Passion Sunday

Reflection

Palm Sunday places us at the uneasy intersection of praise and betrayal, courage and collapse. We begin with palms raised high and end at the foot of the cross, confronted by how swiftly human allegiance can waver. The readings will not let us remain spectators; they press a deeper question: Where do we stand when faith becomes costly?

Isaiah speaks of the servant who listens before speaking, whose well-trained tongue offers a word that sustains the weary. That posture of attentive obedience finds its fullest expression in Christ, who, as Paul reminds us, did not cling to status or power but emptied himself completely. His authority is revealed not in domination but in surrender — obedience shaped by love, even unto death.

The Passion narrative lays bare how fragile discipleship can be. Judas betrays, Peter denies, the crowd demands Barabbas, and even silence becomes a form of complicity. Yet Psalm 22 reminds us that abandonment is not the final word. The cry of desolation —“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” — is itself an act of faith, a refusal to let go of God even in the darkness.

For a college community devoted to learning, formation, and service, Palm Sunday stands as a sobering invitation. It asks whether our convictions endure when discipleship requires humility, patience, and sacrifice. The cross before us is not a sign of despair but the place where divine love proves stronger than fear, failure, and death.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, teach us to listen with patience, to speak with integrity, and to follow with courage—even when the path leads to the cross. Shape our hearts in humble obedience, that our lives may proclaim your love and reveal you as Lord.

Richard Plumb PhD
Saint Michael’s College President

Scripture

Procession Gospel: Matthew 21:1-11
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Matthew 26:14—27:66

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

 

Saturday of the Fifth Week

Reflection

Fear is a powerful emotion. It can break things apart, create uncertainty, and can cause us to react from a place of suspicion and pain. On this last day before Holy Week, these readings speak to me of choices we face – unity vs. division, faith vs. fear, life vs. death. Fear often tears us apart from one another, but we hear so beautifully in the first reading of the Lord promising to gather people who have wandered apart back into one nation in a covenant of peace so that “they may be my people and I may be their God.” The Lord wants to reunite our human family and repair our brokenness. This vision feels like a distant reality in today’s world, and I feel myself yearning for a community of faith with God dwelling among us.

As we move on to the Gospel reading, we then see people being divided – some choosing faith in Jesus while other chose fear. We hear that many people saw and believed in Jesus, but there were also those who turned to the Pharisees, fearful that the Romans would come and take away what was theirs. They – like we often are – were afraid, frightened, and unsure of the future.

Those in the Gospel asked each other, “What are we going to do?” We too have to make a choice. To seek unity. To overcome fear. To embrace the selfless act of love that Jesus gives to us. None of this is easy. As our world feels more and more divided, fearful, and self-serving, we continue to try to strive towards unity and love in a world that often feels bleak. As we enter Holy Week, may we be reminded of how love conquers fear and find the hope we need by witnessing the unconditional love that Jesus has for all of us.

Prayer

Loving God, help us not be overcome by fear, but unite with one another as a community of faith who responds with love, compassion, and life in the face of a troubled world. Prepare our hearts as we enter Holy Week and the new life and hope that awaits us. Amen.

Anna Lester, ’98, M‘11

Scripture

First Reading: Ezekiel 37:21-28

Psalm: Jeremiah 31:10-13

Gospel: John 11:45-56

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Friday of the Fifth Week

Reflection

In this fifth week of Lent, we begin to experience the inevitable heightening of the drama of the Lord as he moves toward the fulfillment of his passion. For those of us who take on the full mantle of Christ, he has not made it possible to experience the joys of his resurrection without the fullness of the cross.

One of the most terrible moments we can encounter in our walk with Jesus is expressed in the first reading:

“All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. Perhaps he (she) will be trapped; then we can prevail and take our vengeance upon him.” Jeremiah claims unshakeable faith that the Lord will rescue him from his foes. He entrusts himself to God.

The psalm boldly describes the depth of God’s servant crying in the midst of impossible trials: “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.” One must fully absorb that the psalmist does not look upon the death-defying trials but upon the Lord alone.

The gospel shows the escalating attacks upon Jesus. We know what is coming.

Prayer

Jesus, as we falter and faint in the experience of our deepest trials, let us behold the faith of those like Jeremiah and the psalmist, who received grace to believe you and obey you before you had even come to earth.

Caroline Rood
Member of the Worshipping Community 

Scripture

First Reading: Jeremiah 20:10-13
Psalm 18:2-7
Gospel: John 10:31-42

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCB website

Thursday of the Fifth Week

Reflection

As we approach the holiest week in the Church calendar, today’s readings tell us that the God we count on is a covenant-keeping God who is forever present. The gospel passage in John is part of a longer narrative describing the interactions between Jesus and doubting elders who are offended by His teachings in the Temple. The climax of the argument comes when Jesus says “before Abraham was made, I am”. We might wonder about the last two words: do they contain an error in tense that should be corrected by substituting ‘was’ for ‘am’? In fact, the stunning meaning of Jesus’ “I am” is illuminated in today’s first reading, in which God uses the same words when speaking with Abram. Thus, there could not be a more definitive expression by Jesus of His one-ness with the Father than His use of the two simple words “I am”. The covenant of God is neither time-dependent nor condition-dependent. We experience its manifestations in the presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives. In the beauty of the world, in the love we share with others, in the questions we may have about our place in this life, in the feelings we have as we experience the wonder of this coming Holy Week. In the here and now, as we write, as we read, is God’s unchanging presence and faithfulness. Let us focus on those in the days ahead.

Prayer

Lord, your faithful presence is always with us. Help us to see it in all that we do.

Bill Geiger
Member of the Worshiping Community

Scripture

First Reading: Genesis 17:3-9
Psalm 105:4-9
Gospel: John 8:51-59

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Wednesday of the Fifth Week

The Annunciation of the Lord
Reflection

The Lenten season itself takes a holiday on March 25, nine months before Christmas, to celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation. This day, falling in the midst of Lent, the season of penitence, calls us to reflect on the definitive moment in salvation history: with Gabriel’s greeting to Mary, the Church believes Jesus truly becomes incarnate. Conceived in her womb, Christ begins life as we all do: small, frail, dependent, needing parental care within his mother’s body and without. Much has been written about the shock and surprise Mary must have felt in this moment: “how can this be?” As one of the most illustrated moments in salvation history (and in the whole history of western art), our greatest artists have sought to capture her shock, her awe, her fear that turns to trust, moving her to proclaim “May it be done to me according to your word.”

Readers of sacred scripture may not be as surprised as Mary was: the Church has long believed that the Anointed One would be born of a virgin, one of the many prophecies of Isaiah that foretold the arrival of Christ. No one, however, usually expects that a prophecy will be fulfilled in themselves. Yet all of us, in our own ways, are called upon to be ready to hear the Lord’s call whenever and however it may come. From Isaiah, to Mary, to Christ himself as quoted in the Letter to the Hebrews, the same refrain echoes: “I come to do your will, O God.” May we all be ready to heed the call.

Prayer

O God, who willed that your Word should take on the reality of human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, grant, we pray, that we, who confess our Redeemer to be God and man, may merit to become partakers even in his divine nature, through Christ our Lord.

Michael R. Carter, S.S.E. ’12
Director of Campus Ministry

Scripture

First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10
Psalm 40:7-11
Second Reading: Hebrews 10:4-10
Gospel: Luke 1:26-38

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Tuesday of the Fifth Week

Reflection

In today’s fast-paced world, we are so used to a fast-paced life that we often become very impatient and unwilling to trust the process or journey. In the first reading, the people of Israel are tired, hungry, and discouraged. They are becoming “worn out by the journey,” and this tiredness turns into frustration and complaints to God and Moses. Instead of remembering all that God has done for them, they are filled with complaints and blindness to the good that God has provided them in their lives. It is easy to recognize ourselves in them. When our prayers are not answered right away, or not on the timeline we desire, it is easy to turn to complaining. In the moments of this doubt, we are tempted to believe that God has led us astray. God does not erase all our struggles instantly, but He invites us to lift our eyes to Him and trust the path He has perfectly aligned for each of us. During this time of Lent, it is a time to turn away from the temptation to complain and instead turn to confidence in the Lord and the plan He has perfectly crafted for each one of us on our journeys.

Prayer

As we prepare for the coming of Easter, may we find peace and confidence in the plan the Lord has created for each and every one of us on our journeys, and turn our complaining into confidence in Him.

Kayley Bell, ’27

Scripture

First Reading: Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 102:2-3, 16-21
Gospel: John 8:21-30

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Monday of the Fifth Week

Reflection

My mother has a saying, “there but for the grace of God go I.” It was often invoked when she listened to one of her children critiquing someone else’s behavior. This phrase came to mind as I was reading John’s Gospel where the woman who has sinned is brought before Jesus. Her shortcomings are publicly proclaimed by the standard bearers of her time and she is to be condemned for them. Perhaps we have been the “scribes and Pharisees”- quick to point out other’s faults and mistakes while cloaking ourselves in righteousness; forgetting that tomorrow we might well find ourselves on the other side of the line in need of grace? Perhaps we, like the woman, know what it is to have our worst mistakes widely broadcast; standing exposed and braced for the judgement of others while struggling with our conscience?

 

Jesus’ response to the woman’s situation is powerful in two ways I think. First, when He refrains from condemning her and challenges her accusers instead to “let the one among you who is without sin throw the first stone at her,” He reminds us that we all will sin and be in need of grace during our journeys. Christians must act with compassion. To be shown mercy we must extend mercy. Second, Jesus reminds us that, like the woman, when we sin it does not have to define or trap us forever. We can choose to turn from sin and when we do the “grace of God” will bring us a fresh start. God will always show us compassion.

Prayer

O Lord, may there always be compassion, grace and mercy for others in my heart, in my words and in my actions. Help me to extend my empathy for others and refrain from being judgmental. Amen.

Amy Rock-Wardwell, ’96
Member of the Worshipping Community

Scripture

First Reading: Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or 13:41c-62

Psalm 23:1-6

Gospel: John 8:1-11

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website