Tag Archives: Resurrection

Easter with Pope Francis

Resurrection icon

For Easter Sunday 2005, Pope Francis wrote a beautiful homily to be read in the morning Mass in St Peter’s Square by the celebrant, Cardinal Angelo Comastri. Less than 24 hours later, God called Pope Francis to eternal life with him. In this meditation, we use the text of that homily to consider how:

  • Mary Magdalene, and the apostles Peter and John, all ran in their eagerness to find Jesus
  • We too should be eager to find Jesus, who waits for us in our prayer, in the Scriptures, in Mass, in our workplace, in our family…
  • We should welcome Jesus into our heart so that we, in turn, can share him with others
  • Jesus’ resurrection from the dead fills our life with the hope that we too can overcome the difficulties and crosses that weigh us down
  • The ultimate object of our hope is eternal life with God in heaven

Lessons from the Passion

Jesus teaches us so much in  his suffering and death on the Cross. In this meditation we use the events from his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, through his death on Mount Calvary, to his Resurrection on Easter Sunday to consider some of these lessons:

      • Our weakness, like that of Peter, in denying Christ through sin
      • The importance of prayer to avoid falling in temptation
      • The value of our penances, when we consider Christ’s scourging and crowning with thorns
      • Christ’s fortitude in rising again after his three falls
      • His love in suffering on the Cross when they were tempting him to come down
      • Christ’s gift to us of his Mother to be our own
      • Christ’s Resurrection, which follows his suffering and our own

Hope in the Resurrection

Th resurection of our lord Jesus Christ the principal message of Easter.

When the women went at dawn to anoint the body of Christ on Easter Sunday, they didn’t know how they would remove the huge stone that closed the tomb. To their surprise, they found the stone already removed. In this meditation we use the homily of Pope Francis in the Easter Vigil in St Peter’s Basilica in 2024 to consider how:

  • There are many stones in our own life which may seem like insurmountable obstacles
  • Over the years these problems, by the grace of God, have been solved
  • The Resurrection of Christ fills us with hope that our present problems will also be solved

The Light of Easter

Christ is risen. Easter.

The resurrection of Christ brings light into a world in darkness. That darkness may be of unbelief, of sin, of lack of hope. In all cases, Christ is the light who can dispel the darkness with the light of his Resurrection. In this meditation we consider how we can respond to this light of  Christ in three ways:

  • Accepting the light
  • Keeping the light alive and making it burn more brightly
  • Sharing the light with others

Lessons from Holy Week

Holy Week should be holy not only in its name and in the events we commemorate, but in the way we live it. In this meditation we consider the numerous lessons we can learn from this week and how we can put them into practice. We will consider:

  • Palm Sunday – praising God by our life
  • Holy Thursday – frequenting the sacrament of Penance
  • Washing of the feet – spirit of service
  • Institution of the Eucharist – love for the Eucharist and prayer for priests
  • Prayer in the garden – spirit of prayer
  • Passion and death – spirit of penance
  • Jesus gives us his mother – love for Mary
  • Resurrection – joy and hope

Faith and joy in the Resurrection

The Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday fills us with faith and joy. In this meditation we consider:

  • The sadness and sorrow of Christ’s disciples after his death on the Cross
  • The various accounts in the Gospels of Christ’s appearances after his Resurrection
  • The faith and joy of the holy women and the apostles when they see Christ risen from the dead
  • We too go through crosses in life and can draw strength from them, knowing that God allows them for our greater good and that we will have a resurrection to eternal life

Holy Week

 

 

 

As we celebrate the important events of this most holy week of the year, we pray in this meditation about the significance of the events and how we can use them to grow in holiness ourselves. We consider:

  • Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday
  • The institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday to make Christ’s death on the Cross present through the Mass
  • The agony of Christ in his prayer in the garden where he suffered so much for us
  • The passion and death of Christ on Good Friday which brought about our redemption
  • The joy of the Resurrection

Christ our Light

Resurrection of Christ

Christ’s resurrection on the first Easter Sunday

At a time of much spiritual darkness and evil in the world, the light of the risen Christ at Easter brings light and hope to all. In this meditation we consider:

  • Christ’s resurrection and appearance to Mary Magdalene
  • The risen Christ has overcome the world
  • We have received the light at Baptism but can lose it through sin
  • We should return to the light through confession and help others to do so
  • We should keep our light burning and make it grow ever more brightly
  • We should share our light with many others

Meditation on the lessons of Holy Week

Holy Week should be holy not only in its name and in the events we commemorate, but in the way we live it. In this meditation we consider the numerous lessons we can learn from this week and how we can put them into practice. We will consider:

  • Palm Sunday – praising God by our life
  • Holy Thursday – frequenting the sacrament of Penance
  • Washing of the feet – spirit of service
  • Institution of the Eucharist – love for the Eucharist and prayer for priests
  • Prayer in the garden – spirit of prayer
  • Passion and death – spirit of penance
  • Jesus gives us his mother – love for Mary
  • Resurrection – joy and hope