Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, HOLY WEEK, JULY - The MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, LENT 2024, LENTEN THOUGHTS, QUOTES on SUFFERING, The LAMB of GOD, The MOST HOLY REDEEMER, Our SAVIOUR, The MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, The PASSION, The REDEMPTION

Our Lenten Journey with the Angels and the Saints – 24 March – Palm Sunday – Behold the Lamb of God

Our Lenten Journey with the Angels and the Saints – 24 March – Palm Sunday – Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 26:36-75; 2 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

St Bede the Venerable (673-735)
Father and Doctor of the Church

“Towards the Lamb of God arise ,the Hosannas of the people, all those pressing round Him in the crowd, praise Him with one and the same confession of faith: “Hosanna to the son of David!” (Mt 21:9). This praise already echoes the choir of Saints, singing: “Salvation comes from our God, Who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb!” (Apoc 7:10). He goes up to where, day-by-day, He will give His last teaching (Lk 20:47). It is there He will accomplish the sacrament of the Jewish Passover, faithfully observed hitherto. He Himself, will bestow a new Pasch on His own, when, having left for the Mount of Olives, He will be put to the test by His enemies and, the following day, set on the Cross. Of such is the Paschal Lamb, see Him draw near today to the place of His Passion and fulfil the prophecy of Isaias: “Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers” (53:7).

He desires to enter His City five days before His Passion; by this He proves that He is indeed the Lamb without blemish Who comes to take away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29). He is indeed the Paschal Lamb, Who, when sacrificed, will set the new Israel free from its slavery in Egypt (Ex 12). It is truly five days before His Passion when His enemies irrevocably agree on His death. Today He shows us by this that He is going to redeem us all by His Blood (Apoc 5:9). As from today, He enters God’s Temple amongst the joyful jubilation of those who surround him (Mt 21:12). The “Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1Tm 2:5) will suffer for humankind’s salvation – that indeed is why He came down to earth from Heaven – and today, He wills to draw near to the place of His Passion. Thus it will be clear to all that He bears His Passion of His own free will and by no means by force.” (Sermon No 23).

Posted in CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, HOLY WEEK, ONE Minute REFLECTION, The PASSION, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 24 March – ‘Behold the hour is at hand …’ Matthew 26:45

One Minute Reflection – 24 March – Palm Sunday – Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 26:36-75; 27:1-60. – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“Behold the hour is at hand and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners.” – Matthew 26:45

REFLECTION – By St Nerses Chnorhali (1102-1173) Armenian Bishop (Jesus, Only Son of the Father 708-724)

Because of sin, O innocent One,
You were set before the criminal’s judgement seat;
When You return in the Father’s glory
Do not judge me together with him.

You were put to scorn with sacrilegious spittle
On account of the first created man’s shame;
Wipe away the dishonour of the impudent man’s sins,
With which my Face is covered…

You have put on crimson,
Set the scarlet cloak over You
As a dishonour and an affront,
As Pontius Pilate’s soldiers thought it to be (Mt 27:28).

Remove sin’s shirt of hair from Me,
Crimson red, colour of blood,
Re-clothe me in the garment of joy
With which You clothed the first man.

Kneeling, they made sport,
Acting ridicule, they mocked;
When they saw it, Heaven’s armies
Worshipped in fear.

This You underwent that You might remove
The shame, of being sin’s accomplice, from Adam’s nature in us
That, from my soul and my conscience,
You might suppress my sorrowing shame…

Following the judge’s verdict,
You received the terrible blows of flagellation
Over Your whole body
And on Your limbs’ every part.

As for me who, from foot to head
Suffer unbearable pain:
Be pleased to heal me once again
As through the grace of Baptism’s fount.

In exchange for the thorns of sin
That the curse caused to grow up for us (Gn 3,18)
A Crown of Thorns was set on Your Head
By the labourers in Jerusalem’s vineyard (Mt 21,33f.).

Pull out the thorns of sin from me,
Which my enemy planted within me,
And heal in me the bite of the wound
That the marks of sin might be erased.”

PRAYER – Almighty, eternal God, Who, to provide mankind an example of humility for it to imitate, willed that the Saviour should assume our flesh and suffer death upon the Cross, mercifully grant that we may be found worthy of the lesson of His endurance and the fellowship of His Resurrection. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).