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Saint Gertrude Parish - Lasne
April 2, 2026
On this page you will find:
The readings for Mass, the Mass leaflet with the choice of hymns
A sample universal prayer available for download, in PDF and editable Word formats.
A meditation on the Sunday Gospel, a spiritual text and commentary by Marie-Noëlle Thabut
Holy Thursday
If therefore I, the Lord and Master,
I washed your feet,
You too must wash your feet
to each other.
This is an example I gave you.
so that you too may do
as I did for you.
John 13:14
Readings from the Mass
Universal Prayer
Consult the Lectio Divina page, which invites you to read the Gospel in a prayerful atmosphere so that you may be touched in your heart. It is important not to rush to read commentaries or homilies before having this personal experience of encountering Christ in Scripture.
Next, if you wish, you can read the meditations below which will enrich your personal reading and meditation.
HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS
Vatican Basilica
Holy Thursday, April 17, 2014
Dear brothers in the priesthood!
On this Holy Thursday, when Christ loved us to the end (cf. Jn 13:1), we commemorate the blessed day of the Institution of the Priesthood and of our own priestly Ordination. The Lord has anointed us in Christ with the oil of gladness, and this anointing invites us to receive this great gift and to be its bearers: priestly joy and gladness. The joy of the priest is a precious gift not only for him but also for all the faithful people of God: this faithful people among whom the priest is called to be anointed and to whom he is sent to anoint.
Anointed with the oil of joy to anoint with the oil of joy. Priestly joy has its source in the Love of the Father, and the Lord desires that the joy of this Love "be in us," and be "full" (Jn 15:11). I like to think of joy when contemplating the Virgin: Mary, the "Mother of the living Gospel, is a source of joy for the little ones" (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium , no. 288), and I believe we are not exaggerating when we say that the priest is a very small person: the immeasurable greatness of the gift given to us through the ministry places us among the least of men. The priest is the poorest of men if Jesus does not enrich him with his poverty; he is the most useless servant if Jesus does not call him friend; the most foolish of men if Jesus does not patiently instruct him like Peter; the most defenseless of Christians if the Good Shepherd does not strengthen him in the midst of his flock. No one is less than a priest left to his own devices; therefore, our prayer for protection against every snare of the Evil One is the prayer of our Mother: I am a priest because he has looked with kindness upon my littleness (cf. Lk 1:48). And from this littleness, we welcome our joy. Joy in our littleness!
I find three significant characteristics in our priestly joy: it is a joy that anoints us (not that makes us unctuous, imposing, and presumptuous), it is an incorruptible joy, and it is a missionary joy that radiates to all and attracts all, starting from the other side: with those who are furthest away.
A joy that anoints us. This means: it has penetrated to the very depths of our hearts, shaping and sacramentally strengthening them. The rites of the ordination liturgy speak to us of the Church's maternal desire to transmit and communicate all that the Lord has given us: the laying on of hands, the anointing with holy chrism, the vesting with sacred vestments, immediate participation in the first Consecration… Grace fills us and flows forth whole, abundant, and complete in every priest. Anointed to the bone… and our joy, which springs from within, is the echo of this anointing.
An incorruptible joy. The integrity of the Gift, to which no one can take anything away or add anything, is an unceasing source of joy: an incorruptible joy, which the Lord promised no one could take from us (cf. Jn 16:22). It may be dormant or stifled by sin or by the cares of life, but, deep down, it remains intact like the ember of a vine burned beneath the ashes, and can always be rekindled. Paul's exhortation to Timothy remains ever relevant: I urge you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands (cf. 2 Tim 1:6).
A missionary joy. This third characteristic, I want to share and emphasize in a particular way: the joy of the priest is intimately connected to the holy faithful people of God because it is an eminently missionary joy. Anointing is for the purpose of anointing the holy faithful people of God: to baptize and confirm, to care for and consecrate, to bless, to console, and to evangelize.
And since this joy flows only when the shepherd stands in the midst of his flock (even in the silence of prayer, the shepherd who worships the Father is in the midst of his sheep), and for this reason, it is a “joy guarded” by that same flock. Even in moments of sadness, when everything seems to darken and the vertigo of isolation seduces us, those moments of apathy and boredom that we sometimes experience in the priestly life (and through which I too have passed), even in these moments the people of God are able to guard joy, they are able to protect you, to embrace you, to help you open your heart and rediscover a renewed joy.
“Joy guarded” by the flock and also guarded by three sisters who surround it, protect it, defend it: sister poverty, sister fidelity and sister obedience.
The joy of the priest is a joy whose sister is poverty. The priest is poor in joy, simply human: he has renounced so much! And because he is poor, he who gives so much to others, must ask his joy of the Lord and of God's faithful people. He must not obtain it for himself. We know that our people are very generous in thanking priests for even the smallest gestures of blessing and, especially, for the Sacraments. Many, when speaking of the crisis of priestly identity, fail to consider that identity presupposes belonging. There is no identity—and therefore no joy in life—without active and committed belonging to God's faithful people (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium , no. 268). The priest who claims to find priestly identity by searching for it introspectively within himself may find nothing but signs pointing to the exit: go out of yourself, go out in search of God in adoration, go out and give to your people what has been entrusted to you, and your people will take care to make you feel and taste who you are, what your name is, what your identity is, and they will make you rejoice with the hundredfold reward that the Lord has promised to his servants. If you do not go out of yourself, the oil becomes rancid, and the anointing cannot be fruitful. Going out of oneself requires stripping oneself bare; it entails poverty.
Priestly joy is a joy whose sister is fidelity. Not so much in the sense that we are all “immaculate” (may we be so with God’s grace!), because we are sinners, but rather in the sense of a fidelity ever renewed to the one Bride, the Church. Therein lies the key to fruitfulness. The spiritual children that the Lord gives to each priest, those he has baptized, the families he has blessed and helped on their journey, the sick he supports, the young people with whom he shares catechesis and formation, the poor he assists… are this “Bride” whom he is happy to treat as his favorite and only beloved, and to whom he is always faithful in new ways. It is the living Church, with first and last name, which the priest takes care of in his parish or in the mission entrusted to him; it is she who gives him joy when he is faithful to her, when he does all that he must do and leaves all that he must leave to remain in the midst of the sheep that the Lord has entrusted to him: "Feed my sheep" (Jn 21, 16.17).
Priestly joy is a joy whose sister is obedience. Obedience to the Church in the hierarchy, which gives us, so to speak, not only the more external environment of obedience—the parish to which I am sent, the faculties of ministry, this particular responsibility—but also union with God the Father, from whom all fatherhood comes. But also obedience to the Church in service: availability and promptness to serve all, always and in the best way, like “Our Lady of Promptness” (cf. Lk 1:39: meta spoudes), who hurries to serve her cousin and is attentive to the kitchen at Cana where there is no wine. The availability of the priest makes the Church the House with open doors, refuge for sinners, home for those who live on the street, care home for the sick, campsite for young people, catechism room for children of First Communion… Wherever the people of God have a desire or a need, there is the priest who knows how to listen (ob-audire) and hears a loving mandate from Christ who sends him to mercifully help this need or support these good desires with creative charity.
He who is called knows that there is in this world a simple and full joy: that of being taken by the people one loves to be sent to them as a dispenser of the gifts and consolations of Jesus, the one Good Shepherd who, full of deep compassion for all the little ones and the excluded of this earth, weary and oppressed like sheep without a shepherd, wanted to associate many people with his ministry in order to remain and act Himself, in the person of His priests, for the good of His people.
On this Holy Thursday, I ask the Lord Jesus to help many young people discover this ardor of heart which brings forth joy as soon as one has the happy audacity to respond promptly to his call.
On this Holy Thursday, I ask the Lord Jesus to preserve the joyful sparkle in the eyes of the newly ordained, who set out to “devour” the world, to be consumed in the midst of God’s faithful people, that they may rejoice in preparing their first homily, their first Mass, their first Baptism, their first Confession… it is the joy of being able to share – in awe – for the first time as anointed ones, the treasure of the Gospel and to feel that the faithful people return to you to anoint them in another way: with their requests, bowing their heads for your blessing, shaking your hands, bringing you their children, praying for their sick… Lord, preserve in your young priests the joy of departure, the joy of doing everything as new, the joy of consuming their lives for you.
On this Priestly Thursday, I ask the Lord Jesus to confirm the priestly joy of those who have many years of ministry. This joy, which never fades from their eyes, rests on the shoulders of all who bear the weight of ministry, these priests who have already felt the pulse of the work, who gather their strength and recharge: “they get a change of scenery,” as athletes say. Lord, preserve the depth and wise maturity of the joy of these seasoned priests. May they know how to pray like Nehemiah: the joy of the Lord is our strength (cf. Neh 8:10).
Finally, on this Priestly Thursday, I ask the Lord Jesus that the joy of elderly priests, whether healthy or ill, may shine forth. It is the joy of the Cross, which comes from the awareness of having an incorruptible treasure in a clay vessel that is constantly crumbling. May they know how to be at peace wherever they may be, discerning in the fleeting nature of time the taste of eternity (Guardini). May they feel, Lord, the joy of passing on the torch, the joy of seeing the children of children grow up, and of greeting, with a smile and gentleness, the promises, in that hope which does not disappoint.
Homily
Draw from the source
We are approaching the end of Lent. The biblical readings for this Sunday offer us a glimpse of the joy of Easter, the victory of life over death. We are invited to participate in this victory by committing ourselves to the service of peace and life. As every year, CCFD calls us to fight against the suffering and inequalities that mark our world. We see it clearly: the poor are becoming poorer and more numerous. International news is dominated by violence, conflict, and the distress of those fleeing their homeland in search of peace. It is important to be attentive to the cries from here and elsewhere. CCFD-Terre Solidaire invites us this year to be moved by the cries of the world and to transform them into shared hope.
For this struggle, we turn to the Lord. The biblical texts for this Sunday seek to help us. First, we have the first reading, which takes us back to the fourth century BC. The people of Israel are in great distress because they are deported to a land of exile. But the prophet Ezekiel intervenes to rekindle the hope of the exiles. God will open the tomb into which this people has been swallowed up. He will bring them back to the land of Israel. This will be the victory of life over death. Through this biblical text, we already have an introduction to the idea of resurrection.
There is a word that recurs frequently in the Old Testament and the Gospel: the verb "to come out." We discover a God who brings his people out of Egypt; he announces that he will raise them from their tombs: "I will put my Spirit within you, and you will live." The Gospel also speaks to us of a God who goes out. We all know the parable of the sower who went out to sow. And we mustn't forget the master who goes out to hire workers until the eleventh hour. Today, CCFD invites us to emerge from our indifference and passivity. As in the time of Moses, the Lord sees the misery of his people and sends us to free them from all that destroys them.
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul speaks of the Spirit who delivers us from the power of the flesh. In his language, he refers to the weaknesses of the human condition and to sin. We are called to live under the guidance of the Spirit. Through this message, he directs us back to the divine life sown within us. It is the pledge of our resurrection. It is life that triumphs over death. Day by day, we become more attentive, more compassionate, and more generous. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, we learn to open our eyes, our hands, and our hearts.
This Sunday's Gospel tells us about Lazarus's journey from the tomb. Through this extraordinary act, Jesus fully expresses his power over death. The disciples know that this journey to Jerusalem is a march toward death. Despite their disbelief, he wants them to understand that this road will end with the victory of life.
From this Gospel, we must especially remember Jesus' solemn declaration: "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even though they die, will live." Then we have Martha's response: "Yes, Lord, I believe." Reading this Gospel, we become aware of an important reality: it is not only Lazarus who must be raised from his tomb; it is all of humanity that must be delivered from death. We are all called to come out of our selfishness, our indifference, our sin. As with Lazarus, the Lord says to us all: "Come out!"
A mere return to life only postpones the inevitable. Christ wants to bring us forth into another life. He calls us to a new life. This will be the triumph of life over death. It is a life that will not pass away. But first and foremost, we must heed Christ's call to raise us from our tomb. With him, we experience the wondrous event of life's victory over death. We are invited to live this Lent as a passage toward a life that is more just, more compassionate, more open to God and to others. With Christ, we can always overcome our fears and rediscover the courage and hope to move forward. It is with him that we must rise again each day.
Today, the same Christ is counting on us to participate in this work of liberation. Many of our brothers and sisters are as if they were locked in tombs. We think of all those who are oppressed, unemployed, hungry, or sick. We believe that the Lord can open these tombs. But we also know that his word and his actions depend on our commitment.
CCFD Terre Solidaire calls on us to transform the world's clamor into hope. It is unacceptable that men, women, and children remain trapped in their precarious situation. Christ teaches us to listen and to be moved by their suffering. He invites us to open our hearts, our eyes, our ears, and our hands. The swaddling clothes that bound Lazarus are a symbol of our selfishness, our coldness, and our indifference. This is what Jesus wants to free us from.
By calling Lazarus to come outside, Jesus is also addressing all people. He calls them all by name. With him, death cannot have the last word. It has become a passage, a gateway to eternity. On this day, we make Martha's profession of faith our own: "I believe, Lord; you are the Son of God who comes to save the world."
Sources: Feu Nouveau Review, Prions en Église Notebook, Homilies of the Liturgical Year (Simon Faivre) – CCFD Documents
Understanding the readings
with Marie-Noëlle THABUT
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