A Concord Pastor Comments

4/4/26

Pause for Prayer: HOLY SATURDAY

The Dead Christ by Mantegna

On Holy Saturday the Church waits at the Lord's tomb, meditating on His suffering and death. Mantegna's painting is a compelling image, confronting us with the reality of Jesus' death...

On this day, Holy Saturday, the altar is left bare and Mass is not celebrated.

Only with the solemn vigil during the night does the Easter celebration begin with a spirit of joy that overflows into an Easter season of fifty days.

Writing in the fourth century, St Epiphanius of Salamis offers us his beautiful appreciation of Holy Saturday. What he describes here is what we mean when we say of Christ in the Apostles Creed:

He suffered, died, and was buried.
He descended into Hell;

the third day he rose again from the dead.

Upon his death, Christ went to the nether world to set free the souls of all who had died awaiting his victory over death - beginning with our first parents...

Something strange is happening—

there is a great silence on earth today,

a great silence and stillness.

The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.

The earth trembled and is still

because God has fallen asleep in the flesh

and has raised up all who have slept

ever since the world began.

God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.

Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness

and in the shadow of death,

he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve:

He who is both God and the son of Eve.

The Lord approached them bearing the Cross,

the weapon that had won Him the victory.

At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created,

struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone:

“My Lord be with you all.”

Christ answered him:

“And with your spirit.”

He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying:

“Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead,

and Christ will give you light.”

- St Epiphanius of Salamis

A Prayer for Holy Saturday

- by Kerry Greenhil

This is the hardest time to pray:
after the drama and catastrophe,
before the angels and the big reveal.

The passion, the agony, the desperate grief
have given way to numbness
and absence
in this time in between.

God seems to be offstage,
preparing for the final scene,
taking care of ancient souls in other worlds
or clothing the hidden, broken body
in resurrection glory.

So let our prayer this day be plain
and to the point:
May God be with us in the waiting,
and may we wait with hope,
today
and every time in between.

Amen.

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4/3/26

Stations of the Cross and NIGHT PRAYER

I'm posting Night Prayer early because it's based on the Stations of the Cross and some here might want to pray the Stations this afternoon.

The "stations" are a Lenten devotion whose roots go back to the fourth century ,when pilgrims to the Holy Land would trace the steps of Jesus from Pilate's house to Calvary. Later, for those who could not travel to the Holy Land, images were erected both outdoors and in churches so that believers could make a virtual pilgrimage and pray their way with Jesus on his way to Calvary.

The stations many of us grew up with number 14. Of these, some are based in the scriptural accounts of Jesus' last hours and some are not. For example, while 3 of stations recount Jesus falling under the weight of the Cross, there is no scriptural basis for his having fallen even once. Likewise, the scene of a woman named Veronica wiping the face of Jesus comes not from the bible but from a pious tradition.

Now, however, there's an alternative. On Good Friday 1991, Saint John Paul II introduced a new set of Stations - still 14 - but all of them based on the gospel accounts of Jesus' suffering and death.

Here, then, are two videos: the first offers the older form of the Stations and the second the scripture-based devotion. You'll find the first presentation very plain and simple, leaving most of the praying to the viewer while the second format leads you prayerfully through the scenes in the gospel that tell the story of Jesus' suffering and death.

Following the videos you'll find today's Night Prayer...

If two videos don't appear below, click here!

Stations of the Cross - by iChurch.org

Stations of the Cross:

by Saint John Paul II Catholic High School

Night Prayer

Jesus, my brother,

in accepting your Cross

you took on your shoulders

the weight of my sins and offenses,

the heft of my faults and my failings...

Jesus, my friend,

when you shouldered your Cross

you bore the brunt of my pride and resentments,

my lies and deceit, my temper and anger...

Jesus, my Lord,

the Cross you took up scraped and bruised your flesh

with the splinters of my indiscretions,

my hasty, foolish and imprudent choices...

Jesus, my brother, my friend, my Lord,

you carried me on your shoulders that day,

you took on the weight of my unfaithful heart

to save and redeem me, to mend and to heal me,

to free and forgive me of all my sins,

that I might have life I don't deserve,

won by your love,

sealed in your blood,

given for me

on the arms of your Cross...

O Jesus, Son of the living God:

have mercy on me, a sinner...

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

and asleep, rest in your peace.

Amen.

Tonight's song is below the image...

Tonight's song is a beautiful, haunting setting of an old hymn,

including some instrumental interludes for your personal prayer...

What Wondrous Love Is This by Fernando Orgtega

If a video doesn't appear below, click here!

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Pause for Prayer: GOOD FRIDAY

For many years now, I've posted the image above on Good Friday but the link to the image and the artist is no longer active. To the best of my knowledge this is Meditation on the Crucifixion by Mimi Ess. If you click on the image for a larger version, you'll see the crucifix more clearly...

Here are two reflections for Good Friday: While Meditating Upon the Passion by Brenda Stinson and The Cross is a Scandal on Every Level by Pastor Brian Zahnd, pastor of the Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri.

While Meditating Upon the Passion

I long to be the teardrop
Rolling ever so slowly down your cheek
Searching the curves and creases of your most holy face
Lightly kissing moisture upon your dry lips.

I long to be the air that becomes your breath
Bought with your agony as you push up to draw me in,
Absorbed into your body offered to the Father,
Flowing mercy from your wounds,
Exhaling love upon the world.

I long to be the cry
Welling up from the depths of your soul
Blinded by the night that envelops it.
Rushing to meet you as the all-consuming pain
draws you deeper into the darkness,
Finally bursting forth a helpless scream,
The cry of God - to God -
For mercy.

I long to be the last beat of your heart,
Suspended there in time
Until the Father grants you life anew
And then -
Captured there in eternity,
A prisoner of Divine Love.

- Brenda Stinson

The Cross is a Scandal on Every Level

The Cross is a scandal on every level
   A king with a crown of thorns
   A death march processional
   Acclamation by insult
   It’s a macabre coronation

The Cross is a scandal on every level
   You say he won a war?
   You can’t win a war that way
   You have to kill to win a war
   Who could win a war that way?

The Cross is a scandal on every level
   Love your enemy
   Forgive your enemy
   Reconcile your enemy
   Whoever heard such madness?

The Cross is a scandal on every level
   “Take up your cross and follow me”
   No one would ever sign up for that
   Promise me pleasure and riches
   Don’t bid me come and die

The Cross is a scandal on every level
   We’re promised glory and we’re given this
   A kingdom to come and we get that
   The glorious kingdom of a crucified king?
   We want gold and silver, success and splendor

The Cross is a scandal on every level
   Pharaoh did it first
   Alexander did it great
   Caesar did it best
   But not a crucified conqueror

The Cross is a scandal on every level
   Give us sword and shield
   Something we can win with
   Not outstretched arms
   And a pierced side

The Cross is a scandal on every level
   No wonder the followers fled
   What is there left to follow?
   It’s the ultimate dead end
   It’s common sense to run from that

The Cross is a scandal on every level
   You say it’s the road that leads to life?
   It’s quite obvious it’s the way of death
   And when you’re dead the story ends
   Unless you believe what the silly women said

- Pastor Brian Zahnd

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Good Friday homily from 9 years ago...

Photo by CP

Homily for Good Friday

I don't have a preaching assignment today so I thought I'd share a homily I preached 9 years ago, under the Cross (see above) in the darkened church of Holy Family Parish in Concord. The sung components of this homily can be heard on the audio.

Audio for homily

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Does it?

Does the thought of Jesus suffering and dying for our sins,
sometimes cause us to “tremble, tremble, tremble?”

How do we understand the story we've just heard?

Is it just a story - even if a true story?

Is it simply a moving account
of one man’s extraordinary sacrifice and goodness?

Have I only heard the story -- second-hand,
or, was I there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they crucified our Lord?

I was there...

And though you may not remember:

you were there, too.

At least our sins were there:
- every failure of yours and mine to love God
   and to love our neighbor as ourselves - was there;
- every failure of yours and mine
   to live according to the Lord’s word - was there;
- every failure of yours and mine to do what is just
   and to make peace, beginning in our own families

and extending in ripples all around us - was there;
all of this, which is part of all-of-us,
was there -when they crucified our Lord.

And we were there together, as a church,

a community of faith with all its warts and wrinkles,

its shame and chagrin,

its selfishness and self-protection...

You and I, and all of us together through the ages:
we were there when they crucified the Lord…

We were there when Jesus, the Christ, our Passover Lamb,
took upon his innocent shoulders:
- the sins of all the times we have settled

       for anything less, than what is true, right, just and good;
   - the sins of all the times we have settled for anything less
       than what is real, pure, chaste and beautiful;
   - the sins of all the times we have settled for anything less

than what is life-giving, nurturing and loving;
- the sins of all the times we put ourselves and our desires'

ahead of others and their needs:

marginalizing and excluding others

and forgetting the poor

           while we ourselves have more than we need…

I was there and you were there,
   the church was there, the world was there
       when they crucified the Lord
because he took on his shoulders all our sins:
   the sins we remember; the sins we’ve forgotten;
       the sins we’ve confessed and the sins we’ve hidden;
   and even the sins we have not yet committed

-- but surely will...

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Look!
There is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world!

Oh, God!

   Oh, God of love and mercy:
       you are always ready to forgive.
   Time and time again we broke your covenant
       but you did not abandon us.
   Instead, through your Son, Jesus,
       you bound yourself even more closely to the human family
           by a bond that can never be broken.
   When we were lost and could not find the way to you,
       you loved us more than ever.
   Jesus, innocent and without sin,
       gave himself into our hands
           and was nailed to a cross - for our sins...*

For our sins:
   your sins, my sins, our sins;

the sins of the church,

the sins of the whole world -
Jesus suffered and died…

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

We don’t recall these things tonight to make us feel
guilty, or sad, or uncomfortable.
Rather, we remember these things tonight

so that sometimes, at least tonight,

       we might tremble, tremble, tremble,
   as we ponder the weight of our sins
       on our Jesus’ innocent shoulders
   and then come to glory in the cross of Jesus
       who is our life and our resurrection,
   who is the One in whom we find God's mercy,

the one in whom we are forgiven

           - saved and delivered.

For if we do not see the love
   with which Jesus shouldered our sins
and laid down his life for us, his unfaithful friends,
   how shall we ever know the victory of his Cross,
       the exquisite, bitter-sweet gift of the Cross
           which makes of us his redeemed friends?

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

O Jesus:

You are our Passover, our lasting peace.
You are the lamb, slain for us

       that the angel of death,
           finding us washed in your blood,
       might spare us and save us for everlasting life.

What, then, shall we return to you, Lord,
   what shall offer for such undeserved mercy?

We will give you glory, Jesus -
   our innocent brother who suffered for us all!

We will give you glory, Jesus. merciful Lord,

Lamb of God, who takes away our sins

and the sins of the world!

We will give you glory, Jesus,
Savior and Redeemer, humbled for our sakes,

Savior and Redeemer, risen Lord,
we give you glory, even now, this very night,

as we remember your suffering and death,

the gift of your life,

given that we might have life

and have it to the full.

Oh-o-o-o, sometimes
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble…
Were you there when they crucified my Lord…

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4/2/26

April 3 is GOOD FRIDAY and it is a day of FAST and ABSTINENCE

GOOD FRIDAY
(April 3)
is a day of FAST and ABSTINENCE

What does that mean?

On Good Friday:

- Catholics over 14 years of age

are expected to ABSTAIN from eating meat on this day.

- Catholics 18 years of age and up to the beginning of their 60th year

are expected to FAST on these days:

taking only one full meal and two other light meals,

eating nothing between meals

(although liquids between meals, are allowed).

(As always, illness, medical conditions and doctor's orders take precedence over fast and abstinence.)

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TEST

On Sundays, Night Prayer takes its lead from some element from the day's liturgy

and today is the First Sunday of Advent....

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

and asleep rest in your peace...

Protect us, Lord while we're awake
and watch over us while we sleep
that awake, we might keep watch with you
and asleep, rest in your peace...

Amen.

Title by Unspoken
performed by HCS Junior High Choir

If a video doesn't appear below, click here!

If a widget doesn't appear below, click here!

MMMMMM

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NIGHT PRAYER: Holy Thursday

We all know that on the night before he died, Jesus had his last supper with his friends, which is the scriptural source for our understanding the gift of the Eucharist. But what happened after that supper is a lesson for us in the humanity of Jesus - and of our own human weakness...

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray." And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful, even to death; remain here and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
- Matthew 26:36-56

Tonight's prayer is taken from Days of the Lord. It's a dialogue between Jesus and myself, just as he's about to enter the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper...

Photo by Vedad Colic

Do not go into the garden, oh Jesus,
do not go into the garden before dawn!

But if I do not go into the garden

in the dead of night,

who will lead you

to the sunrise of Paradise?
I will go into the garden in the dead of night.

Do not let them bind your hands, oh Jesus,
do not let them bind your hands without a word!

If I do not let them bind my hands like a thief,
who will break open the prisons
in which you languish?
I will let them bind my hands like a thief.

Do not hang on the cross, oh Jesus,
do not hang on the cross 'til you die!

If I do not hang on the cross like a bird,
who will protect you from the flames of hell?
I will hang on the cross like a bird.

Do not let your heart be pierced, oh Jesus,
do not let your heart be pierced by executioners!

If I do not let my heart be pierced like a ripe fruit,
from whom will you drink the blood and water
that will heal you?
I will let my heart be pierced like a ripe fruit.

Do not go to into the tomb, oh Jesus,
do not go into the tomb that they have dug!

If I do not go into the tomb
like a grain of wheat,
who will lift from your coffins your lifeless bodies?
I will go into the tomb to sleep there.

Photo by Ruth Hamilton

Protect us, Lord, while we're awake

- and when we nod asleep -

that awake, we might keep watch with you

and asleep, find mercy in your peace...

Amen.

Two musical offerings tonight, both instrumental. The first is entitled Agony in the Garden and the second No Words. I've chosen these in the hope that we'll take some time to listen, imagining ourselves in the garden, with Jesus, awake, in prayer with him...

If two widgets don't appear below, click here!

Agony in the Garden

by The O'Neill Brothers Group