Throughout Lent, our weekly ePrayers include a special series of reflections on the upcoming Sunday readings. This reflection for Palm Sunday is from Senior Writer/Editor Larry Livingston.

Our traditional gatherings are precious to us. They give us a sense of belonging and continuity. This is especially true of religious gatherings, and it’s common to members of all faiths.

Experiencing God in community both enriches and challenges the human soul. In a sense, our common worship is a moment out of time. It weaves together past and present and binds us in ways beyond understanding.

This is on my mind now because the gatherings that are so important to so many are denied them in the COVID-19 crisis. As I write this, places of worship in the U.S. and throughout the world have suspended religious services and other public gatherings, and it seems likely this will continue beyond Easter.

So, as we enter this Holy Week on Palm Sunday, we’ll be without our normal expressions of community prayer. That is to say, we’ll be without some of the gatherings and rituals that help define us as members of cherished faith traditions. We’re invited to connect, as best we can, through televised and streamed services, but there’s no getting around the fact that, this year, our experience of this most sacred time will be uniquely personal.

Perhaps there’s an opportunity in that. After all, Jesus’ experience of that first “Holy Week” was also uniquely — and profoundly — personal. If each of us can relate our own current anxieties to what Jesus went through, maybe it will help us enter more deeply into solidarity with his Passion. In so doing, we may also enter more deeply into solidarity with the Christ who dwells among, and within, the marginalized and suffering of the world today.

The great temptation of isolation is to feel existentially alone. Even Jesus, in his human nature, struggled against that in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew his “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” moment was coming, and I’m sure he dreaded it. But the important thing is that he came out of the garden with a greater resolve because of his love for the Father and his love for us.

That resolve led to Easter. And it will again. It will.

Please pray

God, your love for us is deep and mysterious. In this time of anxiety, bless us with the strength and the wisdom to place our trust in you. As your Son, Jesus, prayed for resolve in the garden, so may we have the resolve to endure our current trials. As he sacrificed his life out of love for us, may we dedicate our own sacrifices, big and small, to the care of our world, especially those most in need. We ask this in your holy name. Amen.