Blessed is He who comes

Franciscan Sisters, TOR of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother

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This afternoon I was walking along our driveway with Sr. Sarah Marie, enjoying the beautiful sunshine. At one point, we saw a sister walking toward us, fixing all her attention on the precious object in her hands. As she approached, we realized she held a ciborium in her left hand and a tall tabernacle candle in her right.

She was processing with our Eucharistic Lord from our main chapel to a hermitage chapel down the road. Sr. Sarah Marie and I knelt and silently adored as He passed.

It was only later that I realized - today is Palm Sunday. Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a colt. "Many people," according to Mark's Gospel, "spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: 'Hosanna!'"

We were part of this procession! Jesus, the King of kings, is worthy of a royal welcome. But He chooses to come to us humbly, just as He did in Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago. He comes silently, hidden and small. He lets us carry Him in our human hands and even consume Him as food.

At the name of Jesus, at the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, may every knee bend. May we be especially grateful this week for Jesus' astounding humility as we commemorate the first Eucharist. "We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him," the second reading from Matins says today. Let us lay down our very lives in worship of this humble God.

-Sr. Mary Gemma, T.O.R.

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Franciscan Sisters, TOR of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother

Founded at Franciscan University in 1988, the Franciscan Sisters T.O.R. of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother are a Franciscan religious community of women committed to making known God's merciful love through their life of prayer and works of mercy.