My Lord, You lived Your life fully human and fully part of Your earthly community.

For nearly three decades no one could fathom that in You, God's Word was ripening for the world. You knew the daily toils of man, the work and pains of everyday life. Joys. Sorrows. Then, You left, full of this earthly life and experience, to empty Yourself of God's Word, wrapped in the experience of Your life. And the world opens to heaven and all may be reborn in this Word.

Now is the time we recognize the close of Your earthly mission. The final hours are approaching when the love of Your father is fully consummated with the Word and the gift of life is delivered in sacrifice to death.

In the garden of Your delivery to the hands of man I watch. Fully human, I prepare for the divine sacrifice. To realize it. To share in it. To embrace the death of self to more closely follow You. Amen