Category: Prayers

“They killed Him, finally, hanging Him on a tree, only to have God raise Him up on the third day.” –Acts 10:40 Alleluia! Today is one of the greatest days in our lives. This is the first day of the fifty-day Sunday, the Easter season. Alleluia! When we believe in our hearts that Jesus is risen from the dead (see Rm 10:9), everything is transformed and made new. Death no longer overshadows Life. The fear of death no longer enslaves us (Heb 2:15). Death has lost its sting (1 Cor 15:55). Death is not our enemy but our friend; it...

“I had rather one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere.” –Psalm 84:11 The first Holy Saturday was a day without Jesus. He was buried in the tomb and, because of the sabbath, His body could not be anointed (Lk 23:56—24:1) or possibly even visited (Mt 28:1). Today the Church relives that first Holy Saturday without Jesus. The Blessed Sacrament does not reside in the tabernacle today. There is no Mass during the day. We identify with Jesus buried in the tomb (see Rm 6:3-4). Mary Magdalene spent the first Holy Saturday waiting. She longed for the day to...

“From that time on [Judas] kept looking for an opportunity to hand [Jesus] over.” –Matthew 26:16 Judas Iscariot spent some of Holy Week with his eyes fixed on Jesus (Heb 3:1; 12:2). But Judas wasn’t watching Jesus for the purpose of growing as His disciple, though outwardly Judas was an apostle. In fact, Judas was apparently a powerful enough apostle that when Jesus mentioned at the Last Supper that one of the Twelve would betray Him, none of the other eleven disciples thought to accuse Judas of being that betrayer. Instead, they considered themselves more likely to be the betrayer,...

“No sooner had Judas eaten the morsel than he went out. It was night.” –John 13:30 Jesus died during a darkening of the sun (Mk 15:33). Jesus died when mid afternoon seemed like midnight. He died because of the night of our sins which the prince of darkness (see Eph 6:12) used to crucify the Light of the world (see Jn 8:12). When we betray, deny, ignore, or disobey Jesus, we turn out our light and enter into the night (Jn 3:19ff). However, when we repent, give ourselves totally to Jesus, and live our Baptisms, we too are the light...