Prayers

Christ is alive! We need to keep reminding ourselves of this, because we can risk seeing Jesus Christ simply as a fine model from the distant past, as a memory, as someone who saved us two thousand years ago. But that would be of no use to us: it would leave us unchanged, it would not set us free. The one who fills us with his grace, the one who liberates us, transforms us, heals and consoles us is someone fully alive. (cv 124)

O God, our refuge in trials, our strength in sickness, our comfort in sorrow, spare your people, we pray, that, though rightly chastised now by affliction, we may find relief at last through your loving mercy.

In this evening, we keep vigil, contemplating Jesus who gives himself into the hands of the Father, whose will he fulfills perfectly; into the hands of sinners, for whom he lives the Passion; into the hands of death, which he will win. In the humble and surprising sign of the bread broken and given, we recognise this mystery of love.

With the list of evils that the Gospel of Mark presents in front of us, it is important to acknowledge: “it touches us”, that is we are not exempted from these things; these are attitudes that we have within. These attitudes are present in us and could surprise us at every moment. Let us examine ourselves

The Cross of Christ does not only demonstrate Jesus’ silence as his last word to the Father but reveals that God also speaks through silence: “the silence of God, the experience of the distance of the almighty Father, is a decisive stage in the earthly journey of the Son of God, the Incarnate Word.