MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK
Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Attached please find readings, prayer, and a homily for this day in Holy
Week. Please look each day this week for a new worship offering. For
those of you who email notes back and for those faithfully sending in
your offerings-THANK YOU!!! Overflowing blessings that deeply
touch my heart!!!
Please keep the friends and family of Mary Rosen in your prayers as
Mary is now in Christ’s presence and her family and friends celebrate
her new life while at the same time mourn her during this time of
physical separation.
Please hold Trina, the daughter of a friend of Joanne St. Amand in
prayer as this young woman faces a double mastectomy this coming
week. We pray for healing and wholeness as God guides the medical
professionals.
Please continue to pray for healing: for the world throughout this
pandemic and all who are ill from virus or any other illness, that
healing happens, for care-givers and medical professionals on the front
lines of this time in our world, for our country that physical distancing
and the sacrifices being made may lead to greater safety for all, for our
community that we might all make wise and careful and caring
decisions for ourselves and the well-being of others, for those who
continue to work to keep society running during this time in our world,
for the healing of our planet as water, land, and air are being refreshed
as humans do less damage, and for ourselves-for peace, for hope, for
faith as we endeavor to be church together during this time that we are
apart. Let’s together pray that Christ’s love, Christ’s forgiveness, and
Christ’s promise of new life in him will fill our hearts this Holy Week
and for all the days to come.
I pray for you and I love you, dear family. Stay well and be safe in this
time as Christ holds each of us in his loving embrace. Love, Pr. Jen+
Monday in Holy Week
Introduction
During Holy Week some communities gather each day to meditate on Jesus’ final days before his
death on the cross. While we cannot gather in person, the readings and prayers and a brief
devotional join us spiritually as we contemplate these final days in Jesus’ earthly life. Today’s
gospel commemorates the anointing of Jesus by Mary, a foreshadowing of his death and burial.
Isaiah speaks of the suffering servant who is a light for the nations and who faithfully brings forth
justice. For Christians, Jesus’ suffering is the path to resurrection and new life. We eagerly await
the celebration of the great Three Days later this week.
Prayer of the Day
O God, your Son chose the path that led to pain before joy and to the cross before glory. Plant his
cross in our hearts, so that in its power and love we may come at last to joy and glory, through
Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and forever.
Amen.
First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-9
God’s servant is endowed with God’s spirit in order to bring justice to the nations. The servant
will not exercise authority boisterously or with violence, nor will weariness ever prevent the
fulfilling of the servant’s task. God’s old promises have been fulfilled; the servant’s new
assignment is to bring light to the nations.
1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the LORD, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
Psalm: Psalm 36:5-11
5 Your love, O LORD, reaches | to the heavens, and your faithfulness | to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the strong mountains, your justice like | the great deep;
you save humankind and ani- | mals, O LORD.
7 How priceless is your | love, O God! All people take refuge under the shadow | of your wings.
8 They feast upon the abundance | of your house;
you give them drink from the river of | your delights.
9 For with you is the | well of life, and in your light | we see light.
10 Continue your lovingkindness to | those who know you,
and your favor to those who are | true of heart.
11 Let not the foot of the | proud come near me, nor the hand of the wicked push | me aside.
Second Reading: Hebrews 9:11-15
Prior to Christ, forgiveness was mediated through animal sacrifice. Christ came as the great high
priest to establish a new covenant. Through his blood we are liberated from our sins and promised
eternal life.
11 When Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater
and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), 12 he entered once for all into the
Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal
redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer,
sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, 14 how much more will the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our
conscience from dead works to worship the living God!
15 For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive
the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the
transgressions under the first covenant.
Gospel: John 12:1-11
A few days after raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus visits the man’s home. Lazarus’s sister
Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with costly perfume.
1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised
from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at
the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet,
and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas
Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume
not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he
cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what
was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of
my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of
Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to
put Lazarus to death as well, 11 since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting
and were believing in Jesus.
HOMILY: On this Monday in Holy Week, Jesus returns to visit his friends Mary and Martha, and
to see his buddy Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead a short time before. It is during this
gathering, around food and drink, that something remarkable happens. Mary took costly
perfume and poured it over Jesus’ feet and then wiped them clean with her hair. In ancient
times, a woman’s hair was her crowning glory, so this act of wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair was a
sign of Mary’s deep humility. The anointing of his feet with this costly perfume causes us to
remember the gift of myrrh from the Magi at Epiphany-a gift for one who would die. This act of
Mary, and the gift of the Magi, are both a foreshadowing of what is to come.
When Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday, his body was removed quickly from the cross so
that those who touched him would not be barred from sharing in the Jewish Sabbath. It was
forbidden in Jewish law to touch the body of a dead person on the Sabbath-if one did so, they
were not allowed to participate in worship. Sabbath time for the Jews is sundown Friday
through sundown Saturday (as Christians celebrate the Sabbath sundown Saturday through
sundown Sunday). As we learn from the Gospel, this was the time of Passover, so the Sabbath
celebrations were of particular meaning for the faithful as they reflected on the Exodus of God’s
people from slavery in Egypt, led by Moses. No faithful Jew wanted to be banned from worship
at this time of year. Thus, the body of Jesus was removed quickly on Good Friday without all the
regular preparations for burial-no washing and anointing of the body before wrapping it in linen
for the tomb. That’s why Mary Magdalene and her friend Mary showed up early on Easter, after
the Jewish Sabbath was concluded, so that they could finish the regular burial preparations.
In this Gospel, Mary, obedient and faithful, loving Jesus as much as she did, washed his feet with
costly perfume and humbly wiped them dry with her hair so that he might still receive the
anointing as one who would die. In preparation for his burial, because it could not be done at
the actual time, Mary anointed Jesus and he blessed her for it. Her act of love was a comfort to
him and a sign of her deep faith and love.
Like Mary, let us look for ways to humbly serve Jesus, offering him the very best of our lives, to
show him how grateful we are for his sacrifice for us-a sacrifice that cost him his life so that we
might live lives fulfilled on earth and perfected in heaven. A blessed Holy Monday be with you
all.
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