Reflection written by Sister Anne Stedman

“We carry the saving cross through the roads of the world,

through the alleys of poverty and misery,

marching to a dawning day, to freedom and victory,

to God’s life and endless glory.”

Way of the Cross

On Ash Wednesday, we began our Lenten Journey—  singing  these words — placing them on our lips —  and allowing them to sear our hearts.  Each Sunday we have ended our Sunday Eucharist with this hymn praying that these words, embodied in Christ, can become our habitual mantra for life. Today we begin the week we call “holy”. It begins with the historical ritual of the Palm Sunday Procession.  We take up our palms and sing with joy.  We walk with all Christians and we remember the humble entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, riding on a foal on which his feet likely touched the ground.  We can hear the exuberant hosannas of the crowds as they prepare their hearts for what they think are ‘the good things that are to come’.  But alas, the Gospel Story of Luke tells us the rest of the story… the betrayal, denial, humiliation, scourging, and horrific carrying of the cross and crucifixion… of Jesus who gave his life so that we may have life more abundantly. It is the week ‘par excellance’we enter into the very heart of the living message of Jesus, the Christ. Come, let us journey together this week – knowing that we are called to be with the ‘suffering Christ’,the wounded, oppressed  and impoverished in our broken world.