Reflection
There are times when it is appropriate to show love by a grand gesture, as this woman does by pouring expensive oil over Jesus, at a time close to his death. There may have been other times when it might have been appropriate to sell the oil. But Jesus doesn’t like others criticising a loving gesture like this.
Am I being called to show love by a simple or extravagant gesture?
Today’s Prayer
Preparation: Begin by stilling; then dedicating the time of prayer to God and asking God that all you think, feel and imagine are for the glory of God.
Gift: Ask for what you desire. Suggestion: To know Jesus more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly just as the woman who anointed Jesus’ head did.
Setting: A Scripture reading to imagine you are in the scene.
Scripture
Matthew 26:1-13 WEB
When Jesus had finished all these words, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas. They took counsel together that they might take Jesus by deceit and kill him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest a riot occur among the people.”
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him having an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.
But when his disciples saw this, they were indignant, saying,
“Why this waste?
For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor.”
However, knowing this, Jesus said to them,
“Why do you trouble the woman? She has done a good work for me.
For you always have the poor with you, but you don’t always have me.
For in pouring this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.
Most certainly I tell you, wherever this Good News is preached in the whole world,
what this woman has done will also be spoken of as a memorial of her.”
Conversation: Talk to Jesus in your own words as a friend
Final Prayer: End with a formal prayer such as the Lord’s Prayer/Our Father.
Today’s Music
When Mary Poured a Rich Perfume: words Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, music Fr. J. Roel Lungay,
vocal Elvis Somosot