Walking alongside Jesus

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.
FR DOMINIC Good morning.  Welcome to Farm Street Church in the heart of London where I am alone behind locked doors at the start of Holy Week, and at this most challenging of times for our country. Anxious times, when our own human frailty, and vulnerability, is in the air we breathe.  In our parish we’re trying to respond to this crisis which has changed our lives dramatically, not least in the closure of our church.  Maybe many of you listening this morning are missing gathering too and feeling pain, perhaps in isolation.  There are no quick fixes but Holy Week does remind us that the Christian journey involves pain and tragedy but this ultimately will lead to new life.   Today we recall the start of the Holy Week journey, our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem before his death on the cross and his rising again. As we accompany Jesus on his journey this week may we know once again that he is accompanying us on ours. The hymn ‘My song is love unknown is particularly poignant at this time…‘But oh my friend, my friend indeed, who at my need his life did spend.’
HYMN: MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN (LOVE UNKNOWN) – GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL CHOIR FROM THE CD ‘AN EVENING AT GUIDFORD CATHEDRAL
COLLECT Almighty ever-living God, who as an example of humility for the human race to followcaused our Saviour to take flesh and submit to the Cross,graciously grant that we may heed his lessonof patient sufferingand so merit a share in his Resurrection. We ask this through Christ Our Lord.  R/ Amen.  
FR DOMINIC We’re a gathered community from all over London and further afield.  And now we’re scattered - the young, the old, families, weekday workers, the homeless, the LGBT Community, and most troubling of all those who are sick, the elderly, the lonely. Not being able to meet in person to celebrate Easter next weekend will be very strange for many. And indeed recording this service we are apart, but together in spirit.   Dr Theodora Hawksley of the London Jesuit Centre here at Farm Street will give our main reflection, and now introduces the first reading.
THEODORA:The gospel reading for today, from the gospel of Mark, tells of Jesus being met as redeemer and King, with ‘Glory Laud and Honour’. The Gospel of Mark Chapter 11:
READING – PALM SUNDAY GOSPEL OF ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM – (read by Leslie Giltz)Mark 11:1-11 New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
11 When they were approaching Jerusalem, in sight of Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go off to the village facing you, and as soon as you enter it you will find a tethered colt that no one has yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, “What are you doing?” say, “The Master needs it and will send it back here directly.” They went off and found a colt tethered near a door in the open street. As they untied it, some men standing there said, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They gave the answer Jesus had told them, and the men let them go. Then they took the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on its back, and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others greenery which they had cut in the fields. And those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heavens!’ He entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple. 
HYMN: ALL GLORY LAUD AND HONOUR (ST THEODULPH) – KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL CHOIR, CAMBRIDGE , FROM THE CD ‘ABIDE WITH ME: 50 FAVOURITE HYMNS)
THEODORA:This triumphant entry into Jerusalem also marks the beginning of the last week of Jesus’ life. In this week, Jesus will be betrayed by one of his disciples, and abandoned and denied by his closest friends. He will be tried unjustly and condemned to death.This reflection, written by the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer during his imprisonment, powerfully evokes his own experience of facing death.MUSIC – KYRIE (ARVO PART) FROM BERLINER MESSE, POLYPHONY, FROM THE CD ‘ARVO PART: BERLINER MESSE & MAGNIFICAT
REFLECTION ‘WHO AM I? (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)Who am I? They often tell meI stepped from my cell’s confinementCalmly, cheerfully, firmly,Like a Squire from his country house.Who am I? They often tell meI used to speak to my wardersFreely and friendly and clearly,As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell meI bore the days of misfortuneEquably, smilingly, proudly,like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really that which other men tell of?Or am I only what I myself know of myself?Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,Yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds,Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,Tossing in expectation of great events,Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.
Who am I? This or the Other?Am I one person today and tomorrow another?Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?Or is something within me still like a beaten armyFleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine! 
MUSIC - BEATI QUORUM VIA (STANFORD) – THE CHOIR OF FARM STREET CHURCH, MAYFAIR FROM CD ‘BREAD OF HEAVEN’ 
FR DOMINIC:Beati Quorum Via - Blessed are the undefiled in the way,who walk in the law of the Lord - from a recording of the Choir of Farm Street. These last few weeks have been traumatic weeks for so many of us.  Humanity has been here before on the journey of life. For the Christian Church, Palm Sunday begins our Holy Week journey.  With the crowd on that first Palm Sunday we reach out to Jesus calling on his help as saviour of our world.  And we have the benefit of knowing the Holy Week story.  It will lead to the cross and the cross gives us hope because we know it is not the end of the journey.  The cross is a part of life we cannot ignore. It’s all too real for many right now.  But we know through the cross God loves us and loves our world and wants to bring us to a place of peace. That’s our Christian hope and we need to hang onto that, digging deep into our faith in Jesus.Palm Sunday begins our Holy Week journey.  With the crowd on that first Palm Sunday we reach out to Jesus calling on his help as saviour of our world.  And we have the benefit of knowing the Holy Week story.  It will lead to the cross and the cross gives us hope because we know it is not the end of the journey.  The cross is a part of life we cannot ignore. It’s all too real for many right now.  But we know through the cross God loves us and loves our world and wants to bring us to a place of peace. That’s our Christian hope and we need to hang onto that, digging deep into our faith in Jesus.  The tradition of prayer which comes to us Jesuits from our founder St Ignatius can help us dig deep.  Ignatius invites us to place ourselves in the biblical scene and to ask myself how I feel to be there and how God looks on me as he shows his love to me.  There will probably be a range of emotions.  Pain perhaps, fear of my own suffering, but maybe comfort too and the call to serve as generously as he did.     Over the last few weeks I’ve been touched not just by the pain of uncertainty and fear around us.  There is plenty of that.  The only child isolated from elderly parents.  The young adults desperately trying to get back to Portugal, Poland, Latin America.  The pub landlady, the hotel managers, the shopkeepers, desperate to look after their worried staff and anxious about their business’ own future.  The wonderful NHS workers flat out and in the firing line.  The teachers who kept calm and carried on until schools were closed with some carrying on still helping the children of key workers.  In the shadow of the cross, especially in the shadow of the cross, humanity finds ways of being more fully human, being more fully Christian, being united more truly as the broken, scattered Body of Christ.  And so in the midst of this terrible crisis the volunteers coming forward to ‘phone those on their own, offering shopping,  the hotels housing our street homeless, those who called into our church to leave food and toiletries at our installation of Homeless Jesus, which go to the Blessed Sacrament food bank in King’s Cross.  Yes, in the shadow of the cross a new humanity does truly emerge, as the broken and scattered come together yearning to serve and create a more human world, and we are taught again what really matters and of the power of love.    Coming together this morning from all corners of our society and all our traditions, let’s listen again to the account of that fateful day when our saviour Jesus Christ died out of infinite love for us. The Gospel of Matthew chapter 27.   READING: DEATH OF JESUS : Passion Gospel for Palm Sunday Mass from ‘And the passers-by jeered at him’ to ‘yielded up his spirit’ (read by Ruth Holgate) 
The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said,C. So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Then save yourself! If you are God’s son, come down from the cross!N. The chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him in the same way, saying:C. He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He puts his trust in God; now let God rescue him if he wants him. For he did say, ‘I am the son of God.’N. Even the robbers who were crucified with him taunted him in the same way.From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice,✠ Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?N. That is, ‘My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’ When some of those who stood there heard this, they said,C. The man is calling on Elijah.N. and one of them quickly ran to get a sponge which he dipped in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink. The rest of them said:C. Wait! See if Elijah will come to save him.N. But Jesus, again crying out in a loud voice, yielded up his spirit
MUSIC - AVE VERUM CORPUS (ElGAR) – WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL CHOIR FROM THE CD ‘PANIS ANGELICUS: FAVOURITE MOTETS’
THEODORA:Often when we talk about the death of Jesus, we think in terms of Jesus ‘taking our place’. As in the Ave Verum we just heard - Vere passum immolatum in Cruce pro homine, ‘who truly suffered, sacrificed on the Cross for humanity’   But when St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, guides us through praying with these gospel passages about Jesus’ suffering and death, he invites us to turn this usual approach upside down. Instead of asking us to think about Jesus taking our place, he asks us to take Jesus’ place, to come alongside him in our imaginations and our emotions as vividly as we can, and to follow him closely. So how is Jesus feeling as he enters this week? Abandoned and forsaken, or calm and trusting in God’s deliverance? Perhaps he feels the same as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as he faced his own imminent execution – a mixture of fear and strength, vulnerability and self-possession. Who we are in these moments of supreme trial is already decided by who we have been all our lives. In Jesus’ case, it is a life of self-emptying love. Most of it is completely ordinary, spent in Nazareth as a labourer, in his family home, in the ordinary give-and-take of family and working life.It’s only when he begins his public ministry that we see this ordinary love writ larger: a love that feeds a crowd of thousands when he is bereaved and exhausted; a love that reaches out and heals in spite of disapproval and danger; a love that defied social conventions about who was untouchable, and defied religious conventions about who was acceptable.It is this life-long, ordinary loving that shapes who Jesus is and what he does in this last week of his life: washing his disciples’ feet, comforting his mother, giving up his spirit. John’s gospel puts it perfectly: ‘having loved those who were his own in the world, he loved them to the end.’These are extraordinary times – for many, a time of trial, of loss, for some, a time of generous and costly self-giving to the point of exhaustion and in the face of danger. Over the coming weeks, we will learn something about how each ordinary decision and daily act of generosity has shaped and strengthened us. What we have of selfishness and fear, and of steady, self-giving love, will be writ large, both as individuals, and as a society.   These are our times, and Jesus cannot take our place. But we have much to learn from walking with him in his suffering this week, and from walking with one another in these passiontide days of grief and hope.  If we live them well, we will learn how to be expanded from the ordinary to the extraordinary. We will learn that every single person on this planet is our neighbour. And we will learn all over again how to love those who are our own in the world, and love them to the end. 
MUSIC – O FOR A CLOSER WALK WITH GOD (STANFORD) – CAMBRIDGE SINGERS FROM THE CD ‘I WILL LIFE UP MINE EYES’
BIDDING PRAYERS INCLUDING HAIL MARY THEODORA:When St Ignatius teaches about prayer, he suggests that we speak to God ‘as one friend speaks to another’, and to tell the Lord honestly and openly what it is that we need. So we turn now to God in prayer.
MUSIC – AGNUS DEI FROM MISSA PAPAE MARCELLI (PALESTRINA) – OXFORD CAMERATA – FROM THE CD ‘PALESTRINA: MISSA PAPAE MARCELLI
Lord, we place into your hands our families and loved ones, especially those who are elderly or sick, anxious or lonely. You know their needs, and we ask you to be close to them.  We place into your hands the people in our medical and emergency services, and their families. We pray for the keyworkers whose day-to-day work protects and sustains us. We give thanks for them and we ask you to uphold them in health, strength and courage. We pray for those in leadership and governance during these days. We ask you to give them the wisdom to lead and to listen, and the vision to act for the common good.We pray for ourselves as a society. Now, more than ever, we recognise our dependence on one another. Teach us how to grow in solidarity, in gratitude, and in care for one another. You have loved each of us into life and counted every hair on our heads. We place in your hands those who have died. Stay with us in our sorrow, and give us hope.We pray with Mary, who journeyed with her son Jesus in his suffering…
FR DOMINICNow let us pray in the words our saviour gave us.  OUR FATHER (20 sec)Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.For thine is the Kingdom,the power and the glory,,forever and everAmen.
FR DOMINICAnd as we conclude our worship this morning, we also begin our journey this Holy Week and we survey the wondrous cross, we consider a ‘love so amazing, so divine, demanding our souls, our lives, our all.  
HYMN: WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS (ROCKINGHAM)– EXMOOR SINGERS LONDON, FROM THE ABLUM ‘MY KIND OF HYMN’ 

FR DOMINICBLESSINGAnd may the blessing of almighty God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, come down on you and your families this Holy Week and evermore. Amen
CLOSING MUSIC – HOSIANNA (HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID) – (VOGLER) -YL MALE VOICE CHOIR FROM THE CD CHRISTMAS CAROLS
FR DOMINIC Good morning.  Welcome to Farm Street Church in the heart of London where I am alone behind locked doors at the start of Holy Week, and at this most challenging of times for our country. Anxious times, when our own human frailty, and vulnerability, is in the air we breathe.  In our parish we’re trying to respond to this crisis which has changed our lives dramatically, not least in the closure of our church.  Maybe many of you listening this morning are missing gathering too and feeling pain, perhaps in isolation.  There are no quick fixes but Holy Week does remind us that the Christian journey involves pain and tragedy but this ultimately will lead to new life.   Today we recall the start of the Holy Week journey, our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem before his death on the cross and his rising again. As we accompany Jesus on his journey this week may we know once again that he is accompanying us on ours. The hymn ‘My song is love unknown is particularly poignant at this time…‘But oh my friend, my friend indeed, who at my need his life did spend.’
HYMN: MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN (LOVE UNKNOWN) – GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL CHOIR FROM THE CD ‘AN EVENING AT GUIDFORD CATHEDRAL
COLLECT Almighty ever-living God, who as an example of humility for the human race to followcaused our Saviour to take flesh and submit to the Cross,graciously grant that we may heed his lessonof patient sufferingand so merit a share in his Resurrection. We ask this through Christ Our Lord.  R/ Amen.  
FR DOMINIC We’re a gathered community from all over London and further afield.  And now we’re scattered - the young, the old, families, weekday workers, the homeless, the LGBT Community, and most troubling of all those who are sick, the elderly, the lonely. Not being able to meet in person to celebrate Easter next weekend will be very strange for many. And indeed recording this service we are apart, but together in spirit.   Dr Theodora Hawksley of the London Jesuit Centre here at Farm Street will give our main reflection, and now introduces the first reading.
THEODORA:The gospel reading for today, from the gospel of Mark, tells of Jesus being met as redeemer and King, with ‘Glory Laud and Honour’. The Gospel of Mark Chapter 11:
READING – PALM SUNDAY GOSPEL OF ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM – (read by Leslie Giltz)
Mark 11:1-11 New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
11 When they were approaching Jerusalem, in sight of Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go off to the village facing you, and as soon as you enter it you will find a tethered colt that no one has yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, “What are you doing?” say, “The Master needs it and will send it back here directly.” They went off and found a colt tethered near a door in the open street. As they untied it, some men standing there said, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They gave the answer Jesus had told them, and the men let them go. Then they took the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on its back, and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others greenery which they had cut in the fields. And those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heavens!’ He entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple. 
HYMN: ALL GLORY LAUD AND HONOUR (ST THEODULPH) – KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL CHOIR, CAMBRIDGE , FROM THE CD ‘ABIDE WITH ME: 50 FAVOURITE HYMNS)
THEODORA:This triumphant entry into Jerusalem also marks the beginning of the last week of Jesus’ life. In this week, Jesus will be betrayed by one of his disciples, and abandoned and denied by his closest friends. He will be tried unjustly and condemned to death.This reflection, written by the Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer during his imprisonment, powerfully evokes his own experience of facing death.MUSIC – KYRIE (ARVO PART) FROM BERLINER MESSE, POLYPHONY, FROM THE CD ‘ARVO PART: BERLINER MESSE & MAGNIFICAT
REFLECTION ‘WHO AM I? (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)Who am I? They often tell meI stepped from my cell’s confinementCalmly, cheerfully, firmly,Like a Squire from his country house.Who am I? They often tell meI used to speak to my wardersFreely and friendly and clearly,As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell meI bore the days of misfortuneEquably, smilingly, proudly,like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really that which other men tell of?Or am I only what I myself know of myself?Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,Yearning for colours, for flowers, for the voices of birds,Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,Tossing in expectation of great events,Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.
Who am I? This or the Other?Am I one person today and tomorrow another?Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?Or is something within me still like a beaten armyFleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine! 
MUSIC - BEATI QUORUM VIA (STANFORD) – THE CHOIR OF FARM STREET CHURCH, MAYFAIR FROM CD ‘BREAD OF HEAVEN’ 
FR DOMINIC:Beati Quorum Via - Blessed are the undefiled in the way,who walk in the law of the Lord - from a recording of the Choir of Farm Street. These last few weeks have been traumatic weeks for so many of us.  Humanity has been here before on the journey of life. For the Christian Church, Palm Sunday begins our Holy Week journey.  With the crowd on that first Palm Sunday we reach out to Jesus calling on his help as saviour of our world.  And we have the benefit of knowing the Holy Week story.  It will lead to the cross and the cross gives us hope because we know it is not the end of the journey.  The cross is a part of life we cannot ignore. It’s all too real for many right now.  But we know through the cross God loves us and loves our world and wants to bring us to a place of peace. That’s our Christian hope and we need to hang onto that, digging deep into our faith in Jesus.Palm Sunday begins our Holy Week journey.  With the crowd on that first Palm Sunday we reach out to Jesus calling on his help as saviour of our world.  And we have the benefit of knowing the Holy Week story.  It will lead to the cross and the cross gives us hope because we know it is not the end of the journey.  The cross is a part of life we cannot ignore. It’s all too real for many right now.  But we know through the cross God loves us and loves our world and wants to bring us to a place of peace. That’s our Christian hope and we need to hang onto that, digging deep into our faith in Jesus.  The tradition of prayer which comes to us Jesuits from our founder St Ignatius can help us dig deep.  Ignatius invites us to place ourselves in the biblical scene and to ask myself how I feel to be there and how God looks on me as he shows his love to me.  There will probably be a range of emotions.  Pain perhaps, fear of my own suffering, but maybe comfort too and the call to serve as generously as he did.     Over the last few weeks I’ve been touched not just by the pain of uncertainty and fear around us.  There is plenty of that.  The only child isolated from elderly parents.  The young adults desperately trying to get back to Portugal, Poland, Latin America.  The pub landlady, the hotel managers, the shopkeepers, desperate to look after their worried staff and anxious about their business’ own future.  The wonderful NHS workers flat out and in the firing line.  The teachers who kept calm and carried on until schools were closed with some carrying on still helping the children of key workers.  In the shadow of the cross, especially in the shadow of the cross, humanity finds ways of being more fully human, being more fully Christian, being united more truly as the broken, scattered Body of Christ.  And so in the midst of this terrible crisis the volunteers coming forward to ‘phone those on their own, offering shopping,  the hotels housing our street homeless, those who called into our church to leave food and toiletries at our installation of Homeless Jesus, which go to the Blessed Sacrament food bank in King’s Cross.  Yes, in the shadow of the cross a new humanity does truly emerge, as the broken and scattered come together yearning to serve and create a more human world, and we are taught again what really matters and of the power of love.    Coming together this morning from all corners of our society and all our traditions, let’s listen again to the account of that fateful day when our saviour Jesus Christ died out of infinite love for us. The Gospel of Matthew chapter 27.   READING: DEATH OF JESUS : Passion Gospel for Palm Sunday Mass from ‘And the passers-by jeered at him’ to ‘yielded up his spirit’ (read by Ruth Holgate) The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said,C. So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Then save yourself! If you are God’s son, come down from the cross!N. The chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him in the same way, saying:C. He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He puts his trust in God; now let God rescue him if he wants him. For he did say, ‘I am the son of God.’N. Even the robbers who were crucified with him taunted him in the same way.From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice,✠ Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?N. That is, ‘My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’ When some of those who stood there heard this, they said,C. The man is calling on Elijah.N. and one of them quickly ran to get a sponge which he dipped in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink. The rest of them said:C. Wait! See if Elijah will come to save him.N. But Jesus, again crying out in a loud voice, yielded up his spirit
MUSIC - AVE VERUM CORPUS (ElGAR) – WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL CHOIR FROM THE CD ‘PANIS ANGELICUS: FAVOURITE MOTETS’
THEODORA:Often when we talk about the death of Jesus, we think in terms of Jesus ‘taking our place’. As in the Ave Verum we just heard - Vere passum immolatum in Cruce pro homine, ‘who truly suffered, sacrificed on the Cross for humanity’   But when St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, guides us through praying with these gospel passages about Jesus’ suffering and death, he invites us to turn this usual approach upside down. Instead of asking us to think about Jesus taking our place, he asks us to take Jesus’ place, to come alongside him in our imaginations and our emotions as vividly as we can, and to follow him closely. So how is Jesus feeling as he enters this week? Abandoned and forsaken, or calm and trusting in God’s deliverance? Perhaps he feels the same as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as he faced his own imminent execution – a mixture of fear and strength, vulnerability and self-possession. Who we are in these moments of supreme trial is already decided by who we have been all our lives. In Jesus’ case, it is a life of self-emptying love. Most of it is completely ordinary, spent in Nazareth as a labourer, in his family home, in the ordinary give-and-take of family and working life.It’s only when he begins his public ministry that we see this ordinary love writ larger: a love that feeds a crowd of thousands when he is bereaved and exhausted; a love that reaches out and heals in spite of disapproval and danger; a love that defied social conventions about who was untouchable, and defied religious conventions about who was acceptable.It is this life-long, ordinary loving that shapes who Jesus is and what he does in this last week of his life: washing his disciples’ feet, comforting his mother, giving up his spirit. John’s gospel puts it perfectly: ‘having loved those who were his own in the world, he loved them to the end.’These are extraordinary times – for many, a time of trial, of loss, for some, a time of generous and costly self-giving to the point of exhaustion and in the face of danger. Over the coming weeks, we will learn something about how each ordinary decision and daily act of generosity has shaped and strengthened us. What we have of selfishness and fear, and of steady, self-giving love, will be writ large, both as individuals, and as a society.   These are our times, and Jesus cannot take our place. But we have much to learn from walking with him in his suffering this week, and from walking with one another in these passiontide days of grief and hope.  If we live them well, we will learn how to be expanded from the ordinary to the extraordinary. We will learn that every single person on this planet is our neighbour. And we will learn all over again how to love those who are our own in the world, and love them to the end. MUSIC – O FOR A CLOSER WALK WITH GOD (STANFORD) – CAMBRIDGE SINGERS FROM THE CD ‘I WILL LIFE UP MINE EYES’
BIDDING PRAYERS INCLUDING HAIL MARY THEODORA:When St Ignatius teaches about prayer, he suggests that we speak to God ‘as one friend speaks to another’, and to tell the Lord honestly and openly what it is that we need. So we turn now to God in prayer.
MUSIC – ANGUS DEI FROM MISSA PAPAE MARCELLI (PALESTRINA) – OXFORD CAMERATA – FROM THE CD ‘PALESTRINA: MISSA PAPAE MARCELLILord, we place into your hands our families and loved ones, especially those who are elderly or sick, anxious or lonely. You know their needs, and we ask you to be close to them.  We place into your hands the people in our medical and emergency services, and their families. We pray for the keyworkers whose day-to-day work protects and sustains us. We give thanks for them and we ask you to uphold them in health, strength and courage. We pray for those in leadership and governance during these days. We ask you to give them the wisdom to lead and to listen, and the vision to act for the common good.We pray for ourselves as a society. Now, more than ever, we recognise our dependence on one another. Teach us how to grow in solidarity, in gratitude, and in care for one another. You have loved each of us into life and counted every hair on our heads. We place in your hands those who have died. Stay with us in our sorrow, and give us hope.We pray with Mary, who journeyed with her son Jesus in his suffering…
FR DOMINICNow let us pray in the words our saviour gave us.  OUR FATHER (20 sec)Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.For thine is the Kingdom,the power and the glory,,forever and everAmen.
FR DOMINICAnd as we conclude our worship this morning, we also begin our journey this Holy Week and we survey the wondrous cross, we consider a ‘love so amazing, so divine, demanding our souls, our lives, our all.  
HYMN: WHEN I SURVEY THE WONDROUS CROSS (ROCKINGHAM)– EXMOOR SINGERS LONDON, FROM THE ABLUM ‘MY KIND OF HYMN’ 

FR DOMINICBLESSINGAnd may the blessing of almighty God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, come down on you and your families this Holy Week and evermore. AmenCLOSING MUSIC – HOSIANNA (HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID) – (VOGLER) -YL MALE VOICE CHOIR FROM THE CD CHRISTMAS CAROLS