Scripture Reflection: March 31, 2024 - Easter Sunday
John 20:1-9
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He has risen! Yes, Christ is risen! He has risen indeed, Alleluia!!

Come, let us all celebrate Jesus' resurrection in 2024 in a very special way. This is the day the Lord has made, so we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Can we all visualize what went on in Mary of Magdala's mind about the events leading to what we celebrate today? Yes, with mournful hopes, she rushed to the tomb and saw the stone removed. I can only imagine how terrified she was, and I know we all would be, too, if we had been in her shoes.

She went to inform the men, Simon Peter, and the other disciple whom Jesus loved. "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him" (v 20:2).

The men rushed to the tomb and saw everything as Mary of Magdala had said. Jesus' burial site was empty, with the burial cloths separated from those that covered His head, which was rolled up at a different place within the tomb. From my search, folding the cloth was a cultural sign that the user intended to return. It was especially used at meals to indicate to the servants that the dinner was not finished. Hence, Jesus was indicating that He would come again.

What a miracle! A wonder never to be repeated because our risen Lord Jesus Christ lives and reigns forever! May love and mercy always rule and defeat everything in our world.

Today, we are a new creation because death has been defeated; Freedom is here! So let us all embrace it to God's glory, Alleluia! 

Christ in His humility and self-emptying has given us a new dispensation and we need to be humble to benefit from the wonder of His resurrection. May our resurrected Lord transform us to be always merciful, humble and loving to enable us rise with Him on the last day.

Just as the other disciple believed, let us all strive to also believe in our risen Lord! AMEN.

Esi Ametoxe Banful
Little Petals, KNUST, Kumasi

​Scripture Reflection: March 24, 2024 - Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
Mark 14:1-15:47
 
We have heard this reading of the Passion and death and burial of Christ so many times. We tend to miss the impact of every word. My theology professor helped us understand this gospel writer. When St. Mark wrote the first gospel he gives us the essentials. There is no time to lose in telling the story of Jesus. He paints a picture of Jesus as a Man on a Mission. Literally. Jesus is Rambo-like because He is a man of few words, moving quickly from scene to scene with clarity, purpose, passion. No disrespect. I am just helping us follow through a lot of different events that are packed in these verses. We can easily miss the importance of the message.
 
Jesus was a Man on a Mission. From before time began the Son knew that his purpose was to reach into our humanity at the right time and save us. In this gospel it is the final time he had on earth. He knew exactly what mattered and what did not. He moved with passion, purpose, clear focus, firm resolve, and no turning back. He shared his last meal with his apostles and gave them himself in the Eucharist. He suffered died and was buried. There is that awful final verse of the tomb and then the waiting for Easter.
 
We finish up Lent and we need to be on mission, too. We must have that same type of determination. This Lent was an opportunity to look at what matters most to us. Did we get some clarity? We have met Christ in the Mass, received Him in the Eucharist, spent time with Him in prayer. He longs to have us continue reaching out, witnessing His life and Love. Let’s not zone out when we hear these words this Sunday. We continue His Mission. Wake up! Listen up! Let’s roll up our sleeves. We are on a Mission!
 
Jet Booth
Luminaries, Lake Jackson, Texas

By Tammy Townsend Denny, TI Executive Director

As we approach Holy Week, I am at a loss for words. What can I add to all that has been written through the millennia about a horrendous, torturous death and a miraculous resurrection? Are there any other words to add? Is there anything more to say?

When my words aren’t there, I turn to others, like Catholic author Brian Doyle, to say things better than I ever could. In his essay “The Terrible Brilliance,” he writes of his wife, “an art teacher for kids who are really really sick.” One day, he finds that his wife is “sad to the bottom of her bones” about a little girl who is “being crucified… Everything they do to her hurts. All those needles are nails… She gets crucified every day.”

Doyle’s essay brings to mind questions that theologians and believers have grappled with, prayed about, and screamed to the heavens about for centuries. How do we make sense of our loved ones’ suffering, of the most vulnerable among us hurting, of all the illnesses, untimely deaths, and violence around us? Where is God in all of that?

Perhaps among the suffering is where we find “the haunting human genius in the marrow of Catholicism” to use Doyle’s words again. He explains:

“A mother watched her son be tortured and crucified and she held him in her arms and there are no words for what she felt. A mother watched her daughter be tortured and crucified and she held her in her arms and there are no words for what she felt. It happens all day every day everywhere… The terrible brilliance of our faith is that there isn’t one Christ, there are billions, and each one suffers for and saves the rest, in ways that we will never understand.”

Among our Theresian sisters are those who have recently lost children and spouses. Others are journeying with gravely ill loved ones. You won’t read about them in our Wednesday Prayer Requests. You may not even hear their stories in your community meetings because the grief and suffering they carry are too personal, too big, too mystifying to put into words.

As we begin Holy Week, let’s hold this suffering that exists beyond words in our hearts and prayers. And let us trust in the redemptive hope of the Great Mystery.

Scripture Reflection: March 17, 2024 -- 5th Sunday of Lent
John 12: 20-23
 
As I began to reflect on this Gospel passage, I struggled to understand its meaning, which is necessary for reflection. After some additional reading, I came to learn what Jesus meant by “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” The significance lies in “who” is asking to see him. It is the Gentiles. Jesus has learned that those He has preached to have indeed spread his word and that these Gentiles, non-Jews, have listened and now wish to come to know Him.

Additionally, Jesus himself realizes that this event signals it is time for him to die so that others may gain life. He says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” This analogy I readily understood: By returning the wheat seed to the ground, it will multiply. It will allow others to live. Jesus is explaining that he must die to allow us to live and flourish by putting our trust in Him.

We are called to be renewed and to flourish in our faith as we follow these Gospel truths.

Carol Landry 
Journey Theresians
Austin, TX

Scripture Reflection: March 10, 2024 - 4th Sunday of Lent
 
2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23
Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
Eph 2: 4-10
Jn 3:14-21
 
Reading 1
History lesson – our sins continued mounting – we disgraced the temple. God was patient and warned us, and we disrespected the warnings. We ignored the warnings and our enemies destroyed the temple and took us captive until Persia came into power was charged to build God a house in Jerusalem and gave us back our freedom to be with our God.

Responsorial Psalm
Reflection on the history lesson when we were captive in a foreign land. We must not forget this lesson. Jerusalem is ahead of my joy.

Reading 2
God gives us unending mercy and love despite our sins and transgressions. He has saved us through our faith. Let us gracefully accept our gift from God, the promise of Heaven.

Gospel
What a joy to read! Probably the first verse I learned as a child – God so loved the world… He gave us His Son, not to condemn us, but to bring us light and eternal life despite our sins and transgressions. This is our promise and our faith we must not ever lose. Remember the glorious Love we constantly receive for our Lord.
Millie Foster
Still Waters Community
​Fort Bend, Sugar Land, Texas

 By Tammy Townsend Denny, TI Executive Director
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​This week in the office, Jenny, TI’s member and donor manager, noticed the unusual necklace I was wearing.

I shared with her that it was a necklace I bought from an organization in Beijing that rescues women from human trafficking. I visited the organization when I was in China in 2013 and met some of the women who create these beautiful jewelry pieces. A casual observer would never know that some of the women had been sold into prostitution by their families, some had been lured into Beijing on false promises of work, and others had been dumped on the streets by families who could not afford to feed them.

After explaining the necklace’s story to Jenny, she asked in that kind-hearted, humorous way that only friends who’ve known you for a lot of years can ask: “Do you ever associate with organizations that aren’t depressing?” (For clarification, she was referring to organizations that I have supported and volunteered with through the years. She didn't mean Theresians -- she loves all of you!)

I thought about her question for a moment. Do I wallow in the ugliness of life? Perhaps, at times. Am I attracted to despair? Maybe. But I believe there is more to the story that I didn’t realize until she asked the question.

“The necklace for me is a symbol of hope,” I finally explained. “It’s a reminder that, yes, there are horrible, awful, hideous things in this world but there is also hope.” The women who made the necklace are hope. The organization that helps them rise above a life of prostitution is hope. There is hope as the women take computer classes, learn to care for themselves, and address the traumas of their lives. 

Brian Doyle, in his book Grace Notes, writes that “the very essence of our common belief, the polestar by which we steer our lives, is the fact that a thin young Jewish man two thousand years ago insisted that life defeats death, hope defeats despair, light defeats darkness.”

In that comfortable, clean, and safe space in Beijing over a decade ago, I saw the life, hope, and light of Christ radiate above the death, despair, and darkness of the women’s former lives.

And isn’t that what we are invited to experience and contemplate in these days leading to Easter – a conversion of heart that leads to a new life of hope?

Doyle goes on to write, “It may be that the human capacity to hope, to dream what might be, to have visions, is finally the reason we are here, the reason we evolved to this point, and our greatest responsibility as creatures of the Lord.”
Then, he asks us to “chew on” some questions like: “Could our genius for hope be the only tool that in the end defeats suffering?”

I don’t know but I hope so!

Scripture Reflection: March 3, 2024 - 3rd Sunday of Lent
Ex 17:3-7
​Jn 4:5-42

Our human bodies are comprised of sixty percent water. Doctors recommend that we drink six to eight glasses of water each day. It is no surprise that Scripture places such an emphasis on the necessity of water in both the first reading and in the gospel this Sunday. Stories of the Israelites complaining to Moses that they would die of thirst, and Jesus offering the Samaritan woman Living Water, reminded me of a recent sweet occurrence. 
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Carson is the newest member of our family. His new parents sent out a video of one of his first baths. Carson was a bit fretful as his mom ever so gently lowered his head under warm tap water. An amazing thing happened next. As the warm liquid washed over his precious head, his body relaxed, and he smiled. There was complete trust and no fear. This ritual was a foreshadowing of his Baptism, where the Living Water of the Holy Spirit will initiate Carson into God’s family, where we find trust and no fear. Yes, water is crucial to life. The Israelites, the Samaritan woman, and Carson teach us that we cannot enter Eternity without Our Lord’s Living Water. 

Toni Hare
Agape Garden
Lafayette, LA

By Tammy Townsend Denny, TI Executive Director
This past weekend I was in Lake Charles, Louisiana for the Fleur de Lis District Morning of Prayer. Beth Eason, a member of the Theresians International Board of Directors and a Theresian in the S.I.S.T.E.R.S. community, hosted me at her home. During my stay with Beth, I had the opportunity to meet her 10-year-old granddaughter who is a “Swiftie” – a fan of the American pop music star Taylor Swift.

One of the things you probably don’t know about me is that my favorite people to talk to are children before teenage snarkiness takes over their brains and elderly people who have long ago left behind the snarkiness of daily life. The stories, the insights, the openness of these two groups fill my heart with hope.

Such was the case with Beth’s granddaughter who freely and graciously shared about being a Swiftie. When I asked her what her favorite song was, she said without hesitation, “marjorie” [lowercase intentional], then grabbed an iPad to let us listen to the song.

I admit that while I love talking with kids, I am a bit judgmental about pop culture. My expectations for the “marjorie” song were pretty low. The best I hoped for was a catchy beat and some sappy, meaningless lyrics.

But as I soon learned from Beth’s granddaughter, “marjorie” is a tribute to Taylor Swift’s grandmother, a lament of sorts. The song begins with some grandmotherly beatitude-like phrases:

“Never be so kind, you forget to be clever
Never be so clever, you forget to be kind.”
 
And verse or so later, there are a few more beatitudes:

“Never be so polite, you forget your power
Never wield such power, you forget to be polite.”
 
Within the lyrics of this pop song, I was surprised to hear a powerful message of resurrection, though I don’t know if that was Taylor Swift’s intention. She sings, “What died didn’t stay dead… You’re alive, so alive.”

For me, the song brought to mind images of the disciples. Is this something they would have sung after the crucifixion? Are these words Mary Magdalene might have written?   

I invite you to set aside any judgment you might have about pop music and listen to “marjorie.” See what emerges for you. God’s message of love and hope can show up in some surprising places if you’re willing to open your heart and mind and listen.

Continued prayers for you on your Lenten journey!