If you have been following the different sessions of this retreat so far, you will have been led through a number of different ways of becoming more still and focussed. You’ll have drawn on the experience of your own breathing, of noticing the different sensations in your body, of calmly observing the ebb and flow of your thoughts and feelings. By concentrating on a physical object you have been led into stillness, and by paying attention to the sounds around you you’ve been able to discover an underlying silence within. Take a moment to recall some of these methods, and see if you can remember one of them that seemed to work well for you.
If there is one of these techniques that you have found helpful, take a few moments now to lead yourself through it. If you are new to these methods, you might prefer today simply to sit quietly now and prepare yourself to hear a selection of passages from the Gospel of Matthew. Following the reading, we invite you pause and use our supplementary Lectio Divina guide to help you meditate on the scripture in a deeper way.

• The story of the suffering and death of Jesus is the most extended narrative in each of the gospels; on Palm Sunday in Year A we hear Matthew's version, the longest of the four. He offers us a revision of Mark’s account. Mark had not played down the horror of the story; he portrayed Jesus as silent, despised and deserted until the moment of death, when, through the tearing of the temple veil and the centurion's confession, God vindicated his cause as a prelude to the resurrection (Mark 14:1-15:47).
• Matthew's account helps us understand better the meaning of the events. Jesus announced at the start of the drama, ‘My time is near’ (Matthew 26:18). At his Last Supper with his disciples, he explained the sacrificial nature of his death; it was for the ‘forgiveness of sins’ (26:28). At his arrest in Gethsemane, he admitted that twelve legions of angels were his for the asking (26:53); his refusal to resist reflected his own teaching in his Sermon on the Mount (5:39). As he died, his enemies mocked him as ‘Son of God’ (Wisdom 2:13), but we know from the story of his temptations that he will not misuse this intimacy with his Father for his own benefit (Matthew 4:6-7).
• His divine sonship was proclaimed at the beginning of the gospel (2:15; 3:17) and his disciples recognised it during the ministry (14:33; 16:16).
The title on the cross, ‘Jesus, king of the Jews’ was no error, since it was as a child king that the wise men from the East had given him gifts (2:2) and he had entered Jerusalem as a humble king riding on a donkey (21:5-9; Zechariah 9:9).