Holy Thursday

Mass of Our Lord's Last Supper

Monday of Holy Week

Gospel
Jn 12:1-11

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, "Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?" He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. So Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.

Palm Sunday

Today we begin the special journey of Holy Week as we wave our palms, joyfully acclaiming Jesus our Messiah and King!

Our Palm Sunday procession, commemorating Jesus' journey into Jerusalem, marks the beginning of a solemn celebration in union with the whole Church throughout the world.

As we participated in today's Gospel reading (Mark, Chapters 14 & 15) reading aloud with the congregation, "Crucify him!" I remembered how painful it was to read/hear this gospel as a child. I didn't want to crucify Jesus! And I didn't want to participate in the reading of the passion... it didn't seem fair!

Yet as a Christian community we enter fully into Christ's passion and death, leading us through His suffering and sacrifice toward His resurrection at Easter. Our own suffering, or sacrifices have the power to bring us closer to Christ and unite us with His suffering... if we let them.

Father encouraged us to take time this week to slow down and allow our hearts and minds to be transformed. While we can read obituaries of strangers and simply turn the page and go on to the next item, Father reminded us that reading Jesus' obituary should be a much different experience for us... if we let it.

Mr. 800 for Pie

Zac ran his first competitive 800 this week at a local track meet. He ran a 2.43 in the pouring rain.

He's visibly happy in this shot... his brother had just shouted out a promise of a pumpkin pie if he passed someone in the second lap. (Which he did.)

I didn't know what he was talking about on the ride home when he asked me about the pumpkin pie, but the picture tells the story, doesn't it?

New Age of Ruffie

Peter visited his cousins Violet and Sawyer last week on a

5-day trip with Grandma Billie and Grandpa Cliff.

The visit coincided with the grand opening of Uncle Dr. Craig and Aunt Dr. Bethany's vet clinic.

Peter spent lots of time reading to his cousins and playing with them, enjoying the role of oldest. Unfortunately, someone forgot how old he really is, and let him stay up past 10:30 one night! Somehow he survived.

His only hesitation in going away on the long trip was that he didn't want to miss Stations of the Cross on Friday night. His Godmother, my Aunt Sue (also my Godmother, who lives near the cousins) was able to solve that problem. She and Peter went together to Stations, while Cliff and Billie were putting the younger cousins to bed.

A highlight of Peter's time with Sawyer was teaching him the traditional guys' game (made up at our house) called ruffie. All boys love ruffie! Running, chasing, getting caught, carried, and thrown down... on a soft landing... What's not to love? There's even some chanting and (clean) trash talking involved when ruffie's on.

When the boys play ruffie at our house, I hide out.

Plant some....

burn some

Joseph attended his first troop camp-out as a Boy Scout last weekend.

On Saturday the boys (and dads) spent somewhere between 6-8 hours transplanting trees on the private property which has been set aside as a nature conservatory.

The planting was made a bit more challenging by the very cold temperatures, and even some snow!

That's where the burning comes in especially handy.... keep a great bonfire going and you can always have a quick way to warm frozen fingers. For one dad (not mentioning any names... Tim) the fire was also a way to trim (singe) a few long eyebrows and get a fresh new look with the (scorch) hair-do. There's nothing like the smell of cooking hair in the woods!

Rufous Hummingbird... photo by Pat

Pat inspired me to fill up our bird feeders today. Unfortunately, the dishwasher destroyed our nice hummingbird feeders, so I purchased a few cheapies at a local box store. HEY, it's for the birds! (Not HAY, that's for the horses!)

We keep our suet out year-round, attracting quite a few varieties of woodpeckers and other little brown birds (wrens?). But as of today (thanks to Pat for the reminder) there's a full meal deal hanging outside our kitchen windows: black sunflower seeds, fresh suet, and sugar water for the hummingbirds. I even put out a few whole peanuts for the jays.

Pat credits my grandma for the idea to put his feeders out last week. Grandma keeps her hummingbird feeders out all year and the hummingbirds stick around. She keeps an ongoing battle against squirrels attacking her bird feeders, and even tries to out-wit the large flickers (woodpeckers) who get into her "little" feeder and make a big mess.

I love hearing my grandma talk about her birding! She is 91 and keeps up her own 3 story house and most of the gardening, too. She cooks her own well-balanced meals, and drives herself to Mass almost every day. What an awesome lady!

Thanks to my awesome scientist, Eagle Scout cousin, Ryan, for the following added information for this post: There are two species of hummingbirds that are common in Washington. Rufous Hummingbirds, like the male shown here, are only around for the breeding season. Anna's hummingbirds stick around all year.