Welcome to your whole life in eight days. We have designed this Holy Week journey to help you have a deeply personal experience. So right from the outset, I want to encourage you and challenge you to identify the dominant question in your life right now. What question about you and your future is preoccupying your heart? It might be, Should I marry him? It may be, Should I retire? It might be, What should I study in college? It may be, How do I improve my marriage? How do I deal with the health challenge I'm facing? How do I recover from trauma or betrayal? How do I become a better parent? How do I get my personal finances under control? Or how do I center my life spiritually? It could be a million different things. But it is only one question for you right now. What is the dominant question in your heart at this time in your life? You may know immediately what that question is. You may need to think about it. Either way, take some time today to identify that question, write it down, and place this question before God each day this week. Just keep placing this question before God.

Each time you go to church this week, in your heart and mind, place this question on the altar and listen deep in your heart for the answer God brings you. If you have trouble identifying the question, consider this. If you could have lunch with God and ask him one question about what comes next in your life, what would that question be? What would you ask him? This is just one of the many ways this Holy Week experience can be deeply personal and anything but routine. Now, to the title of our Holy Week retreat, Your Whole Life in Eight Days. What does that mean?

Well, for many years, I've had a theory that I would like your help testing this week. The theory is this: Everything that happens in your life, the big things and the small things, can be found in these eight days of Jesus' experience. And that these eight days that make up Holy Week have something to say about every human experience. Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem today has something to say about the successes and victories of your life. Whatever you're angry about, when Jesus cleanses the temple tomorrow, there is a lesson there. On Tuesday, when the woman anoints Jesus with the perfumed oil, we find every expression of gratitude and appreciation we have ever given or received.

On Wednesday, as Judas plots his betrayal, we find all our broken friendships and our own encounters with betrayal. The epic loneliness of Jesus in the garden Thursday speaks to our own loneliness, past or present. On Friday, we enter deep into the mystery of the suffering of our lives and in the world. On Saturday, when the world goes dark with Jesus dead in the tomb, we come face-to-face with emptiness. And on Sunday, the resurrection brings with it hope, new life, and celebration.

That's a very quick exploration of the concept that everything that happens in your in life, the big things and the small things can be found in these eight days, and that these eight days that make up Holy Week have something to say about every human experience. It's an idea that I hope will serve you powerfully this year, but also a concept that I hope will provide fresh insights every Holy Week for the rest of your life. Now, let's get started. It's Palm Sunday. The exact order of events during these final days of Jesus' life on Earth are debated by biblical scholars. So we will allow the Scriptures themselves to guide us through Holy Week.

We will focus on the most significant events, but we will also explore Jesus' beautiful humanity in some of the seemingly less significant moments. On this Sunday morning, five days before his brutal death, Jesus begins his journey to Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples were fulfilling their tradition of going to Jerusalem for Passover. For the Jewish people, Passover was a sacred holiday, commemorating and celebrating the Hebrew's liberation from slavery in Egypt, which took place over a thousand years earlier around 1290 BC. Jesus set out with determination toward events that you and I would no doubt run and hide from. He set out knowingly. He knew what was coming and yet he walked straight toward it.

For your sake and my sake, he was ready to set in motion a new liberation to free us from the slavery of sin and death. Jesus wept approaching Jerusalem that day. He wept for what could have been. He wept for the wasted potential of the people and the city. He wept for all the suffering and misery he knew would come to that city, prophesying that it would be torn to the ground. When he got close to the village of Bethpage that day, he sent two of his disciples ahead to look for a donkey. Jesus then rode the donkey into Jerusalem. This fulfilled an ancient prophecy written 500 years earlier in the book of Zechariah.

The scriptures say, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, daughter of Jerusalem. See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." As Jesus entered Jerusalem that day, the people welcomed him warmly. They spread their cloaks on the road before him. They waved palm branches in celebration of him and shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." This was a beautiful, collective, holy moment. And this is where the Catholic tradition of receiving palms on the way into mass today comes from.

We place these palms in our homes until Ash Wednesday of next year when they are burnt to make the ashes that are then used to bless us at the beginning of our Lenten journey. The palms are a powerful reminder that the people who waved them and celebrated Jesus on this Sunday were the same people who stood along the way of the cross five days later. one of the most important questions in history is raised in the telling of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem in the Gospel of Matthew. You cannot understand human history without answering this question first. You cannot adequately understand your own life and who you are as a person without answering this question. Life and history and indeed our very selves will be a confusing, unsolvable puzzle unless we answer this question. And what is that question? The Scriptures say, "When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, 'Who is this? Who is this? Who is Jesus?'" It is impossible to understand human history or our place in it without answering that question. And it is not enough to answer it once. Indeed, each year, our Holy Week experience should allow us to answer the question with more depth and clarity year after year. Do you know Jesus better today than you did a year ago?

That night, after Jesus' triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, Jesus and His disciples retraced their steps and returned to Bethany, a town about two miles east of the city. Why? Well, nobody knows for sure, but there is a very simple explanation that provides piercing insight into the humanity of Jesus. That explanation is that he wanted to be with friends. You see, Bethany was where his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived. It appears that Jesus and His disciples spent each night there this week until Thursday. There, Jesus experienced the timeless comfort of human kindness. Now, let us turn our attention to your life. What event in your life can you connect with the event of Jesus' life on this day? As we make our way through this week, the idea of your whole life in eight days is going to spark lots of memories. I'd like to encourage you to choose one event from your life each day to reflect upon.

The major theme today is celebration and rejoicing. Every type of celebration can be illuminated through the events of Palm Sunday, birthdays, weddings, graduations, baptisms, first communions, and many more. And every type of victory and accomplishment can also be found in the celebration and rejoicing of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The minor themes in the events of Jesus' life today include friendship, sadness, facing difficult things with courage, and wasted potential. Which event will you choose from your life to reflect upon today? What lesson does God want you to learn from that event, whether that event was yesterday morning or 20 years ago? The pain and pleasure, the joy and suffering of our lives can all be found in the life of Jesus. True God and true man, He understands the matters that trouble our hearts more than we will ever know. Most relationships would improve radically if we would just talk to each other. This week, take some time to sit down in a quiet place and just talk to Jesus as you would talk with a friend over coffee. The saints and mystics of every age have practiced this particular form of prayer. This conversational prayer is called mental prayer, but the name can be misleading because it is a deeply personal, intimate form of prayer in which we talk to God in our own words about whatever is on our hearts.

Communication transforms relationships. If you want to improve your relationship with God, if you want to take your spiritual life to the next level, talk to Him. Talk to Him. Sit down and spend some time talking to God. Trust, surrender, believe, and receive. We're excited to announce a membership for children in the International Society of the Eucharist. This is the perfect gift for the children and grandchildren in your life, especially those preparing for first communion. Once every three months, we will send a package to all these children teaching them about the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. It will include booklets and medals, prayer books, prayer cards, and lots of other surprises to make learning about the Eucharist fun. Click the button below to learn more. Have a great day. And remember, be bold, be Catholic.

Jesus. I believe that you are truly present. In the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist. Every day I long for more review.

I love you above all things.

And I desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot receive you sacramentally

At this moment. I invite you to come and dwell in my heart.

May the spiritual communion. Increase my desire for the Eucharist.

You are the healer of my soul. Take the blindness from my eyes.

The deafness from my ears. The darkness from my mind.

And the hardness from my heart.

Fill me with the grace, wisdom, and courage. To do your will.

In all things.

My Lord and my God. Draw me close to you.

Nearer than ever before.

Amen.

Consecrate America to the Eucharist.

Bye-bye.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Come on.

Have a great day.