Opening Prayer:
Christ our Brother, in the drama of Holy Week we recognize our own moments of enthusiasm and despair, of sacrifice and selfishness. Nonetheless, you assure us that these all recede before the inevitable triumph of your love and the salvation of the world. As we prepare for Easter, we ask that you nourish our fidelity and soften our inconstancy that we may better receive and reflect your Hope. Amen.
First Reading: Romans 5: 1-8
We have been made right with God because of our faith. So we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through our faith, Christ has brought us into that blessing of God’s grace that we now enjoy. And we are happy because of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory. And we also have joy with our troubles because we know that these troubles produce patience. And patience produces character, and character produces hope. And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts. God gave us his love through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to us. Christ died for us while we were still weak. We were living against God, but at the right time, Christ died for us. Very few people will die to save the life of someone else, although perhaps for a good person someone might choose to die. But Christ died for us while we were still sinners. In this way God shows his great love for us.
Our Response: Words of Jesus throughout Holy Week
Antiphon: Blessed the King who comes in the name of the Lord.
“I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!”
“If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet.”
“Do this in memory of me.”
"Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times."
"Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?"
“My kingdom does not belong to this world.”
"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."
"I assure you that today you will be with me in Paradise."
"Woman, behold your son. Here is your mother."
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit"
Antiphon: Blessed the King who comes in the name of the Lord.
Gospel Reading: John 15: 11-17
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.”
Quiet Reflection:
When have you relied on God’s mercy or on human forgiveness? When have you served as an instrument of God’s love and mercy for others?
Prayers of Petition:
Please offer any intentions that you may have.
Our Father
Closing Prayer:
All: Lord, you have called us in your love. You have told us I will never forget you, my people because I have carved you on the palms of my hands. While we ask you to call new Marist Brothers into your service with us, we also ask you to preserve us whom you have already called so that we may faithfully live out our Marist call today. We make this prayer through Jesus Christ and with Mary, our Mother. Amen.
Salve
