At the vigil and in the morning, the disciples proclaim the Resurrection, saying “We have seen the Lord.”

As you contemplate these powerfully true words, ever ancient and ever new, how do they ring true for you, in your life,
this year?

Where have you seen the Lord? Where have you doubted him, like Thomas, and then had him comfort you?

Where have you seen him, and then he was gone? Where have you run to share your experience of Jesus with those you love?

When have you seen him, rising like the sun after a storm?

The world needs the Resurrection, and we have seen the Lord. Let us tell the stories, our stories, of new life.

Resurrected Jesus, help us to see you rising on Easter morning and in the healing stories of our lives. Make us bold in declaring where we have seen you, sharing the Good News with those who need it, and hearing it from others when it is hard to see ourselves. Alleluia, amen.

As we listen to the passion narrative amid this challenging Lent in the midst of a world pandemic, let us be
attentive to the echo of the Psalmist, who says, “My times are in your hands.” The Prophet Isaiah and Saint Paul
assure us in the first and second readings that the Father takes his child’s willingness, faithfulness, pain and
turns it into glory.

What we cannot see now, during the darkest moments, is how God will turn it into new life. Will we resist and reject God in suffering? Or will we lift our gaze to him in faith and trust that He will restore and renew our lives and relationships, preparing and equipping us for eternal joy and salvation?

Prayer of the Faithful: Amidst the world’s sufferings, that we may see God’s love and call for an abundant life
in Him, we pray to the Lord.

Loving and merciful Jesus, help us to meet you at the cross. Create in us new hearts that even when we experience grief, pain, and despair, we open and surrender our lives to your grace. We pray for peace, healing, and joy to reign in our hearts, in our families, and in our common places. Amen.

Reflection from CCCB

In all three readings for this holy day, we are asked to remember by doing something. Our faith is not mere
intellectual memory or a set of impersonal truths. It is a faith of living memory, where Christ’s life and memory
are renewed each time we live out of His love. When we eat his body and drink his blood, and we realize His
love in the world. When we wash one another’s feet, we offer a holy service to those in need, bringing life to
ourselves and others. As we prepare for the Triduum, we are preparing to die with him for the sake of others so
that we might all be raised with him. May we be prepared to have our faith change the way we live – in
remembrance of Him.

Prayer of the Faithful: For those who emulate the sacrificial and loving actions of Jesus in service of others, we
pray to the Lord.

Compassionate Father, as your Son Jesus washed the feet of disciples and comforted the outcast, draw us into encounters of mercy that imitate your love. Grant that our lives be tangible signs of your Kingdom, of service and generosity sustained by communion with you. Amen.

Taken from the CCCB Reflection

Before we rejoice in the resurrection, we pause with the dying. We cry out, “Hosanna in the highest!” as the King whom we longed for rides in on a donkey. He has a crown, yet it is made of thorns. His body is laid in a tomb by those with the courage to stay by his side.

The readings recount how Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of his obedience, God greatly exalted him. Palm Sunday is our recognition of the King of Kings passing from this life through death to establish the new covenant of life. We anticipate the end of the story, but take the time to pause and remember that it is only through God’s timing and God’s grace that our relationship of life and love is restored.

In the space between Palm and Easter Sundays, we wrap the wounds and console one another, keeping a glimmer of hope in our hearts. We hold each other and all our sorrows in that same supernatural hope. There will be a time for feasting, but for now, we live through the dying, precisely because this man, truly, is the Son of God.

Christ Jesus, we remember that you have shown us how the path of life includes dying. Give us the courage to accompany you and others into the tomb, that we will walk out together when you remove the stone. Amen.

Taken from the CCCB – Reflection
Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

At 12 noon today, the fifth Sunday of Lent, the Holy Father Francis led the recitation of the Angelus prayer from the Library of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

On this fifth Sunday of Lent, the liturgy proclaims the Gospel in which St. John relates an episode that took place in the last days of Christ’s life, shortly before the Passion (cf. Jn 12 : 20-33). While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover feast, some Greeks, intrigued by what He was doing, expressed the desire to see him. They approached the apostle Philip and told him: “We want to see Jesus” (v. 21). “We want to see Jesus”. Let us remember this desire: “We want to see Jesus”. Philip talks about it to Andrea and then together they report it to the Master. In the request of those Greeks we can see the question that so many men and women, of every place and of every time, address to the Church and also to each of us: “We want to see Jesus”.

And how does Jesus respond to that request? In a way that makes you think. He says thus: “the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. […] If the grain of wheat falls to the ground does not die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit “(vv. 23-24). These words do not seem to answer the question posed by those Greeks. In fact, they go further. In fact, Jesus reveals that he, for every man who wants to seek him, is the hidden seed ready to die in order to bear much fruit. As if to say: if you want to know me, if you want to understand me, look at the grain of wheat that dies in the ground, that is, look at the cross.

One thinks of the sign of the cross, which over the centuries has become the emblem par excellence of Christians. Who even today wants to “see Jesus”, perhaps coming from countries and cultures where Christianity is little known, what does he see first of all? What is the most common sign you encounter? The crucifix, the cross. In churches, in the homes of Christians, even carried on their own body. The important thing is that the sign is consistent with the Gospel: the cross can only express love, service, self-giving without reserve: only in this way is it truly the “tree of life”, of superabundant life.

Even today many people, often without saying it, implicitly, would like to “see Jesus”, meet him, know him. From here we understand the great responsibility of us Christians and of our communities. We too must respond with the witness of a life that gives itself in service, of a life that takes upon itself the style of God – closeness, compassion and tenderness – and gives itself in service. It is a question of sowing seeds of love not with words that fly away, but with concrete examples, simple and courageous, not with theoretical condemnations, but with gestures of love. Then the Lord, with his grace, makes us bear fruit, even when the ground is arid due to misunderstandings, difficulties or persecutions, or claims of clerical legalisms or moralisms. This is barren land. Just then, in trial and loneliness, as the seed dies, it is the moment in which life sprouts, to produce ripe fruit in due time. it is in this intertwining of death and life that we can experience the joy and true fruitfulness of love, which always, I repeat, is given in the style of God: closeness, compassion, tenderness.

May the Virgin Mary help us to follow Jesus, to walk strong and happy on the path of service, so that the love of Christ may shine in every attitude and become more and more the style of our daily life.

[00374-EN.02] [Original text: Italian]

Taken from the Vatican New – Bulletino

https://www.cccrs.com/5th-sunday-of-lent-3/