With the celebration of Palm Sunday, we enter into the commemoration of the Passion, Death, and
Resurrection of our Lord Jesus. We enter this Holy Week by uniting ourselves to those who carry
their heavy crosses and need to know that they are not alone.
I’m sure that some may be members
of our own families. Some are friends while the most are not known personally to us. Yet the
outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross inspire us to recognize ourselves as sisters and brothers to
one another. As we allow ourselves to be embraced by Jesus’ love, we expand our hearts and
embrace them all in sublime compassion.
We bring to the passion of Our Lord the people of Ukraine and all who are suffering from the horrors
of war in their native lands.
We bring to the Lord’s passion, all immigrants throughout the world. Those who flee from the
violence of war, injustice, poverty, violence, and the lack of opportunities. Those who leave and forsake everything known and cherished for the sake of a better chance in life. We bring their hopes
and their sorrows to the suffering Lord.
We bring to the Lord’s suffering all those who suffer in silence and whose sorrow is only known to
themselves. Those who are alone and feel lonely or abandoned. Those who have lost their closest
friends and closest loved one. Those who have no one to confide in and pour out their hearts to.
We bring to Jesus’ suffering all the children of the world who are born into despairing poverty and
who know suffering from their very first breath. Those thousands of children that die daily from malnourishment and disease. Those children sold into slavery of every kind and whose innocence is
robbed from them by the evil that others have committed themselves to. Those children that do not
know happiness.
We bring to the cross all the suffering of humanity with the hope that Jesus offers us in His
resurrection. May we approach the empty tomb with the desire and the resolve to do whatever we
can to empty this world of needless suffering. May we experience a deep conversion and be
strengthened in our resolve to make a good difference at the foot of our Savior’s cross. May we
contemplate the reality that many continue to pay the price for standing up for those who need us.
Them too we bring to the heart of Jesus as we realize that they practice what they believe.
You are in my prayers and in my heart.
Peace. Friar Julio
