairs for the washing of the feet, so too the disciples would ensure the cups and plates and utensils and bowls for the ritual washings were in place for the Passover meal.

Part of their inspection was to ensure that the room was swept clean of leaven. Throughout the Scriptures leaven is consistently a symbol for what is sinful, false, and evil. Jesus refers to the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees: their false teaching, their greedy attachments, their spiritual blindness.

Today is a good day to inspect the houses of our hearts, to sweep them clean of leaven: to identify anything that might distract us from truly experiencing the solemnity of the Sacred Triduum, to ensure that we’ve set aside time for plenty of prayer, reflection, gratitude, and repentance over the next three days.

The Psalms of the Church’s Morning Prayer this morning speak of God as Savior. God is invoked as the “God of Hosts”—the leader of a heavenly army who brings victory over the evil in the lives of his people. The Paschal Triduum is a celebration of God’s great victory over sin, but we know that victory comes at a price, the cross. And to share in the victory, we must renounce sin and selfishness and take up our cross as well.

We must, love one another as Christ commands his disciples to do at the Last Supper.
And all this begins by sweeping our house of leaven, sweeping it clean of the smallest little lies that we tell ourselves to justify selfishness, preparing our heart as a vessels for the Lord to fill with the wine of charity.

May we use the time we have given wisely and diligently, to prepare for the high holy days of our faith, in which the Lord will teach us, feed us, cleanse us, and raise us for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Holy Saturday 2017 - Morning Prayer Reflection - "He descended into hell"

The ancient homily on Holy Saturday states: “there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.”

In the Apostle’s Creed we profess that after Christ was crucified, died and buried, “He descended into Hell” He was not condemned to Hell, like the rest of humanity. Rather he descended, he went willingly and with purpose.

From the time of Adam, all who died, whether evil or righteous were deprived of the vision of God. And Christ went to those who souls who awaited their Savior. Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the souls who awaited his coming.

The Catechism says, “Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."

The ancient homily says, “he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve…the Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory.”

We do well to observe the silence today, we who have quieted our willful souls by Lenten and Holy Week penances. If we grow silent enough, and listen well, we will hear hell trembling, and the voice of the Lord, victorious through the cross, proclaiming a word of life, as we await his Easter resurrection for the glory of God and salvation of souls.