PSALM 116 I Will Walk in the Presence of the Lord
OPENING PRAYER
GOSPEL John 11:1-45
What word or phrase speaks to you? Challenges you? Comforts you?
SILENCE/REFRAIN
The Gospel is read a second time.
MEDITATION
Barbara Reid, OP, a scripture scholar from the Catholic Theological Union has this to say… “The readings for this Fifth Sunday of Lent are full of hope and the promise of new life. The Lazarus narrative especially reminds us that we too will be raised up to a new and greater life with our God. Still, our hearts go out to Martha, who wanted Jesus to be present when her brother died. Why did Jesus delay? The two days Jesus delayed in going to Bethany may have been a time that he needed to discern whether it was ‘the hour for him to take this fatal step.’ It is clear that to go to Judea would put Jesus at great risk. His disciples twice try to dissuade him from going there. Thomas’s wry remark ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’ proves to be exactly true.”
REFLECTION, SUNG REFRAIN
CONTEMPLATION
All too often in life, we die before we die. We give up. We stop growing and loving. We bury our giftedness. How sad this is. The Lazarus Gospel and the whole Lenten season invites us to look within, to notice how we have been entombed. As winter melts into spring, may we too experience a metanoia… allowing life, love, and new growth to COME FORTH.
SILENT REFLECTION, SUNG REFRAIN
LORD’S PRAYER AND CONCLUSION
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Awakened One,
source of inner power
restorer of tombed vitality
giver of graced gusto
You who have raised
from the cold stone of death
come and resurrect me
from my own entombment.
- Joyce Rupp
Reflections are written/prepared by Sister Carol DeFiore, SNDdeN