Remain in me (St. Elizabeth of the Trinity)

     Remain in Me, not for a few moments, a few hours which must pass away, but remain permanently, habitually. Remain in Me, pray in Me, adore in Me, love in Me, suffer in Me, work and act in Me. 

--St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Heaven in Faith 

Image source: https://www.osvnews.com/amp/2020/01/09/the-power-of-eucharistic-adoration/

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 2, 2021: I am the vine, and you are the branches...

I am the vine, you are the branches…

How might you bear more fruit for God?

    In the midst of the Last Supper Discourse in John’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims himself to be the true vine, while his disciples are the branches, pruned by the Father, that they might bear much fruit. This responsibility is projected down the ages to us. God has made us that we might bear fruit as well, but in order to do so, we must stay connected to the Lord. If we remain in him, Jesus says, if we believe in him and allow his words to remain in us, then the fruit we bear will be that of love and connection and, ultimately, the good news of salvation for all. This was the case of the early church, as the Acts of the Apostles demonstrates: The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. The disciples are now comfortable spreading the good news, conscious that the Holy Spirit is at work in them. When Saul arrives in Jerusalem, the disciples require evidence that he, too, is bearing fruit, walking the walk, acting out of love for Christ and for the church and for the people to whom he is proclaiming the good news.

    If we believe in the Lord, if we belong to the truth, as the First Letter of John tells us, then we are confident in our faith, and able to rely upon God and God’s judgment. Indeed, we can have confidence in God and receive from him whatever we ask, because we love one another just as he commanded us. It’s not the talk we talk, but the walk we walk, the love we give in deed and truth, that identifies us as true disciples, able to bear much fruit and thereby to glorify the Father by spreading his good news. Let the coming generation be told of the Lord, Psalm 22 states, that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born the justice the Lord has shown. The fruit we bear when our hearts remain in Christ and open to him is proof indeed that in him our soul does live, and live fully, in our love for each other and for the Lord. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

In him all things hold together

He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.

--Colossians 1:17

In times of darkness,
you remind us to look toward the true Light.

In times of separation,
you work to hold us together in community 

as one in the Body of Christ.

In times of joy, 

you sing your gladness 

and speak to our hearts.

We are so fortunate to have you 

as our pastor, Fr. Pat!

A blessed birthday to you,

and many thanks for the blessings 

you bring to us daily!

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/photos/a.4006426609418731/4026923860702339

Healing power (Jonathan David and Melissa Helser)

Let heaven fall like a wrecking ball

And crush every fear in my veins

Let the love of God like a tidal wave

Wash away all my shame

You can’t stay away

When love starts singing

You can’t stay away

 When love starts ringing

Let healing power come like fire

And burn in the marrow of my bones

Let the Holy Ghost come so close

Our hearts explode with Your love

You can’t stay away

When love starts singing

You can’t stay away

 When love starts ringing

Let heaven fall, like a wrecking ball

And crush every fear in my veins

To hear Jonathan David & Melissa Helser perform Wrecking Ball, click on the video below:

Image source:  https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/would-it-be-possible-to-surf-a-tidal-wave/ 

Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCRhMxU6aFs

To surrender to something bigger (Fr .Eric Immel)

   Autumn trees will eventually go bare. After a moment of brilliance, the leaves will let go. Their departure makes way for the starkness of winter. But as Karl Rahner observes, in winter we’re able to see deeper into the forest. We gaze deeper into that unknown which has the power to terrify us, but also the power to draw us back to warmth and to each other. 

   Now might be a time of letting go. Maybe that’s just what we need. We can only control so much. It is, after all, an act of faith to surrender ourselves to something bigger, something yet to be seen, something perhaps a little scary, but something that is, with hope, not so far off.

--Fr. Eric Immel, SJ,

Sometimes I Have to Let Go and

It Is the Only Thing I Can Do

Image source:  https://a-z-animals.com/habitat/temperate-forest/

Quotation source (and full article)

A truth at the core of our being (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   Deeper than all of our anxieties and our need to protect ourselves, lies a truth we know at the core of our being, namely, that in the end we cannot take care of ourselves, we cannot make ourselves whole, and we cannot hide our weaknesses from each other. We need to surrender, to trust, to let ourselves fall into stronger and safer hands than our own. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI,

Facebook, July 3, 2020

Image source: http://zionelginil.org/love-at-the-center/

Your soul is very dear to Him (St. Margaret Mary Alacoque)

   Cling to God, and leave all the rest to Him: He will not let you perish. Your soul is very dear to Him; He wishes to save it.

 --St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Image source: https://fearlesslifestyleculture.typepad.com/blog/2011/11/fearless-friday-every-friday-words-of-wisdom-to-nourish-your-spirit-your-soul-and-inspire-you-to-be-.html
Quotation source

Our life, our existence, and our all (Fr. Scott Traynor)

      

   The most important question to be able to answer in a concrete, specific, personal way at any moment is, How is God loving me right now? This is our anchor. Without it, we are adrift amid forces around us and within us that are incomprehensible. The particular, personal love of God for us in this moment is our life, our existence, and our all. Apart from this love, we are nothing and can do nothing.

 --Fr. Scott Traynor,
The Parish as a School of Prayer

Image source: https://pastorgregonline.com/2019/01/27/anchor-in-my-promises-whispers-from-your-father-god/

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 25, 2021: In his name this man stands before you healed...

 

In his name this man stands before you healed…

How aware are you of God’s power in your life?

   The people of the Old Testament lived in constant awareness of the power of God in their lives. In Psalm 118, for example, King David recognizes and trusts in God’s saving power: I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me and have been my savior. After Jesus’ death and rising, the apostles will come to have the same degree of faith in that power. In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter explains that they are able to heal a man disabled from birth because they act in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean. Peter goes so far to repeat himself for emphasis: in his name this man stands before you healed. But his listeners fail to recognize God’s power at work; they are not open to the possibility that speaking in the name of Jesus Christ could possibly have such an effect. Their minds are made up; their hearts are closed.

   When, in John’s Gospel, Jesus states that he lays down his life in order to take it up again, he is referencing a choice: God raises Jesus and Jesus chooses to participate in that act. But he first surrenders himself to the authority of humankind so that his persecutors can fulfill God’s plan for salvation. God works through their sin; Peter refers to Jesus whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. God’s power is greater than any human power; God’s love is the sure path to salvation. In the death and rising of Jesus we see the love the Father has bestowed on us, as the First Letter of John states. Through baptism, we celebrate our participation in God’s salvation of humankind; we must keep opening to his love with faith, and remaining open to it throughout our lives. Christ, the good shepherd, intends to lead all with love, so that all hearts will come to him. God’s love is God’s initiative; our role is to respond to that call, to be open to our complete dependence upon God’s power, open to God’s love, active and ever increasing in our lives.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Tending tender things (Nicolette Sowder)

We cannot heal the earth unless we love and respect it.

--Pope Francis

May we raise children
who love the unloved
things – the dandelion, the
worms & spiderlings.
Children who sense
the rose needs the thorn

& run into rainswept days
the same way they
turn towards sun…

And when they’re grown &
someone has to speak for those
who have no voice

may they draw upon that
wilder bond, those days of
tending tender things

and be the ones.

--Nicolette Sowder

Tomorrow is Earth Day!
Celebrate God’s Creation!

Image source: Dr. Seuss, The Lorax, https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/dr-seuss-the-lorax
Quotation source
Poem source

Everything sad will come untrue (J.R.R. Tolkien)

They were still incredulous for joy.

--Luke 24: 41

    The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus means that one day, everything sad will come untrue.

 --J.R.R. Tolkien   

Image source: David Wynne, Noli me tangere, Ely Cathedral, https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2018/27-april/faith/faith-features/the-key-to-the-mystery
Quotation source

Twixt two extremes of passion (Barbara Kingsolver)

    It’s the same struggle for each of us, and the same path out: the utterly simple, infinitely wise, ultimately defiant act of loving one thing and then another, loving our way back to life… Maybe being perfectly happy is not really the point. Maybe that is only some modern American dream of the point, while the truer measure of humanity is the distance we must travel in our lives, time and time again, twixt two extremes of passion – joy and grief, as Shakespeare put it. However much I’ve loved, what remains to me is that I can still speak to name the things I love. And I can look for safety in giving myself away to the world’s least losable things.

--Barbara Kingsolver, Small Wonder

Image source: James Tissot, Christ Eating with His Disciples, http://www.joyfulheart.com/holy-week/jesus_eats_breakfast_with_his_disciples.htm

Jesus came to give us his own life (Henri Nouwen)

    We tend to emphasize the distance between Jesus and ourselves. We see Jesus as the all-knowing and all-powerful Son of God who is unreachable for us sinful, broken human beings. But in thinking this way, we forget that Jesus came to give us his own life. He came to lift us into loving community with the Father. Only when we recognize the radical purpose of Jesus’ ministry will we be able to understand the meaning of the spiritual life. Everything that belongs to Jesus is given for us to receive.

--Henri Nouwen           

Image source: http://theheavenscall.blogspot.com/2012/02/jesus-gave-his-life-for-our-sins.html

Quotation source

All spirituality is predicated on humility (Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI)

 

    We do not like to admit weakness, finitude, dependence, and interdependence. Thus, all of us have to grow and mature to a place where we are no longer naïve and arrogant enough to believe that we do not need God’s blessing. All spirituality is predicated on humility. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI,
Facebook, November 11, 2019

Image source: https://www.earthtrekkers.com/climbing-half-dome-cables-photos/

God's love letter (Peter Kreeft)

   Reading the Bible should be a form of prayer. The Bible should be read in God’s presence and as the unfolding of His mind. It is not just a book, but God’s love letter to you. It is God’s revelation, God’s mind, operating through your mind and your reading, so your reading is your response to His mind and will.

--Peter Kreeft,

You Can Understand the Bible

Image source: https://yelobrd777.com/2014/05/27/the-love-letter/

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 18, 2021: Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures...

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…

Is it hard to open in humility to our Lord? 

    In each of Jesus’ appearances to his disciples after his resurrection, Jesus tries to help them understand the Scriptures, so that they can grasp why it was necessary for him to suffer, die, and rise. In every instance, the disciples must trust, ready to let Jesus open their minds, so that they understand what he is now about. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus shows the disciples his hands and feet, allowing them to touch and see. And they remain incredulous for joy, believing, yet still aware that they understand so very little. Even as he insists, Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day, his disciples’ faith requires humility. They don’t fully comprehend, but will rely on his commands to teach them how to act, how to be. You are witnesses of these things, he tells them, and they will be – if only they begin from a position of faith, a position of humility. 

   When, in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter calls the people to repentance for putting Jesus, the author of life, to death, Peter knows that in so doing, they managed to follow God’s plan to bring salvation into the world. To repent is to accept the salvation Christ has effected for us through his death and rising. Only God could make this happen. To accept this fact is to accept the Lord’s call to humility, as it means a radical change in how we understand the world and how we understand our relationship with our God. Similarly, if Jesus is the expiation of our sins, as 1 John explains, then Jesus continues to bring salvation to us as we stumble along our way, attempting to keep his commandments in keeping with the Scriptures. Ultimately, we must accept with all humility that Christ came to bring forgiveness into our lives, to give us the opportunity to dwell in his love; in all things, humility must be at the core of our relationship with the Lord. Only then will we be able to, as Psalm 4 suggests, fall peacefully asleep, knowing that the Lord brings security to our dwelling. Only then will we know the joy of resurrection, incredulous perhaps, but open to the Lord’s presence in our midst, ready for our minds to be opened by the Lord. 

This post was based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Lord, I believe (Denise Levertov)

And after the empty tomb
when they told me that He lived, had spoken to Magdalen,
told me that though He had passed through the door like a ghost
He had breathed on them
the breath of a living man –
even then
when hope tried with a flutter of wings
to lift me –
still, alone with myself,
my heavy cry was the same: Lord,
I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. 

I needed blood to tell me the truth,
the touch
of blood. Even
my sight of the dark crust of it
round the nailholes
didn’t thrust its meaning all the way through
to that manifold knot in me
that willed to possess all knowledge,
refusing to loosen
unless that insistence won
the battle I fought with life.

But when my hand
led by His hand’s firm clasp
entered the unhealed wound,
my fingers encountering
rib-bone and pulsing heat,
what I felt was not
scalding pain, shame for my
obstinate need,
but light,
light streaming
into me, over me, filling the room
as I had lived till then in a cold cave, and now
coming forth for the first time,
the knot that bound me unravelling,
I witnessed
all things quicken to color, to form,
my question
not answered but given
its part
in a vast unfolding design lit
by a risen sun.

--Denise Levertov,
excerpt from St. Thomas Didymus 

To read Denise Levertov's complete poem, click here. 

Image source 1: Doubting Thomas, Panel from an ivory casket, ca. 420-430 A.D., http://farlang.com/byzantine-gem-cheapside-hoard

Image source 2: Doubting Thomas, Byzantine engraved gemstone, dated 3rd to 10th c. For more information on the gemstone and a plethora of early representations of the story of St. Thomas, see http://farlang.com/byzantine-gem-cheapside-hoard
Poem source

Faith comes (George Hendry)

   Faith comes only when the outward fact penetrates to the inner heart of man and takes possession of him there – and this is the work of the Spirit.

--George Hendry        

Image source:  https://bikers-wave.com/2020/07/29/jesus-breaths-the-reception-of-the-holy-spirit-in-john-20/ 

Quotation source

A fellowship of mutual care (Henri Nouwen)

   Nothing is sweet or easy about community. Community is a fellowship of people who do not hide their joys and sorrows but make them visible to each other as a gesture of hope. 

   In community we say, Life is full of gains and losses, joys and sorrows, ups and downs – but we do not have to live it alone. We want to drink our cup together and thus celebrate the truth that the wounds of our individual lives, which seem intolerable when lived alone, become sources of healing when we live them as part of a fellowship of mutual care. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source:  https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/photos/a.1697888320272583/1697888353605913

Quotation source

Between knowing and believing (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Do you remember Hamlet’s great line, There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio? If we stubbornly say – even in areas of science – that we will accept only what we can see and touch and control, we wouldn’t know much about reality. 

   There is, in most areas of life, a play between knowing and believing. It is not unique to the religious sphere of life. Blaise Pascal summed it up: The heart has its reasons that reason knows not. 

   It is not that we who have not seen and have believed are settling for a poor substitute for vision. No, we are being described as blessed, more blessed than Thomas. God is doing all sorts of things that we cannot see, measure, control, fully understand. But it is an informed faith that allows one to fall in love with such a God. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, July 3, 2020 

Image source: Rembrandt van Rijn, The Incredulity of St. Thomas (1634,) https://www.wga.hu/html_m/r/rembrand/11biblic/13newtes.html

Believing (Madeleine L'Engle)

Believing takes practice.

--Madeleine l’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time 

Image source: Cover, A Wrinkle in Time, https://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/macmillan_us_frontbookcovers_1000H/9780312367558.jpg

What one believes (St. Joan of Arc)

   Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, and so they give their lives to little or nothing. One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it… and then it’s gone. But to surrender who you are and to live without belief is more terrible than dying – even more terrible than dying young. 

 --St. Joan of Arc         

Image source: https://www.timetravelturtle.com/joan-of-arc-rouen-normandy-france/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 11, 2021: Do not be unbelieving, but believe!

Do not be unbelieving, but believe!

How does our faith inform our life in community? 

    When, in John’s Gospel, shortly after his resurrection from the dead, Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors, he breathes the breath of life into them: Receive the Holy Spirit, he says, filling them with God’s mercy and love. In so doing, he calls them to action: Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. A week later, when he returns and invites Thomas to see, Jesus is speaking as much about understanding as he is about physical sight; he proposes a way of seeing things that will radically change Thomas’s world view. He then calls Thomas to faith: do not be unbelieving, but believe. 

   The First Letter of John reminds us that, as Christians, we are bound together in that very same faith: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God. We are brothers and sisters through baptism and are bound together in the love of God and of one another in Christian community. The early Christian community is described in the Acts of the Apostles as a community of believers, of one heart and mind. There, too, love was the bond that held them together and allowed them to bear witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, meeting the needs of all in Christ’s name. Their bond is a reason for rejoicing, as Psalm 118 reminds us to do: Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting. We are called to live in love for God and for one another, strong in our belief in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection to bring salvation to our world. May he breathe life into us as well, that we might be bearers of his mercy and forgiveness to the world. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Everything transforms! (James Broughton)

Shake out your qualms.

Shake up your dreams.

Deepen your roots.

Extend your branches.

Trust deep water

and head for the open,

even if your vision

shipwrecks you.

Quit your addiction

to sneer and complain.

Open a lookout.

Dance on a brink.

Run with your wildfire.

You are closer to glory

leaping in an abyss

than upholstering a rut.

Not dawdling.

Not doubting.

Intrepid all the way,

walk toward clarity.

At every crossroad

be prepared

to bump into wonder.

Only love prevails.

En route to disaster

insist on canticles.

Lift your ineffable

out of the mundane.

Nothing perishes;

nothing survives;

 everything transforms!

Honeymoon with Big Joy! 

--James Broughton, Easter Exultet 

Image source: https://www.activewild.com/blue-morpho-butterfly-facts/
Poem source

Resurrected for her sake (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Until his final hour he had never
refused her anything or turned away,
lest she should turn their love to public praise.
Now she sank down beside the cross, disguised,
heavy with the largest stones of love
like jewels in the cover of her pain.

But later, when she came back to his grave
with tearful face, intending to anoint,
she found him resurrected for her sake,
saying with greater blessedness, Do not –

She understood it in her hollow first:
How with finality he now forbade
her, strengthened by his death, the oils’ relief or
any intimation of a touch:

because he wished to make of her the lover
who needs no more to lean on her beloved,
as, swept away by joy in such enormous
storms, she mounts even beyond his voice.

--Rainer Maria Rilke, The Risen One (1908),
 trans. Ann Conrad Lammers 

Image source: Mary Seeing Jesus, St. John’s Bible, https://www.philipchircop.com/post/56152858569/the-risen-one-by-rainer-maria-rilke-until-his

Alleluia! (St. Augustine)

We are
Easter people, 
and Alleluia
is our song! 

 --St. Augustine 

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Lily_(badge)#/media/File:Easter_Lily.JPG

Easter Hope (N.T. Wright)

Easter was when Hope in person 

surprised the whole world 

by coming forward from 

the future into the present. 

--N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: 

Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, 

and the Mission of the Church 

Easter blessings to all  from
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley!

Image source: https://creation.com/hope-of-resurrection

An active waiting (Fr. James Martin)

   Finally, there is the wait of the Christian, which is called hope. It is an active waiting; it knows that, even in the worst of situations, even in the darkest times, God is at work. Even if we can’t see it clearly right now. The disciples’ fear was understandable, but we, who know how the story turned out, who know that Jesus will rise from the dead, who know that God is with us, who know that nothing will be impossible for God, are called to wait in faithful hope. And to look carefully for signs of the new life that are always right around the corner—just like they were on Holy Saturday…

--Fr. James Martin, We Live in Holy Saturday 

Image source: https://www.crosswalk.com/special-coverage/easter/what-happened-on-holy-saturday.html

O Jesus, rise in me (Christina Rossetti)

I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numb’d too much for hopes or fears;
 Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimm’d with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall – the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.

My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perish’d thing;
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.

--Christina Rossetti, A Better Resurrection              

Image source: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Damsel of the Sanct Grael (1874), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail#/media/File:Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_-_The_Damsel_of_the_Sanct_Grael_(1874).jpg

A heart broken by us and for us (Henri Nouwen)

   Thank you, Jesus, for the mystery of your broken heart, a heart broken by us and for us, that has now become the source of forgiveness and new life. The blood and water flowing from your side show me the new life that is given to me through your death. It is a life of intimate communion with you and your Father. But it is also a life that calls me to give all that I am in the service of your love for the world. It is a life of joy, but also of sacrifice. It is a glorious life, but also one of suffering. It is a life of peace, but also of struggle. Yes, Lord, it is a life of water and blood, but no longer water and blood that destroy, but water and blood that come from your heart and so bring reconciliation and peace… May our hearts be one so that the world may recognize that it is you who sent me, not to condemn, but to offer your heart to all who search for love. 

--Henri Nouwen, Heart Speaks to Heart 

Image source: Giotto di Bondone, Crucifix (detail; ca. 1290-1300), gold and tempera on panel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/giotto/crucifix.htm

S'una sol lagrima (Zelenka/Orlinski)

If every penitent heart

would render me but one repentant tear,

how contented would I die!

If every loving soul in man contrite

would render me but one sign of love,

then all the heavy grief that grips my heart

would melt away.

The original text by composer Jan Dismas Zelenka in Italian:

S’una sol lagrima di pentimento

mi desser tutti di cor pentito,

quanto contento io morirei !

Se amante aogni anima nell’uom contrito

mi desse un solo segno d’amore,

Tutto il gran duolo che m’ange il core

sciolto vedrei.

--Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745),

Aria di Gesù al Calvario

This aria, performed by Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orlinski, imagines Christ in the midst of the Passion on the Cross, praying for a response from those for whom he has sacrificed his life.  Its quiet and beautiful repetition, punctuated by acute string accents, makes for a fitting meditation for Good Friday afternoon. To hear it, click on the video below.  To purchase Orlinski’s remarkable CD Anima Sacra, click here.

 

Image source: Zachary Roesemann, Franciscan Cross.  To read the artist's reflections on this piece:  
https://www.holytrinity-nyc.org/franciscan-icon

Video source

Love for sinners (D.A. Carson)

    It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father’s will – and it was his love for sinners like me. 

 --D.A. Carson            

Image source: Matthias Grünewald, Crucifixion, Isenheim Altarpiece, detail, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2017/jan/05/crucifixion-glasgow-theology-students-violent-brutal-images-death-paintings 

Quotation source

The purpose in Gethsemane (Fr. James Martin / Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

Like any Garden, Gethsemane was teaming with life.
God’s life was palpable in the life around me.
 This would also have been true at the time of Jesus.
 How often in considering this story do we consider
that Jesus sought consolation and prayer in a garden? 

--Fr. James Martin 

In golden youth, when seems the earth
A Summer land for singing mirth,
When souls are glad, and hearts are light,
And not a shadow lurks in sight.
We do not know it, but there lays
Somewhere, veiled under evening skies
A garden all must sometimes see,
      Gethsemane, Gethsemane, 
      Somewhere his own Gethsemane.

With joyous steps we go our ways,
Love lends a halo to our days,
Light sorrows sail like clouds afar,
We laugh and say how strong we are.
We hurry on, and, hurrying, go
Close to the borderland of woe
That waits for you and waits for me;
      Gethsemane, Gethsemane,
      Forever waits Gethsemane.

Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams,
Bridged over by our broken dreams,
Behind the misty caps of years,
Close to the great salt fount of tears
The garden lies; strive as you may
You cannot miss it on your way.
      All paths that have been, or shall be
      Pass somewhere through Gethsemane.

All those who journey, soon or late,
Must pass within the garden’s gate;
Must kneel alone in darkness there,
And battle with some fierce despair.
God pity those who cannot say:
Not mine but thine; who only pray:
Let this cup pass, and cannot see
The purpose in Gethsemane. 

 --Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Gethsemane 

Image source: https://uscatholic.org/articles/201905/what-the-agony-in-the-garden-says-about-human-suffering/
Poem source

Dirty feet (Nadia Bolz-Weber)

   On the night that Jesus was betrayed by his friends, he first had dinner with them. But before that, he tied the towel of a servant girl around his waist and he washed their feet. And to be clear, this wasn’t after they’d tidied up first. Jesus met them where they were: with dirty feet, literally and metaphorically. Hours before his disciples betrayed, denied, and abandoned him, Jesus washed their filthy feet. He knew what was about to go down. In the days and weeks prior, he had tried telling them that he would be betrayed and handed over to suffer and be killed, and they all thought he was crazy. But he knew. As he knelt before his friends and washed their feet, he knew that very night they would do the thing that would torture them for the rest of their lives. They would deny, betray, and hand over their own friend and teacher. They would not be the men and women they wanted to be. 

   In the end, we aren’t punished for our sins as much as we are punished by our sins.  

--Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints:
 Finding God in All the Wrong People

Image source: Caravaggio, Madonna of the Rosary (ca.1607), detail.  For more information on the significance of dirty feet in Caravaggio's works, see https://claudiaviggiani.com/caravaggio-dirty-feet/?lang=en