Building the Porch’s Foundation on Love

As The Porch recently remembered its one year anniversary of the launch from Trinity, we had a sense from the Spirit that our posture for the next season was to pursue intimacy with God as we set the foundation for what will be built as The Porch in the years to come.  In the midst of all the activities we found ourselves involved in, we found that intimacy with God was one thing we were lacking on an individual and communal level. We were convicted by Psalm 127:1 – “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain.  Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.”  Therefore, we haulted the construction to ensure our foundation is on the Lord and we are walking in step with Him.  What this looked like practically is that we tabled all official Porch activities with the hopes that out of intimacy with God what needs to be rebirthed will be.  This was in line with a specific call throughout the Scriptures and throughout the history of the Church for followers of Jesus to stop our activities, look for God in the stillness, and listen to His voice.  Jesus exampled this by frequently withdrawing to lonely places to pray.  It’s essential not just to do this because we’re supposed to, but also to understand why.

The why question is what I asked myself before this gathering, “why are doing this?”  I posited that it’s a simple answer: to know Christ’s love and have intimacy with Him by resting in that love.  Being rooted in that love, then we can love others in Christ, which is the motivation for the community and mission we desire to see come out of The Porch.  The opposite is true too: If I/we can’t know Christ’s love for myself/ourselves, then my/our activities cannot be in Christ.  They are solely good activities, which are better than bad activities, of course.  But friends, don’t we a) desire to know and rest in Christ’s love for ourselves, and b) out of the overflow of that love each other and our neighbors?!  I answer yes.

To do this, I first encourage you to meditate on Paul’s incredible prayer for the Church in Ephesus:

Ephesians 3:14-19: “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

What we receive from this prayer is the extravagance of Christ’s love for us is unknowable without the Spirit of God revealing it to us.  It cannot be grasped rationally!  We can’t just believe the right things about God’s love, it must be divinely placed in our inner being by the Spirit.   So, I urge you to sit before God or walk with God, and ask that this love is revealed to you.  Remember that Satan is crafty and doesn’t want you to grasp this for yourself.  He knows that humans “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” are for the destruction of his miserly ways.  Satan does this by anytime we stop, look, and listen, he will slyly bring the deepest lies or accusations to our attention.  This is why many of us don’t want to stop and rest, because we know when we do, the untruths about ourselves will be brought to our attention.  It’s easier to busy ourselves so to not be reminded of these things.  But I urge you, brothers and sisters, take heart in Jesus overcoming Satan’s lies to him when fasting in the desert for forty days.  Remember that “the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4), because by his death and resurrection He defeated Satan once and for all!  Therefore, the love of Christ will not accuse you.  It convicts you, strengthens you, encourages you, and comforts you.  When the accuser brings lies to your attention simply say no to them by the power of Jesus and don’t allow yourself to embrace them.  Another idea for you is to bring along a trusted friend who follows Jesus.  Ask him or her to help you rest in Jesus’ love.  Speak the lies you are hearing to this person and he or she will remind you that they are lies!  The accusations of the Evil One will have a difficult time taking root when one shares them with another.

When we grasp Christ’s love for ourselves, then we will have intimacy with the One who desires to build the foundation of The Porch.  Out of that intimacy with God will come the community, mission, justice, and works of which we dream.

-Written by Dan Fuller

The Origins of the American Front Porch

Since we are called the Porch, I thought it would be handy for us to understand where the concept of the American Porch originated.  What follows below is an interesting article on the subject:

The Origins of the American Front Porch

The porch as an architectural concept has existed since prehistoric times. It developed throughout history, revealing itself at certain points in time through various cultures, disappearing, and then reappearing again. Yet, at no time or in any culture did the porch take on such structural and cultural importance as in the form of the American front porch. In this section, this evolution of the porch will be examined, unveiling the origins and roots of the American front porch.

The word “porch” originally derives from “the latin word porticus, or the greek word portico, both of which signify the columned entry to a Classical temple”(Kahn 1). As history unfolded and the Middle Ages arrived, the porch came to represent a cathedral’s vestibule, “where worshippers could gather to socialize before and after the service”(Kahn 2). By Victorian times, the word “porch” became interchangeably used with the words “veranda,” “piazza,” “loggia,” and “portico,” each of which could connote individual meanings. From this period until the second half of the nineteenth century, “the word “porch” itself most often described a small, enclosed vestibule or covered rear entrance” (Kahn 1). At this time, at the end of the nineteenth century, the word “porch” began to represent its present meaning. This meaning, in its American sense, generally refers to a “roofed, but incompletely walled living area”(McAlester 52) contiguously attached to the frame of a house. Generally, in America, this area would be found attached to the front of a house, offering a covered and shaded area for an array of uses and would be known as the American front porch.

Historically, “the original concept of a porch can be traced back to the overhanging rock shelters of prehistoric times”(Kahn 2). Yet, the first time that the front porch overtly appeared in the modern world was in Ancient Greece and Rome, whose dwellings often “placed columned verandas as shaded walkways around an interior garden”(Kahn 2). Loggias appeared in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Italy “to provide a shaded outdoor space”(Kahn 2) for public buildings. Piazzas were visible specifically in Venice, Italy, at this time, perhaps deriving their name from the famed Piazza San Marco. Yet, to the north of Europe, porches were rarely found, and thus probably had little influence in the evolution of porches. To the south in Africa, porches were present in the shotgun houses of West Africa. Finally, by the early eighteenth century, porches appeared in the Americas. One century later, porches had become an integral element of American architecture.

Determining the specific origins of the American front porch has presented and will present a difficult challenge for American architectural historians. These historians have debated their findings, revealing no clear synthesis, yet offering many suggestions to work with. The architectural record does clearly reveal that the American front porch evolved form foreign sources into a uniquely American architectural form. This record, as aforementioned, does not reveal what these specific foreign sources may be. Yet, it may be that specific and distinguishable sources do not exist and that rather the American front porch drew from many sources in its creation. Thus the origins of the American front porch will be discussed generally, offering an insight into the roots of this American cultural object.

To understand the origins and roots of the American porch, one must have a developed sense of the origins of America itself. For America was settled by diverse groups of people, hailing from many different locations and backgrounds, each carrying native traditions and integrating them into an American culture. American architecture, an important component of the developing culture, was clearly a product of such forces shaping the land. For American architecture began as a complex hybridization, its roots growing from the seeds of many nationalities and cultural traditions planted in a new and virgin land. Indeed, as American architecture grew and developed through the history of our nation, these outside forces continued to affect it, as our nation became a melting pot of cultural ingredients. From this historical context, the American front porch originated and grew, developing from these exterior elements and forces into a truly American architectural form and cultural object.

The majority of the first immigrants to America came from Europe, bringing with them their European architectural traditions. These traditions did not generally feature a porch, since the porch in Europe was not an element of the architectural form. Hence, porches in the colonies did not exist as commonplace architectural elements until well into the eighteenth century. At this same time, some of the first porches in America were built by the immigrants from Africa. Possible derived from the houses of West Africa, the shotgun house, built by the African slave, appeared as one of the first American houses to universally exhibit a front porch. Perhaps it was this African influence that served as an impetus for all porches in the new world. Professor James Deetz advances this point in his work In Small Things Forgotten. Yet, the porch most likely also grew out of European traditions adapted for a new culture and a new climate in the new world. The influence of climate on the origins of porches may be demonstrated in the fact that porches in America grew first and most quickly in the South. Yet in general, the climate of America was warmer and more tropical than in Europe, lending a new necessity to architectural form throughout the entire country.

Thus it may be seen that the American front porch developed from many sources, African and European, each contributing to its development and growing ubiquity. Such forces created a truly American architectural form: the American front porch. The next section will trace the stylistic devlopment of the front porch from these origins until its end as a popular architectural form in America.

American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987.

Deetz, James. In Small Things Forgotten. New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1996.

Downing, Andrew Jackson. A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening. New York: C.M. Saxton and Company, 1857.

Grow, Lawrence. Old House Plans. New York: Universe Books, 1978.

Jackson, Kenneth. Crabgrass Frontier. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Kahn, Renee and Ellen Meagher. Preserving porches. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1990.

McAlester, Virginia and Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

Out on the Porch. New York: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1992

Pickering, Ernest. The Homes of America. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1951.

Seaside. Ed. David Mohney and Keller Easterling. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1991.

Easter/Resurrection Thought

Infinite Newness

N. Gordon Cosby

When life reaches the depths, as it reached the ultimate depths in Jesus, it explodes into infinite newness. The only man ever resurrected was the one who hit the bottom and knew total poverty. And so we have a new injection into the lifestream of humanity. The ascending way never explodes into newness. It reaches its pinnacle of fame, authority, power by sucking into itself that which should never have been arrogated to it. We store the names, remember the accomplishments–sometimes envy the accomplishments–and write much of our history around those who were invested in fame. We don’t write it around the poor, the real people. We write the story of who we are as a people around “the names.” But they don’t cause us to want to walk tall in the faith. They don’t release love into the common family.

Suppose the only God is the descending God. Suppose the only way that we can know God is to go down, to go to the bottom. Suppose the only way to be reconciled to God is to be reconciled to Christ, who is with the least, at the bottom. If God is going down and we are going up, we’ll miss each other. Going up is the way to evade God and miss the whole purpose of our existence.

Source: Sermon (September 24 1989)

Holy Saturday

The Space _________________________________________ Between

In stillness the earth awaits Resurrection

…

Holy Saturday – The leadership of Christ into the Tomb

As we wait … this Holy Saturday, I pause. In the silence of the quietest of all days, the “day of the entombed Christ,” I try to take in all that “has just happened” in the passing of Jesus. Not just the events of Good Friday, but all that led up to it. He walked among us, was present to all humanity, and then took on all sin and violence of the world in humility and servanthood. And then, as the creed says, “He descended unto the dead.” And now as we hang between two worlds on this most Holy Saturday awaiting the “vigil,” I see not only what He did but also how did it – bringing an end to the one world of darkness, sin and death, and leading us to the new era of His salvation. The magnitude of God’s great work in His death and resurrection is over-whelming truly. And yet how he entered it and led this great victory is equally impacting. For me this morning, a pastor having to lead amidst the minefields of American churchness, it is the way Christ led that is especially impacting me this morning. For let us see Jesus Christ, Son of God, truly God truly human, coming and spending countless hours of sitting and being “among” us. And then let us see Him taking on all our grief, violence, sin, and inadequacies so that in God’s mighty power He, Christ the Son, could lead all us lost souls of this world to the reality of restored creation in Him. He leads regular men and women from death to life through humility, love and submission to taking on the sin of the world, believing God would bring Glory out of it all.

His “leadership style” (forgive me for using that term) is exemplified once and for all at the Lord’s Supper, the week of His passion where He washes the feet of his disciples. And then, on that same occasion, He says to his disciples, the future “leaders” of the church, “the kings and the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called Benefactors, But not so with you, but let him who is the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as a servant. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the Table or the one who serves? … But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:25-27 NASV)

Can I be this kind of leader? Can I be quiet and sit and be among people, suffer the inevitable insults, pains and violence that all us ministers get regularly tossed at us by lost people, or people on their way to sanctification. Can I offer love and truth and direction to someone in the midst of the growth adjustments? On this most Holiest of Saturdays, Jesus calls me back to be this kind of leader with regular submission to Christ in prayer.

These words by Henri Nouwen are mind blowing to me (I don’t know where he wrote them – sorry)

“More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets.It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.”

This is “leadership formation.”

Blessings … as we wait …

-Written by: David Fitch

Good Friday

Stop. Look. Listen (Click the Audio Player below)…Imagine.

Alternate Opening Prayer: Lord, by the suffering of Christ your Son you have saved is all from the death we inherited from sinful Adam. By the law of nature we have borne the likeness of his manhood. May the sanctifying power of grace help us to put on the likeness of our Lord in heaven who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

The Readings Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9;  John 18:1-19:42

Daily Meditation:
This is the wood of the cross,
on which hung the Savior of the world.
Come, let us worship.
This is a very special day of intimacy with our Lord.
It is a day to pray the Stations of the Cross.
A day of fasting and abstinence, in order to sharpen our awareness and openness.
A day to stand at the foot of the cross as a forgiven sinner -
to stand there side-by-side with everyone else who is forgiven.
It is a day of profound gratitude.

My people, what have I done to you?
How have I offended you?  Answer me.

Intercessions:
For our sake our Redeemer suffered death and was buried, and rose again.  With heartfelt love let us adore him, and pray:
Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ our teacher, for our sake you were obedient even to accepting death,
- teach us to obey the Father’s will in all things.

Christ our life, by your death on the cross you destroyed the power of evil and death,
- may we die with you, to rise with you in glory.

Christ our King, you became an outcast among us, a worm and no man,
- teach us the humility by which you saved the world.

Christ our salvation, you gave yourself up to death out of love for us,
- help us to show your love to one another.

Christ our Savior, on the cross you embraced all time with your outstretched arms,
- unite God’s scattered children in your kingdom of salvation.

Closing Prayer:
My Lord,
your son has suffered so much, shed so much blood.
I was born with so many faults
and my nature is so full of weakness,
and yet your son Jesus has died on the cross.
For me.  For us.
I know your grace has the power
to cleanse me of my many sins
and to make me more like your Son.
Thank you for your goodness and love for me.
I ask you, Father, to watch over me – always.

Maundy (Holy) Thursday

The Pivot of Hope

This day of dread and betrayal and denial

Causes a pause in our busyness.

Who would have thought that you would take

This eighth son of Jesse

To become the pivot of hope in our ancient memory?

Who would have thought that you would take

This uncredentialed

Galilean rabbi

To become the pivot of newness in the world?

Who would have thought that you –

God of gods and Lord of lords –

Would fasten on such small, innocuous agents

Whom the world scorns

To turn creation toward your newness?

As we are dazzled,

Give us the freedom to resituate our lives in modest,

Uncredentialed, vulnerable places.

We ask for freedom and courage to move out from our nicely

Arranged patterns of security

Into dangerous places of newness where we fear to go.

Cross us by the cross, that we may be Easter marked.  Amen.

- Walter Brueggemann

__________________________

Opening Prayer:
God our Father,
we are gathered here to share in the supper
which your only Son left to his Church to reveal his love.
He gave it to us when he was about to die
and commanded us to celebrate it as the new and eternal sacrifice.
We pray that in the Eucharist
we may find the fullness of love and life.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; Psalm 116; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15

Daily Meditation:
You gave us an example to imitate.
Holy Thursday is one of the truly marvelous days in our faith community.
We celebrate the gift of the love of Jesus,
given to us for our nourishment -
given to us as an example of self-less love.

In our prayer today, we let our Lord wash our feet – love us unconditionally -
and we let Jesus be broken and given for us.
We pray that we might be faithful to the one commandment of Jesus -
that we might love others in the same way that we have been loved.

Where charity and love are found,
there is God.
Holy Thursday Antiphon.

Today’s Daily Reflection

Intercessions:
The Father anointed Christ with the Holy Spirit
to proclaim forgiveness to those in bondage.

Let us humbly call upon the eternal priest:
Lord, have mercy on us.

You went up to Jerusalem to suffer and so enter into your glory,
- bring your Church to the Passover feast of heaven.

You were lifted high on the cross and pierced by the soldier’s lance,
- heal our wounds.

You made the cross the tree of life,
- give its fruit to those reborn in baptism.

On the cross you forgave the repentant thief,
- forgive us our sins.

Closing Prayer:
Loving Provider,
you gather me in this upper room with your son,
to be fed by your love.
At that supper, Jesus told us to “love one another”
and I know that is the heart of his gift,
his sacrifice for me.
I ask that I might find the source of my own heart,
the meaning for my own life,
in that Eucharist.
Guide me to the fullness of your love and life.

Lent #43 – Spy Wednesday

Opening Prayer:

Father,
in your plan of salvation
your Son Jesus Christ accepted the cross
and freed us from the power of the enemy.
May we come to share the glory of his resurrection,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34; Matthew 26:14-25

Daily Meditation:
He freed us from the power of the enemy.
This is the last day of Lent.
It is “Spy Wednesday,” remembering the day Judas asked,
“What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?”

We read the third song of the Servant who suffers.
And we sense the acceptance, the surrender and the peace of Jesus.
I can imagine the treachery and tranquility of this day,
as I go through the real life drama of my day.
I can begin to feel the joy of the liberation being offered me.

If I haven’t done so already,
this can be a wonderful day to pray through the Stations of the Cross.

The Son of Man came not to be served,
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
Communion Antiphon  Matthew 20:28

[Go to Stations of the Cross here.]

Intercessions:
Blessed be God, the giver of salvation, who decreed that mankind should become a new creation in himself, when all would be made new.  With great confidence let us ask him:
Lord, renew us in your Spirit.

Lord, you promised a new heaven and a new earth; renew us daily through your Spirit,
- that we may enjoy your presence for ever in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Help us to work with you to make this world alive with your Spirit,
- and to build on earth a city of justice, love and peace.
Free us from all negligence and sloth,
- and give us joy in your gifts of grace.
Deliver us from evil,
- and from slavery to the senses, which blinds us to goodness.

Closing Prayer:
My Savior,
do you invite me to share
in the glory of the resurrection?
Please stay with me
as I struggle to see
how accepting the crosses of my life
will free me from the power
of the one who wants only
to destroy my love and trust in you.
Help me to be humble and accepting
like your son, Jesus.
I want to turn to you
with the same trust he had in your love.
Save me, Lord. Only you can save me.

Lent #42 – Tuesday: Holy Week

Opening Prayer:
Father,
may we receive your forgiveness and mercy
as we celebrate the passion and death of the Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings: Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17; John 13:21-33, 36-38

Daily Meditation:
Let me receive your forgiveness and mercy.
The second Servant song shapes our reflection today
as we watch that amazing dinner scene on Tuesday of this passion week.

We experience the pain of his knowing
that he will be betrayed and denied.
Yet, the hour he is about to face is the hour of his Glory.
And he promises that where he is going, we will surely follow.

Our desire is to celebrate the gift being offered us.

It is too little, he says,
for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel.
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach
to the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 49

Intercessions:
Let us pray to Christ our Savior, who redeemed us by his death and resurrection:
Lord, have mercy on us.
You went up to Jerusalem to suffer and so enter into your glory,
- bring your Church to the Passover feast of heaven.
You were lifted high on the cross and pierced by the soldier’s lance,
- heal our wounds.
You made the cross the tree of life,
-  give its fruit to those reborn in baptism.
On  the cross you forgave the repentant thief,
- forgive us our sins.

Closing Prayer:
God of such unwavering love,
how do I “celebrate”
the passion and death of Jesus?
I often want to look the other way
and not watch,
not stay with Jesus in his suffering.
Give me the strength
to see his love with honesty and compassion
and to feel deeply
your own forgiveness and mercy for me.
Help me to understand
how to “celebrate” this week.
I want be able to bring
my weaknesses and imperfections with me
as I journey with Jesus this week,
so aware of his love.

Lent #41 – Monday: Holy Week

Merton’s Voice:

This, then, is our desert: to live facing despair, but not to consent. To trample it down under hope in the Cross. To wage war against despair unceasingly. That war is our wilderness. If we wage it courageously, we will find Christ at our side. If we cannot face it, we will never find Him.

Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999, p. 8

Prayer:

But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid! (NRSV Ps 22: 19)

_____________________________

Opening Prayer:
All-powerful God,
By the suffering and death of your Son,
strengthen and protect us in our weakness.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

The Readings: Isaiah 42:1-7; Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14; John 12:1-11

Daily Meditation:
Strengthen and protect me in my weakness.
We read the first Suffering Servant song in Isaiah.
We imagine the powerful scene at Lazarus’ home -
Jesus had wept as he peered into Lazarus’ tomb;
now his sister Mary anoints Jesus’ feet for the journey to his own tomb.

Whatever we do today,
we might memorize the simple Opening Prayer and personalize it,
asking for the strength we need,
the protection we depend upon, for our journey ahead.

I have called you for the victory of justice.
I have grasped you by the hand.
I formed you and set you
as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Isaiah 42

Today’s Daily Reflection

Intercessions:
Let us pray to Christ our Savior, who redeemed us by his death and resurrection:
Lord, have mercy on us.

You went up to Jerusalem to suffer and so enter into your glory,
-bring your Church to the Passover feast of heaven.
You were lifted high on the cross and pierced by the soldier’s lance,
-heal our wounds.
You made the cross the tree of life,
- give its fruit to those reborn in baptism.
On the cross you forgave the repentant thief,
- forgive us our sins.

Closing Prayer:
God of love,
My prayer is simple:
Your son, Jesus, suffered and died for me.
I know only
that I cannot have real strength
unless I rely on you.
I cannot feel protected
from my many weaknesses
until I turn to you
for forgiveness and your unalterable love.
Help me to share this
strength, protection and love with others.

Lent #40 (Palm Sunday – Holy Week)

We begin our celebration with an invitation to remember what happened on this very special day.Dear friends in Christ, for five weeks of Lent we have been preparing, by works of charity and self sacrifice, for the celebration of our Lord’s paschal mystery.  Today we come together to begin this solemn celebration in union with the whole Church throughout the world.  Christ entered in triumph into his own city, to complete his work as our Messiah: to suffer, to die, and to rise again. Let us remember with devotion this entry which began his saving work and follow him with a lively faith.  United with him in his suffering on the cross, may we share his resurrection and new life. The Blessing of Palms Almighty God, we pray you bless these branches and make them holy. Today we joyfully acclaim Jesus our Messiah and King. May we reach one day the happiness of the new and everlasting Jerusalem by faithfully following him who lives and reigns for ever and ever. or Lord, increase the faith of your people and listen to our prayers. Today we honor Christ our triumphant King by carrying these branches. May we honor you every day by living always in him, for he is Lord for ever and ever.

Opening Prayer: Let us pray for a closer union with Christ during this holy season. Almighty, ever-living God, you have given the human race Jesus Christ our Savior as a model of humility. He fulfilled your will by becoming one of us and giving his life on the cross. Help us to bear witness to you by following his example of suffering and make us worthy to share in his resurrection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, you Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Alternate Opening Prayer: Let us pray as we accompany our King to Jerusalem. Almighty Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, you sent your Son to be born of woman and to die on a cross, so that through the obedience of one man, estrangement might be dissolved for us all. Guide our minds by his truth and strengthen our lives by the example of his death, that we may live in union with you in the kingdom of your promise. Grant this through Christ our Lord.

The Readings: The Procession Gospel: Luke 19:28-40
Readings for Mass: Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14–23:56 or Luke 23:1-49

Daily Meditation:
For a closer union with Jesus
in his humility, in his suffering.
This Sunday we hold palm branches in our hands,
and wave them to greet our Lord’s entry into the city of our salvation.
Last year’s palms were burned to form the ashes
that marked our foreheads to begin this Lenten journey.
We can place these palm branches – perhaps from each member of the family -
in a special place in our home
(maybe cutting a small piece and putting it some place where I work).

Each day this week they can represent our celebration of his love for me.
That symbol can say so many words -
all that I am about to celebrate and accept as love for me,
and all the entry into Jerusalem experiences in my life.

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Hosts,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory!
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!

Today’s Daily Reflection

Intercessions:
As Christ entered Jerusalem he was greeted as King and Messiah,
Let us adore him, and joyfully praise him:
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna to you, Son of David, King of the ages,
-hosanna to you, victor over death and the powers of darkness.
You went up to Jerusalem to suffer and so enter into your glory,
-lead your Church into the paschal feast of heaven.
You made your cross the tree of life,
- give its fruit to those reborn in baptism.
Savior of mankind, you came to save sinners,
- bring into your kingdom all who have faith, hope, and love.

Closing Prayer:
Loving God,
I am just beginning to realize how much you love me.
Your son, Jesus was humble and obedient.
He fulfilled your will for him by becoming human and suffering with us.
I ask you for the desire to become more humble
so that my own life might also bear witness to you.
I want to use the small sufferings I have in this world to give you glory.

Please, Lord, guide my mind with your truth.
Strengthen my life by the example of Jesus.
Help me to be with Jesus in this week
as he demonstrates again his total love for me.
He died so that I would no longer be separated from you.
Help me to feel how close you are and to live in union with you.