Monday in Holy Week
Holy Week we call this in the church calendar, Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday, today being Monday in Holy Week. My favorite place and Time of life for it may have been as priest at Trinity, Apalachicola, 1984-1998.
In a town of 2,500 that stretched five blocks to the river in one direction, three blocks to Ten Foot Hole and the Bay in another, twenty blocks out US98 to the western edge in another, maybe ten blocks north to Scipio Creek and swamp, anyone could be from home to pew in five minutes, I offered a daily fifteen-minute Holy Week Mass every morning at 7:30 and you would be out at 7:45 and on time in your workplace or classroom before eight o'clock. I don't remember how many came each morning, three or four up to a dozen, enough to do it each of the fourteen years we lived there, and it was one of many joys of my life in that Time and holy place of no traffic lights.
Here's the Lectionary Year C gospel for today (scroll down). Gospel John makes Judas Iscariot out an even worse scoundrel than do the other evangelists. Little wonder that one of our summer camp songs back in the late forties and early fifties had a verse, "twelve for the Twelve Apostles, eleven for the eleven that went to heaven and ten for the Ten Commandments ... "
Looking back, life is indeed short, and we truly haven't much Time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us; so be quick to love, and make haste to be kind ...
T
John 12:1-11
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 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.
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (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.)
Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." 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. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.
In a town of 2,500 that stretched five blocks to the river in one direction, three blocks to Ten Foot Hole and the Bay in another, twenty blocks out US98 to the western edge in another, maybe ten blocks north to Scipio Creek and swamp, anyone could be from home to pew in five minutes, I offered a daily fifteen-minute Holy Week Mass every morning at 7:30 and you would be out at 7:45 and on time in your workplace or classroom before eight o'clock. I don't remember how many came each morning, three or four up to a dozen, enough to do it each of the fourteen years we lived there, and it was one of many joys of my life in that Time and holy place of no traffic lights.
Here's the Lectionary Year C gospel for today (scroll down). Gospel John makes Judas Iscariot out an even worse scoundrel than do the other evangelists. Little wonder that one of our summer camp songs back in the late forties and early fifties had a verse, "twelve for the Twelve Apostles, eleven for the eleven that went to heaven and ten for the Ten Commandments ... "
Looking back, life is indeed short, and we truly haven't much Time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us; so be quick to love, and make haste to be kind ...
T
John 12:1-11
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 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.
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?" (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.)
Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." 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. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.