Starter Prayer:  "Faithful Jesus, your faith was tried just like mine, but even more.  Yet you trusted that you would not be put to shame, and 'into God's hands you entrusted your spirit.'  Give me courage to do the same in the time of trial."  (From Wondrous Encounters by Richard Rohr)

Fr. Rohr writes "Jesus' victory is a dramatic reliance upon God, a mammoth leap of faith, not a superman stunt by a man who knows the full outcome ahead of time...  I believe you are much better prepared to walk through the sacred days ahead with a Jesus who shares, suffers, and trusts God exactly as you and I must learn to do.  He walked in darkness too."

Of course we know the end of the story.  We are Resurrection people.  However, this week is a time for each of us to absorb once again Jesus' most dramatic and intimate teaching.  This is not about a way to behave, or a mission to accept, or a set of practices to integrate into our daily life.

This is about a radical transformation.  During this week we can look again at every way that each one of us steps away from the edge of the free fall into total dependency upon God.  This is the week when we say yes to God's invitation to trust God in all matters, every moment every day.

Each one of us has some areas of life that are in the darkness.  If you don't think you have one, you are most likely not looking at your whole picture.  May God grant you the courage to trust that God will not leave you to face that darkness alone.  

No human ever faced the depth of darkness that Jesus faced.  And because Jesus faced his darkness, you will never have to face yours alone.