Daily Reflection for Friday, April 01 2022
Peace and Blessings, Friends and Parishioners,
We encourage you to reflect on Friday’s readings at this link:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/040122.cfm
If you prefer to use your own Bible, the readings are:
First Reading: Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22
Responsorial: Psalm 34:17-21 and 23
Gospel: John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Our reflection on Friday’s readings:
“So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet.” John 7:30.
On our Church’s timetable, we are in week four of the Lenten season of prayer, fasting, and alms giving. Exactly two weeks from today, it will be Good Friday, and Christ’s time will have come; our time will have come when we focus on Christ’s death and the miracle of His resurrection.
Just anticipating the upcoming Easter season, our minds go way back to 1970 as we reflect on the seasons of Lent and Easter. Even though each year may be experienced differently, a year that continues to stay on my mind was 1970 when I, Dorothy, a recent convert of just one year, coming from Wilmore, Kentucky, (population of approximately 1,800) had just experienced one Easter Triduum. Then in 1970, we found ourselves living in the big city of St. Louis (population of approximately 1,882,000) and attending St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church. We experienced the Lenten season that culminated with the solemn Easter Vigil Mass of light and water. What a beautiful, special, captivating service of scripture, prayer, light, and water. Maybe the “bigness” of celebrating with hundreds of believers made it special, overwhelming, and captivating!
Reflecting on that Easter Vigil in honor of Christ even after 52 years stayed on our minds. We can still visualize the blessing of the new fire—flames that dispelled the darkness and lit up the night, the procession into the church, and light from the paschal candle being passed to all symbolizing that Christ is the light of the world, the beautiful music, and the renewal of baptismal promises. Participating with hundreds in a service to symbolize Christ’s passing from death to His resurrected life was amazing!
As we continue our journeys this Lenten season and anticipate the upcoming events of Christ’s death and resurrection, may we allow ourselves to think of how these seasons of Lent and Easter unite us all in our entire world.
Blessings to All,
Dorothy and Carlos Alexander