We often focus on the horror of the cross and the suffering that comes with it when we enter Holy Week and the Triduum, but there's a very different tone in the Gospel for today. In the midst of a meal with Jesus and her siblings, Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with a very costly ointment, a symbolic prefiguring of the anointing of his body after the crucifixion; but there's another more affective point for our reflection this week. Mary's generosity with earthly things, while paling in comparison with the Lord's ultimate generosity in giving his life for us, is a wonderful example of how we can approach Holy Week.

Generosity can be expressed in varied ways - there's the simple generosity of material things that comes with the sharing of what we have; and there's a deeper generosity of spirit that stems from an inner disposition of kindness and compassion, recognising the needs of others, and sharing who we are and what we have with others in need. We can deepen our experience of Holy Week by focusing on generosity of heart, modelling the love and compassion of the Lord in our daily lives. We pray for the grace of generosity, to give of ourselves as the Lord did, so as to be his agents of love in the world. At the same time, may we be like the servant spoken of by Isaiah, whom the Lord upholds, the chosen one in whom the Lord delights in.