Toward Easter - Daily Readings & Meditations for Lent 2025 - Day 41 / Holy Monday

The sacred journey of Holy Week begins with a powerful meditation on fidelity. Today's reflection takes us to Bethany, where Mary anoints Jesus' feet with precious spikenard and wipes them with her hair. The fragrance fills the entire house – a beautiful metaphor for how genuine devotion spreads and touches everyone nearby.

At the heart of this meditation lies a striking contrast: Mary's selfless love against Judas's calculating betrayal. When Judas objects to this "waste" of expensive perfume, Jesus defends Mary, recognizing her act as preparation for his coming burial. "The poor you will always have with you," he tells them, "but me, you will not always have." Through this exchange, we glimpse Christ's special appreciation for contemplative devotion alongside active charity.

This Holy Monday presents us with a profound personal challenge. The meditation gently suggests that both Mary's fidelity and Judas's treason exist within each of us. Every sin represents a small betrayal, while each act of devotion mirrors Mary's loving gesture. As we journey through this most sacred week, we're invited to intensify our prayer life, give generously according to our means, and recognize Christ's presence in the poor around us. Whether through material help or through prayer, Holy Week calls us to examine where we stand between these two paths – contemplation and treason – and to nurture the faithful heart that pours out its most precious gifts at the feet of our Lord.

Chapters

• 0:00 Holy Monday Introduction
• 3:08 Gospel Reading and Meditation
• 6:18 Resolutions for Holy Week
• 7:58 Reflection on Fidelity vs Treason
• 10:32 Thoughts on Helping the Poor
• 12:43 Final Encouragement and Preview

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:55

Sancte. Sancte Amare morti decadas nos In teisper avernus. Good morning everyone, and welcome to day 41 of Lent. We are here on Holy Monday, so we are within Holy Week here. I hope you had a good Palm Sunday yesterday. So we are within Holy Week here. I hope you had a good Palm Sunday yesterday. And today we will be talking about fidelity, and I think everyone here with us at this point probably is aware of everything I'm about to say. But just in case, these are from Toward Easter, by Father Patrick Tro trodeck. You can get the book, uh, at the link in the description below. Uh, you can find these meditations on youtube, in rumble, as well as all the audio podcast apps, uh, in locals, and I'll put up an image on screen. You just listen while we, while we read, meditate. And we'll get going here Monday in Holy Week.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Fidelity From the Gospel of St John, chapter 12, verses 1 through 3. Six days before the Pasch, jesus came to Bethaniah, where Lazarus had been dead, whom Jesus raised to life, and they made him a supper there and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that were at the table with him. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price and anointed the feet of jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. This second anointing is all tenderness, and so the fragrance of this perfume fills the entire house. It is holy charity which, under the symbol of this precious ointment, spreads like a balm throughout the Overflows into the adjoining chambers. Hearts are pacified by it.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Not all, however. Jesus allowed himself to be anointing. He did not protest against this affectionate homage, ah no. But someone is aggravated by it, judas, the future trader. He does not understand. It is a waste of money, nothing more. They could have sold that perfume for 300 nari. What a loss. And hypocritically, he adds, the poor could have benefited. Let her alone, says Jesus to Judas, the poor you will always have with you to care for. But me, who will have a thought for me? I am on my way to die.

Speaker 1: 4:02

This perfume is an early embalming. I accept it. It pleases me and I wish for there to be always souls who spread perfume over my wounds, who cover them with kisses and tears. The poor will not suffer by it. Others will take care of them, and there also, it is I whom they will be serving in the person of the poor. Lord Jesus, through Thy words I understand the preferential love which Thou bearest for the contemplative life over all other forms of life, and so I make Thee a promise to live closer to Thee during this week by praying more in order to console Thee for everything. Thou sufferest from the coldness of human hearts who do not love Thee enough, especially not in our day. I also want to detach myself from the goods of this world which, to offer, hinder me from living in thy sweet company. And now a prayer from Father Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene Divine Intimacy, volume 2, page 225. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. O Lord, before thy most holy body is disfigured by thy passion, I desire, with Mary of Bethany, to render it my humble and pious homage. In the name of the Father and of Son and the Holy Ghost, amen.

Speaker 1: 5:37

And our first thought of the day is from St Vincent de Paul O Savior, o Savior, what shall become of us if we attach ourselves to the goods of this earth? No-transcript. We have three resolutions. The first let us intensify our prayer life and live today a little more in the presence of God, by preceding our time of prayer with a moment of silence. The second resolution let us give alms according to our means. And the third resolution let us think of the fact that Christ is in the poor and wretched people whom we encounter more and more often in the streets of our cities. If we cannot always give them money, at least let us say three Hail Marys for them. And that is it for the reading for today.

Speaker 1: 7:11

We see in the meditation so most of the meditation was once again taken from the Dominican liturgy by Father DA Mortier and we see how. We see within it, how the anointing of the feet of Christ with the spikenard is an early embalming. So we see Christ preparing for Good Friday here. And of course we see the hypocrisy of Judas. Of course we see the hypocrisy of Judas and of course, christ replying that the poor we will always have with us, as opposed to not having Christ with us here on earth always. And we're reminded how, how much Christ values the contemplative life and with, you know it, beginning. Well, yesterday being the beginning, but today being Monday and Holy Week, we have to work hard to spend more time in contemplation this week of Christ's coming passion on Friday.

Speaker 1: 8:34

But we also see here the stark difference, kind, of the two paths laid out for us, two paths laid out for us. We see the fidelity of Mary of Bethany, with her anointing of Christ and using of that spikenard, and we see the treason of Judas. On the other hand, we have to remind ourselves that we have both of those within us, right? You know, when we sin, we commit treason against Christ and we have to ask and pray. You know, especially now, this week, at Holy Week, that the traitor within us is destroyed, dies, and that we become more like Mary of Bethany. And you know we can do that by the resolutions that Father gives us, intensifying our prayer life today and this week, giving alms according to our means and, if we're unable to give alms to the poor, at least praying for them, one of those things that, where I live, we're pretty sheltered from, at least seeing the effects of poverty, or really seeing a lot of stark and extreme poverty itself.

Speaker 1: 10:27

Just reminded of this weekend when we went down to, you know, do, to, uh, some larger cities, to, to visit family you know we don't see very often anyways um, homeless people where we are, just because there's really no, no services to provide for them up by us. So, not to mention, of course the weather is hard on them up here and there's just no homeless people. So when we go down to larger cities, it's something that, of course, I'm reminded of, but my kids aren't exposed to it up here. So when we do go down to larger cities and they see it, they often have lots of questions about it, and if I do have money on me, they often ask me to give money to any homeless people that we see.

Speaker 1: 11:23

But Matty has, he has really good instincts and, um, whenever we do, whenever he does notice, um, you know, a homeless person, he, uh he does ask us to pray for them and I'm very proud of him for that. Um, so that's good, but anyways, uh, yes, let's start intensifying our prayer life today, uh, in preparation for the passion, and tomorrow, on Holy Tuesday, here we will be talking about silence. So I hope you have a great day today, step up your prayer, give alms if you can, and I will see you tomorrow, thank you.