Father Into Your Hands 

I begin today’s reflection with a confession. I really do not like Palm Sunday. Of all the Sundays in the year, this is the one that, if I allowed myself to skip it, I would. The weight of Palm Sunday overwhelms me.  

Reflect with me today on a prayer I have written from the very human heart of Jesus to the heart of his Father. 

Father, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to go back to Jerusalem. They have been plotting against me and have tried to kill me already. If I go back there, I will die. I am afraid. I love you, Father; I feel your Love in me. I am frightened. Father, I know you are with me and that you will walk every step with me, I place my trust in you. But still, I fear. Father, into your hands, I commend my fear. 

Father, I pray it has been enough. You know everything, you know I have tried to do Your will. But was it enough? Do they understand enough that this end will not be the end of the covenant you want with them? Even until now, they know, and then, they are lost again in their bewilderment. Father, when I am no longer with them, will they have the strength and love to carry on? They will be afraid, too; they will know the fear I know. Wrap them in the confidence of your Love. Father, into your hands I commend my friends, those I have loved and taught your ways, those who must go on. 

Father, I know you are with me now as you have always been with me. I am abandoned by the ones I have tried to help. So soon they forget. The crowds have turned on me. Today, they hail me a King, but within days they will cry out for my death. Heal the disappointment and hurt in my heart, don’t allow it to become anger or resentment. Father, into your hands, I commend my broken heart. 

Father, there is a woman you chose, I worry for her. She will know more suffering than anyone should bear. You chose her, and you chose well. I thank you, Father, for the Mother and Father you gave me to guide my young life. They did as you asked. They have lived their Love for you and for me. Give my mother strength to walk these days with me, as she has walked every other day of my life, with a mother’s Love. Father, into your hands, I commend my Mother. 

Father, I am afraid. Sadness overwhelms me. Guide me, give me the strength to follow your will up to the end. May Your will be done in me. Allow Your Love for me and my Love for them, to carry me to that final moment when it is finished, and I am dead. Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. 

Amen, Amen, Amen 

In God’s Unending Love,

Gwen