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It’s a beautiful Sunday morning as Ben, Sarah, and their friends get ready for Mass. Ben and Sarah remind us how important it is to treat every Sunday like it is a special day.
Click on link to play video:
https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/plus/blessed/first-communion-7-4.html
BEST CHRISTMAS EVER
Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest and relaxation, but so often we find ourselves filled with stress, worry, and rushing to prepare for the week ahead. What might change if you, your family, and your community rediscovered the ability to rest on Sundays? After watching today’s video, you’ll know how to make every Sunday amazing for the rest of your life. Watch the video!
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https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/advent/12172022-christmas-reflection.html
When Jesus ascended into heaven forty days after His resurrection, He instructed the Apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the sending of the Holy Spirit. Ten days later the eleven Apostles, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary, were praying in the Upper Room on the Lord’s Day. The Holy Spirit descended upon them as tongues of fire, as recorded in the second chapter of Acts. Jews from distant lands were gathered in Jerusalem for the feast of the harvest of the first-fruits, which was the closing festival of the Pascal season. The Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the various languages of the people. Scripture records that through this miracle 3,000 souls were baptized and added to the Church that same day. Because of this, Pentecost is considered the birthday of the Catholic Church.
//The Catholic Company//
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the reliving of the final seven days of Jesus’ earthly ministry. On this day the Church recalls the triumphal entrance of the Messiah into Jerusalem in order to accomplish the Pascal Mystery: His Passion, death, burial, and resurrection for the salvation of all mankind. Jesus rode into the city on a colt as the crowd laid their cloaks and palm branches on the road before him, shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest!”
//The Catholic Company//
Humans are the only creatures who have knowledge of their own death. Its awareness creeps up on us as we get older. All other animals, plants, and the cycles of nature themselves seem to live out and surrender to the pattern of mortality. This places humans in a state of anxiety and insecurity from our early years. We know on some level that whatever this is that we are living will not last. This changes everything, probably more than we realize consciously.
So our little bit of consciousness makes us choose to be unconscious. It hurts too much to think about it. On this last Sunday before Palm Sunday, we dare to look at the “last enemy,” death. And the only way we can dare to part the curtain and view death is to be told about our resurrection from it! Yet, I assume we all know that Lazarus did eventually die. Maybe ten years later, maybe even twenty, but it did happen, we assume. What then is the point of this last dramatic “sign” before Jesus’ own journey toward death? An important clue is given right before the action, when the disciples try to discourage Jesus from going back to Judea where he is in danger. Jesus says calmly, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? When a person can walk without stumbling? When he sees the world bathed in light.”
Jesus refuses to fear darkness and death. Quickly he adds, “Our friend Lazarus is sleeping, I am going to wake him” (John 11:9–11). Those who draw upon the twelve hours, who see the world bathed in light now, have begun to see the pattern. As is often the case with wise people, they let “nature nurture them.” Yes, the other hours of darkness will come, a metaphor for death, but now we know that it will not last. It is only a part, but not the whole of life—just as the day itself is twelve hours and night is the other twelve, two sides of the one mystery of Life.
Jesus’ job is simply to “wake” us up to this, as he did Lazarus and the onlookers. We must now “see that the world is bathed in light” and allow others to enjoy the same seeing—through our lived life. The stone to be moved is always our fear of death, the finality of death, any blindness that keeps us from seeing that death is merely a part of the Larger Mystery called Life. It does not have the final word.
“Good God, the creator of light and darkness, You who move the sun and the stars, move us into the place of light, a light so large that it will absorb all the darkness”
— from the book Wondrous Encounters: Scriptures for Lent
by Richard Rohr, OFM
//Franciscan Media//
The 5th Sunday of Lent is historically known as “Passion Sunday” which ushers in the final two weeks of Lent, called “Passiontide.” Passiontide is characterized by a heightened celebration of Lent as Easter approaches, reaching its peak during Holy Week. During this period the faithful redouble their Lenten penances. It is also customary on this day to shroud all the sacred images in the churches with purple cloths, except the Stations of the Cross.
On Good Friday the crucifixes are unveiled, while the other sacred images are unveiled on the afternoon of Holy Saturday in preparation for the Easter Vigil. This imagery calls to mind how Christ hid his Divinity during his Passion and death, no longer performing miracles until his Resurrection from the dead. Likewise, the holy images are veiled in imitation of their Lord, their glory being unveiled with the joy of the celebration of Easter.
//The Catholic Company//
The fourth Sunday of Lent is traditionally known by the name Laetare Sunday. This name is taken from the Introit at Mass, Laetare Jerusalem which means “Rejoice, O Jerusalem.” Laetare Sunday marks the halfway point through the Lenten season of fasting, abstinence, and penance, and because of this it is a day of joy in anticipation of the close arrival of Easter. This day corresponds with Gaudete Sunday halfway through the Advent season, where the priests wear rose-colored liturgical vestments and the altar is decorated with flowers, often roses.
//The Catholic Company//