April 13, 2025
“I am among you as the One who serves.”
On a personal level, this particular Lenten season has been very different because of the Jubilee Year 2025 and its message of hope. As we begin Holy Week, these words of Pope Francis in the papal bull “Spes Non Confudit” urge us to be renewed by the jubilee: “We need to recognize the immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence. The signs of the times, which include the yearning of human hearts in need of God’s saving presence, ought to become signs of hope.”
As we celebrate Palm Sunday, we hear the account of the Passion from St. Luke the evangelist, whose version of what happened with Jesus in Jerusalem gives us unique insights about our own call to discipleship.
Last weekend, I attended a Franciscan Regional Visitation at Daylesford Abbey in nearby Paoli, PA. Our three National Franciscan visitors included two Franciscan friars (from Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh, PA) and a lay Secular Franciscan from Louisiana. All of us were inspired by the spirit of welcome and the charism of the Norbertines, 40 canons who live in communal service to the Church and our local community.
When we checked into the retreat house, our welcome folders had an attached prayer card called “Becoming a People of Reconciliation.” One of our National visitors observed that we should pray that prayer twice on Friday before we went to bed. The opening of this prayer is connected to events in the Passion of Christ:
“Dear Lord Jesus, on the night before You died, You prayed for all Your disciples, ‘Father, may they all be one; that the world may believe it was You who sent Me.’ We know that this is the deepest desire of Your heart.”
During our visitation weekend, the Secular Franciscans celebrated the occurrence of multiple overlapping jubilees:
- The 2025 Jubilee year of Hope (2025 years of Christianity);
- the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea that gave us our Nicene Creed;
- the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of the Creatures written by St. Francis of Assisi;
- the 30th anniversary of the establishment of St. Katharine Drexel Region Secular Franciscans;
- and the 25th anniversary of the canonization of St. Katharine Drexel, our patroness.
The Jubilee Year of Hope invites us to be people who are dedicated to reconciliation, just like the Norbertine prayer. In this weekend’s readings, we not only hear the Prophet Isaiah foretelling the Suffering Servant and St. Paul explaining what kenosis (self-emptying love) is, but we also listen to Jesus telling His followers, including us, that the humility of God is a reconciliation modeled on Him: “I am among you as the One who serves.” Are we ready to follow Christ?
During our Franciscan gathering, we shared insights from the Handbook for Franciscan Servant Leadership, which is based on a model of imitating Christ in serving others (washing of the feet). Passion Sunday helps us to appreciate the vision of Jesus for His Kingdom, which He proclaimed to be present here and now. That is the joyful Good News that we are to go and live in our world! God loves us so much, and we are to be His loving servants to one another.
“Drawn by our merciful and Triune God, we are called as baptized to follow the poor and risen, Christ, in a radical and apostolic way of life according to the Gospel, the Rule of Saint Augustine and the charism of Saint Norbert, the founder of our Premonstratensian Order. Our way of life is marked by: a lifelong seeking after God through fraternal community, a never-ending conversion by giving ourselves to the church of our profession in communion with the self-emptying of Christ, in imitation of Mary pondering God’s Word, and in ceaseless prayer and service at the altar. From the choir and altar, we go to serve the human family in a spirit of simplicity, hospitality, reconciliation, and peace for the benefit of the Church and the world, especially where Christ is found among the poor, the suffering, and among those who do not know Him. We pray that what God’s Spirit has begun in us may be made perfect in the day of Christ Jesus.”
As we begin Holy Week, let us take time to contemplate the vision of Christ for His Church, remembering that He emptied Himself for our sake in obedience–even unto death on a Cross! The Norbertine vision is so full of Easter symbols: our baptismal call; fraternal communion; never-ending conversion in communion with the self-emptying of Christ; and ceaseless prayer, just as Mary embraced the Word of God.
Are we willing to serve God with humility and self-emptying? Jesus gave us our inheritance in this Gospel account, so let us decide what we are to do with this treasure that He gave to us:
”I confer a Kingdom on you, just as My Father has conferred one on Me.”
Teresa S. Redder, OFS
Saint Katharine Drexel Regional Minister
Thank you, Teresa. Daylsford certainly is a place of contemplation and peace. It is a good reminder that as Father Vincent, a OFM in AZ, says, there are no strangers among us for we are all children of the same heavenly Creator.
Holy Week blessings to al of you in SKD.