主播大秀

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast.聽It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world,聽and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.
FR DOMINIC聽Good morning.聽 Welcome to Farm Street Church in the heart of London where I am alone behind locked doors at the start of Holy Week, and at this most challenging of times for our country.聽Anxious times, when our own human frailty, and vulnerability, is in the air we breathe.聽聽In our parish we鈥檙e trying to respond to this crisis which has changed our lives dramatically, not least in the closure of our church.聽聽Maybe many of you listening this morning are missing gathering too and feeling pain, perhaps in isolation.聽聽There are no quick fixes but Holy Week does remind us that the Christian journey involves pain and tragedy but this ultimately will lead to new life.聽 聽Today we recall the start of the Holy Week journey, our Lord鈥檚 triumphant entry into Jerusalem before his death on the cross and his rising again.聽As we accompany Jesus on his journey this week may we know once again that he is accompanying us on ours.聽The hymn 鈥楳y song is love unknown is particularly poignant at this time鈥︹�楤ut oh my friend, my friend indeed, who at my need his life did spend.鈥�
HYMN: MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN (LOVE UNKNOWN) 鈥� GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL CHOIR FROM THE CD 鈥楢N EVENING AT GUIDFORD CATHEDRAL
COLLECT聽Almighty ever-living God,聽who as an example of humility for the human race to followcaused our Saviour to take flesh and submit to the Cross,graciously grant that we may heed his lessonof patient sufferingand so merit a share in his Resurrection.聽We ask this through Christ Our Lord.聽聽R/ Amen.聽聽
FR DOMINIC聽We鈥檙e a gathered community from all over London and further afield.聽聽And now we鈥檙e scattered - the young, the old, families, weekday workers, the homeless, the LGBT Community, and most troubling of all those who are sick,聽the elderly, the lonely. Not being able to meet in person to celebrate Easter next weekend will be very strange for many. And indeed recording this service we are apart, but together in spirit.聽 聽Dr Theodora Hawksley of the London Jesuit Centre here at Farm Street will give our main reflection, and now introduces the first reading.
THEODORA:The gospel reading for today, from the gospel of Mark, tells of Jesus being met as redeemer and King, with 鈥楪lory Laud and Honour鈥�. The Gospel of Mark Chapter 11:
READING 鈥� PALM SUNDAY GOSPEL OF ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 鈥� (read by Leslie Giltz)Mark 11:1-11 New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
11 When they were approaching Jerusalem, in sight of Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, 鈥楪o off to the village facing you, and as soon as you enter it you will find a tethered colt that no one has yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, 鈥淲hat are you doing?鈥� say, 鈥淭he Master needs it and will send it back here directly.鈥� They went off and found a colt tethered near a door in the open street. As they untied it, some men standing there said, 鈥淲hat are you doing, untying that colt?鈥� They gave the answer Jesus had told them, and the men let them go. Then they took the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on its back, and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others greenery which they had cut in the fields. And those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting, 鈥楬osanna! Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heavens!鈥� He entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple.聽
HYMN: ALL GLORY LAUD AND HONOUR (ST THEODULPH) 鈥� KING鈥橲 COLLEGE CHAPEL CHOIR, CAMBRIDGE , FROM THE CD 鈥楢BIDE WITH ME: 50 FAVOURITE HYMNS)
THEODORA:This triumphant entry into Jerusalem also marks the beginning of the last week of Jesus鈥� life.聽In this week, Jesus will be betrayed by one of his disciples, and abandoned and denied by his closest friends. He will be tried unjustly and condemned to death.This reflection, written by the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer during his imprisonment, powerfully evokes his own experience of facing death.MUSIC 鈥� KYRIE (ARVO PART) FROM BERLINER MESSE, POLYPHONY, FROM THE CD 鈥楢RVO PART: BERLINER MESSE & MAGNIFICAT
REFLECTION 鈥榃HO AM I? (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)Who am I? They often tell meI stepped from my cell鈥檚 confinementCalmly, cheerfully, firmly,Like a Squire from his country house.Who am I? They often tell meI used to speak to my wardersFreely and friendly and clearly,As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell meI bore the days of misfortuneEquably, smilingly, proudly,like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really that which other men tell of?Or am I only what I myself know of myself?Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,Yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds,Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,Tossing in expectation of great events,Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.
Who am I? This or the Other?Am I one person today and tomorrow another?Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?Or is something within me still like a beaten armyFleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!聽
MUSIC - BEATI QUORUM VIA (STANFORD) 鈥� THE CHOIR OF FARM STREET CHURCH, MAYFAIR FROM CD 鈥楤READ OF HEAVEN鈥櫬�
FR DOMINIC:Beati Quorum Via - Blessed are the undefiled in the way,who walk in the law of the Lord - from a recording of the Choir of Farm Street.聽These last few weeks have been traumatic weeks for so many of us.聽聽Humanity has been here before on the journey of life. For the Christian Church, Palm Sunday begins our Holy Week journey.聽聽With the crowd on that first Palm Sunday we reach out to Jesus calling on his help as saviour of our world.聽 And we have the benefit of knowing the Holy Week story.聽聽It will lead to the cross and the cross gives us hope because we know it is not the end of the journey.聽 The cross is a part of life we cannot ignore.聽It鈥檚 all too real for many right now.聽 But we know through the cross God loves us and loves our world and wants to bring us to a place of peace.聽That鈥檚 our Christian hope and we need to hang onto that, digging deep into our faith in Jesus.Palm Sunday begins our Holy Week journey.聽 With the crowd on that first Palm Sunday we reach out to Jesus calling on his help as saviour of our world.聽聽And we have the benefit of knowing the Holy Week story.聽 It will lead to the cross and the cross gives us hope because we know it is not the end of the journey.聽聽The cross is a part of life we cannot ignore. It鈥檚 all too real for many right now.聽 But we know through the cross God loves us and loves our world and wants to bring us to a place of peace.聽That鈥檚 our Christian hope and we need to hang onto that, digging deep into our faith in Jesus.聽聽The tradition of prayer which comes to us Jesuits from our founder St Ignatius can help us dig deep.聽聽Ignatius invites us to place ourselves in the biblical scene and to ask myself how I feel to be there and how God looks on me as he shows his love to me.聽聽There will probably be a range of emotions.聽 Pain perhaps, fear of my own suffering, but maybe comfort too and the call to serve as generously as he did.聽 聽 聽Over the last few weeks I鈥檝e been touched not just by the pain of uncertainty and fear around us.聽 There is plenty of that.聽 The only child isolated from elderly parents.聽聽The young adults desperately trying to get back to Portugal, Poland, Latin America.聽 The pub landlady, the hotel managers,聽the shopkeepers, desperate to look after their worried staff and anxious about their business鈥� own future.聽聽The wonderful NHS workers flat out and in the firing line.聽 The teachers who kept calm and carried on until schools were closed with some carrying on still helping the children of key workers.聽聽In the shadow of the cross, especially in the shadow of the cross, humanity finds ways of being more fully human,聽being more fully Christian, being united more truly as the broken, scattered Body of Christ.聽聽And so in the midst of this terrible crisis the volunteers coming forward to 鈥榩hone those on their own, offering shopping,聽聽the hotels housing our street homeless, those who called into our church to leave food and toiletries at our installation of 主播大秀less Jesus, which go to the Blessed Sacrament food bank in King鈥檚 Cross.聽聽Yes, in the shadow of the cross a new humanity does truly emerge, as the broken and scattered come together yearning to serve and create a more human world,聽and we are taught again what really matters and of the power of love.聽 聽聽Coming together this morning from all corners of our society and all our traditions, let鈥檚 listen again to the account of that fateful day when our saviour Jesus Christ died out of infinite love for us.聽The Gospel of Matthew chapter 27.聽聽聽READING: DEATH OF JESUS : Passion Gospel for Palm Sunday Mass from 鈥楢nd the passers-by jeered at him鈥� to 鈥榶ielded up his spirit鈥� (read by Ruth Holgate)聽
The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said,C. So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Then save yourself! If you are God鈥檚 son, come down from the cross!N. The chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him in the same way, saying:C. He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He puts his trust in God;聽now let God rescue him if he wants him. For he did say, 鈥業 am the son of God.鈥橬. Even the robbers who were crucified with him taunted him in the same way.From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice,鉁� Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?N. That is, 鈥楳y God, my God, why have you deserted me?鈥� When some of those who stood there heard this, they said,C. The man is calling on Elijah.N. and one of them quickly ran to get a sponge which he dipped in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink. The rest of them said:C. Wait! See if Elijah will come to save him.N. But Jesus, again crying out in a loud voice, yielded up his spirit
MUSIC - AVE VERUM CORPUS (ElGAR) 鈥� WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL CHOIR FROM THE CD 鈥楶ANIS ANGELICUS: FAVOURITE MOTETS鈥�
THEODORA:Often when we talk about the death of Jesus, we think in terms of Jesus 鈥榯aking our place鈥�. As in the Ave Verum we just heard -聽Vere passum immolatum in Cruce pro homine, 鈥榳ho truly suffered, sacrificed on the Cross for humanity鈥櫬� 聽But when St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, guides us through praying with these gospel passages about Jesus鈥� suffering and death, he invites us to turn this usual approach upside down.聽Instead of asking us to think about Jesus taking our place, he asks us to take Jesus鈥� place, to come alongside him in our imaginations and our emotions as vividly as we can, and to follow him closely.聽So how is Jesus feeling as he enters this week? Abandoned and forsaken, or calm and trusting in God鈥檚 deliverance?聽Perhaps he feels the same as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as he faced his own imminent execution 鈥� a mixture of fear and strength, vulnerability and self-possession.聽Who we are in these moments of supreme trial is already decided by who we have been all our lives.聽In Jesus鈥� case, it is a life of self-emptying love. Most of it is completely ordinary, spent in Nazareth as a labourer, in his family home, in the ordinary give-and-take of family and working life.It鈥檚 only when he begins his public ministry that we see this ordinary love writ larger: a love that feeds a crowd of thousands when he is bereaved and exhausted;聽a love that reaches out and heals in spite of disapproval and danger; a love that defied social conventions about who was untouchable, and defied religious conventions about who was acceptable.It is this life-long, ordinary loving that shapes who Jesus is and what he does in this last week of his life: washing his disciples鈥� feet, comforting his mother, giving up his spirit.聽John鈥檚 gospel puts it perfectly: 鈥榟aving loved those who were his own in the world, he loved them to the end.鈥橳hese are extraordinary times 鈥� for many, a time of trial, of loss, for some, a time of generous and costly self-giving to the point of exhaustion and in the face of danger.聽Over the coming weeks, we will learn something about how each ordinary decision and daily act of generosity has shaped and strengthened us.聽What we have of selfishness and fear, and of steady, self-giving love, will be writ large, both as individuals, and as a society.聽 聽These are our times, and Jesus cannot take our place. But we have much to learn from walking with him in his suffering this week,聽and from walking with one another in these passiontide days of grief and hope.聽 If we live them well, we will learn how to be expanded from the ordinary to the extraordinary.聽We will learn that every single person on this planet is our neighbour. And we will learn all over again how to love those who are our own in the world, and love them to the end.聽
MUSIC 鈥� O FOR A CLOSER WALK WITH GOD (STANFORD) 鈥� CAMBRIDGE SINGERS FROM THE CD 鈥業 WILL LIFE UP MINE EYES鈥�
BIDDING PRAYERS INCLUDING HAIL MARY聽THEODORA:When St Ignatius teaches about prayer, he suggests that we speak to God 鈥榓s one friend speaks to another鈥�, and to tell the Lord honestly and openly what it is that we need.聽So we turn now to God in prayer.
MUSIC 鈥� AGNUS DEI FROM MISSA PAPAE MARCELLI (PALESTRINA) 鈥� OXFORD CAMERATA 鈥� FROM THE CD 鈥楶ALESTRINA: MISSA PAPAE MARCELLI
Lord, we place into your hands our families and loved ones, especially those who are elderly or sick, anxious or lonely.聽You know their needs, and we ask you to be close to them.聽聽We place into your hands the people in our medical and emergency services, and their families. We pray for the keyworkers whose day-to-day work protects and sustains us.聽We give thanks for them and we ask you to uphold them in health, strength and courage.聽We pray for those in leadership and governance during these days. We ask you to give them the wisdom to lead and to listen, and the vision to act for the common good.We pray for ourselves as a society. Now, more than ever, we recognise our dependence on one another. Teach us how to grow in solidarity, in gratitude, and in care for one another.聽You have loved each of us into life and counted every hair on our heads. We place in your hands those who have died. Stay with us in our sorrow, and give us hope.We pray with Mary, who journeyed with her son Jesus in his suffering鈥�
FR DOMINICNow let us pray in the words our saviour gave us.聽聽OUR FATHER (20 sec)Our Father who art in heaven,聽hallowed be thy name.聽Thy kingdom come,聽Thy will be done聽on earth, as it is in heaven.聽Give us this day our daily bread,聽and forgive us our trespasses,聽as we forgive those who trespass against us,聽and lead us not into temptation,聽but deliver us from evil.For thine is the Kingdom,the power and the glory,,forever and everAmen.
FR DOMINICAnd as we conclude our worship this morning, we also begin our journey this Holy Week and we survey the wondrous cross,聽we consider a 鈥榣ove so amazing, so divine, demanding our souls, our lives, our all.聽聽
HYMN: WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS (ROCKINGHAM)鈥� EXMOOR SINGERS LONDON, FROM THE ABLUM 鈥楳Y KIND OF HYMN鈥櫬�

FR DOMINICBLESSINGAnd may the blessing of almighty God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, come down on you and your families this Holy Week and evermore. Amen
CLOSING MUSIC 鈥� HOSIANNA (HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID) 鈥� (VOGLER) -YL MALE VOICE CHOIR FROM THE CD CHRISTMAS CAROLS
FR DOMINIC聽Good morning.聽 Welcome to Farm Street Church in the heart of London where I am alone behind locked doors at the start of Holy Week, and at this most challenging of times for our country.聽Anxious times, when our own human frailty, and vulnerability, is in the air we breathe.聽聽In our parish we鈥檙e trying to respond to this crisis which has changed our lives dramatically, not least in the closure of our church.聽聽Maybe many of you listening this morning are missing gathering too and feeling pain, perhaps in isolation.聽聽There are no quick fixes but Holy Week does remind us that the Christian journey involves pain and tragedy but this ultimately will lead to new life.聽 聽Today we recall the start of the Holy Week journey, our Lord鈥檚 triumphant entry into Jerusalem before his death on the cross and his rising again.聽As we accompany Jesus on his journey this week may we know once again that he is accompanying us on ours.聽The hymn 鈥楳y song is love unknown is particularly poignant at this time鈥︹�楤ut oh my friend, my friend indeed, who at my need his life did spend.鈥�
HYMN: MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN (LOVE UNKNOWN) 鈥� GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL CHOIR FROM THE CD 鈥楢N EVENING AT GUIDFORD CATHEDRAL
COLLECT聽Almighty ever-living God,聽who as an example of humility for the human race to followcaused our Saviour to take flesh and submit to the Cross,graciously grant that we may heed his lessonof patient sufferingand so merit a share in his Resurrection.聽We ask this through Christ Our Lord.聽聽R/ Amen.聽聽
FR DOMINIC聽We鈥檙e a gathered community from all over London and further afield.聽聽And now we鈥檙e scattered - the young, the old, families, weekday workers, the homeless, the LGBT Community, and most troubling of all those who are sick,聽the elderly, the lonely. Not being able to meet in person to celebrate Easter next weekend will be very strange for many. And indeed recording this service we are apart, but together in spirit.聽 聽Dr Theodora Hawksley of the London Jesuit Centre here at Farm Street will give our main reflection, and now introduces the first reading.
THEODORA:The gospel reading for today, from the gospel of Mark, tells of Jesus being met as redeemer and King, with 鈥楪lory Laud and Honour鈥�. The Gospel of Mark Chapter 11:
READING 鈥� PALM SUNDAY GOSPEL OF ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 鈥� (read by Leslie Giltz)
Mark 11:1-11 New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
11 When they were approaching Jerusalem, in sight of Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, 鈥楪o off to the village facing you, and as soon as you enter it you will find a tethered colt that no one has yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, 鈥淲hat are you doing?鈥� say, 鈥淭he Master needs it and will send it back here directly.鈥� They went off and found a colt tethered near a door in the open street. As they untied it, some men standing there said, 鈥淲hat are you doing, untying that colt?鈥� They gave the answer Jesus had told them, and the men let them go. Then they took the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on its back, and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others greenery which they had cut in the fields. And those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting, 鈥楬osanna! Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heavens!鈥� He entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple.聽
HYMN: ALL GLORY LAUD AND HONOUR (ST THEODULPH) 鈥� KING鈥橲 COLLEGE CHAPEL CHOIR, CAMBRIDGE , FROM THE CD 鈥楢BIDE WITH ME: 50 FAVOURITE HYMNS)
THEODORA:This triumphant entry into Jerusalem also marks the beginning of the last week of Jesus鈥� life.聽In this week, Jesus will be betrayed by one of his disciples, and abandoned and denied by his closest friends. He will be tried unjustly and condemned to death.This reflection, written by the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer during his imprisonment, powerfully evokes his own experience of facing death.MUSIC 鈥� KYRIE (ARVO PART) FROM BERLINER MESSE, POLYPHONY, FROM THE CD 鈥楢RVO PART: BERLINER MESSE & MAGNIFICAT
REFLECTION 鈥榃HO AM I? (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)Who am I? They often tell meI stepped from my cell鈥檚 confinementCalmly, cheerfully, firmly,Like a Squire from his country house.Who am I? They often tell meI used to speak to my wardersFreely and friendly and clearly,As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell meI bore the days of misfortuneEquably, smilingly, proudly,like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really that which other men tell of?Or am I only what I myself know of myself?Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,Yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds,Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,Tossing in expectation of great events,Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.
Who am I? This or the Other?Am I one person today and tomorrow another?Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?Or is something within me still like a beaten armyFleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!聽
MUSIC - BEATI QUORUM VIA (STANFORD) 鈥� THE CHOIR OF FARM STREET CHURCH, MAYFAIR FROM CD 鈥楤READ OF HEAVEN鈥櫬�
FR DOMINIC:Beati Quorum Via - Blessed are the undefiled in the way,who walk in the law of the Lord - from a recording of the Choir of Farm Street.聽These last few weeks have been traumatic weeks for so many of us.聽聽Humanity has been here before on the journey of life. For the Christian Church, Palm Sunday begins our Holy Week journey.聽聽With the crowd on that first Palm Sunday we reach out to Jesus calling on his help as saviour of our world.聽 And we have the benefit of knowing the Holy Week story.聽聽It will lead to the cross and the cross gives us hope because we know it is not the end of the journey.聽 The cross is a part of life we cannot ignore.聽It鈥檚 all too real for many right now.聽 But we know through the cross God loves us and loves our world and wants to bring us to a place of peace.聽That鈥檚 our Christian hope and we need to hang onto that, digging deep into our faith in Jesus.Palm Sunday begins our Holy Week journey.聽 With the crowd on that first Palm Sunday we reach out to Jesus calling on his help as saviour of our world.聽聽And we have the benefit of knowing the Holy Week story.聽 It will lead to the cross and the cross gives us hope because we know it is not the end of the journey.聽聽The cross is a part of life we cannot ignore. It鈥檚 all too real for many right now.聽 But we know through the cross God loves us and loves our world and wants to bring us to a place of peace.聽That鈥檚 our Christian hope and we need to hang onto that, digging deep into our faith in Jesus.聽聽The tradition of prayer which comes to us Jesuits from our founder St Ignatius can help us dig deep.聽聽Ignatius invites us to place ourselves in the biblical scene and to ask myself how I feel to be there and how God looks on me as he shows his love to me.聽聽There will probably be a range of emotions.聽 Pain perhaps, fear of my own suffering, but maybe comfort too and the call to serve as generously as he did.聽 聽 聽Over the last few weeks I鈥檝e been touched not just by the pain of uncertainty and fear around us.聽 There is plenty of that.聽 The only child isolated from elderly parents.聽聽The young adults desperately trying to get back to Portugal, Poland, Latin America.聽 The pub landlady, the hotel managers,聽the shopkeepers, desperate to look after their worried staff and anxious about their business鈥� own future.聽聽The wonderful NHS workers flat out and in the firing line.聽 The teachers who kept calm and carried on until schools were closed with some carrying on still helping the children of key workers.聽聽In the shadow of the cross, especially in the shadow of the cross, humanity finds ways of being more fully human,聽being more fully Christian, being united more truly as the broken, scattered Body of Christ.聽聽And so in the midst of this terrible crisis the volunteers coming forward to 鈥榩hone those on their own, offering shopping,聽聽the hotels housing our street homeless, those who called into our church to leave food and toiletries at our installation of 主播大秀less Jesus, which go to the Blessed Sacrament food bank in King鈥檚 Cross.聽聽Yes, in the shadow of the cross a new humanity does truly emerge, as the broken and scattered come together yearning to serve and create a more human world,聽and we are taught again what really matters and of the power of love.聽 聽聽Coming together this morning from all corners of our society and all our traditions, let鈥檚 listen again to the account of that fateful day when our saviour Jesus Christ died out of infinite love for us.聽The Gospel of Matthew chapter 27.聽聽聽READING: DEATH OF JESUS : Passion Gospel for Palm Sunday Mass from 鈥楢nd the passers-by jeered at him鈥� to 鈥榶ielded up his spirit鈥� (read by Ruth Holgate)聽The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said,C. So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Then save yourself! If you are God鈥檚 son, come down from the cross!N. The chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him in the same way, saying:C. He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He puts his trust in God;聽now let God rescue him if he wants him. For he did say, 鈥業 am the son of God.鈥橬. Even the robbers who were crucified with him taunted him in the same way.From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice,鉁� Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?N. That is, 鈥楳y God, my God, why have you deserted me?鈥� When some of those who stood there heard this, they said,C. The man is calling on Elijah.N. and one of them quickly ran to get a sponge which he dipped in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink. The rest of them said:C. Wait! See if Elijah will come to save him.N. But Jesus, again crying out in a loud voice, yielded up his spirit
MUSIC - AVE VERUM CORPUS (ElGAR) 鈥� WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL CHOIR FROM THE CD 鈥楶ANIS ANGELICUS: FAVOURITE MOTETS鈥�
THEODORA:Often when we talk about the death of Jesus, we think in terms of Jesus 鈥榯aking our place鈥�. As in the Ave Verum we just heard -聽Vere passum immolatum in Cruce pro homine, 鈥榳ho truly suffered, sacrificed on the Cross for humanity鈥櫬� 聽But when St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, guides us through praying with these gospel passages about Jesus鈥� suffering and death, he invites us to turn this usual approach upside down.聽Instead of asking us to think about Jesus taking our place, he asks us to take Jesus鈥� place, to come alongside him in our imaginations and our emotions as vividly as we can, and to follow him closely.聽So how is Jesus feeling as he enters this week? Abandoned and forsaken, or calm and trusting in God鈥檚 deliverance?聽Perhaps he feels the same as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as he faced his own imminent execution 鈥� a mixture of fear and strength, vulnerability and self-possession.聽Who we are in these moments of supreme trial is already decided by who we have been all our lives.聽In Jesus鈥� case, it is a life of self-emptying love. Most of it is completely ordinary, spent in Nazareth as a labourer, in his family home, in the ordinary give-and-take of family and working life.It鈥檚 only when he begins his public ministry that we see this ordinary love writ larger: a love that feeds a crowd of thousands when he is bereaved and exhausted;聽a love that reaches out and heals in spite of disapproval and danger; a love that defied social conventions about who was untouchable, and defied religious conventions about who was acceptable.It is this life-long, ordinary loving that shapes who Jesus is and what he does in this last week of his life: washing his disciples鈥� feet, comforting his mother, giving up his spirit.聽John鈥檚 gospel puts it perfectly: 鈥榟aving loved those who were his own in the world, he loved them to the end.鈥橳hese are extraordinary times 鈥� for many, a time of trial, of loss, for some, a time of generous and costly self-giving to the point of exhaustion and in the face of danger.聽Over the coming weeks, we will learn something about how each ordinary decision and daily act of generosity has shaped and strengthened us.聽What we have of selfishness and fear, and of steady, self-giving love, will be writ large, both as individuals, and as a society.聽 聽These are our times, and Jesus cannot take our place. But we have much to learn from walking with him in his suffering this week,聽and from walking with one another in these passiontide days of grief and hope.聽 If we live them well, we will learn how to be expanded from the ordinary to the extraordinary.聽We will learn that every single person on this planet is our neighbour. And we will learn all over again how to love those who are our own in the world, and love them to the end.聽MUSIC 鈥� O FOR A CLOSER WALK WITH GOD (STANFORD) 鈥� CAMBRIDGE SINGERS FROM THE CD 鈥業 WILL LIFE UP MINE EYES鈥�
BIDDING PRAYERS INCLUDING HAIL MARY聽THEODORA:When St Ignatius teaches about prayer, he suggests that we speak to God 鈥榓s one friend speaks to another鈥�, and to tell the Lord honestly and openly what it is that we need.聽So we turn now to God in prayer.
MUSIC 鈥� ANGUS DEI FROM MISSA PAPAE MARCELLI (PALESTRINA) 鈥� OXFORD CAMERATA 鈥� FROM THE CD 鈥楶ALESTRINA: MISSA PAPAE MARCELLILord, we place into your hands our families and loved ones, especially those who are elderly or sick, anxious or lonely.聽You know their needs, and we ask you to be close to them.聽聽We place into your hands the people in our medical and emergency services, and their families. We pray for the keyworkers whose day-to-day work protects and sustains us.聽We give thanks for them and we ask you to uphold them in health, strength and courage.聽We pray for those in leadership and governance during these days. We ask you to give them the wisdom to lead and to listen, and the vision to act for the common good.We pray for ourselves as a society. Now, more than ever, we recognise our dependence on one another. Teach us how to grow in solidarity, in gratitude, and in care for one another.聽You have loved each of us into life and counted every hair on our heads. We place in your hands those who have died. Stay with us in our sorrow, and give us hope.We pray with Mary, who journeyed with her son Jesus in his suffering鈥�
FR DOMINICNow let us pray in the words our saviour gave us.聽聽OUR FATHER (20 sec)Our Father who art in heaven,聽hallowed be thy name.聽Thy kingdom come,聽Thy will be done聽on earth, as it is in heaven.聽Give us this day our daily bread,聽and forgive us our trespasses,聽as we forgive those who trespass against us,聽and lead us not into temptation,聽but deliver us from evil.For thine is the Kingdom,the power and the glory,,forever and everAmen.
FR DOMINICAnd as we conclude our worship this morning, we also begin our journey this Holy Week and we survey the wondrous cross,聽we consider a 鈥榣ove so amazing, so divine, demanding our souls, our lives, our all.聽聽
HYMN: WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS (ROCKINGHAM)鈥� EXMOOR SINGERS LONDON, FROM THE ABLUM 鈥楳Y KIND OF HYMN鈥櫬�

FR DOMINICBLESSINGAnd may the blessing of almighty God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, come down on you and your families this Holy Week and evermore. AmenCLOSING MUSIC 鈥� HOSIANNA (HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID) 鈥� (VOGLER) -YL MALE VOICE CHOIR FROM THE CD CHRISTMAS CAROLS