This ‘Mini Retreat’ is an attempt to ease the burden on those who are unable to watch streamed Masses and other liturgies. The posts we publish on this site are intended to help us journey through Holy Week by using the Gospel passages of the day taken from Holy Mass. They offer a structure for your prayer time and suggest that you choose a time during the day that suits you best. This could be the time that you would usually attend Mass or, early in the morning, midday, whatever suits you.
It is a moving experience each year on Palm Sunday as we go up the mountain with Jesus, towards the Temple, accompanying him on his ascent. But what are we really doing when we join this procession as part of the throng which went up with Jesus to Jerusalem and hailed him as King of Israel? Does it have anything to do with the reality of our life and our world?
To answer this, we must first be clear about what Jesus himself wished to do and actually did. He was journeying towards the temple in the Holy City, towards that place which for Israel ensured in a particular way God’s closeness to his people . The ultimate goal of his pilgrimage was the heights of God himself; to those heights he wanted to lift every human being. Our procession today is meant, then, to be an image of something deeper, to reflect the fact that, together with Jesus, we are setting out on pilgrimage along the high road that leads to the living God.
Pope Benedict XV
Become silent, aware of the awesome presence of God who never ceases to be with us.
✝️ Bless yourself in the + Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall, world without end. Amen.
Here I am Lord, I come to do your will
📕 Read: Psalm 100
🙏 Personal Prayer and recollection; As well as thanking and giving praise to God, we remind ourselves of the needs of our family, friends, community, wider world and we remember especially all those affected by Covid-19 and we remember our own personal needs.
We know that you are with us Lord. You never leave us or abandon us in our need. I now open my ears and my heart to listen to your voice coming to me through the Holy Gospel.
Read: The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew 26:14-27:66
Silent meditation on the Gospel: Is there a sentence or paragraph that seems to resonate with me? What is my reaction to it?
Maybe read over that part of the text a couple of times, reflecting and praying with it. If you wish you can use the Lectio Divina process outlined here.
Give thanks to God for what he has revealed to you during your prayer time.
Conclude your prayer time with:
Our Father; Hail Mary; Glory be.
Act of Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that You
are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things,
and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment
receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace You as if You were already there
and unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.
We humbly beseech you, O Lord, that, just as through the death of your Son you have brought us to hope for what we believe, so by His Resurrection you may lead us to where you call. Through Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
View other days of the Mini Retreat
Wednesday of Holy Week 8 April
