Mercy; Reading 1: Isaiah 52:13--53:12; Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 31:2- 25; Reading 2: Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; Gospel : John 18:1 – 19:42; Pope Francis Angelus; Inspirational Hymns - Gregorian Chants; Our Lady of Medjugorje Message; Good Friday; Way of the Cross: Divine Mercy Nine day Novena form Good Friday to Divine Mercy Sunday; Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary; Acts of Reparation (Morning Offering, First Friday and First Saturday Devotions); Mystical City of God - Book 6 Chapter 6-9 The Passion and Crucifixion; Catholic Catechism - Part Four - The Christian Prayer - Section One - Prayer in the Christian Life - Chapter 4 The Lords of Prayer - Article 4 The Final Doxology; RECHARGE: Heaven Speaks to Young Adults
Consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary ~ Zarya Parx 2017
JESUS I TRUST IN YOU (Year of Mercy). "Always Trust in Jesus, He the beacon of light amongst the darkest clouds" ~ Zarya Parx 2016
"Where There is a Will, With God, There is a Way", "There is always a ray of sunshine amongst the darkest Clouds, the name of that ray is Jesus" ~ Zarya Parx 2014
The world begins and ends everyday for someone. We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge, reason and free will, make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in Heaven. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, wonder and awe (fear of the Lord) , counsel, knowledge, fortitude, and piety (reverence) and shun the seven Deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony...Its your choice whether to embrace the Gifts of the Holy Spirit rising towards eternal light or succumb to the Seven deadly sins and lost to eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes from this earth to the Darkness, Purgatory or Heaven is our Soul...it's God's perpetual gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...~ Zarya Parx 2013
"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012
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Liturgical Cycle: B - Gospel of Mark - Palm Sunday
Morning Offering
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I
offer You the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of
this day, for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, and
for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.
Morning Offering
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I
offer You the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of
this day, for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, and
for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.
Daily Rosary
(MON, SAT) - Joyful Mysteries
(TUES, FRI) - Sorrowful Mysteries
(WED,SUN) - Glorious Mysteries
(THURS) - Luminous Mysteries
(MON, SAT) - Joyful Mysteries
(TUES, FRI) - Sorrowful Mysteries
(WED,SUN) - Glorious Mysteries
(THURS) - Luminous Mysteries
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Inspirational Hymns
Illumination: Peaceful Gregorian Chants
**Copyright Disclaimer - Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research under the term "fair use", which is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, and personal use also tips the balance in favor of fair use.
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Our Lady of Medjugorje Monthly Messages
March 25, 2018 message from Our Lady of Medjugorje:
"Dear children! I am calling you to be with me in prayer in this time of grace when darkness is fighting against the light. Pray, little children, confess and begin a new life in grace. Decide for God and He will lead you towards holiness; and the cross will be a sign of victory and hope for you. Be proud that you are baptized and grateful in your heart that you are a part of God’s plan. Thank you for having responded to my call." ~ Blessed Mother Mary, Most Holy Mother of Jesus, Queen of Peace, Our Lady of Medjugorje,
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Papam Franciscus
(Pope Francis)
Pope Francis's General Audience
(Vatican Radio)
Pope Francis in his catechesis at the Wednesday General Audience reflected on the Paschal Triduum, calling it the center “of our faith and vocation in the world”.
The Triduum, or “three days”, begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday evening and ends on Easter Sunday. The Holy Father said Christians are called to live the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection as “the matrix of their personal and communitarian lives”.
Climax at Easter kerygma
Pope Francis said the climax of the Church’s liturgical year is proclaimed at Mass on Easter Sunday in the Sequence: “Christ, my hope, is arisen; into Galilee he will go before his own.” He called this both “a proclamation of joy and hope” and “an appeal to responsibility and mission”.
The Triduum, he said, prepares us to receive this proclamation. “It is the center of our faith and our hope. It is the kerygma, which continuously evangelizes the Church, which in turn is sent out to evangelize.”
Pope Francis said the Paschal Triduum renews baptized Christians in “the meaning of their new condition”. “In Baptism,” he said, “we are raised with Jesus and we die to the things and logic of this world.”
Share the sufferings of others
He said this new condition must be lived out concretely day-by-day.
“A Christian – if they truly let themselves be washed by Christ and stripped by him of ‘the old man’ to walk in newness of life – even though they remain a sinner, cannot be corrupted. [The Christian] can live no more with death in their soul, nor can they be a cause of death.”
Pope Francis said the world becomes “the space to live our newly resurrected lives.”
We are called to do this, he said, “on our feet, with our head held high. Thus can we share the humiliation of those who today, like Jesus, still suffer nakedness, need, loneliness, and death”.
The Holy Father said that it is thanks to Jesus and with Him that we become “instruments of redemption and hope, as well as signs of life and resurrection.”
Virgin Mary our model
He concluded by inviting all Christians “to live well the Holy Triduum” and to be “ever more inserted into the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection”.
May the Virgin Mary, said Pope Francis, “accompany us on this spiritual journey, she who followed Jesus in his passion, was present with Him under the Cross, and received in her mother’s heart the joy of the resurrection.”
Reference:
- Vatican News. From the Pope. © Copyright 2018 Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Accessed - 03/30/2018
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Today's Word - mercy [merh-cee]
Origin: 1125-75; Middle English merci < Old French, earlier mercit < Latin mercēd- (stem of mercēs) wages ( Late Latin, Medieval Latin: heavenly reward), derivative of merx goods
1. compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence: Have mercy on the poor sinner.
2. the disposition to be compassionate or forbearing: an adversary wholly without mercy.
3. the discretionary power of a judge to pardon someone or to mitigate punishment, especially to send to prison rather than invoke the death penalty.
4. an act of kindness, compassion, or favor: She has performed countless small mercies for her friends and neighbors.
5. something that gives evidence of divine favor; blessing: It was just a mercy we had our seat belts on when it happened.
6. at the mercy of, entirely in the power of; subject to: They were at the mercy of their captors.
Also, at one's mercy.
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Today's Reading 1 - Isaiah 52:13--53:12
13 Look, my servant will prosper, will grow great, will rise to great heights.14 As many people were aghast at him -- he was so inhumanly disfigured that he no longer looked like a man-
15 so many nations will be astonished and kings will stay tight-lipped before him, seeing what had never been told them, learning what they had not heard before.
1 Who has given credence to what we have heard? And who has seen in it a revelation of Yahweh's arm?
2 Like a sapling he grew up before him, like a root in arid ground. He had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to win our hearts;
3 he was despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard.
4 Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God;
5 whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises.
6 We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yahweh brought the acts of rebellion of all of us to bear on him.
7 Ill-treated and afflicted, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before its shearers he never opened his mouth.
8 Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken. Which of his contemporaries was concerned at his having been cut off from the land of the living, at his having been struck dead for his people's rebellion?
9 He was given a grave with the wicked, and his tomb is with the rich, although he had done no violence, had spoken no deceit.
10 It was Yahweh's good pleasure to crush him with pain; if he gives his life as a sin offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his life, and through him Yahweh's good pleasure will be done.
11 After the ordeal he has endured, he will see the light and be content. By his knowledge, the upright one, my servant will justify many by taking their guilt on himself.
12 Hence I shall give him a portion with the many, and he will share the booty with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and for being counted as one of the rebellious, whereas he was bearing the sin of many and interceding for the rebellious.
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Today's Psalms - Psalms 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
2 turn your ear to me, make haste. Be for me a rock-fastness, a fortified citadel to save me.6 you hate those who serve useless idols; but my trust is in Yahweh:
12 I have no more place in their hearts than a corpse, or something lost.
13 All I hear is slander -- terror wherever I turn -- as they plot together against me, scheming to take my life.
15 every moment of my life is in your hands, rescue me from the clutches of my foes who pursue me;
16 let your face shine on your servant, save me in your faithful love.
17 I call on you, Yahweh, so let disgrace fall not on me, but on the wicked. Let them go down to Sheol in silence,
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Today's Reading 2 - Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
14 Since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through to the highest heaven, we must hold firm to our profession of faith.15 For the high priest we have is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin.
16 Let us, then, have no fear in approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help.
7 During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, with loud cries and with tears, to the one who had the power to save him from death, and, winning a hearing by his reverence,
8 he learnt obedience, Son though he was, through his sufferings;
9 when he had been perfected, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation
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Today's Gospel Reading - John 18:1 – 19:42
The Passion of Jesus according to John
1. Recollection in prayer – Statio
Come, You who refresh us,
the soul’s delightful guest,
come take away all that is mine,
and pour into me all that is yours.
Come, You who are the nourishment of every chaste thought,
source of all mercies, sum of all purity.
Come and burn away all that in me is cause
of my not being able to be consumed by You.
Come, Spirit,
who are ever with the Father and the Bridegroom,
and rest over the brides of the Bridegroom.
(St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, O.Carm.,
in La Probatione ii, 193-194.)
2. A prayerful reading of the Word – Lectio
From the Gospel according to John
Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered. Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.” He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer was also with them. When he said to them, “I AM, “they turned away and fell to the ground. So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill what he had said, “I have not lost any of those you gave me.” Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?” So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus, bound him, and brought him to Annas first. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews that it was better that one man should die rather than the people. Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus. But Peter stood at the gate outside. So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in. Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, “You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire that they had made, because it was cold, and were warming themselves. Peter was also standing there keeping warm. The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine. Jesus answered him, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.” When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm. And they said to him, “You are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” Again Peter denied it. And immediately the cock crowed. Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” They answered and said to him, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” At this, Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.” The Jews answered him, “We do not have the right to execute anyone, “ in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled that he said indicating the kind of death he would die. So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” When he had said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover. Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this one but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck him repeatedly. Once more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And he said to them, “Behold, the man!” When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” Now when Pilate heard this statement, he became even more afraid, and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer him. So Pilate said to him, “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him on the judge’s bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha. It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your king!” They cried out, “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself, he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.” Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says: They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots. This is what the soldiers did. Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. Here all kneel and pause for a short time. Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and that they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may come to believe. For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled: Not a bone of it will be broken. And again another passage says: They will look upon him whom they have pierced. After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body. Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.
3. Reflecting on the Word – Meditatio
3.1. A key to the reading:
- Jesus master of His fate
I would like to suggest that we meditate in the spirit of Mary, at the foot of the cross of Jesus. She, the strong woman who understood the full meaning of this event of the passion and death of the Lord, will help us cast a contemplative glance at the crucified (Jn 1:5–27). We are looking at chapter 19 of John’s Gospel, which begins with the scene of the scourging and the crowning with thorns. Pilate presents “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews” to the chief priests and to the guards who call for His death on the cross (Jn 1:). Thus Jesus begins the way of the cross towards Golgotha, where He will be crucified. In the story of the Passion according to John, Jesus reveals himself as master of himself and in control of all that is happening to Him. John’s text is full of phrases that point to this theological fact, that Jesus offers His life. He actively, not passively, endures the events of the passion. Here are just some examples putting the stress on some phrases and words. The reader may find other examples:
Knowing everything that was to happen to Him, Jesus came forward and said: "Who are you looking for?" They answered, "Jesus the Nazarene". He said, "I am He!". Now Judas the traitor was standing among them. When Jesus said to them "I am He", they moved back and fell on the ground. He asked them a second time, "Who are you looking for?" They said, "Jesus the Nazarene". Jesus replied, "I have told you that I am He. If I am the one you are looking for, let these others go". This was to fulfill the words He had spoken, "Not one of those You gave me have I lost". (Jn 1:-9)
“Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe” (Jn 1:),
Jesus replied, “You would have no power over me at all, if it had not been given you from above.” (Jn 1:1).
On the cross too, Jesus takes an active part in His death, He does not allow himself to be killed like the thieves whose legs were broken (Jn 1:1-33), but commits His spirit (Jn 1:0). The details recalled by the Evangelist are very important: Seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing near her, Jesus said to His mother, “Woman, this is your son.” Then to the disciple He said, “This is your mother.” (Jn 1:6-27). These simple words of Jesus bear the weight of revelation, words that reveal to us His will: “this is your son” (v. 26); “this is your mother” (v. 27). These words also recall those pronounced by Pilate on the Lithostrotos: “This is the man” (Jn 1:). With these words, Jesus on the cross, His throne, reveals His will and His love for us. He is the lamb of God, the shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. At that moment, by the cross, He gives birth to the Church, represented by Mary, her sister (or sister-in-law) Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene, together with the beloved disciple (Jn 1:5).
- Beloved and faithful disciples
The fourth Gospel specifies that these disciples “stood by the cross” (Jn 1:5-26). This detail has a deep meaning. Only the fourth Gospel tells us that these five persons stood by the cross. The other Evangelists do not say so. Luke, for instance, says that all those who knew Him followed the events from a distance (Lk 2:9). Matthew also says that many women followed these events from afar. These women had followed Jesus from Galilee and served Him. But now they followed Him from afar (Mt 2:5–56). Like Matthew, Mark gives us the names of those who followed the death of Jesus from afar (Mk 1:0-41). Thus only the fourth Gospel says that the mother of Jesus and the other women and the beloved disciple “stood by the cross”. They stood there like servants before their king. They are present courageously at a time when Jesus has already declared that “it is fulfilled” (Jn 1:0). The mother of Jesus is present at the hour that finally “has come”. That hour foretold at the wedding feast of Cana (Jn 2:1 ff). The fourth Gospel had remarked then that “the mother of Jesus was there” (Jn 2:1). Thus the person that remains faithful to the Lord in his destiny, he/she is a beloved disciple. The Evangelist keeps this disciple anonymous so that each one of us may see him/herself mirrored in the one who knew the mysteries of the Lord, who laid his head on Jesus’ chest at the last supper (Jn 13:25).
3.1.1. Questions and suggestions to direct our meditation and practice
● Read once more the passage of the Gospel and look in the Bible for the texts mentioned in the key to the reading. Look for other parallel texts that may help us penetrate deeper into the text presented for our meditation.
● In spirit, and with the help of the prayerful reading of John’s text, visit the places of the Passion, stop on Calvary to witness with Mary and the beloved disciple the events of the Passion.
● What struck you most?
● What feelings does this story of the Passion arouse in you?
● What does the fact that Jesus actively bears His passion mean for you?
4. Oratio
O Eternal Wisdom, Infinite Goodness, Ineffable Truth, You who probe hearts, Eternal God, help us to understand that You can, know and want to! O Loving and Bleeding Lamb, crucified Christ, fulfill in us that which You said: “Anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). O perfect light, from whom all lights proceed! O light for whom light was created, without whom all is darkness and with whom all is light. Light up, light up, do light up! Let Your whole will penetrate all the authors and collaborators You have chosen in this work of renewal. Jesus, Jesus love, Jesus, transform us and make us conform to You. Uncreated Wisdom, Eternal Word, sweet Truth, silent Love, Jesus, Jesus Love!
(St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, O.Carm.,
in The Renewal of the Church, 90-91.)
5. Contemplatio
Repeat frequently and calmly these words of Jesus when He offered himself:
“Father into Your hands I commend my spirit”
Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.
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Featured Item from Litany Lane
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Feast Day: Feria |
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Good Friday: Way of the Cross
OFFICE FOR THE LITURGICAL CELEBRATIONS
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
WAY OF THE CROSS
AT THE COLOSSEUM
AT THE COLOSSEUM
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
LED BY THE HOLY FATHER POPE FRANCIS
LED BY THE HOLY FATHER POPE FRANCIS
GOOD FRIDAY
THE PASSION OF THE LORD
THE PASSION OF THE LORD
MEDITATIONS
under the guidance of His Eminent Beatitude
Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï
Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï
WAY OF THE CROSS 2014
Introduction
"A man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'" (Mk
10:17). Jesus answered this burning question, which arises in the
innermost core of our being, by walking the way of the Cross. We
contemplate you, Lord, along this path
which you were the first to tread, and after which "you built a bridge
to death with your Cross, so that men might pass from the land of death
to the land of Life" (Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Homily).
The call to follow you is addressed to all,
especially to the young and to those who are tried by division, wars or
injustice and who fight to be signs of hope and builders of peace in the
midst of their brethren.
We therefore place ourselves before you with
love, we present our sufferings to you, we turn our gaze and our heart
to your Holy Cross, and strengthened by your promise, we pray: "Blessed
be our Redeemer, who has given us life by his death. O Redeemer, realize
in us the mystery of your redemption, through your passion, death and
resurrection" (Maronite Liturgy).
I Station: Jesus is condemned to death
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark 15:12-13, 15
Pilate again said to them, "Then what shall I do with the man
whom you call the King of the Jews?" And they cried out again, "Crucify
him." Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas;
and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
From Pilate, the man with power, Jesus ought
to have obtained justice. Pilate did indeed have the power to recognize
Jesus' innocence and free him. But the Roman Governor preferred to serve
the logic of his personal interests and he yielded to political and
social pressures. He condemned an innocent man in order to please the
crowd, without satisfying truth. He handed Jesus over to the torment of
the Cross, knowing that he was innocent ... and then he washed his
hands.
In today's world, there are many "Pilates" who
keep their hands on the levers of power and make use of them in order
to serve the strongest. There are many who are weak and cowardly before
the spectre of power, and mortgage their authority to the service of
injustice, trampling upon man's dignity and his right to life.
Lord Jesus,
do not allow us to be among those who act unjustly.
Do not allow the strong to take pleasure in evil,
injustice and tyranny. Do not allow injustice
to condemn the innocent to despair and death.
Confirm them in hope and illumine the consciences
of those with authority in this world, that they may govern with justice.
Amen.
do not allow us to be among those who act unjustly.
Do not allow the strong to take pleasure in evil,
injustice and tyranny. Do not allow injustice
to condemn the innocent to despair and death.
Confirm them in hope and illumine the consciences
of those with authority in this world, that they may govern with justice.
Amen.
II Station: Jesus takes up the Cross
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark 15:20
When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the
purple cloak, and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to
crucify him. Jesus Christ stands before soldiers who think
they have complete power over him, while he is the One through whom "all
things were made ... and without him was not anything made that was
made" (Jn 1:3).
In every age, man has thought he could take the place of God and determine for himself what is good and what is evil (cf. Gen
3:5) without reference to his Creator and Saviour. He has thought
himself omnipotent, capable of excluding God from his own life and from
that of his peers, in the name of reason, power or money.
Today too, the world bows to realities that
seek to expel God from human life, such as the blind secularism that
suffocates the values of faith and morals in the name of an alleged
defence of man; or the violent fundamentalism that claims to be
defending religious values (cf. Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 29).
Lord Jesus,
who accepted humiliation and stood alongside the weak,
we entrust to you all who are humiliated and suffering,
especially those from the tormented East. Grant that they may find in you
the strength to be able to carry their Cross of hope with you.
We place into your hands all who are lost,
so that, thanks to you, they may find truth and love.
Amen.
who accepted humiliation and stood alongside the weak,
we entrust to you all who are humiliated and suffering,
especially those from the tormented East. Grant that they may find in you
the strength to be able to carry their Cross of hope with you.
We place into your hands all who are lost,
so that, thanks to you, they may find truth and love.
Amen.
III Station: Jesus falls for the first time
A Reading from the Prophet Isaiah 53:5
He was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us
whole, and with his stripes we are healed.
He who holds the lights of heaven in his
divine hand and before whom the powers of heaven tremble: see him
falling to the ground, without protecting himself, under the heavy yoke
of the Cross.
He who brought peace to the world, wounded by our sins, falls under the burden of our guilt.
"O ye faithful, behold our Saviour as he moves
forward along the path to Calvary. Oppressed by bitter sufferings, his
strength abandons him. Let us go to see this incredible event that
surpasses our understanding and defies description. The foundations of
the earth were shaken and a dreadful fear took hold of those who were
present when their Creator and God was crushed under the weight of the
Cross and let himself be led to death, for love of all humanity"
(Chaldean Liturgy).
Lord Jesus,
raise us from our own falls, lead our wandering spirit
back to your Truth. Do not allow human reason,
which you created for yourself, to be satisfied with the partial truths
of science and technology without seeking to pose the fundamental questions
of the meaning of our existence (cf. Porta Fidei, 12).
raise us from our own falls, lead our wandering spirit
back to your Truth. Do not allow human reason,
which you created for yourself, to be satisfied with the partial truths
of science and technology without seeking to pose the fundamental questions
of the meaning of our existence (cf. Porta Fidei, 12).
Grant, Lord,
that we may open ourselves to the action of your Holy Spirit,
that we may open ourselves to the action of your Holy Spirit,
so that he may lead us to the fullness of Truth.
Amen.
Amen.
IV Station: Jesus meets his mother
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke 2:34-35, 51b
Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his
mother, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in
Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce
through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be
revealed." His mother kept all these things in her heart.
Wounded and suffering, carrying mankind's Cross, Jesus meets his mother and, in her face, all mankind.
Mary the Mother of God was the first disciple
of the Master. In accepting the Angel's message, she encountered the
Incarnate Word for the first time and became the Temple of the living
God. She met him without understanding how the Creator of heaven and
earth could have wanted to choose a young girl, a fragile creature, in
order to become incarnate in this world. She met him in a constant
search for his face, mediating on the word in the silence of her heart.
She thought she was seeking him, but in reality, it was he who was
seeking her.
Now he encounters her as he carries the Cross.
Jesus suffers on seeing his mother suffer, as
does Mary on seeing her Son suffer. But from this shared suffering a new
humanity is born. "Salam to you! We implore you, holy and
glorious ever-Virgin, Mother of God, Mother of Christ. Let our prayer
rise up before your beloved Son, that he may forgive our sins" (Theotikon from the Horologion, Al-Aghbia, 37).
Lord Jesus,
in our families we too experience the sufferings caused to children by their parents
and to parents by their children. Lord, grant that in these difficult times
our families may be places of your presence, so that our sufferings may be turned to joy.
Support our families and make them oases of love,
peace and serenity, in the image of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
Amen.
in our families we too experience the sufferings caused to children by their parents
and to parents by their children. Lord, grant that in these difficult times
our families may be places of your presence, so that our sufferings may be turned to joy.
Support our families and make them oases of love,
peace and serenity, in the image of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
Amen.
V Station: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the Cross
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke 23:26
As they led him away, they seized one Simon of
Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the Cross,
to carry it behind Jesus.
Jesus' meeting with Simon of Cyrene took place
in silence, providing us with a lesson for our lives: God does not want
suffering and he does not accept evil. The same is true of the human
being. But suffering, accepted in faith, is transformed into a path of
salvation. Then we accept it as Jesus did, and we help to carry it as
Simon of Cyrene did.
Lord Jesus,
you have involved man in the carrying of your Cross. You have invited us to share your sufferings.
Simon of Cyrene is like us and he teaches us to accept the Cross
that we encounter on the paths of life. Following your example, Lord,
we too carry the Cross of suffering and illness today,
but we accept it because you are with us. It can nail us to our chair,
but it cannot prevent us from dreaming; it can obscure our vision,
but it cannot touch our conscience; it can deafen our ears,
but it cannot prevent us from listening; it can bind our tongue
but it cannot suppress our thirst for truth; it can weigh down our spirit,
but it cannot rob us of our freedom.
you have involved man in the carrying of your Cross. You have invited us to share your sufferings.
Simon of Cyrene is like us and he teaches us to accept the Cross
that we encounter on the paths of life. Following your example, Lord,
we too carry the Cross of suffering and illness today,
but we accept it because you are with us. It can nail us to our chair,
but it cannot prevent us from dreaming; it can obscure our vision,
but it cannot touch our conscience; it can deafen our ears,
but it cannot prevent us from listening; it can bind our tongue
but it cannot suppress our thirst for truth; it can weigh down our spirit,
but it cannot rob us of our freedom.
Lord,
we want to be your disciples so as to carry your Cross every day;
we will carry it with joy and hope because you are carrying it with us,
because you have triumphed over death for us.
we want to be your disciples so as to carry your Cross every day;
we will carry it with joy and hope because you are carrying it with us,
because you have triumphed over death for us.
We give you thanks, Lord,
for every sick or ailing person who knows how to bear witness to your love,
and for every "Simon of Cyrene" whom you place on our journey.
Amen.
for every sick or ailing person who knows how to bear witness to your love,
and for every "Simon of Cyrene" whom you place on our journey.
Amen.
VI Station: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
A Reading from the Book of Psalms 27:8-9
Of you my heart has spoken: "Seek his face."
It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face. Dismiss not
your servant in anger; you have been my help. Do not abandon or forsake
me, O God my help!
Veronica sought you in the midst of the crowd.
She sought you and finally found you. While your anguish was at its
height, she wanted to ease it by wiping your face with a towel. A small
gesture, but it expressed all her love for you and all her faith in you;
it has remained impressed on the memory of our Christian tradition.
Lord Jesus,
it is your face that we seek. Veronica reminds us that you are present
in every person who suffers and goes forward along his or her path to Golgotha.
Lord, grant that we may find you in the poor, in the least of your brethren,
in order to wipe away the tears of those who weep, to take care of those who suffer
and to support those who are weak.
it is your face that we seek. Veronica reminds us that you are present
in every person who suffers and goes forward along his or her path to Golgotha.
Lord, grant that we may find you in the poor, in the least of your brethren,
in order to wipe away the tears of those who weep, to take care of those who suffer
and to support those who are weak.
Lord, you teach us
that a wounded and forgotten person loses neither worth nor dignity
and remains a sign of your hidden presence in the world.
Help us to wipe away from his or her face the marks of poverty and injustice,
so that your image in him or her may be revealed and may shine forth.
that a wounded and forgotten person loses neither worth nor dignity
and remains a sign of your hidden presence in the world.
Help us to wipe away from his or her face the marks of poverty and injustice,
so that your image in him or her may be revealed and may shine forth.
We pray for those who are seeking your Face
and who find it in those of the homeless, the poor and children exposed to violence and exploitation.
Amen.
and who find it in those of the homeless, the poor and children exposed to violence and exploitation.
Amen.
VII Station: Jesus falls for the second time
A Reading from the Book of Psalms 22:8,12
All who see me deride me. They curl their
lips, they toss their heads. Do not leave me alone in my distress; come
close, there is none else to help.
Jesus is alone under the interior and exterior
weight of the Cross. In this fall, the weight of evil becomes too great
and there seems no longer to be any limit to injustice and violence.
But he rises once more, strong in the infinite
trust that he places in his Father. Before the men who abandon him to
his lot, the power of the Spirit raises him up; it unites him fully to
the Father's will, that of love which can do all things.
Lord Jesus, in your second fall,
we recognize so many of our situations from which there seems to be no way of escape.
Among them are those that derive from prejudice and hatred, which harden our hearts
and lead to religious conflicts. Enlighten our minds
so that they recognize, despite "human and religious differences,"
that "a ray of truth shines on all men and women",
called to walk together – with respect for religious freedom –
towards the truth that is in God alone. Thus, the different religions can
"join one another in service to the common good and contribute to the development of each person
and the building of society" (Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 27-28).
we recognize so many of our situations from which there seems to be no way of escape.
Among them are those that derive from prejudice and hatred, which harden our hearts
and lead to religious conflicts. Enlighten our minds
so that they recognize, despite "human and religious differences,"
that "a ray of truth shines on all men and women",
called to walk together – with respect for religious freedom –
towards the truth that is in God alone. Thus, the different religions can
"join one another in service to the common good and contribute to the development of each person
and the building of society" (Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 27-28).
Come, Holy Spirit,
to console and strengthen Christians, especially those from the Middle East,
so that, united in Christ, they may be witnesses of your universal love
in an area torn apart by injustice and conflicts. Amen.
to console and strengthen Christians, especially those from the Middle East,
so that, united in Christ, they may be witnesses of your universal love
in an area torn apart by injustice and conflicts. Amen.
VIII Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem who weep for him
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke 23:27-28
There followed him a great multitude of the
people, and of women who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning
to them said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for
yourselves and for your children."
On the path to Calvary, the Lord meets the
women of Jerusalem. These women are weeping at the Lord's sufferings as
if it were suffering without hope. All they can see in the Cross is the
wood, sign of a curse (cf. Dt 21:23), whereas the Lord chose it as a means of Redemption and Salvation.
In the Passion and Crucifixion, Jesus gives
his life as a ransom for many. Thus he gave relief to those who were
oppressed under the yoke and he consoled the afflicted. He wiped away
the tears of the women of Jerusalem and opened their eyes to Paschal
truth.
Our world is full of afflicted mothers, of
women whose dignity has been wounded, abused by discrimination,
injustice and suffering (cf. Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 60). O suffering Christ, be their peace and be a balm to their wounds.
Lord Jesus,
by your incarnation from Mary, "Blessed among women" (Lk 1:42),
you raised the dignity of every woman. With the Incarnation
you unified the human race (cf. Gal 3:26-28).
by your incarnation from Mary, "Blessed among women" (Lk 1:42),
you raised the dignity of every woman. With the Incarnation
you unified the human race (cf. Gal 3:26-28).
Lord,
may the encounter with you be the desire of our hearts. Let our path, filled with sufferings,
always be a path of hope, with you and towards you
who are the refuge of our life and our Salvation.
Amen.
may the encounter with you be the desire of our hearts. Let our path, filled with sufferings,
always be a path of hope, with you and towards you
who are the refuge of our life and our Salvation.
Amen.
IX Station: Jesus falls for the third time under the weight of the Cross
A Reading from the Second Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 5:14-15
The love of Christ controls us, because we are
convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he
died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves
but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
For the third time Jesus falls under the
Cross, burdened with our sins, and for the third time he seeks to get up
again, summoning up the strength that remains to him, so as to continue
his journey towards Golgotha, refusing to let himself be crushed and to
succumb to temptation.
From the moment of his Incarnation, Jesus
carries the Cross of human suffering and sin. He has fully and eternally
assumed human nature, showing men that victory is possible and that the
path towards divine sonship is open.
Lord Jesus,
the Church, born from your open side, is oppressed under the Cross of the divisions
that distance Christians from one another and from the unity that you willed for them;
they turn away from your desire "that they may all be one" (Jn 17:21)
as the Father is with you. This cross bears down with all its weight
on their lives and on their common testimony. Grant us, Lord, the wisdom and the humility
to rise once more and to move forward along the path of unity, in truth and love,
without succumbing to the temptation to have recourse merely to the criteria
of personal or sectarian interests, in the face of our divisions (cf. Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 11).
the Church, born from your open side, is oppressed under the Cross of the divisions
that distance Christians from one another and from the unity that you willed for them;
they turn away from your desire "that they may all be one" (Jn 17:21)
as the Father is with you. This cross bears down with all its weight
on their lives and on their common testimony. Grant us, Lord, the wisdom and the humility
to rise once more and to move forward along the path of unity, in truth and love,
without succumbing to the temptation to have recourse merely to the criteria
of personal or sectarian interests, in the face of our divisions (cf. Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, 11).
Grant that we may renounce the mentality of division,
"lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power" (1 Cor 1:17).
Amen.
"lest the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power" (1 Cor 1:17).
Amen.
X Station: Jesus is stripped of his garments
A Reading from the Book of Psalms 22:19
They divide my clothing among them, they cast lots for my robe.
In the fullness of time, Lord Jesus, you clothed yourself in our humanity, you whose "train filled the temple" (Is
6:1); already, you are walking in our midst, and those who wish to
touch the hem of your garments are healed. But you have been stripped
even of this garment, Lord! They have stolen your cloak and you have
also given us your tunic (cf. Mt 5:40). You have allowed the
veil of your flesh to be torn so that we might once more be admitted
into the Father's presence (cf. Heb 10:19-20).
We thought we could find fulfilment by ourselves, independently of you (cf. Gen
3:4-7). We found ourselves naked, but in your infinite love you
reclothed us with the dignity of sons and daughters of God and of his
sanctifying grace.
Bestow, Lord, upon the children of the Eastern
Churches – stripped by various difficulties, sometimes to the point of
persecution, and weakened by emigration – the courage to remain in their
countries to proclaim the Good News.
O Jesus, Son of Man,
who were stripped so as to reveal to us the new creation raised from the dead,
tear in us the veil that separates us from God and weave in us your divine presence.
Grant us to conquer fear before the events of life
that strip us and leave us naked, and to put on the new man of our Baptism,
in order that we may announce the Good News, proclaiming that you are the only true God
who guides history. Amen.
who were stripped so as to reveal to us the new creation raised from the dead,
tear in us the veil that separates us from God and weave in us your divine presence.
Grant us to conquer fear before the events of life
that strip us and leave us naked, and to put on the new man of our Baptism,
in order that we may announce the Good News, proclaiming that you are the only true God
who guides history. Amen.
XI Station: Jesus is nailed to the Cross
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John 19:16a,19
Then he handed him over to them to be
crucified. Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read:
"Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."
Behold, the long-awaited Messiah, hanging on
the wood of the cross between two thieves. The two hands which blessed
humanity are pierced. The two feet which trod our earth to proclaim the
Good News are now suspended between earth and heaven. The eyes full of
love, whose gaze healed the sick and forgave our sins, now gaze only
heavenward.
Lord Jesus,
you were crucified for our sins. You pray to God the Father and you intercede for humanity.
Each hammer blow echoes like a beat of your immolated heart. How beautiful upon the mount of Calvary
are the feet of the One who proclaims the Good News of salvation.
Your love, Jesus, has filled the universe. Your pierced hands
are our refuge in distress. They embrace us
whenever the abyss of sin threatens us, and in your wounds
we find healing and forgiveness.
you were crucified for our sins. You pray to God the Father and you intercede for humanity.
Each hammer blow echoes like a beat of your immolated heart. How beautiful upon the mount of Calvary
are the feet of the One who proclaims the Good News of salvation.
Your love, Jesus, has filled the universe. Your pierced hands
are our refuge in distress. They embrace us
whenever the abyss of sin threatens us, and in your wounds
we find healing and forgiveness.
O Jesus,
we pray to you for all those young people who are overcome by hopelessness,
for young people who are the victims of drugs, of sects and of perversions.
we pray to you for all those young people who are overcome by hopelessness,
for young people who are the victims of drugs, of sects and of perversions.
Free them from their enslavement.
May they lift up their gaze and accept Love. May they find happiness in you;
save them, our Saviour. Amen.
May they lift up their gaze and accept Love. May they find happiness in you;
save them, our Saviour. Amen.
XII Station: Jesus dies on the cross
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke 23:46
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said:
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." And having said this, he
breathed his last.
From the height of the cross a cry is heard a
cry: a cry of abandonment at the moment of death, a cry of trust amid
suffering, a cry accompanying the birth of a new life. Behold, hanging
on the tree of life, you deliver your spirit into your Father's hands,
causing life to spring up in abundance and forming the new creation.
Today we too face the challenges of this world: we sense the surge of
fears which overwhelm us and shake our trust. Grant us, Lord, the
strength to know deep within our heart that no death will conquer us,
until we rest in the hands which have shaped us and accompany us.
May every one of us be able to cry out:
"Yesterday I was crucified with Christ, today I am glorified with him.
Yesterday I died with him, today I live with him.
Yesterday I was buried with him. Today I have risen with him." (Gregory Nazianzen)
"Yesterday I was crucified with Christ, today I am glorified with him.
Yesterday I died with him, today I live with him.
Yesterday I was buried with him. Today I have risen with him." (Gregory Nazianzen)
In the darkness of our nights,
we contemplate you. Teach us to turn towards the Most High,
your heavenly Father.
we contemplate you. Teach us to turn towards the Most High,
your heavenly Father.
Today, let us pray
that all those who promote abortion may become aware that love
can only be a source of life. Let us think also of those who defend euthanasia
and those who encourage techniques and procedures
which endanger human life. Open their hearts
to know you in the truth and to work for the building
of the civilization of life and love. Amen.
that all those who promote abortion may become aware that love
can only be a source of life. Let us think also of those who defend euthanasia
and those who encourage techniques and procedures
which endanger human life. Open their hearts
to know you in the truth and to work for the building
of the civilization of life and love. Amen.
XIII Station: Jesus is taken down from the cross and given to his Mother
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John 19:26-27a
When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple
whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother: "Woman, behold your
son!" Then he said to the disciple: "Behold, your mother!"
Lord Jesus, those who love you remain at your
side and keep faith. In the hour of your agony and death, when the world
believes that evil triumphs and that the voice of truth, love, justice
and peace is silent, their faith does not fail.
O Mary, into your hands we place our earth.
"How sad it is to see this blessed land suffer in its children, who
relentlessly tear one another to pieces and die!" (Ecclesia in Medio Oriente,
8). It seems that nothing can overcome evil, terrorism, murder and
hatred. "Before the cross on which your Son stretched out his sinless
hands for our salvation, O Virgin, we fall prostrate this day: grant us
peace" (Byzantine liturgy).
Let us pray
for the victims of the wars and of the violence which in our days devastate
various countries in the Middle East, as well as other parts of the world.
Let us pray that the displaced and the forced migrants may soon return
to their homes and lands. Grant, Lord,
that the blood of innocent victims may be the seed of a new East,
ever more fraternal, peaceful and just, and that this East
may recover the splendour of its vocation as the cradle of civilization and of spiritual and human values.
Star of the East, show us the coming of the Dawn!
Amen.
for the victims of the wars and of the violence which in our days devastate
various countries in the Middle East, as well as other parts of the world.
Let us pray that the displaced and the forced migrants may soon return
to their homes and lands. Grant, Lord,
that the blood of innocent victims may be the seed of a new East,
ever more fraternal, peaceful and just, and that this East
may recover the splendour of its vocation as the cradle of civilization and of spiritual and human values.
Star of the East, show us the coming of the Dawn!
Amen.
XIV Station: Jesus is laid in the tomb
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John 19:39-40
Nicodemus also, who had at first come to him
by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred
pounds weight. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths
with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.
Nicodemus receives the body of Christ, he
looks after it and puts it in a tomb in the middle of a garden which
evokes the garden of Creation. Jesus lets himself be buried, even as he
let himself be crucified, in the same abandonment, entirely "delivered"
into the hands of men and "perfectly united" to them, "even to sleeping
beneath the tombstone" (Saint Gregory of Narek).
To
accept difficulties, painful events, death, demands steadfast hope,
living faith. The stone placed before the entrance of the
tomb will be overturned and a new life will arise. For "we were buried
with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Rom 6:4)
We have received the freedom of the children
of God, so that we will not return to slavery; life has been given to us
in abundance, so that we will no longer be satisfied with a life
lacking beauty and meaning.
Lord Jesus,
make us children of the light who do not fear the darkness.
We pray to you today for all those who search for meaning in life
and for all those who have lost hope, that they may have faith in your victory
over sin and death. Amen.
make us children of the light who do not fear the darkness.
We pray to you today for all those who search for meaning in life
and for all those who have lost hope, that they may have faith in your victory
over sin and death. Amen.
Reference:
- Vatican News. From the Pope. © Copyright 2014 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Accessed 4/18/2014.
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Snippet II: Divine Mercy Novena
(Good Friday Through Divine Mercy Sunday)
Jesus asked that the Feast of the Divine
Mercy be
preceded by a Novena to the Divine Mercy which would begin on Good
Friday. He gave St. Faustina an intention to pray for on each day of the
Novena, saving for the last day the most difficult intention of all, the lukewarm and indifferent of whom
He said:
"These souls cause Me more suffering than any others; it was from
such souls that My soul felt the most revulsion in the Garden of
Olives. It was on their account that I said: 'My Father, if it is
possible, let this cup pass Me by.' The last hope of salvation for
them is to flee to My Mercy."
In her diary, St. Faustina wrote that Jesus told her:
"On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different
group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy
... On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My
passion, for the graces for these souls."
The different souls prayed for on each day of the novena are:
DAY 1 (Good Friday)
- All mankind, especially sinners
DAY 2 (Holy Saturday) - The souls of priests and religious
DAY 3 (Easter Sunday)
- All devout and faithful souls
DAY 4 (Easter Monday) - Those who do not believe in Jesus and those who do not yet
know Him
DAY 5 (Easter Tuesday) - The souls of separated brethren
DAY 6 (Easter Wednesday) - The meek and humble souls and the souls of children
DAY 7 (Easter Thursday) - The souls who especially venerate and glorify Jesus' mercy
DAY 8 (Easter Friday) - The souls who are detained in purgatory;
DAY 9 (Easter Saturday) - The souls who have become lukewarm.
During
the Solemn Novena leading to Divine Mercy Sunday, the Chaplet of
Divine Mercy should be offered each day for the day's intentions.
First Day - Good Friday
"Today bring to Me all mankind, especially all sinners,
and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me."
Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from It. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy for ever and ever. Amen.
Second Day
"Today bring to Me the Souls of Priests and Religious,
and immerse them in My unfathomable mercy. It was they who gave me strength to endure My bitter Passion. Through them as through channels My mercy flows out upon mankind."
Most Merciful Jesus, from whom comes all that is good, increase Your grace in men and women consecrated to Your service,* that they may perform worthy works of mercy; and that all who see them may glorify the Father of Mercy who is in heaven.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the company of chosen ones in Your vineyard -- upon the souls of priests and religious; and endow them with the strength of Your blessing. For the love of the Heart of Your Son in which they are enfolded, impart to them Your power and light, that they may be able to guide others in the way of salvation and with one voice sing praise to Your boundless mercy for ages without end. Amen.
* In the original text, Saint Faustina uses the pronoun "us" since she was offering this prayer as a consecrated religious sister. The wording adapted here is intended to make the prayer suitable for universal use.
Third Day
"Today bring to Me all Devout and Faithful Souls,
and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. These souls brought me consolation on the Way of the Cross. They were a drop of consolation in the midst of an ocean of bitterness."
Most Merciful Jesus, from the treasury of Your mercy, You impart Your graces in great abundance to each and all. Receive us into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart and never let us escape from It. We beg this grace of You by that most wondrous love for the heavenly Father with which Your Heart burns so fiercely.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon faithful souls, as upon the inheritance of Your Son. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, grant them Your blessing and surround them with Your constant protection. Thus may they never fail in love or lose the treasure of the holy faith, but rather, with all the hosts of Angels and Saints, may they glorify Your boundless mercy for endless ages. Amen.
Fourth Day
"Today bring to Me those who do not believe in God and those who do not know Me,
I was thinking also of them during My bitter Passion, and their future zeal comforted My Heart. Immerse them in the ocean of My mercy."
Most compassionate Jesus, You are the Light of the whole world. Receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who do not believe in God and of those who as yet do not know You. Let the rays of Your grace enlighten them that they, too, together with us, may extol Your wonderful mercy; and do not let them escape from the abode which is Your Most Compassionate Heart.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls of those who do not believe in You, and of those who as yet do not know You, but who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Draw them to the light of the Gospel. These souls do not know what great happiness it is to love You. Grant that they, too, may extol the generosity of Your mercy for endless ages. Amen.
*Our Lord's original words here were "the pagans." Since the pontificate of Pope John XXIII, the Church has seen fit to replace this term with clearer and more appropriate terminology.
Fifth Day
"Today bring to Me the Souls of those who have separated themselves from My Church*,
and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. During My bitter Passion they tore at My Body and Heart, that is, My Church. As they return to unity with the Church My wounds heal and in this way they alleviate My Passion."
Most Merciful Jesus, Goodness Itself, You do not refuse light to those who seek it of You. Receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who have separated themselves from Your Church. Draw them by Your light into the unity of the Church, and do not let them escape from the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart; but bring it about that they, too, come to glorify the generosity of Your mercy.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls of those who have separated themselves from Your Son's Church, who have squandered Your blessings and misused Your graces by obstinately persisting in their errors. Do not look upon their errors, but upon the love of Your own Son and upon His bitter Passion, which He underwent for their sake, since they, too, are enclosed in His Most Compassionate Heart. Bring it about that they also may glorify Your great mercy for endless ages. Amen.
*Our Lord's original words here were "heretics and schismatics," since He spoke to Saint Faustina within the context of her times. As of the Second Vatican Council, Church authorities have seen fit not to use those designations in accordance with the explanation given in the Council's Decree on Ecumenism (n.3). Every pope since the Council has reaffirmed that usage. Saint Faustina herself, her heart always in harmony with the mind of the Church, most certainly would have agreed. When at one time, because of the decisions of her superiors and father confessor, she was not able to execute Our Lord's inspirations and orders, she declared: "I will follow Your will insofar as You will permit me to do so through Your representative. O my Jesus " I give priority to the voice of the Church over the voice with which You speak to me" (497). The Lord confirmed her action and praised her for it.
Sixth Day
Today bring to Me the Meek and Humble Souls and the Souls of Little Children,
and immerse them in My mercy. These souls most closely resemble My Heart. They strengthened Me during My bitter agony. I saw them as earthly Angels, who will keep vigil at My altars. I pour out upon them whole torrents of grace. I favor humble souls with My confidence.
Most Merciful Jesus, You yourself have said, "Learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart." Receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart all meek and humble souls and the souls of little children. These souls send all heaven into ecstasy and they are the heavenly Father's favorites. They are a sweet-smelling bouquet before the throne of God; God Himself takes delight in their fragrance. These souls have a permanent abode in Your Most Compassionate Heart, O Jesus, and they unceasingly sing out a hymn of love and mercy.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon meek souls, upon humble souls, and upon little children who are enfolded in the abode which is the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. These souls bear the closest resemblance to Your Son. Their fragrance rises from the earth and reaches Your very throne. Father of mercy and of all goodness, I beg You by the love You bear these souls and by the delight You take in them: Bless the whole world, that all souls together may sing out the praises of Your mercy for endless ages. Amen.
Seventh Day
Today bring to Me the Souls who especially venerate and glorify My Mercy*,
and immerse them in My mercy. These souls sorrowed most over my Passion and entered most deeply into My spirit. They are living images of My Compassionate Heart. These souls will shine with a special brightness in the next life. Not one of them will go into the fire of hell. I shall particularly defend each one of them at the hour of death.
Most Merciful Jesus, whose Heart is Love Itself, receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who particularly extol and venerate the greatness of Your mercy. These souls are mighty with the very power of God Himself. In the midst of all afflictions and adversities they go forward, confident of Your mercy; and united to You, O Jesus, they carry all mankind on their shoulders. These souls will not be judged severely, but Your mercy will embrace them as they depart from this life.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls who glorify and venerate Your greatest attribute, that of Your fathomless mercy, and who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. These souls are a living Gospel; their hands are full of deeds of mercy, and their hearts, overflowing with joy, sing a canticle of mercy to You, O Most High! I beg You O God:
Show them Your mercy according to the hope and trust they have placed in You. Let there be accomplished in them the promise of Jesus, who said to them that during their life, but especially at the hour of death, the souls who will venerate this fathomless mercy of His, He, Himself, will defend as His glory. Amen.
*The text leads one to conclude that in the first prayer directed to Jesus, Who is the Redeemer, it is "victim" souls and contemplatives that are being prayed for; those persons, that is, that voluntarily offered themselves to God for the salvation of their neighbor (see Col 1:24; 2 Cor 4:12). This explains their close union with the Savior and the extraordinary efficacy that their invisible activity has for others. In the second prayer, directed to the Father from whom comes "every worthwhile gift and every genuine benefit,"we recommend the "active" souls, who promote devotion to The Divine Mercy and exercise with it all the other works that lend themselves to the spiritual and material uplifting of their brethren.
Eighth Day
"Today bring to Me the Souls who are in the prison of Purgatory,
and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. Let the torrents of My Blood cool down their scorching flames. All these souls are greatly loved by Me. They are making retribution to My justice. It is in your power to bring them relief. Draw all the indulgences from the treasury of My Church and offer them on their behalf. Oh, if you only knew the torments they suffer, you would continually offer for them the alms of the spirit and pay off their debt to My justice."
Most Merciful Jesus, You Yourself have said that You desire mercy; so I bring into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls in Purgatory, souls who are very dear to You, and yet, who must make retribution to Your justice. May the streams of Blood and Water which gushed forth from Your Heart put out the flames of Purgatory, that there, too, the power of Your mercy may be celebrated.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls suffering in Purgatory, who are enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. I beg You, by the sorrowful Passion of Jesus Your Son, and by all the bitterness with which His most sacred Soul was flooded: Manifest Your mercy to the souls who are under Your just scrutiny. Look upon them in no other way but only through the Wounds of Jesus, Your dearly beloved Son; for we firmly believe that there is no limit to Your goodness and compassion. Amen.
Ninth Day - Divine Mercy Sunday
"Today bring to Me the Souls who have become Lukewarm,
and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. These souls wound My Heart most painfully. My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out: 'Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will.' For them, the last hope of salvation is to run to My mercy."
Most compassionate Jesus, You are Compassion Itself. I bring lukewarm souls into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart. In this fire of Your pure love, let these tepid souls who, like corpses, filled You with such deep loathing, be once again set aflame. O Most Compassionate Jesus, exercise the omnipotence of Your mercy and draw them into the very ardor of Your love, and bestow upon them the gift of holy love, for nothing is beyond Your power.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon lukewarm souls who are nonetheless enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Father of Mercy, I beg You by the bitter Passion of Your Son and by His three-hour agony on the Cross: Let them, too, glorify the abyss of Your mercy. Amen.
Divine Mercy Litany
As
St. Faustina writes, "The Love of God is the flower - Mercy the fruit.
Let the doubting soul read these considerations on Divine Mercy and
become trusting."
Divine Mercy, gushing forth from the bosom of the Father, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, greatest attribute of God, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, incomprehensible mystery, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, fount gushing forth from the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, unfathomed by any intellect, human or angelic, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, from which wells forth all life and happiness, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, better than the heavens, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, source of miracles and wonders, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, encompassing the whole universe, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, descending to earth in the Person of the Incarnate Word, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, which flowed out from the open wound of the Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, enclosed in the Heart of Jesus for us, and especially for sinners, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, unfathomed in the institution of the Sacred Host, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in the founding of Holy Church, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in our justification through Jesus Christ, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, accompanying us through our whole life, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, embracing us especially at the hour of death, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, endowing us with immortal life, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, accompanying us every moment of our life, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, shielding us from the fire of hell, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in the conversion of hardened sinners, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, astonishment for Angels, incomprehensible to Saints, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, unfathomed in all the mysteries of God, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, lifting us out of every misery, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, source of our happiness and joy, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in calling us forth from nothingness to existence, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, embracing all the works of His hands, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, crown of all of God's handiwork, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in which we are all immersed, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, sweet relief for anguished hearts, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, only hope of despairing souls, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, repose of hearts, peace amidst fear, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, delight and ecstasy of holy souls, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, inspiring hope against all hope, I trust in You.
+ Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.
+ O incomprehensible and limitless Mercy Divine, To extol and adore You worthily, who can? Supreme attribute of Almighty God, You are the sweet hope for sinful man.
Into one hymn yourselves unite, stars, earth and sea, and in one accord, thankfully and fervently sing of the incomprehensible Divine Mercy. (Diary, 949)
Divine Mercy, gushing forth from the bosom of the Father, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, greatest attribute of God, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, incomprehensible mystery, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, fount gushing forth from the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, unfathomed by any intellect, human or angelic, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, from which wells forth all life and happiness, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, better than the heavens, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, source of miracles and wonders, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, encompassing the whole universe, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, descending to earth in the Person of the Incarnate Word, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, which flowed out from the open wound of the Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, enclosed in the Heart of Jesus for us, and especially for sinners, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, unfathomed in the institution of the Sacred Host, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in the founding of Holy Church, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in our justification through Jesus Christ, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, accompanying us through our whole life, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, embracing us especially at the hour of death, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, endowing us with immortal life, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, accompanying us every moment of our life, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, shielding us from the fire of hell, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in the conversion of hardened sinners, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, astonishment for Angels, incomprehensible to Saints, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, unfathomed in all the mysteries of God, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, lifting us out of every misery, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, source of our happiness and joy, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in calling us forth from nothingness to existence, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, embracing all the works of His hands, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, crown of all of God's handiwork, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, in which we are all immersed, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, sweet relief for anguished hearts, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, only hope of despairing souls, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, repose of hearts, peace amidst fear, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, delight and ecstasy of holy souls, I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, inspiring hope against all hope, I trust in You.
+ Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.
+ O incomprehensible and limitless Mercy Divine, To extol and adore You worthily, who can? Supreme attribute of Almighty God, You are the sweet hope for sinful man.
Into one hymn yourselves unite, stars, earth and sea, and in one accord, thankfully and fervently sing of the incomprehensible Divine Mercy. (Diary, 949)
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Works of Mercy
Corporal Works of Mercy
Feed the HungryGive Drink to the Thirsty
Clothe the Naked
Shelter the Homeless
Visit the Sick
Ransom the Captive
Bury the Dead
Spiritual Works of Mercy
Admonish the SinnerInstruct the Ignorant
Counsel the Doubtful
Comfort the Sorrowful
Bear Wrongs Patiently
Forgive Injuries
Pray for the Living and the Dead
In St. Faustina's diary, Christ spoke to her about the importance
of mercy - not just celebrating the feast, but living God's Mercy in
our lives...
Later, St. Faustina describes her understanding of Christ's words to her...
But it wasn't just in honor of the Feast that Christ spoke about His desire for acts of mercy...
"...Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be acts of mercy, and I demand the worship of My mercy through the solemn celebration of the Feast and through the veneration of the image which is painted. By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works." (Diary, 742)
"My daughter, if I demand through you that people revere My mercy, you should be the first to distinguish yourself by this confidence in My mercy. I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.(Diary, 742)
I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor: the first - by deed, the second - by word, the third - by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy. Yes, the first Sunday after Easter is the Feast of Mercy, but there must also be acts of mercy, and I demand the worship of My mercy through the solemn celebration of the Feast and through the veneration of the image which is painted. By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls. It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mercy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail without works." (Diary, 742)
Later, St. Faustina describes her understanding of Christ's words to her...
"The Lord gave me knowledge of His will under three aspects, so to speak, but it all comes down to one:
The first is that souls separated from the world will burn as an offering before God's throne and beg for mercy for the whole world... and by their entreaties they will obtain blessings for priests, and through their prayers prepare the world for the final coming of Jesus.
The second is prayer joined to the act of mercy. In particular, they will defend the souls of children against the spirit of evil. Prayer and merciful deeds are all that will be required of these souls, and even the poorest persons can be admitted to their number. And in this egoistic world they will try to rouse up love, the mercy of Jesus.
The third is prayer and deeds of mercy, without any obligation of taking vows. But by doing this, these persons will have a share in all the merits and privileges of the whole [congregation]. Everyone in the world can belong to this group. A member of this group ought to perform at least one act of mercy a day; at least one, but there can be many more, for such deeds can easily be carried out by anyone, even the very poorest.
For there are three ways of performing an act of mercy: the merciful word, by forgiving and by comforting; secondly, if you can offer no word, then pray - that too is mercy; and thirdly, deeds of mercy. And when the Last Day comes, we shall be judged from this, and on this basis we shall receive the eternal verdict." (Diary 1155-1158)
But it wasn't just in honor of the Feast that Christ spoke about His desire for acts of mercy...
"October 1, 1937. Daughter, I need sacrifice lovingly accomplished, because that alone has meaning for Me. Enormous indeed are the debts of the world which are due to Me; pure souls can pay them by their sacrifice, exercising mercy in spirit.
I understand Your words, Lord, and the magnitude of the mercy that ought to shine in my soul. Jesus: I know, My daughter, that you understand it and that you do everything within your power. But write this for the many souls who are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul. If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy." (Diary, 1316-7)
References
- Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul by Faustina Kowalska 2003 ISBN 1-59614-110-7
- Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. http://www.sisterfaustina.org/
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Snippet III: Devotion to The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
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| Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Scapular |
The Sacred Heart (also known as Most Sacred Heart of Jesus) is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of his divine love for humanity.
This devotion is predominantly used in the Catholic Church and among some high-church Anglicans and Lutherans. The devotion especially emphasizes the unmitigated love, compassion, and long-suffering of the heart of Christ towards humanity. The origin of this devotion in its modern form is derived from a French Roman Catholic nun, Marguerite Marie Alacoque, who said she learned the devotion from Jesus during a mystical experience. Predecessors to the modern devotion arose unmistakably in the Middle Ages in various facets of Catholic mysticism.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Sacred Heart has been closely associated with Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ. In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor, Pope Pius XI stated: "the spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus". The Golden Arrow Prayer directly refers to the Sacred Heart. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is sometimes seen in the Eastern Catholic Churches, where it remains a point of controversy and is seen as an example of Liturgical Latinisation.
The Sacred Heart is often depicted in Christian art as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by the lance-wound, encircled by the crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross and bleeding. Sometimes the image shown shining within the bosom of Christ with his wounded hands pointing at the heart. The wounds and crown of thorns allude to the manner of Jesus' death, while the fire represents the transformative power of divine love.
The Feast of the Sacred Heart has been in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar since 1856, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost. As Pentecost is always celebrated on Sunday, the Feast of the Sacred Heart always falls on a Friday.
History of Devotion
Early devotion
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| Sacred Heart of Jesus Ibarrará, 1896 |
From the time of John the Evangelist and Paul of Tarsus there has always been in the Church something like devotion to the love of God, but there is nothing to indicate that, during the first ten centuries of Christianity, any worship was rendered to the wounded Heart of Jesus. It is in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that the first indications of devotion to the Sacred Heart are found. It was in the fervent atmosphere of the Benedictine or Cistercian monasteries, in the world of Anselmian or Bernardine thought, that the devotion arose, although it is impossible to say positively what were its first texts or who were its first devotees. It was already well known to St. Gertrude, St. Mechtilde, and the author of the Vitis mystica (previously ascribed to St. Bernard, now attributed to St. Bonaventure).
From the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the devotion was propagated but it did not seem to have developed in itself. It was everywhere practised by individuals and by different religious congregations, such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carthusians, etc. It was, nevertheless, a private, individual devotion of the mystical order. Nothing of a general movement had been inaugurated, except for similarities found in the devotion to the Five Wounds by the Franciscans, in which the wound in Jesus's heart figured most prominently.
In the sixteenth century, the devotion passed from the domain of mysticism into that of Christian asceticism. It was established as a devotion with prayers already formulated and special exercises, found in the writings of Lanspergius (d. 1539) of the Carthusians of Cologne, the Louis of Blois (Blosius; 1566), a Benedictine and Abbot of Liessies in Hainaut, John of Avila (d. 1569) and St. Francis de Sales, the latter belonging to the seventeenth century.
The historical record from that time shows an early bringing to light of the devotion. Ascetic writers spoke of it, especially those of the Society of Jesus. The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was everywhere in evidence, largely due to the Franciscan devotion to the Five Wounds and to the habit formed by the Jesuits of placing the image on their title-page of their books and the walls of their churches.
Nevertheless, the devotion remained an individual, or at least a private, devotion. Jean Eudes (1602–1680) made it public, gave it an Office, and established a feast for it. Père Eudes was the apostle of the Heart of Mary; but in his devotion to the Immaculate Heart there was a share for the Heart of Jesus. Little by little, the devotion to the Sacred Heart became a separate one, and on August 31, 1670, the first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated in the Grand Seminary of Rennes. Coutances followed suit on October 20, a day with which the Eudist feast was from then on to be connected. The feast soon spread to other dioceses, and the devotion was likewise adopted in various religious communities. It gradually came into contact with the devotion begun at Paray, and resulting in a fusion of the two.
Visions of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
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| St Margaret Mary Alacoque, Giaquinto 1765 |
The most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the form it is known today was Visitandine Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690), who claimed to have received visions of Jesus Christ. There is nothing to indicate that she had known the devotion prior to the revelations, or at least that she had paid any attention to it. The revelations were numerous, and the following apparitions are especially remarkable:
- On December 27, probably 1673, the feast of St. John, Margaret Mary reported that Jesus permitted her, as he had formerly allowed St. Gertrude, to rest her head upon his heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of his love, telling her that he desired to make them known to all mankind and to diffuse the treasures of his goodness, and that he had chosen her for this work.
- In probably June or July, 1674, Margaret Mary claimed that Jesus requested to be honored under the figure of his heart, also claiming that, when he appeared radiant with love, he asked for a devotion of expiatory love: frequent reception of Communion, especially Communion on the First Friday of the month, and the observance of the Holy Hour.
- During the octave of Corpus Christi, 1675, probably on June 16, the vision known as the "great apparition" reportedly took place, where Jesus said, "Behold the Heart that has so loved men ... instead of gratitude I receive from the greater part (of mankind) only ingratitude ...", and asked Margaret Mary for a feast of reparation of the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, bidding her consult her confessor Father Claude de la Colombière, then superior of the small Jesuit house at Paray. Solemn homage was asked on the part of the king, and the mission of propagating the new devotion was especially confided to the religious of the Visitation and to the priests of the Society of Jesus.
A few days after the "great apparition", Margaret Mary reported everything she saw to Father de la Colombière, and he, acknowledging the vision as an action of the Spirit of God, consecrated himself to the Sacred Heart and directed her to write an account of the apparition. He also made use of every available opportunity to circulate this account, discreetly, through France and England. Upon his death on February 15, 1682, there was found in his journal of spiritual retreats a copy in his own handwriting of the account that he had requested of Margaret Mary, together with a few reflections on the usefulness of the devotion. This journal, including the account and an "offering" to the Sacred Heart, in which the devotion was well explained, was published at Lyons in 1684. The little book was widely read, especially at Paray. Margaret Mary reported feeling "dreadful confusion" over the book's contents, but resolved to make the best of it, approving of the book for the spreading of her cherished devotion. Outside of the Visitandines, priests, religious, and laymen espoused the devotion, particularly the Capuchins, Margaret Mary's two brothers, and some Jesuits. The Jesuit Father Croiset wrote a book called The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a book which Jesus is said to have told Margaret to tell Fr. Croiset to write, and Fr. Joseph de Gallifet, also a Jesuit, promoted the devotion.
Papal Approvals
The Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart was a nun from Sisters of the Good Shepherd Congregation who requested, in the name of Christ Himself, to Pope Leo XIII that he consecrate the entire World to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The death of Margaret Mary Alacoque on October 17, 1690, did not dampen the zeal of those interested; on the contrary, a short account of her life published by Father Croiset in 1691, as an appendix to his book "De la Dévotion au Sacré Cœur", served only to increase it. In spite of all sorts of obstacles, and of the slowness of the Holy See, which in 1693 imparted indulgences to the Confraternities of the Sacred Heart and, in 1697, granted the feast to the Visitandines with the Mass of the Five Wounds, but refused a feast common to all, with special Mass and Office. The devotion spread, particularly in religious communities. The Marseilles plague, 1720, furnished perhaps the first occasion for a solemn consecration and public worship outside of religious communities. Other cities of the South followed the example of Marseilles, and thus the devotion became a popular one. In 1726 it was deemed advisable once more to importune Rome for a feast with a Mass and Office of its own, but, in 1729, Rome again refused. However, in 1765, it finally yielded and that same year, at the request of the queen, the feast was received quasi-officially by the episcopate of France. On all sides it was asked for and obtained, and finally, in 1856, at the urgent entreaties of the French bishops, Pope Pius IX extended the feast to the Roman Catholic Church under the rite of double major. In 1889 it was raised by the Roman Catholic Church to the double rite of first class.
After the letters of Mother Mary of the Divine Heart (1863–1899) requesting, in the name of Christ Himself, to Pope Leo XIII consecrate the entire World to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Father commissions a group of theologians to examine the petition on the basis of revelation and sacred tradition. This investigation was positive. And so in the encyclical letter Annum Sacrum (on May 25, 1899) this same pope decreed that the consecration of the entire human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should take place on June 11, 1899. In this encyclical letter the Pope attached Later Pope Leo XIII encouraged the entire Roman Catholic episcopate to promote the devotion of the Nine First Fridays and he established June as the Month of the Sacred Heart. Leo XIII also composed the Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart and included it in Annum Sacrum.
Pope Pius X decreed that the consecration of the human race, performed by Pope Leo XIII be renewed each year. Pope Pius XI in his encyclical letter Miserentissimus Redemptor (on May 8, 1928) affirmed the Church's position with respect to Saint Margaret Mary's visions of Jesus Christ by stating that Jesus had "manifested Himself" to Saint Margaret and had "promised her that all those who rendered this honor to His Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces." The encyclical refers to the conversation between Jesus and Saint Margaret several times[2] and reaffirmed the importance of consecration and reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Finally, Venerable Pope Pius XII, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Pope Pius IX's institution of the Feast, instructed the entire Roman Catholic Church at length on the devotion to the Sacred Heart in his encyclical letter Haurietis aquas (on May 15, 1956). On May 15, 2006, also Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter to Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, on the 50th Anniversary of the encyclical Haurietis Aquas, about the Sacred Heart, by Pope Pius XII. In his letter to Father Kolvenbach, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the importance of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Worship and Devotion
The Roman Catholic acts of consecration, reparation and devotion were introduced when the feast of the Sacred Heart was declared. In his Papal Bull Auctorem Fidei, Pope Pius VI praised devotion to the Sacred Heart. Finally, by order of Leo XIII, in his encyclical Annum Sacrum (May 25, 1899), as well as on June 11, he consecrated every human to the Sacred Heart. The idea of this act, which Leo XIII called "the great act" of his pontificate, had been proposed to him by a religious woman of the Good Shepherd from Oporto (Portugal) who said that she had supernaturally received it from Jesus. Since c. 1850, groups, congregations, and States have consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart. In 1873, by petition of president Gabriel García Moreno, Ecuador was the first country in the world to be consecrated to the Sacred Heart, fulfilling God's petition to Saint Margaret Mary over two hundred years later.
Peter Coudrin of France founded the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary on December 24, 1800. A religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, the order is best known for its missionary work in Hawaii. Mother Clelia Merloni from Forlì (Italy) founded the Congregation of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Viareggio, Italy, May 30, 1894. Worship of the Sacred Heart mainly consists of several hymns, the Salutation of the Sacred Heart, and the Litany of the Sacred Heart. It is common in Roman Catholic services and occasionally is to be found in Anglican services. The Feast of the Sacred Heart is a solemnity in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost. As Pentecost is always celebrated on Sunday, the Feast of the Sacred Heart always falls on a Friday.
The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic ceremony in which a priest or head of a household consecrates the members of the household to the Sacred Heart. A blessed image of the Sacred Heart, either a statue or a picture, is then "enthroned" in the home to serve as a constant reminder to those who dwell in the house of their consecration to the Sacred Heart. The practice of the Enthronement is based upon Pope Pius XII's declaration that devotion to the Sacred of Jesus is "the foundation on which to build the kingdom of God in the hearts of individuals, families, and nations..."
Alliance with the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary is based on the historical, theological and spiritual links in Catholic devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The joint devotion to the hearts was first formalized in the 17th century by Saint Jean Eudes who organized the scriptural, theological and liturgical sources relating to the devotions and obtained the approbation of the Church, prior to the visions of Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the devotions grew, both jointly and individually through the efforts of figures such as Saint Louis de Montfort who promoted Catholic Mariology and Saint Catherine Labouré's Miraculous Medal depicting the Heart of Jesus thorn-crowned and the Heart of Mary pierced with a sword. The devotions, and the associated prayers, continued into the 20th century, e.g. in the Immaculata prayer of Saint Maximillian Kolbe and in the reported messages of Our Lady of Fatima which stated that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be honored together with the Heart of Mary.
Popes supported the individual and joint devotions to the hearts through the centuries. In the 1956 encyclical Haurietis Aquas, Pope Pius XII encouraged the joint devotion to the hearts. In the 1979 encyclical Redemptor Hominis Pope John Paul II explained the theme of unity of Mary's Immaculate Heart with the Sacred Heart. In his Angelus address on September 15, 1985 Pope John Paul II coined the term The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and in 1986 addressed the international conference on that topic held at Fátima, Portugal.
The Miraculous Medal
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| The Miraculous Medal |
The Sacred Heart has also been involved in (and been depicted) in saintly apparitions such as those to Saint Catherine Labouré in 1830 and appears on the Miraculous Medal.
On the Miraculous Medal, the Sacred Heart is crowned with thorns. The Immaculate Heart of Mary also appears on the medal, next to the Sacred Heart, but is pierced by a sword, rather than being crowned with thorns. The M on the medal signifies the Blessed Virgin at the foot of the Cross when Jesus was being crucified.
Religious imagery depicting the Sacred Heart is frequently featured in Roman Catholic, and sometimes Anglican and Lutheran homes. Sometimes images display beneath them a list of family members, indicating that the entire family is entrusted to the protection of Jesus in the Sacred Heart, from whom blessings on the home and the family members are sought. The prayer "O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee" is often used. One particular image has been used as part of a set, along with an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In that image, Mary too was shown pointing to her Immaculate Heart, expressing her love for the human race and for her Son, Jesus Christ. The mirror images reflect an eternal binding of the two hearts.
The Scapular of the Sacred Heart and the Scapular of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are worn by Roman Catholics.
In Eastern Catholicism
Devotion to the Sacred Heart may be found in some Eastern Catholic Churches, but is a contentious issue. Those who favour purity of rite are opposed to the devotion, while those who are in favour of the devotion cite it as a point of commonality with their Latin Catholic brethren.
Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Jesus Christ, in his appearances to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, promised these blessings to those who practice devotion to his Sacred Heart. This tabular form of promises was not made by Saint Margaret Mary or her contemporaries. It first appeared at 1863. In 1882, an American businessman spread the tabular form of the promises profusely throughout the world, the twelve promises appearing in 238 languages. In 1890, Cardinal Adolph Perraud deplored this circulation of the promises in the tabular form which were different from the words and even from the meaning of the expressions used by St. Margaret Mary, and wanted the promises to be published in the full, authentic texts as found in the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque:
- I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
- I will give peace in their families.
- I will console them in all their troubles.
- I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.
- I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.
- Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
- Tepid souls shall become fervent.
- Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.
- I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.
- I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
- Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my Heart.
- In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.
The last promise has given rise to the pious Roman Catholic practice of making an effort to attend Mass and receive Communion on the first Friday of each month.
Great efficacy of converting people has been attached to the use of the image of the Sacred Heart.
"Even at the hour of death, incredulous, indifferent, hardened souls have been converted by simply showing them a picture of the Sacred Heart, which sufficed to restore these sinners to the life of hope and love, in a word, to touch the most hardened. It would, indeed, be a great misfortune to any apostolic man to neglect so powerful a means of conversion, and in proof of this I will mention a single fact which will need no comment. A religious of the Company of Jesus had been requested by the Blessed Margaret Mary to make a careful engraving of the Sacred Heart. Being often hindered by other occupations, there was much delay in preparing this plate. ' This good father,' writes the saint, 'is so much occupied by Mon- signor d'Autun in the conversion of heretics, that he has neither time nor leisure to give to the work so ardently desired by the Heart of our Divine Master. You cannot imagine, my much-loved mother, how greatly this delay afflicts and pains me. I must avow confidently to you my belief that it is the cause of his converting so few infidels in this town. I seem constantly to hear these words : ' That if this good father had acquitted himself at once of his promise to the Sacred Heart, Jesus would have changed and converted the hearts of these infidels, on account of the joy He would have felt at seeing Himself honoured in the picture He so much wishes for. As, however, he prefers other work, even though to the glory of God, to that of giving Him this satisfaction, He will harden the hearts of these infidels, and the labours of this mission will not be crowned with much fruit.'
Scapular of the Sacred Heart
The devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus also involve the Scapular of the Sacred Heart. It is a Roman Catholic devotional scapular that can be traced back to Saint Margaret Marie Alacoque who herself made and distributed badges similar to it. In 1872 Pope Pius IX granted an indulgence for the badge and the actual scapular was approved by the Congregation of Rites in 1900. It bears the representation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on one side, and that of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Mother of Mercy on the other side. Prayer, Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Thy well-beloved Son and upon the acts of praise and satisfaction which He renders unto Thee in the name of sinners; and do Thou, in Thy great goodness, grant pardon to them who seek Thy mercy, in the name of the same Thy Son, Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, world without end.
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Featured Item from Litany Lane
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Snippet IV: Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
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| Immaculate heart of Mary Scapular |
The Immaculate Heart of Mary (also known as The Sacred Heart of Mary) is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God the Father, her maternal love for her son Jesus, and her compassionate love for all persons. The consideration of Mary's interior life and the beauties of her soul, without any thought of her physical heart, does not constitute the traditional devotion; still less does it consist in the consideration of the heart of Mary merely as a part of her pure body. In 1855 the Mass of the Most Pure Heart formally became a part of Catholic practice. The two elements are essential to the devotion, just as, according to Roman Catholic theology, soul and body are necessary to the constitution of man.
Eastern Catholic Churches occasionally utilize the image, devotion, and theology associated with the Immaculate Heart of Mary. However, this is a cause of some controversy, some seeing it as a form of liturgical instillation. The Roman Catholic view is based on Mariology, as exemplified by Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae which builds on the total Marian devotion pioneered by Louis de Montfort.
Traditionally, the heart is pierced with seven wounds or swords, in homage to the seven dolors of Mary. Consequently, seven Hail Marys are said daily in honor of the devotion. Also, roses or another type of flower may be wrapped around the heart
Veneration and devotion
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| Immaculate Heart Mary, Seven Dolors |
Veneration of the Heart of Mary is analogous to worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is, however, necessary to indicate a few differences in this analogy, the better to explain the character of Roman Catholic devotion to the Heart of Mary. Some of these differences are very marked, whereas others are barely perceptible. The Devotion to the Heart of Jesus is especially directed to the "Divine Heart" as overflowing with love for humanity, presented as "despised and outraged". In the devotion to the Mary, on the other hand, the attraction is the love of this Heart for Jesus and for God. Its love for humans is not overlooked, but it is not so much in evidence nor so dominant.
A second difference is the nature of the devotion itself. In devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Roman Catholic venerates in a sense of love responding to love. In devotion to the Heart of Mary, study and imitation hold as important a place as love. Love is more the result than the object of the devotion, the object being rather to love God and Jesus better by uniting one's self to Mary for this purpose and by imitating her virtues. It would also seem that, although in the devotion to the Heart of Mary the heart has an essential part as symbol and sensible object, it does not stand out as prominently as in the devotion to the Heart of Jesus; devotion focuses rather on the thing symbolized, the love, virtues, and sentiments of Mary's interior life.
The Immaculate Heart has also been involved in (and been depicted) in saintly Marian apparitions such as those to Saint Catherine Labouré in 1830 and appears on the Miraculous Medal. On the Miraculous Medal, the Immaculate Heart is pierced by a sword. The Sacred Heart of Jesus also appears on the medal, next to the Immaculate Heart, but is crowned with thorns, rather than being pierced by a sword. The M on the medal signifies the Blessed Virgin at the foot of the Cross when Jesus was being crucified.
Our Lady of Fatima asked that, in reparation for sins committed against her Immaculate Heart, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months the Catholic:
- Go to Confession (within 8 days before or after the first Saturday)
- Receive Holy Communion
- Recite five decades of the Rosary
- Keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary
She promised that, whoever would ever do this, would be given at the hour of his death, the graces necessary for salvation.
History of devotion
The history of the devotion to the Heart of Mary is connected on many points with that to the Heart of Jesus. The attention of Christians was early attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary. The gospels recount the prophecy delivered to her at Jesus' presentation at the temple: that her heart would be pierced with a sword. This image (the pierced heart) is the most popular representation of the Immaculate Heart. The St. John's Gospel further invited attention to Mary's heart with its depiction of Mary at the foot of the cross at Jesus' crucifixion. St. Augustine said of this that Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the cross; "she cooperated through charity in the work of our redemption".
Statue depicting the Immaculate Heart of Mary as described by Sister Lucia of Fátima.
Another Scriptural passage to help in bringing out the devotion was the twice-repeated saying of Saint Luke, that Mary kept all the sayings and doings of Jesus in her heart, that there she might ponder over them and live by them. A few of Mary's sayings, also recorded in the Gospel, particularly the Magnificat (the words Mary is reported to have said to describe the experience of being pregnant with Jesus), disclose new features in Marian psychology. Some of the Church Fathers also throw light upon the psychology of Mary, for instance, Saint Ambrose, when in his commentary on The Gospel of Luke he holds Mary up as the ideal of virginity, and Saint Ephrem, when he poetically sings of the coming of the Magi and the welcome accorded them by the humble mother. Some passages from other books in the Bible are interpreted as referring to Mary, in whom they personify wisdom and her gentle charms. Such are the texts in which wisdom is presented as the mother of lofty love, of fear, of knowledge, and of holy hope. In the New Testament Elizabeth proclaims Mary blessed because she has believed the words of the angel who announced that she would become pregnant with Jesus, although she was still a virgin; the Magnificat is an expression of her humility. In answering the woman of the people, who in order to exalt the son proclaimed the mother blessed, Jesus himself said: "Blessed rather are they that hear the word of God and keep it." The Church Fathers understood this as an invitation to seek in Mary that which had so endeared her to God and caused her to be selected as the mother of Jesus, and found in these words a new reason for praising Mary. St. Leo said that through faith and love she conceived her son spiritually, even before receiving him into her womb, and St. Augustine tells us that she was more blessed in having borne Christ in her heart than in having conceived him in the flesh.
It is only in the twelfth, or towards the end of the eleventh century, that slight indications of a regular devotion are perceived in a sermon by St. Bernard (De duodecim stellis), from which an extract has been taken by the Church and used in the Offices of the Compassion and of the Seven Dolours. Stronger evidences are discernible in the pious meditations on the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina, usually attributed either to St. Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or St. Bernard; and also in the large book "De laudibus B. Mariae Virginis" (Douai, 1625) by Richard de Saint-Laurent, Penitentiary of Rouen in the thirteenth century. In St. Mechtilde (d. 1298) and St. Gertrude (d. 1301) the devotion had two earnest adherents. A little earlier it had been included by St. Thomas Becket in the devotion to the joys and sorrows of Mary, by Blessed Hermann (d.1245), one of the first spiritual children of Saint Dominic, in his other devotions to Mary, and somewhat later it appeared in St. Bridget's "Book of Revelations". Johannes Tauler (d. 1361) beholds in Mary the model of a mystical soul, just as St. Ambrose perceived in her the model of a virginal soul. St. Bernardine of Siena (d.1444) was more absorbed in the contemplation of the virginal heart, and it is from him that the Church has borrowed the lessons of the second nocturn for the feast of the Heart of Mary. St. Francis de Sales speaks of the perfections of this heart, the model of love for God, and dedicated to it his "Theotimus."
During this same period one finds occasional mention of devotional practices to the Heart of Mary, e.g., in the "Antidotarium" of Nicolas du Saussay (d. 1488), in Julius II, and in the "Pharetra" of Lanspergius. In the second half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth, ascetic authors dwelt upon this devotion at greater length. It was, however, reserved to Saint Jean Eudes (d. 1681) to propagate the devotion, to make it public, and to have a feast celebrated in honor of the Heart of Mary, first at Autun in 1648 and afterwards in a number of French dioceses. He established several religious societies interested in upholding and promoting the devotion, of which his large book on the Coeur Admirable (Admirable Heart), published in 1681, resembles a summary. Jean Eudes' efforts to secure the approval of an office and feast failed at Rome, but, notwithstanding this disappointment, the devotion to the Heart of Mary progressed. In 1699 Father Pinamonti (d. 1703) published in Italian a short work on the Holy Heart of Mary, and in 1725, Joseph de Gallifet combined the cause of the Heart of Mary with that of the Heart of Jesus in order to obtain Rome's approbation of the two devotions and the institution of the two feasts. In 1729, his project was defeated, and in 1765, the two causes were separated, to assure the success of the principal one.
Alliance with the Sacred Heart
The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary is based on the historical, theological and spiritual links in Catholic devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The joint devotion to the hearts was first formalized in the 17th century by Saint Jean Eudes who organized the scriptural, theological and liturgical sources relating to the devotions and obtained the approbation of the Church, prior to the visions of Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the devotions grew, both jointly and individually through the efforts of figures such as Saint Louis de Montfort who promoted Catholic Mariology and Saint Catherine Labouré's Miraculous Medal depicting the Heart of Jesus thorn-crowned and the Heart of Mary pierced with a sword. The devotions, and the associated prayers, continued into the 20th century, e.g. in the Immaculata prayer of Saint Maximillian Kolbe and in the reported messages of Our Lady of Fatima which stated that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be honored together with the Heart of Mary.
Popes supported the individual and joint devotions to the hearts through the centuries. In the 1956 encyclical Haurietis Aquas, Pope Pius XII encouraged the joint devotion to the hearts. In the 1979 encyclical Redemptor Hominis Pope John Paul II explained the theme of unity of Mary's Immaculate Heart with the Sacred Heart. In his Angelus address on September 15, 1985 Pope John Paul II coined the term The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and in 1986 addressed the international conference on that topic held at Fátima, Portugal.
Feast days
Fatima Statue of Pope Pius XII, who consecrated Russia and the World: Just as a few years ago We consecrated the entire human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so today We consecrate and in a most special manner We entrust all the peoples of Russia to this Immaculate Heart...
In 1799 Pius VI, then in captivity at Florence, granted the Bishop of Palermo the feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary for some of the churches in his diocese. In 1805 Pius VII made a new concession, thanks to which the feast was soon widely observed. Such was the existing condition when a twofold movement, started in Paris, gave fresh impetus to the devotion. The two factors of this movement were, first of all, the revelation of the "miraculous medal" in 1830 and all the prodigies that followed, and then the establishment at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners, which spread rapidly throughout the world and was the source of numberless alleged graces. On 21 July 1855, the Congregation of Rites finally approved the Office and Mass of the Most Pure Heart of Mary without, however, imposing them upon the Universal Church.
During the third apparition at Fátima, Portugal on 13 July 1917, the Virgin Mary allegedly said that "God wishes to establish in the world devotion to her Immaculate Heart" in order to save souls from going into the fires of hell and to bring about world peace, and also asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Letter of 7 July 1952, Sacro Vergente consecrated Russia to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.
On 25 March 1984, Pope John Paul II fulfilled this request again, when he made the solemn act of consecration of the world, and implicitly Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary before the miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary of Fatima brought to Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican for the momentous occasion. Sister Lucia, OCD, then the only surviving visionary of Fatima, confirmed that the request of Mary for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was accepted by Heaven and therefore, was fulfilled. Again on 8 October 2000, Pope John Paul II made an act of entrustment of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the new millennium.
Roman Catholic feast days
Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1944 to be celebrated on 22 August, coinciding with the traditional octave day of the Assumption. In 1969, Pope Paul VI moved the celebration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the day, Saturday, immediately after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This means in practice that it is now held on the day before the third Sunday after Pentecost.
At the same time as he closely associated the celebrations of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pope Paul VI moved the celebration of the Queenship of Mary from 31 May to 22 August, bringing it into association with the feast of her Assumption.
Those who use the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal or an earlier one (but not more than 17 years before 1962) observe the day established by Pius XII.
References:
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.
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Today's Snippet V: Acts of Reparation
(Morning offering First Friday and First Saturday Devotions)
In the Roman Catholic tradition, an Act of Reparation is a prayer or devotion with the intent to repair the "sins of others", e.g. for the repair of the sin of blasphemy, the sufferings of Jesus Christ or as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary.[1] These prayers do not usually involve a petition for a living or deceased beneficiary, but aim to repair sins.
In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor Pope Pius XI defined reparation as follows:
The creature's love should be given in return for the love of the Creator, another thing follows from this at once, namely that to the same uncreated Love, if so be it has been neglected by forgetfulness or violated by offense, some sort of compensation must be rendered for the injury, and this debt is commonly called by the name of reparation.[2]
Pope John Paul II referred to reparation as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified".[3]
Theological basis and history
The Catechism of the Catholic Church 2157 states:
- The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross: "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen." The baptized person dedicates the day to the glory of God and calls on the Savior's grace which lets him act in the Spirit as a child of the Father.
"All that we do without offering it to God is wasted," Saint John Mary Vianney preached. According to Catholic theology, the worth of an action in the eyes of God is found in the intention, i.e. what takes place in the heart of each person, on whether the person lives based on the love for God (the greatest commandment) or love for self. Thus, Catholic spirituality encourages the practice of fixing one's intention towards loving God at the very beginning of the day, through the morning offering. Catholic authors also encourage repeating this offering throughout the day, especially at the start of one's professional work which takes a large part of each day.
The morning offering is an essential part of the theology of sanctification of work, or the use of work, secular or otherwise, as a means of arriving at personal sanctity. The other element in this theology is the actual work done with spirit of excellence in consonance with the intention of offering something "worthy" to the sanctity, majesty and the goodness of the Father God.
"All that we do without offering it to God is wasted." - Saint John Mary Vianney
This theology is also supported by private revelation to some saints. For example, Sister Josefa Menéndez (1890-1923) reported that she heard Jesus Christ tell her: "When you awake, enter at once into My Heart, and when you are in it, offer My Father all your actions united to the pulsations of My Heart . . . If [a person is] engaged in work of no value in itself, if she bathes it in My Blood or unites it to the work I Myself did during My mortal life, it will greatly profit souls . . . more, perhaps, than if she had preached to the whole world. You will be able to save many souls that way."
Saint Mechtilde (1241-1298), a popular saint during the time of Dante and who was mentioned in his Divine Comedy, also had visions of Jesus Christ and transmitted the following words of Jesus: "When you awake in the morning, let your first act be to salute My Heart, and to offer Me your own . . . Whoever shall breathe a sigh toward Me from the bottom of his heart when he awakes in the morning and shall ask Me to work all his works in him throughout the day, will draw Me to him . . . For never does a man breathe a sigh of longing aspiration toward Me without drawing Me nearer to him than I was before." It is also said that the morning offering helps "refresh and recharge" the soul, preparing the soul to face each day with the help of God himself.[1]
The morning offering has been an old practice in the Church but it started to spread largely through the Apostleship of Prayer, started by Fr. Francis X. Gautrelet, S.J, and specially through the book written by another Jesuit, Reverend Henry Ramière, S.J., who in 1861, adapted the Apostleship of Prayer for parishes and various Catholic institutions, and made it known by his book "The Apostleship of Prayer", which has been translated into many languages.
Duty of Reparation and Devotion
In the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor Pope Pius XI called acts of reparation a duty for Roman Catholics:We are holden to the duty of reparation and expiation by a certain more valid title of justice and of love, of justice indeed, in order that the offense offered to God by our sins may be expiatedThe pontiff further emphasized, "Moreover this duty of expiation is laid upon the whole race of men"
Prayers of Reparation
A number of prayers as an Act of Reparation to the Virgin Mary appear in the Raccolta Catholic prayer book (approved by a Decree of December 15 1854, and published in 1898 by the Holy See). The Raccolta includes a number of diverse prayers for reparation.[4]
- The Rosary of the Holy Wounds (which does not include the usual rosary mysteries) focuses on specific redemptive aspects of Christ's suffering in Calvary, with emphasis on the souls in purgatory.[5]
- A well known Act of Reparation to Jesus Christ and for the reparation of blasphemy is The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer) first introduced by Sister Marie of St Peter in 1844. This devotion (started by Sister Marie and then promoted by the Venerable Leo Dupont) was approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1885.[6]
- A frequently offered Act of Reparation to The Holy Trinity is based on the messages of Our Lady of Fatima and is usually called the Angel Prayer.[7][8]
Morning Offering Devotion
John Paul II: Morning Offering is “of fundamental importance in the life of each and every one of the faithful."
In Roman Catholicism, the Morning Offering is a prayer said by an individual at the start of the day in order to consecrate the day to Jesus Christ. It serves the purpose of preparing the Catholic to focus completely on Christ and give to him all that he or she does during the day. There are several different forms of Offering.
Pope John Paul II said that the Morning Offering is “of fundamental importance in the life of each and every one of the faithful."
The Morning offering is meant to be prayed first thing in the morning, upon waking up. Throughout the day, a Christian offers up everything – joys and successes, difficulties and sacrifices, to Jesus, uniting them to His sufferings and merits so that one’s works gain the merit they can never have apart from Him.
The Morning Offering is suggested to be renewed many times throughout the day with simple short prayers (called "aspirations"), e.g. "I will serve!"; "I offer my work unto you."
A specific Morning offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was composed by Fr. François-Xavier Gautrelet in 1844. It reflects the Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and is also an Acts of reparation for sins:
- O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
- I offer you my prayers, works, joys, sufferings of this day,
- in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world.
- I offer them for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart;
- the salvation of souls, the reparation for sin, the reunion of all Christians;
- I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all members of the Apostleship of Prayer,
- and in particular for those recommended by the Holy Father this month.
- Amen.
First Friday Devotions
The First Friday Devotions are a set of Catholic devotions to especially recognize the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and through it offer reparations for sins. In the visions of Christ reported by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century, several promises were made to those people that practiced the First Fridays Devotions, one of which included final perseverance.[1]
According to the words of Christ through His apparitions to St. Margaret Mary, there are several promises to those that practice the First Friday Devotions:
"In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour."[2]
The devotion consists of several practices that are performed on the first Fridays of nine consecutive months. On these days, a person is to attend Holy Mass and receive communion.[3] If the need arises in order to receive communion in a state of grace, a person should also make use of the Sacrament of Penance before attending Mass. In many Catholic communities the practice of the Holy Hour of meditation during the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during the First Fridays is encouraged. [4]
First Friday - Communion of Reparation
Receiving Holy Communion as part of First Friday Devotions is a Catholic devotion to offer reparations for sins through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the visions of Christ reported by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century, several promises were made to those people that practiced the First Fridays Devotions, one of which included final perseverance.[9]
The devotion consists of several practices that are performed on the first Fridays of nine consecutive months. On these days, a person is to attend Holy Mass and receive communion.[10] In many Catholic communities the practice of the Holy Hour of meditation during the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during the First Fridays is encouraged. [11]
First Friday Promises
- I will give them all of the graces necessary for their state of life.
- I will establish peace in their houses.
- I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
- I will be their strength during life and above all during death.
- I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings.
- Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy.
- Tepid souls shall grow fervent.
- Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
- I will bless every place where a picture of my heart shall be set up and honored.
- I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
- Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
- I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.[5]
First Saturday Devotions
The First Saturdays Devotion (or Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Blessed Virgin Mary) is a Catholic practice which, according to the visionaries, has been requested by the Virgin Mary in several visitations, notably Our Lady of Fátima and the subsequent Pontevedra apparitions. This devotion, and the marian apparitions, have been officially embraced by the Roman Catholic Church.The devotion fits on the Catholic tradition to venerate the Virgin Mary particularly on Saturdays, which originated in the scriptural account that, as the Mother of Jesus Christ, her heart was to be pierced with a sword, as prophesied during the presentation of Jesus in the temple; such sword was the bitter sorrow during the Crucifixion of Jesus (which Catholic devotees understand as the union of the Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart of Jesus -- see Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Apparitions). Such sorrow is particularly bitterly endured on Holy Saturday after Jesus was placed on the Sepulcher (before the Resurrection on Easter). Devotees of Fátima believe that the First Saturdays help to console the sorrows of God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary for the sins against Her Immaculate Heart.
The Act of First Saturday Reparation
When Lúcia Santos experienced the Pontevedra apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she heard her promise to grant great graces, especially at the hour of death, in particular the salvation of the soul, for the believer who for Five Consecutive First Saturdays of Month (5 Saturdays in 5 months) receives Holy Communion and practices the following exercises as an Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Queen of Heaven:- Sacramental confession
- To receive Holy Communion
- A 5 Decades Rosary is recited
The activities of the Five First Saturdays devotions are different from similar devotions on other days in that all should be done with the specific intention in the heart of making reparation to the Blessed Mother for blasphemies against her, her name and her holy initiatives.
Sister Lúcia, the only Fátima visionary to survive into adulthood reported that the Blessed Mother came to her in her convent at Pontevedra, Spain with the following statement:
- Look, my daughter, at my Heart encircled by these thorns with which men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, strive to console me, and so I announce: I promise to assist at the hour of death with the grace necessary for salvation all those who, with the intention of making reparation to me, will, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the beads, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.
Acts of Reparation to The Holy Trinity
Roman Catholic tradition include specific prayers and devotions as Acts of Reparation for insults and blasphemies against the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Sacrament. Similar prayers as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary and Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ also existFatima prayer to the Holy Trinity
This prayer is based on the 20th century apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, and is attributed to an angel who appeared to the visionaries. It is sometimes called the Angel Prayer. The apparitions of Fatima have been approved by the Holy Catholic Church, thus deemed worthy of belief.In Catholic tradition, Saint Michael is the prince of the church of Jesus Christ and also the defender of Israel. Having revealed the Chaplet of Saint Michael to a Portuguese nun in the 18th Century, Saint Michael is often associated with being the angel that prepared the children shepherds for the visit of the Blessed Mother of God in Fatima, and thus to him it is attributed the prayer.
Words of the prayer:
- O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg the conversion of poor sinners.
Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ
Roman Catholic tradition includes specific prayers and devotions as Acts of Reparation for insults and blasphemies against Jesus Christ and the Holy Name of Jesus. These include the sufferings during the Passion of Jesus. Similar prayers as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary and Acts of Reparation to The Holy Trinity also exist.These prayers are recited with the intent to repair the sins of others, e.g. when the name of Jesus Christ is taken in vain, for the repair of the sin of blasphemy or the insults against and sufferings of Jesus in Calvary. Pope John Paul II referred to reparation as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified".
Specific Roman Catholic organizations with this purpose exist. For instance, the Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday was founded by Msgr. Pierre Louis Parisis in 1847 and the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was founded in 1851 by the Venerable Leo Dupont, the "Holy Man of Tours". In 1950, the Venerable Abbot Hildebrand Gregori formed the organization "Prayerful Sodality" which in 1977 became the Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face.
The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion
Sister Marie of St Peter with the Golden Arrow. The three rings symbolize the Holy Trinity
On March 16, 1844 Jesus reportedly told Sr. Marie:
"Oh if you only knew what great merit you acquire by saying even once, Admirable is the Name of God , in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy."
Sister Mary stated that Jesus told her that the two sins which offend him the most grievously are blasphemy and the profanation of Sunday. He called this prayer the "Golden Arrow", saying that those who would recite it would pierce Him delightfully, and also heal those other wounds inflicted on Him by the malice of sinners. Sr. Mary of St. Peter saw, "streaming from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, delightfully wounded by this 'Golden Arrow,' torrents of graces for the conversion of sinners.[2][1][3]
The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer)
This prayer is part of the Roman Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and appears in the book “The Golden Arrow”, the autobiography of Sr. Marie of St Peter. In her book she wrote that in her visions Jesus told her that an act of sacrilege or blasphemy is like a "poisoned arrow", hence the name “Golden Arrow” for this reparatory prayer. [1] Words of the prayer:[2][1]- May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable,
- most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God
- be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored
- and glorified in Heaven, on earth,
- and under the earth,
- by all the creatures of God,
- and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
- in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
- Amen.
Rosary of the Holy Wounds
Venerable Marie Martha Chambon.
She reported that Jesus Christ appeared to her asked her to unite her sufferings with His as an Act of Reparation for the sins of the world. It also has special applicability to the souls in purgatory.[6][7]
Prayer of reparation for insults and blasphemies
Words of the prayer:[8]- O Jesus, my Savior and Redeemer, Son of the living God, behold, we kneel before Thee and offer Thee our reparation; we would make amends for all the blasphemies uttered against Thy holy name, for all the injuries done to Thee in the Blessed Sacrament, for all the irreverence shown toward Thine immaculate Virgin Mother, for all the calumnies and slanders spoken against Thy spouse, the holy Catholic and Roman Church. O Jesus, who hast said: "If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you", we pray and beseech Thee for all our brethren who are in danger of sin; shield them from every temptation to fall away from the true faith; save those who are even now standing on the brink of the abyss; to all of them give light and knowledge of the truth, courage and strength for the conflict with evil, perseverance in faith and active charity! For this do we pray, most merciful Jesus, in Thy name, unto God the Father, with whom Thou livest and reignest in the unity of the Holy Spirit world without end. Amen
Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary
Roman Catholic tradition and Mariology include specific prayers and devotions as acts of reparation for insults and blasphemies against the Blessed Virgin Mary. Similar prayers as Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ and Acts of Reparation to The Holy Trinity also exist.m Some such prayers are provided in the Raccolta Roman Catholic prayer book, first published in association with the Roman Catholic Congregation of Indulgences in 1807.The Raccolta is a book, published from 1807 to 1950, that listed Roman Catholic prayers and other acts of piety, reparation, such as novenas, for which specific indulgences were granted by Popes. The Raccolta (literally meaning "collection" in Italian) is an abbreviation of its full title: Raccolta delle orazioni e pie opere per le quali sono sono concedute dai Sommi Pontefici le SS. Indulgenze ("Collection of Prayers and Good Works for Which the Popes Have Granted Holy Indulgences"). The text was in Italian, with the prayers themselves given in Latin. By his bull Indulgentiarum Doctrina of 1 January 1967, Pope Paul VI ordered a revision of the collection of indulgenced prayers and works "with a view to attaching indulgences only to the most important prayers and works of piety, charity and penance". In 1968 it was replaced by the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, listing fewer specific prayers but including new general grants that apply to a wide range of prayerful actions.
The Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, which is in Latin, differs from the Italian-language Raccolta in listing "only the most important prayers and works of piety, charity and penance". On the other hand, it includes new general grants of partial indulgences that apply to a wide range of prayerful actions, and it indicates that the prayers that it does list as deserving veneration on account of divine inspiration or antiquity or as being in widespread use are only examples of those to which the first these general grants applies: "Raising the mind to God with humble trust while performing one's duties and bearing life's difficulties, and adding, at least mentally, some pious invocation". In this way, the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, in spite of its smaller size, classifies as indulgenced an immensely greater number of prayers than were treated as such in the Raccolta.
Reparation for insults to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Words of the Prayer from Raccolta:- O blessed Virgin, Mother of God, look down in mercy from Heaven, where thou art enthroned as Queen, upon me, a miserable sinner, thine unworthy servant. Although I know full well my own unworthiness, yet in order to atone for the offenses that are done to thee by impious and blasphemous tongues, from the depths of my heart I praise and extol thee as the purest, the fairest, the holiest creature of all God's handiwork. I bless thy holy name, I praise thine exalted privilege of being truly Mother of God, ever Virgin, conceived without stain of sin, Co-Redemptrix of the human race. I bless the Eternal Father who chose thee in an especial way for His daughter; I bless the Word Incarnate who took upon Himself our nature in thy bosom and so made thee His Mother; I bless the Holy Spirit who took thee as His bride. All honor, praise and thanksgiving to the ever-blessed Trinity who predestined thee and loved thee so exceedingly from all eternity as to exalt thee above all creatures to the most sublime heights. O Virgin, holy and merciful, obtain for all who offend thee the grace of repentance, and graciously accept this poor act of homage from me thy servant, obtaining likewise for me from thy Divine Son the pardon and remission of all my sins. Amen.
Reparation for blasphemy against the Blessed Virgin Mary
Words of the Prayer from Raccolta:
- Most glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, turn thine eyes in pity upon us, miserable sinners; we are sore afflicted by the many evils that surround us in this life, but especially do we feel our hearts break within us upon hearing the dreadful insults and blasphemies uttered against thee, O Virgin Immaculate. O how these impious sayings offend the infinite Majesty of God and of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ! How they provoke His indignation and give us cause to fear the terrible effects of His vengeance! Would that the sacrifice of our lives might avail to put an end to such outrages and blasphemies; were it so, how gladly we should make it, for we desire, O most holy Mother, to love thee and to honor thee with all our hearts, since this is the will of God. And just because we love thee, we will do all that is in our power to make thee honored and loved by all men. In the meantime do thou, our merciful Mother, the supreme comforter of the afflicted, accept this our act of reparation which we offer thee for ourselves and for all our families, as well as for all who impiously blaspheme thee, not knowing what they say. Do thou obtain for them from Almighty God the grace of conversion, and thus render more manifest and more glorious thy kindness, thy power and thy great mercy. May they join with us in proclaiming thee blessed among women, the Immaculate Virgin and most compassionate Mother of God.
- Recite Hail Mary three times.
Acts of Reparation Mentioned in Apparitions
The need for reparation has been mentioned in some Marian apparitions. The messages of Our Lady of Akita, which were formally approved by the Holy See in 1988 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) include the following statement attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary:
Roman Catholic theology asserts that it was by voluntary submission that Jesus Christ died on the cross to atone for man's disobedience and sin and that his death made reparation for the sins and offenses of the world. Catholicism professes that by adding their prayers, labours, and trials to the redemption won by Christ's death, Christians can attempt to make reparation to God for their own offenses and those of others. Protestant Christians believe that the prize is already won by Christ for those who believe, wholly apart from their merit, or lack thereof, and that obedience and service to Christ is an outflowing of the new life that he purchased for them in his death on the cross.
The theological doctrine of reparation is the foundation of the numerous confraternities and pious associations which have been founded, especially in modern times, to make reparation to God for the sins of men. The Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday was founded 28 June, 1847, in the Church of St. Martin de La Noue at St. Dizier in France by Mgr. Parisis, Bishop of Langres. With a similar object, the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was established at Tours, about 1851, through the piety of M. Dupont, the "holy man of Tours". In 1883 an association was formed in Rome to offer reparation to God on behalf of all nations. The idea of reparation is an essential element in the devotion of the Sacred Heart, and acts of reparation were once common public devotions in Roman Catholic churches. One of the ends for which the Eucharist is offered is for reparation. A pious widow of Paris conceived the idea of promoting this object in 1862. By the authority of Pope Leo XIII the erection of the Archconfraternity of the Mass of Reparation was sanctioned in 1886.
- "Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair by their suffering and their poverty for the sinners and ingrates."
Organizations for Reparation
Specific Catholic organizations (including Pontifical Congregations) whose focus is reparation have been formed:[13][14]- The Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday was founded by Msgr. Pierre Louis Parisis in 1847.
- The Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was founded in 1851 by the Venerable Leo Dupont, the "Holy Man of Tours".
- In 1886 Pope Leo XIII authorized the formation of the Archconfraternity of the Mass of Reparation in Rome.
- In 1950, the Venerable Abbot Hildebrand Gregori formed the organization "Prayerful Sodality" which in 1977 became the Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face.
Theological issues
From a theological view, reparation is closely connected with those of atonement and satisfaction, and thus belonging to some of the deepest mysteries of the Christian Faith. Christian theology teaches that man is a creature who has fallen into original sin from an original state of grace in which he was created, and that through the Incarnation, Passion, and Death of Jesus Christ, he has been redeemed and restored again in a certain degree to the original condition.Roman Catholic theology asserts that it was by voluntary submission that Jesus Christ died on the cross to atone for man's disobedience and sin and that his death made reparation for the sins and offenses of the world. Catholicism professes that by adding their prayers, labours, and trials to the redemption won by Christ's death, Christians can attempt to make reparation to God for their own offenses and those of others. Protestant Christians believe that the prize is already won by Christ for those who believe, wholly apart from their merit, or lack thereof, and that obedience and service to Christ is an outflowing of the new life that he purchased for them in his death on the cross.
The theological doctrine of reparation is the foundation of the numerous confraternities and pious associations which have been founded, especially in modern times, to make reparation to God for the sins of men. The Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday was founded 28 June, 1847, in the Church of St. Martin de La Noue at St. Dizier in France by Mgr. Parisis, Bishop of Langres. With a similar object, the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was established at Tours, about 1851, through the piety of M. Dupont, the "holy man of Tours". In 1883 an association was formed in Rome to offer reparation to God on behalf of all nations. The idea of reparation is an essential element in the devotion of the Sacred Heart, and acts of reparation were once common public devotions in Roman Catholic churches. One of the ends for which the Eucharist is offered is for reparation. A pious widow of Paris conceived the idea of promoting this object in 1862. By the authority of Pope Leo XIII the erection of the Archconfraternity of the Mass of Reparation was sanctioned in 1886.
References
- ^ Acts of Reparation http://catholicism.about.com/od/prayers/qt/Reparation_HN.htm
- ^ Miserentissimus Redemptor Encyclical of Pope Pius XI [1]
- ^ Vatican archives http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_20001021_riparatrici_en.html
- ^ Joseph P. Christopher et al., 2003 The Raccolta, St Athanasius Press ISBN 978-0-9706526-6-9
- ^ Michael Freze, 1993, Voices, Visions, and Apparitions, OSV Publishing ISBN 0-87973-454-X
- ^ Dorothy Scallan. The Holy Man of Tours. (1990) ISBN 0-89555-390-2
- ^ Our Lady of Fatima http://www.fatima.org/
- ^ Story of Fatima http://www.salvemariaregina.info/SalveMariaRegina/SMR-104.html
- ^ Peter Stravinskas, 1998, OSV's Catholic Encyclopedia, OSV Press ISBN 0-87973-669-0 page 428
- ^ Roman Catholic worship: Trent to today by James F. White 2003 ISBN 0-8146-6194-7 page 35
- ^ Meditations on the Sacred Heart by Joseph McDonnell 2008 ISBN 1-4086-8658-9 page 118
- ^ Lucia Santos, Memoir 1, pp. 45-48, and Memoir 2, p. 82 and 93, in Fatima in Lucia's Own Words, entire text online.
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ Byzantine Catholic Church in America - Hildebrand Gregori a Step Closer to Canonization
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THE MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD
Mystical City of God, the miracle of His omnipotence and the abyss of His grace the divine history and life of the Virgin Mother of God our Queen and our Lady, most holy Mary expiatrix of the fault of eve and mediatrix of grace. Manifested to Sister Mary of Jesus, Prioress of the convent of the Immaculate Conception in Agreda, Spain. For new enlightenment of the world, for rejoicing of the Catholic Church, and encouragement of men. Completed in 1665.
THE DIVINE HISTORY AND LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF GOD
Venerable Mary of Agreda
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Book 6, Chapter 6
JESUS
BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE. THE SCOURGING AND CROWNING WITH THORNS
At the dawn of Friday morning, say
the Evangelists (Matth. 27, 1; Mark 15, 1; Luke 22, 66; John 11, 47),
the ancients, the chief priests and scribes, who according to the law
were looked upon with greatest respect by the people, gathered
together in order to come to a common decision concerning the death
of Christ. This they all desired; however they were anxious to
preserve the semblance of justice before the people. This council was
held in the house of Caiphas, where the Lord was imprisoned. Once
more they commanded Him to be brought from the dungeon to the hall of
the council in order to be examined. The satellites of justice rushed
below to drag Him forth bound and fettered as He was.
They again asked Him to tell them, whether He was
the Christ (Luke 22, 1), that is, the Anointed. Just as all their
previous questions, so this was put with the malicious determination
not to listen or to admit the truth, but to calumniate and fabricate
a charge against Him. But the Lord, being perfectly willing to die
for the truth, denied it not; at the same time He did not wish to
confess it in such a manner that they could despise it, or borrow out
of it some color for their calumny; for this was not becoming his
innocence and wisdom. Therefore He veiled his answer in such a way,
that if the pharisees chose to yield to even the least kindly
feeling, they would be able to trace up the mystery hidden in his
words; but if they had no such feeling, then should it become clear
through their answer, that the evil which they imputed to Him was the
result of their wicked intentions and lay not in his answer. He
therefore said to them: “If I tell you that I am He of whom you
ask, you will not believe what I say; and if I shall ask you, you
will not answer, nor release Me. But I tell you, that the Son of man,
after this, shall seat Himself at the right hand of the power of God”
(Luke 22, 67). The priests answered: “Then thou art the Son of
God?” and the Lord replied: “You say that I am.”
This was as if He had said: You have made a very correct inference,
that I am the Son of God: for my works, my doctrines, and your own
Scripture, as well as what you are now doing with Me, testify to the
fact that I am the Christ, the One promised in the law.
But this council of the wicked was not disposed to
assent to divine truth, although they themselves inferred it very
correctly from the antecedents and could easily have believed it.
They would neither give assent nor belief, but preferred to call it a
blasphemy deserving death. Since the Lord had now reaffirmed what He
had said before, they all cried out : “What need have we of
further witnesses, since He himself asserts it by his own lips?’’
And they immediately came to the unanimous conclusion that He should,
as one worthy of death, be brought before Pontius Pilate, who
governed Judea in the name of the Roman emperor and was the temporal
Lord of Palestine.
The sun had already arisen while these things
happened and the most holy Mother, who saw it all from afar, now
resolved to leave her retreat and follow her divine Son to the house
of Pilate and to his death on the Cross. When the great Queen and
Lady was about to set forth from the Cenacle, saint John arrived in
order to give an account of all that was happening; for the beloved
disciple at that time did not know the visions, by which all the
doings and sufferings of her most holy Son were manifest to the
blessed Mother. After the denial of saint Peter, saint John had
retired and had observed, more from afar what was going on.
Recognizing also the wickedness of his flight in the garden, he
confessed it to the Mother of God and asked her pardon as soon as he
came into her presence; and then he gave an account of all that
passed in his heart and of what he had done and what he had seen in
following his Master. Saint John thought it well to prepare the
afflicted Mother for her meeting with her most holy Son, in order
that She might not be overcome by the fearful spectacle of his
present condition. Therefore He sought to impress Her beforehand with
some image of his sufferings by saying: “O my Lady, in what a
state of suffering is our divine Master! The sight of Him cannot but
break one’s heart; for by the buffets and the blows and by the
spittle, his most beautiful countenance is so disfigured and defiled,
that Thou wilt scarcely recognize Him with thy own eyes.” The
most prudent Lady listened to his description, as if She knew nothing
of the events; but She broke out in bitterest tears of heart–rending
sorrow. The holy women, who had came forth with the Lady, also
listened to saint John, and all of them were filled with grief and
terror at his words. The Queen of heaven asked the Apostle to
accompany Her and the devout women, and, exhorting them all, She
said: “Let us hasten our steps, in order that my eyes may see
the Son of the eternal Father, who took human form in my womb; and
you shall see, my dearest friends, to what the love of mankind has
driven Him, my Lord and God, and what it costs Him to redeem men from
sin and death, and to open for them the gates of heaven.”
The Queen of heaven set forth through
the streets of Jerusalem accompanied by saint John and by some holy
women. Of these not all, but only the three Marys and other very
pious women, followed Her to the end. With Her were also the angels
of her guard, whom She asked to open a way for Her to her divine Son.
The holy angels obeyed and acted as her guard. On the streets She
heard the people expressing their various opinions and sentiments
concerning the sorrowful events now transpiring in reference to Jesus
of Nazareth. The more kindly hearted lamented over his fate, and they
were fewest in number. Others spake about the intention of his
enemies to crucify Him; others related where He now was and how He
was conducted through the streets, bound as a criminal; others spoke
of the illtreatment He was undergoing; others asked, what evil He had
done, that He should be so misused; others again in their
astonishment and in their doubts, exclaimed: To this then have his
miracles brought Him! Without a doubt they were all impostures, since
He cannot defend or free himself!
Through the swarming and confused
crowds the angels conducted the Empress of heaven to a sharp turn of
the street, where She met her most holy Son. With the profoundest
reverence She prostrated Herself before his sovereign Person and
adored it more fervently and with a reverence more deep and more
ardent than ever was given or ever shall be given to it by all the
creatures. She arose and then the Mother and Son looked upon each
other with ineffable tenderness, interiorly conversing with each
other in transports of an unspeakable sorrow. The most prudent Lady
stepped aside and then followed Christ our Lord, continuing at a
distance her interior communication with Him and with the eternal
Father. The words of her soul are not for the mortal and corruptible
tongue.
The image of her divine Son, thus wounded, defiled
and bound, remained so firmly fixed and imprinted in the soul of our
Queen, that during her life it never effaced, and remained in her
mind as distinctly as if She were continually beholding Him with her
own eyes. Christ our God arrived at the house of Pilate, followed by
many of the council and a countless multitude of the people. The
Jews, wishing to preserve themselves as clean before the law as
possible for the celebration of the Pasch and the unleavened bread,
excused themselves before Pilate for their refusing to enter the
pretorium or court of Pilate in presenting Jesus. As most absurd
hypocrites they paid no attention to the sacrilegious uncleanness,
with which their souls were affected in becoming the murderers of the
innocent Godman. Pilate, although a heathen, yielded to their
ceremonic scruples, and seeing that they hesitated to enter his
pretorium, he went out to meet them. According to formality customary
among the Romans, he asked them (John 18, 28): “What accusation
have you against this Man?” They answered: “If He were
not a criminal, we would not have brought Him to thee thus bound and
fettered.” This was as much as to say: We have convinced
ourselves of the misdeeds and we are so attached to justice and to
our obligations, that we would not begun any proceedings against Him,
if He were not a great malefactor. But Pilate pressed his inquiry and
said: “What then are the misdeeds, of which has made Himself
guilty?” They answered: “He is convicted of disturbing
the commonwealth, He wishes to make Himself our king and forbids
paying tribute to Caesar(Luke 23, 2); He claims to be the son of God,
and has preached a new doctrine, commencing in Galilee, through all
Judea and Jerusalem.” “Take Him then yourselves,”
said Pilate, “and judge Him according to your laws; I do not
find a just cause for proceeding against Him.” But the Jews
replied: “It is not permitted us to sentence any one to death,
nor to execute such a sentence.”
The most holy Mary, with saint John
and the women who followed Her, was present at this interview; for
the holy angels made room for them where they could hear and see all
that was passing. Shielded by her mantle She wept tears of blood,
pressed forth by the sorrow which pierced her virginal heart. In her
interior acts of virtue She faithfully reproduced those practiced by
her most holy Son, while in her pains and endurance She copied those
of his body. She asked the eternal Father to grant Her the favor of
not losing sight of her divine Son, as far as was naturally possible,
until his Death; and this was conceded to Her, excepting during the
time in which He was in prison.
One of the accusations of the Jews and the priests
before Pilate was, that Jesus our Savior had begun to stir up the
people by his preaching in the province of Galilee (Luke 23, 6). This
caused Pilate to inquire, whether He was a Galileean; and as they
told him, that Jesus was born and raised in that country, he thought
this circumstance useful for the solution of his difficulties in
regard to Jesus and for escaping the molestations of the Jews, who so
urgently demanded his death. Herod was at that time in Jerusalem,
celebrating the Pasch of the Jews. He was the son of the first Herod,
who had murdered the Innocents to procure the death of Jesus soon
after his birth (Matth 2, 16). This murderer had become a proselyte
of the Jews at the time of his marriage with a Jewish woman. On this
account his son Herod likewise observed the law of Moses, and he had
come to Jerusalem from Galilee, of which he was governor. Pilate was
at enmity with Herod, for the two governed the two principal
provinces of Palestine namely, Judea and Galilee, and a short time
before it had happened that Pilate, in his zeal for the supremacy of
the Roman empire, had murdered some Galileeans during a public
function in the temple, mixing the blood of the insurgents with that
of the holy sacrifices. Herod was highly incensed at this sacrilege,
and Pilate, in order to afford him some satisfaction without much
trouble to himself, resolved to send to him Christ the Lord to be
examined and judged as one of the subjects of Herod’s sway.
Pilate also expected that Herod would set Jesus free as being
innocent and a Victim of the malice and envy of the priests and
scribes.
When Herod was
informed that Pilate would send Jesus of
Nazareth to him, he was highly pleased. He knew that Jesus was a
great friend of John the Baptist whom he had ordered to be put to
death (Mark 6, 27), and had heard many reports of his preaching. In
vain and foolish curiosity he harbored the desire of seeing Jesus do
something new and extraordinary for his entertainment and wonder
(Luke 23, 8). The Author life therefore came into the presence of the
murderer Herod, against whom the blood of the Baptist was calling
more loudly to this same Lord for vengeance, than in its time the
blood of Abel (Gen. 4, 10). But the unhappy adulterer, ignorant of
the terrible judgment of the Almighty, received Him with loud
laughter as an enchanter and conjurer. In this dreadful misconception
he commenced to examine and question Him, persuaded that he could
thereby induce Him to work some miracle to satisfy his curiosity. But
the Master of wisdom and prudence, standing with an humble reserve
before his most unworthy judge, answered him not a word. For on
account of his evil–doing he well merited the punishment of not
hearing the words of life, which he would certainly have heard if he
had been disposed to listen to them with reverence.
The princes and
priests of the Jews stood around, continually rehearsing the same
accusations and charge they had advanced in the presence of Pilate.
But the Lord maintained silence also in regard to these calumnies,
much to the disappointment of Herod. In his presence the Lord would
not open his lips, neither in order to answer his questions, nor in
order to refute the accusations. Herod was altogether unworthy of
hearing the truth, this being his greatest punishment and the
punishment most to be dreaded by all the princes and the powerful of
this earth. Herod was much put out by the silence and meekness of our
Savior and was much disappointed in his vain curiosity. But the
unjust judge tried to hide his confusion by
mocking and ridiculing the innocent Master with his whole cohort of
soldiers and ordering him to be sent back to Pilate.
Pilate was again
confronted with Jesus in his palace and was bestormed anew by the
Jews to condemn Him to death of the cross. Convinced of the innocence
of Christ and of the mortal envy of the Jews, he was much put out at
Herod’s again referring the disagreeable decision to his own
tribunal. Feeling himself obliged in his quality of judge to give
this decision, he sought to placate the Jews in different ways. One
of these was a private interview with some of the servants and
friends of the highpriests and priests. He urged them to prevail upon
their masters and friends, not any more to ask for the release of the
malefactor Barabbas, but instead demand the release of our Redeemer;
and to be satisfied with some punishment he was willing to administer
before setting Him free. This measure Pilate had taken before they
arrived a second time to press their demand for a sentence upon
Jesus. The proposal to choose between freeing either Barabbas or
Jesus was made to the Jews, not only once, but two or three times.
The first time before sending Him to Herod and the second time after
his return; this is related by the Evangelists with some variation,
though not essentially contradicting truth (Matth. 27, 17). Pilate
spoke to the Jews and said: “You have brought this Man before
me, accusing Him of perverting the people by his doctrines; and
having examined Him in your presence, I was not convinced of the
truth of your accusations. And Herod, to whom I have sent Him and
before whom you repeated your accusations, refused to condemn Him to
death. It will be sufficient to correct and chastise Him for the
present, in order that He may amend. As I am to release some
malefactor for the feast of the Pasch, I will release
Christ, if you will have Him freed, and punish Barabbas.” But
the multitude of the Jews, thus informed how much Pilate desired to
set Jesus free, shouted with one voice: “Enough, enough, not
Christ, but Barabbas deliver unto us.”
While Pilate was
thus disputing with the Jews in the pretorium, his wife, Procula,
happened to hear of his doings and she sent him a message telling
him: “What hast thou to do with this Man? Let him go free: for
I warn thee that I have had this very day some visions in regard to
Him!” This warning of Procula originated through the activity
of Lucifer and his demons. For they, observing all that was happening
in regard to the person of Christ and the unchangeable patience with
which He bore all injuries, were more and more confused and staggered
in their rabid fury. Despairing of success the demons betook
themselves to the wife of Pilate and spoke to her in dreams,
representing to her that this Man was just and without guilt, that if
her husband should sentence Him he would be deprived of his rank and
she herself would meet with great adversity. They urged her to advise
Pilate to release Jesus and punish Barabbas, if she did not wish to
draw misfortune upon their house and their persons.
Procula was filled
with great fear and terror at these visions, and as soon as she heard
what was passing between the Jews and her husband, she sent him the
message mentioned by saint Matthew, not to meddle with this Man nor
condemn One to death, whom she told to be just. The demon also
injected similar misgivings into the mind of Pilate and these
warnings of his wife only increased them.
Yet, as all his considerations rested upon worldly
policy, and as he had not co–operated with the true helps given
him by the Savior, all these fears retarded his unjust proceedings
only so long as no other more powerful consideration arose, as will
be seen in effect. But just now he began for the third time to argue
(as saint Luke tells us), insisting upon the
innocence of Christ our Lord and that he found no crime in Him nor
any guilt worthy of death, and therefore he would punish and then
dismiss Him (Luke 23, 22). As we shall see in the next chapter, he
did really punish Christ in order to see whether the Jews would be
satisfied. But the Jews, on the contrary, demanded that Christ be
crucified. Thereupon Pilate asked for water and released Barabbas.
Then he washed his hands in the presence of all the people, saying:
“I have no share in the death of this just Man, whom you
condemn. Look to yourselves in what you are doing, for I wash my
hands in order that you may understand they
are not sullied in the blood of the Innocent.” Pilate thought
that by this ceremony he could excuse himself entirely and that he
thereby could put its blame upon the princes of the Jews and upon the
people who demanded it. The wrath of the Jews was so blind and
foolish that for the satisfaction of seeing Jesus crucified, they
entered upon this agreement with Pilate and took upon themselves and
upon their children the responsibility for this crime. Loudly
proclaiming this terrible sentence and curse, they exclaimed: “His
blood come upon us and upon our children” (Matth. 27, 25).
In the house of
Pilate, through the ministry of the holy angels, our Queen was placed
in such a position that She could hear the disputes of the iniquitous
judge with the scribes and priests concerning the innocence of Christ
our Savior, and concerning the release of Barabbas in preference to
Him. All the clamors of these human tigers She heard in silence and
admirable meekness, as the living counterpart of her most holy Son.
Although She preserved the unchanging propriety modesty of her
exterior, all the malicious words of the Jews pierced her sorrowful
heart like a two–edged sword. But the voices of her unspoken
sorrows resounded in the ears
of the eternal Father more pleasantly and sweetly than the
lamentation of the beautiful Rachel who, as Jeremias says, was
beweeping her children because they cannot be restored (Jer. 31, 15).
Our most beautiful Rachel the purest Mary, sought not revenge, but
pardon for her enemies, who were depriving Her of the Onlybegotten of
the Father and her only Son. She imitated all the actions of the most
holy Soul of Christ and accompanied Him in the works of most exalted
holiness and perfection; for neither could her torments hinder her
charity, nor her affliction diminish her fervor, nor could the tumult
distract her attention, nor the outrageous injuries of the multitudes
prevent her interior recollection: under all circumstances She
practiced the most exalted virtues in the most eminent degree.
Such was
the implacable fury of the priests and confederates, the pharisees,
against the Author of life. For Lucifer, despairing of being able to
hinder his murder by the Jews, inspired them with his own dreadful
malice and outrageous cruelty. Pilate, placed between the known truth
and his human and terrestrial considerations, chose to follow the
erroneous leading of the latter, and ordered Jesus to be severely
scourged, though he had himself declared Him free from guilt (John
19, 1). Thereupon those ministers of satan, with many others, brought
Jesus our Savior to the place of punishment, which was a courtyard or
enclosure attached to the house and set apart for the torture of
criminals in order to force them to confess their crimes. It was
surrounded by a low, open building, surrounded by columns, some of
which supported the roof, while others were lower and stood free. To
one of these columns, which was of marble, they bound Jesus very
securely; for they still thought Him a magician and feared his
escape.
They first took off the white garment
with not less ignominy than when they clothed Him therein in the
house of the adulterous homicide Herod. In loosening the ropes and
chains, which He had borne since his capture in the garden, they
cruelly widened the wounds which his bonds had made in his arms and
wrists. Having freed his hands, they commanded Him with infamous
blasphemies to despoil Himself of the seamless tunic which He wore.
This was the identical garment with which his most blessed Mother had
clothed Him in Egypt when He first began to walk.
Thus the Lord stood uncovered in the
presence of a great multitude and the six torturers bound Him
brutally to one of the columns in order to chastise Him so much the
more at their ease. Then, two and two at a time, they began to
scourge Him with such inhuman cruelty, as was possible only in men
possessed by Lucifer as were these executioners. The first two
scourged the innocent Savior with hard and thick cords, full of rough
knots, and in their sacrilegious fury strained all the powers of
their body to inflict the blows. This first scourging raised in the
deified body of the Lord great welts and livid tumors, so that the
sacred blood gathered beneath the skin and disfigured his entire
body. Already it began to ooze through the wounds. The first two
having at length desisted, the second pair continued the scourging in
still greater emulation; with hardened leather thongs they leveled
their strokes upon the places already sore and caused the discolored
tumors to break open and shed forth the sacred blood until it
bespattered and drenched the garments of the sacrilegious torturers,
running down also in streams to the pavement. Those two gave way to
the third pair of scourgers, who commenced to beat the Lord with
extremely tough rawhides, dried hard like osier twigs. They scourged
Him still more cruelly, because they were wounding, not so much his
virginal body, as cutting into the wounds already produced by the
previous scourging. Besides they had been secretly incited to greater
fury by the demons, who were filled with new rage at the patience of
Christ.
As the veins of
the sacred body had now been opened and his whole Person seemed but
one continued wound, the third pair found no more room for new
wounds. Their ceaseless blows inhumanly tore the immaculate and
virginal flesh of Christ our Redeemer and scattered many pieces of it
about the pavement; so much so that a large portion of the
shoulder–bones were exposed and showed red through the flowing
blood: in other places also the bones were laid bare larger than the
palm of the hand. In order to wipe out entirely that beauty, which
exceeded that of all other men (Ps. 44, 3), they beat Him in the face
and in the feet and hands, thus leaving unwounded not a single spot
in which they could exert their fury and wrath against the most
innocent Lamb. The divine blood flowed to the ground, gathering here
and there in great abundance. The scourging in the face, and in the
hands and feet, was unspeakably painful, because these parts are so
full of sensitive and delicate nerves. His venerable countenance
became so swollen and wounded that the blood and the swellings
blinded Him. In addition to their blows the executioners spirted upon
his Person their disgusting spittle and loaded Him with insulting
epithets (Thren. 3, 30). The exact number of blows dealt out to the
Savior from head to foot was 5,115. The great Lord and Author of all
creation who, by his divine nature was incapable of suffering, was,
in his human flesh and for our sake, reduced to a man of sorrows as
prophesied, and was made to experience our
infirmities, becoming the last of men (Is. 53, 3), a man of sorrows
and the outcast of the people.
The multitudes who
had followed the Lord, filled up the courtyard of Pilate’s
house and the surrounding streets; for all of them waited for the
issue of this event, discussing and arguing about it according to
each one’s views. Amid all this confusion the Virgin Mother
endured unheard of insults, and She was
deeply afflicted by the
injuries and blasphemies heaped upon her divine Son by the Jews and
gentiles. When they brought Jesus to the scourging place She retired
in the company of the Marys and saint John to a corner of the
courtyard. Assisted by her divine visions, She there witnessed the
scourging and the torments of our Savior. Although She did not see it
with the eyes of her body nothing was hidden
to Her, no more than if She had been standing quite near. Human
thoughts cannot comprehend how great and how diverse were the
afflictions and sorrows of the great Queen and Mistress of the
angels: together with many other mysteries of the Divinity they shall
become manifest in the next life, for the glory of the Son and
Mother. I have already mentioned in other places of this history, and
especially in that of the Passion, that the blessed Mother felt in
her own body the torments of her Son. This was true also of the
scourging, which She felt in all the parts of her virginal body, in
the same intensity as they were felt by Christ in his body. Although
She shed no blood except what flowed from her eyes with her tears,
nor was lacerated in her flesh; yet the bodily pains so changed and
disfigured Her, that saint John and the holy women failed to find in
Her any resemblance of Herself. Besides the tortures of the body She
suffered ineffable sorrows of the soul; there sorrow was augmented in
proportion to the immensity of her insight (Eccles. 1, 18). For her
sorrow flowed not only from the natural love of a mother and a
supreme love of Christ as her God, but it was proportioned to her
power of judging more accurately than all creatures of the innocence
of Christ, the dignity of his divine Person, the atrocity of the
insults coming from the perfidious Jews and the children of Adam,
whom He was freeing from eternal death.
Thereupon they
took Jesus to the pretorium, where, with the same cruelty and
contempt, they again despoiled him of his garments and in order to
deride Him before all the people as a counterfeit king, clothed in a
much torn and soiled mantle of purple color. They placed also upon
his sacred head a cap made of woven thorns, to serve Him as a crown
(John 19, 2). This cap was woven of thorn branches and in such a
manner that many of the hard and sharp thorns would penetrate into
the skull, some of them to the ears and others to the eyes. Hence one
of the greatest tortures suffered by the Lord was that of the crown
of thorns. Instead of a sceptre they placed
into his hands a contemptible reed. They
also threw over His shoulders a violet
colored mantle, something of the style of capes worn in churches; for
such a garment belonged to the vestiture of
a king. In this array of a mock–king the perfidious Jews decked
out Him, who by his nature and by every right was the King of kings
and the Lord of lords (Apoc. 19, 16). Then all the soldiers, in the
presence of the priests and pharisees, gathered around Him and heaped
upon Him their blasphemous mockery and derision. Some of them bent
their knees and mockingly said to Him: God save Thee, King of the
Jews. Others buffeted Him; others snatched the cane from his hands
and struck Him on his crowned head; others ejected their disgusting
spittle upon Him; all of them, instigated by furious demons,
insulted and affronted Him in different manners.
It seemed to Pilate that the spectacle of a man so
illtreated as Jesus of Nazareth would move and fill shame the hearts
of that ungrateful people. He therefore commanded Jesus to be brought
from the pretorium to an open window, where all could see Him crowned
with thorns, disfigured by the scourging and the ignominious
vestiture of a mock–king. Pilate himself spoke to the people,
calling out to them: “Ecce Homo,” “Behold, what a
man!” (John 19, 5). See this Man, whom you hold as your enemy!
What can I do with Him than to have punished Him in this severe
manner? You certainly have nothing more to fear from Him.
When the Blessed among women, most holy Mary, saw
her divine Son as Pilate showed Him to the people and heard him say:
“Ecce homo!” She fell upon her knees and openly adored
Him as the true Godman. The same was also done by saint John and the
women, together with all the holy angels of the Queen and Lady; for
they saw that not only Mary, as the Mother of the Savior, but that
God himself desired them thus to act.
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
The Virgin Mary
speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain
Think well, then,
my dearest, which of these thou wishest to choose in the sight of my
Son and me. If thou seest thy Redeemer, thy Spouse and thy Chief
tormented, afflicted, crowned with thorns and saturated with
reproaches and at the same time desirest to have a part in Him and be
a member of his mystical body, it is not becoming, or even possible,
that thou live steeped in the pleasures of the flesh. Thou must be
the persecuted and not a persecutor, the oppressed and not the
oppressor; the one that bears the cross, that encounters the scandal
and not that gives it; the one that suffers, and at the same time
makes none of the neighbors suffer. On the contrary, thou must exert
thyself for their conversion and salvation in as far as is compatible
with the perfection of thy state and vocation. This is the portion of
the friends of God and the inheritance of his children in mortal
life, in this consists the participation in grace and glory; which by
his torments and reproaches and by his death of the Cross my Son and
Lord has purchased for them. I too have co–operated in this
work and have paid the sorrrows and afflictions, which thou hast
understood and which I wish thou shalt never allow to be blotted out
from my inmost memory. The Almighty would indeed have been
powerful enough to exalt his predestined in this world, to give them
riches and favors beyond those of others,
to make them strong as lions for reducing the rest of mankind to
their invincible power. But it was inopportune to exalt them in this
manner, in order that men might not be led into the error of thinking
that greatness consists in what is visible and happiness in earthly
goods; lest, being induced to forsake and obscure the glory of the
Lord, they fail to experience the efficacy of divine grace and cease
to aspire toward spiritual and eternal things. This is the science I
wish thee to study continually and in which thou must advance day by
day, putting into practice all that thou learnest to understand and
know.
Book 6, Chapter 7
THE
WAY OF THE CROSS
The sentence of Pilate against our
Savior having been published in a loud voice before all the people,
the executioners loaded the heavy Cross, on which He was to be
crucified, upon his tender and wounded shoulders. In order that He
might carry it they loosened the bonds holding his hands, but not the
others, since they wish to drag Him along by the loose ends of the
ropes bound his body. In order to torment Him the more they drew two
loops around his throat. The Cross was fifteen feet long, of thick
and heavy timbers. The herald began to proclaim the sentence and the
whole confused and turbulent multitude of the people, the
executioners and soldiers, with great noise, uproar and disorder
began to move from the house of Pilate to mount Calvary through the
streets of Jerusalem. The Master and Redeemer of the world, Jesus,
before receiving the Cross looked upon it with a countenance full of
extreme joy and exultation such as would be shown by a bridegroom
looking at the rich adornments of his bride, and on receiving it, He
addressed it as follows:
“O Cross,
beloved of my soul, now prepared and ready to still my longings, come
to Me, that I may be received in thy arms, and that, attached to them
as on an altar, I may be accepted by the eternal Father as the
sacrifice of his everlasting reconciliation with the human race. In
order to die upon thee, I have descended from heaven and assumed
mortal and passible flesh; for thou art to be the sceptre with which
I shall triumph over all my enemies, the key with which I shall open
the gates of heaven for all the predestined (Is. 22, 22), the
sanctuary in
which the guilty sons of Adam shall find mercy and the treasurehouse
for the enrichment of their poverty. Upon thee I desire to exalt and
recommend dishonor and reproach among men, in order that my friends
embrace them with joy, seek them with anxious longings, and follow Me
on the path which I through thee shall open up before them. My Father
and eternal God, I confess Thee as the Lord of heaven and earth
(Matth. 11, 25), subjecting Myself to thy power and to thy divine
wishes, I take upon my shoulders the wood for the sacrifice of my
innocent and passible humanity and I accept it willingly for the
salvation of men. Receive Thou, eternal Father, this sacrifice as
acceptable to thy justice, in order that from today on they may not
any more be servants, but sons and heirs of thy kingdom together with
Me” (Rom. 8, 17).
None of these
sacred mysteries and happenings were hidden from the great Lady of
the world, Mary; for she had a most intimate knowledge and
understanding of them, far beyond that of all the angels. The events,
which She could not see with the eyes of her body, She perceived by
her intelligence and revealed science, which manifested to Her the
interior operation of her most holy Son. By this divine light She
recognized the infinite value of the wood of the Cross after it had
come in contact with the deified humanity of Jesus our Redeemer.
Immediately She venerated and adored it in a manner befitting it. The
same was also done by the heavenly spirits attending upon the Queen.
She imitated her divine Son in the tokens of affections, with which
He received the Cross, addressing it in the words suited to her
office as Coadjutrix of the Redeemer. By her prayers to the eternal
Father She followed Him in his exalted sentiments as the living
original and exemplar, without failing in the least point. When She
heard the voice of the herald publishing and rehearsing the sentence
through the streets, the heavenly Mother in protest against the
accusations contained in the sentence and in the form of comments on
the glory and honor of the Lord, composed a canticle of praise
worship of the innocence and sinlessness of her all–holy Son
and God. The most loving Mother was so admirably faithful in her
sufferings and in imitating the example of Christ our God, that She
never permitted Herself any easement either of her bodily pains, such
as rest, nourishment, or sleep; nor any relaxation of the spirit,
such as any consoling thoughts or considerations, except when
She was visited from on high by divine influence. Then only would She
humbly and thankfully accept relief, in order that She might recover
strength to attend still more fervently to the object of her sorrows
and to the cause of his sufferings. The same wise consideration She
applied to the malicious behavior of the Jews and their servants, to
the needs of the human race, to their threatening ruin, and to the
ingratitude of men, for whom He suffered. Thus She perfectly and
intimately knew of all these things and felt it more deeply than all
the creatures.
Another hidden and
astonishing miracle was wrought by the right hand of God through the
instrumentality of the blessed Mary against Lucifer and his infernal
spirits. It took place in the following manner: The dragon and his
associates, though they could not understand the humiliation of the
Lord, were most attentive to all that happened in the Passion of the
Lord. Now, when He took upon Himself the
Cross, all these enemies felt a new and mysterious tremor and
weakness, which caused in them great consternation and confused
distress. Conscious of these unwonted and invincible feelings the
prince of darkness feared, that in the Passion and Death of Christ
our Lord some dire and irreparable destruction of his reign was
imminent. In order not to be overtaken by it in the presence of
Christ our God, the dragon resolved to retire and fly with all his
followers to the caverns of hell. But when he sought to execute this
resolve, he was prevented by the great Queen and Mistress of all
creation; for the Most High, enlightening Her and intimating to Her
what She was to do, at the same time invested Her with his power. The
heavenly Mother, turning toward Lucifer and his squadrons, by her
imperial command hindered them from flying; ordering them to await
and witness the Passion to the end on mount Calvary. The demons could
not resist the command of the mighty Queen; for they recognized and
felt the divine power operating in Her. Subject to her sway they
followed Christ as so many prisoners dragged along in chains to
Calvary, where the eternal wisdom had decreed to triumph over from
the throne of the Cross, as we shall see later on. There is nothing
which can exemplify the discouragement and dismay, which from that
moment began to oppress Lucifer and his demons. According to our way
of speaking, they walked along to Calvary like criminals
condemned to a terrible death, and seized by the dismay and
consternation of an inevitable punishment.
The executioners, bare of all human
compassion and kindness, dragged our Savior Jesus along with
incredible cruelty and insults. Some of them jerked Him forward by
the ropes in order to accelerate his passage, while others pulled
from behind in order to retard it. On account of this jerking and the
weight of the Cross they caused Him to sway to and fro and often to
fall to the ground. By the hard knocks He thus received on the rough
stones great wounds were opened, especially on the two knees and they
were widened at each repeated fall. The heavy Cross also inflicted a
wound on the shoulder on which it was carried. The unsteadiness
caused the Cross sometimes to knock against his sacred head, and
sometimes the head against the Cross; thus the thorns of his crown
penetrated deeper and wounded the parts, which they had not yet
reached. To these torments of the body the ministers of evil added
many insulting words and execrable affronts, ejecting their impure
spittle and throwing the dirt of the pavement into his face so
mercilessly, that they blinded the eyes that looked upon them with
such divine mercy. Thus they of their own account condemned
themselves to the loss of the graces, with which his very looks were
fraught. By the haste with which they dragged Him along in their
eagerness to see Him die, they did not allow Him to catch his breath;
for his most innocent body, having been in so few hours overwhelmed
with such a storm of torments, was so weakened and bruised that to
all appearances He was ready to yield up life under his pains and
sorrows.
From the house of
Pilate the sorrowful and stricken Mother followed with the multitudes
on the way of her divine Son, accompanied by saint John and the pious
women. As the surging crowds hindered Her from getting very near to
the Lord, She asked the eternal Father to be permitted to stand at
the foot of the Cross of her blessed Son and see Him die with her own
eyes. With the divine consent She ordered her
angels to manage things in such a way as to make it possible for her
to execute her wishes. The holy angels obeyed Her with great
reverence; and they speedily led the Queen through some bystreet, in
order that She might meet her Son. Thus it came that both of Them met
face to face in sweetest recognition of each Other and in mutual
renewal of each other’s interior sorrows. Yet They did not
speak to one another, nor would the fierce cruelty of the
executioners have permitted such interaction. But the most prudent
Mother adored her divine Son and true God, laden with the Cross; and
interiorly besought Him, that, since She could not relieve him of the
weight of the Cross since She was not permitted to command her holy
angels to lighten it, He would inspire these ministers of cruelty to
procure some one for his assistance. This prayer was heard by the
Lord Christ ; and so it happened, that Simon of Cyrene was afterwards
impressed to carry the Cross with the Lord (Matth. 27, 32).
The pharisees and the executioners were moved to this measure, some
of them out of natural compassion, others for fear lest Christ, the
Author of life, should lose his life by exhaustion before it could be
taken from Him on the Cross.
Beyond all human thought and estimation was the
sorrow of the most sincere Dove and Virgin Mother while She thus
witnessed with her own eyes her Son carrying the Cross to Mount
Calvary; for She alone could fittingly know and love Him according to
his true worth. It would have been impossible for Her to live through
this ordeal, if the divine power had not strengthened Her and
preserved Her life. With bitterest sorrow She addressed the Lord and
spoke to Him in her heart: “My Son and eternal God, light of my
eyes and life of my soul, receive, O Lord, the sacrifice of my not
being able to relieve Thee of the burden of the Cross and carry it
myself, who am a daughter of Adam; for it is I who should die upon it
in love of Thee, as Thou now wishest to die in most ardent love of
the human race. O most loving Mediator between guilt and justice! How
dost Thou cherish mercy in the midst of so great injuries and such
heinous offenses! O charity without measure or bounds, which permits
such torments and affronts in order to afford it a wider scope for
its ardor and efficacy! O infinite and sweetest love, would that
hearts and the wills of men were all mine, so that they could give no
such thankless return for all that Thou endurest! O who will speak to
the hearts of the mortals to teach them what they owe to Thee, since
Thou hast paid so dearly for their salvation from ruin!”
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
The Virgin Mary
speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain
I desire that the fruit of the
obedience with which thou writest the history of my life shall be,
that thou become a true disciple of my most holy Son and of myself.
The main purpose of the exalted and venerable mysteries, which are
made known to thee, and of the teachings, which I so often repeat to
thee, is that thou deny and strip thyself, estranging thy heart from
all affection to creatures, neither wishing to posses them nor accept
them for other uses. By this precaution thou wilt overcome the
impediments, which the devils seek to place in the way of the
dangerous softness of thy nature. I who know thee, thus advise and
lead thee by the way of instruction and correction as Mother and
Instructress. By the divine teaching thou knowest the mysteries of
the Passion and Death of Christ and the one true way of life, which
is the Cross; and thou knowest that not all who are called, are
chosen. Many there are who wish to follow Christ and very few who
truly dispose themselves to imitate Him; for as soon as they feel the
sufferings of the Cross they cast it aside. Laborious exertions are
very painful and averse to human nature according to the flesh; and
the fruits of the spirit are more hidden and few guide themselves by
the light. On this account there are so many among mortals, who,
forgetful of the eternal truths, seek the flesh; and the continual
indulgence of its pleasures. They ardently seek honors and fly from
injuries: they strive after riches, and condemn poverty; they long
after pleasure and dread mortification. All these are enemies of the
Cross of Christ (Phil. 3, 18), and with dreadful aversion they fly
from it, deeming it sheer ignominy, just like those who crucified
Christ, the Lord.
Another deceit has spread through the
world: many imagine that they are following Christ their Master,
though they neither suffer affliction nor engage in any exertion or
labor. They are content with avoiding boldness in committing sins,
and place all their perfection in a certain prudence or hollow
self–love, which prevents them from denying anything to their
will and from practicing any virtues at the cost of their flesh. They
would easily escape this deception, if they would consider that my
Son was not only the Redeemer, but their Teacher; and that He left in
this world the treasures of his Redemption not only as a remedy
against its eternal ruin, but as a necessary medicine for the
sickness of sin in human nature. No one knew so much as my Son and
Lord; no one could better understand the quality of love than the
divine Lord, who was and is wisdom and charity itself; and no one was
more able to fulfill all his wishes (I John 4, 16). Nevertheless,
although He well could do it, He chose not a life of softness and
ease for the flesh, but one full of labors and pains; for He judged
his instructions to be incomplete and insufficient to redeem man, if
He failed teach them how to overcome the demon, the flesh and their
own self. He wished to inculcate, that this magnificent victory is
gained by the Cross, by labors, penances, mortifications and the
acceptance of contempt: all of which are the trademarks and evidences
of true love and the special watchwords of the predestined.
Book 6, Chapter 8
THE CRUCIFIXION
Our Savior then, the new and true
Isaac, the Son of the eternal Father, reached the mountain of
sacrifice, which is the same one to which his prototype and figure,
Isaac, was brought by the patriarch Abraham (Gen. 22, 9). Upon the
most innocent Lamb of God was to be executed the rigor of the
sentence, which had been suspended in favor of the son of the
Patriarch. Mount Calvary was held to be a place of defilement and
ignominy, as being reserved for the chastisement of condemned
criminals, whose cadavers spread around it their stench and attached
to it a still more evil fame. Our most loving Jesus arrived at its
summit so worn out, wounded, torn and disfigured, that He seemed
altogether transformed into an object of pain and sorrows.
When the most prudent Mother
perceived that now the mysteries of the Redemption were to be
fulfilled and that the executioners were about to strip Jesus of his
clothes for crucifixion, She turned in spirit to the eternal Father
and prayed as follows: “My Lord and eternal God, Thou art the
Father of thy onlybegotten Son. By eternal generation He is
engendered, God of the true God, namely Thyself, and as man He was
born of my womb and received from me this human nature, in which He
now suffers. I have nursed and sustained Him at my own breast; and as
the best sons that ever can be born of any creature, I love Him with
maternal love. As his Mother I have a natural right in the Person of
his most holy humanity and thy Providence will never infringe upon
any rights held by thy creatures. This right of a Mother then, I now
yield to Thee and once more place in thy hands thy and my Son as a
sacrifice for the Redemption of man. Accept, my Lord, this pleasing
offering, since this is more than I can ever offer by submitting my
own self as a victim or to suffering. This sacrifice is greater, not
only because my Son is the true God and of thy own substance but
because this sacrifice costs me a much greater sorrow and pain. For
if the lots were changed and I should be permitted to die in order to
preserve his most life, I would consider it a great relief and the
fulfillment of my dearest wishes.” The eternal Father this
received prayer of the exalted Queen with ineffable pleasure and
complacency. The patriarch Abraham was permitted to go no further
than to prefigure and attempt the sacrifice of a son, because the
real execution of such a sacrifice God reserved to Himself and to his
Onlybegotten. Nor was Sara, the mother of Isaac, informed of the
mystical ceremony, this being prevented not only by the promptitude
of Abraham’s obedience, but also because he mistrusted, lest
the maternal love of Sara, though she was a just and holy woman,
should impel her to prevent the execution of the divine command. But
not so was it with most holy Mary, to whom the eternal Father could
fearlessly manifest his unchangeable will in order that She might, as
far as her powers were concerned, unite with Him in the sacrifice of
his Onlybegotten.
It was already the sixth hour, which
corresponds to our noontime, and the executioners, intending to
crucify the Savior naked, despoiled Him of the seamless tunic and of
his garments. As the tunic was large and without opening in front,
they pulled it over the head of Jesus without taking off the crown of
thorns; but on account of the rudeness with which they proceeded,
they inhumanly tore off the crown with the tunic. Thus they opened
anew all the wounds of his head, and in some of them remained the
thorns, which, in spite of their being so hard and sharp, were
wrenched off by the violence with which the executioners despoiled
Him of his tunic and, with it, of the crown. With heartless cruelty
they again forced it down upon his sacred head, opening up wounds
upon wounds. By the rude tearing off of the tunic were renewed also
the wounds of his whole body, since the tunic had dried into the open
places and its removal was, as David says, adding new pains to his
wound (Ps. 68, 27). Four times during the Passion did they despoil
Jesus of his garments and again vest Him. The first time in order to
scourge him at the pillar; the second time in order to clothe Him in
the mock purple; the third when they took this off in order to clothe
Him in his tunic; the fourth, when they finally took away his
clothes. This last was the most painful, because his wounds were more
numerous, his holy humanity was much weakened, and there was less
shelter against the sharp wind on mount Calvary; for also this
element was permitted to increase the sufferings of his
death–struggle by sending its cold blasts across the mount.
The holy Cross was lying on the
ground and the executioners were busy making the necessary
preparations for crucifying Him and the two thieves. In the meanwhile
our Redeemer and Master prayed to the Father in the following terms:
“Eternal
Father and my Lord God, to the incomprehensible Majesty of thy
infinite goodness and justice I offer my entire humanity and all that
according to thy will it has accomplished in descending from thy
bosom to assume passible and mortal flesh for the Redemption of men,
my brethren. I offer Thee, Lord, with Myself, also my most loving
Mother, her love, her most perfect works, her sorrows, her
sufferings, her anxious and prudent solicitude in serving Me,
imitating Me and accompanying Me unto death. I offer Thee the little
flock of my Apostles, the holy Church and congregation of the
faithful, such as it is now and as it shall be to the end of the
world; and with it I offer to Thee all the mortal children of Adam.
All this I place in thy hands as the true and almighty Lord and God.
As far as my wishes are concerned, I suffer and die for all, and I
desire that all shall be saved, under the condition that all follow
Me and profit of my Redemption. Thus may they pass from the slavery
of the devil to be thy children, my brethren and co–heirs of
the grace merited by Me. Especially, O my Lord, do I offer to Thee
the poor, despised and afflicted, who are my friends and who follow
Me on the way to the Cross. I desire that the just and the
predestined be written in thy eternal memory. I beseech Thee, my
Father, to withhold thy chastisement and not to raise the scourge of
thy justice over men; let them not be punished as they merit for
their sins. Be Thou from now on their Father as Thou art mine. I
beseech Thee also, that they may be helped to ponder upon my Death in
pious affection and be enlightened from above; and I pray for those
who are persecuting Me, in order that they may be converted to the
truth. Above all do I ask Thee for the exaltation of thy ineffable
and most holy name.”
This prayer and supplication of our
Savior were known to the most blessed Mother, and She imitated Him
and made the same petitions to the Father in as far as She was
concerned. The most prudent Virgin never forgot or disregarded the
first word which She had heard from the mouth of her divine Son as an
infant: “Become like unto Me, my Beloved.” His promise,
that in return for the new human existence which She had given Him in
her virginal womb, He would, by his almighty power, give Her a new
existence of divine and eminent grace above all other creatures, was
continually fulfilled.
In order to find the places for the
auger–holes on the Cross, the executioners haughtily commanded
the Creator of the universe (O dreadful temerity!), to stretch
Himself out upon it. The Teacher of humility obeyed without
hesitation. But they, following their inhuman instinct of cruelty,
marked the places for the holes, not according to the size of his
body, but larger, having in mind a new torture for their Victim. This
inhuman intent was known to the Mother of light, and the knowledge of
it was one of the greatest afflictions of her chastest heart during
the whole Passion. She saw through the intentions of these ministers
of sin and She anticipated the torments to be endured by her beloved
Son when his limbs should be wrenched from their sockets in being
nailed to the Cross. But She could not do anything to prevent it, as
it was the will of the Lord to suffer these pains for men. When He
rose from the Cross and they set about boring the holes, the great
Lady approached and took hold of one of his hands, adoring Him and
kissing it with greatest reverence. The executioners allowed this
because they thought that the sight of his Mother would cause so much
the greater affliction to the Lord; for they wished to spare Him no
sorrow they could cause Him. But they were ignorant of the hidden
mysteries; for the Lord during his Passion had no greater source of
consolation and interior joy than to see in the soul of his most
blessed Mother, the beautiful likeness of Himself and the full fruits
of his Passion and Death. This joy, to a certain extent, comforted
Christ our Lord also in that hour.
Presently one of the executioners
seized the hand of Jesus our Savior and placed it upon the auger–hole
while another hammered a large and rough nail through the palm. The
veins and sinews were torn, and the bones of the sacred hand, which
made the heavens and all that exists, were forced apart. When they
stretched out the other hand, they found that it did not reach up to
the auger–hole; for the sinews of the other arm had been
shortened and the executioners had maliciously set the holes too far
apart, as I have mentioned above. In order to overcome the
difficulty, they took the chain with which the Savior had been bound
in the garden, and looping one end through a ring around his wrist,
they, with unheard of cruelty, pulled the hand over the hole and
fastened it with another nail. Thereupon they seized his feet, and
placing them one above the other, they tied the same chain around
both and stretched them with barbarous ferocity down to the third
hole. Then they drove through both feet a large nail into the Cross.
Thus the sacred body, in which dwelled the Divinity, was nailed
motionless to the holy Cross, and the handiwork of his deified
members, formed by the Holy Ghost, was so stretched and torn asunder,
that the bones of his body, dislocated and forced from their natural
position, could all be counted. The bones of his breast, of his
shoulders and arms, and of his whole body yielded to the cruel
violence and were torn from their sinews.
Then they dragged the lower end of
the Cross with the crucified God near to the hole, wherein it was to
be planted. Some of them getting under the upper part of the Cross
with their shoulders, others pushing upward with their halberds and
lances, they raised the Savior on his Cross and fastened its foot in
the hole they had drilled into the ground. Thus our true life and
salvation now hung in the air upon the sacred wood in full view of
the innumerable multitudes of different nations and countries. I must
not omit mentioning another barbarity inflicted upon the Lord as they
raised Him: for some of them placed the sharp points of their lances
and halberds to his body and fearfully lacerating Him under the
armpits in helping to push the Cross into position. At this spectacle
new cries of protest arose with still more vehemence and confusion
from the multitude of people. The Jews blasphemed, the kind–hearted
lamented, the strangers were astounded, some of them called the
attention of the bystanders to the proceedings, others turned away
their heads in horror and pity; others took to themselves a warning
from this spectacle of suffering, and still others proclaimed Him a
just Man. All these different sentiments were like arrows piercing
the heart of the afflicted Mother. The sacred body now shed much
blood from the nail wounds, which, by its weight and the shock of the
Cross falling into the hole, had widened. They were the fountains,
now opened up, to which Isaias invites us to hasten with joy to
quench our thirst and wash off the stains of our sins (Is. 12, 3). No
one shall be excused who does not quickly approach to drink of them.
Then they crucified also the two
thieves and planted their crosses to the right and the left of the
Savior; for thereby they wished to indicate that He deserved the most
conspicuous place as being the greatest malefactor. The pharisees and
priests, forgetting the two thieves, turned all the venom of their
fury against the sinless and holy One by nature. Wagging their heads
in scorn and mockery (Matth. 27, 39) they threw stones and dirt at
the Cross of the Lord and his royal Person, saying: “Ah Thou,
who destroyest the temple and in three days rebuildest it, save now
Thyself; others He has made whole, Himself He cannot save; if this be
the Son of God let him descend from the Cross, and we will believe in
Him,” (Matth. 27, 42). The two thieves in the beginning also
mocked the Lord and said: “If Thou art the Son of God, save
Thyself and us.” These blasphemies of the two thieves caused
special sorrow to our Lord, since they were so near to death and
losing the fruit of their death–pains, by which they could have
satisfied in part for their justly punished crimes. Soon after,
however, one of them availed himself of the greatest opportunity that
a sinner ever had in this world, and was converted from his sins.
As the wood of the Cross was the
throne of majesty and the chair of the doctrine of life, and as He
was now raised upon it, confirming his doctrine by his example,
Christ now uttered those words of highest charity and perfection:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”
(Luke 23, 34.) This principle of charity and fraternal love the
divine Teacher had appropriated to himself and proclaimed by his own
lips (John 15, 12; Matth. 15, 44). He now confirmed and executed it
upon the Cross, not only pardoning and loving his enemies, but
excusing those under the plea of
ignorance whose malice had reached
the highest point possible to men in persecuting, blaspheming and
crucifying their God and Redeemer. Such was the difference between
the behavior of ungrateful men favored with so great enlightenment,
instruction and blessing; and the behavior of Jesus in his most
burning charity while suffering the crown of thorns, the nails, and
the Cross and unheard of blasphemy at the hands of men. O
incomprehensible love! O ineffable sweetness! O patience
inconceivable to man, admirable to the angels and fearful to the
devils! One of the two thieves, called Dismas, became aware of some
of the mysteries. Being assisted at the same time by the prayers and
intercession of most holy Mary, he was interiorly enlightened
concerning his Rescuer and Master by the first word on the Cross.
Moved by true sorrow and contrition for his sins, he turned to his
companion and said: “Neither dost thou fear God, seeing that
thou art under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man hath done no evil.”
And thereupon speaking to Jesus, he said: “Lord, remember me
when Thou shalt come into thy kingdom!” (Luke 23, 40.).
In this happiest of thieves, in the
centurion and in the others who confessed Jesus Christ on the Cross,
began to appear the results of the Redemption. But the one most
favored was this Dismas, who merited to hear the second word of the
Savior on the Cross: “Amen, I say to thee, this day shalt thou
be with Me in Paradise.” Having thus justified the good thief,
Jesus turned his loving gaze upon his afflicted Mother, who with
saint John was standing at the foot of the Cross. Speaking to both,
he first addressed his Mother, saying: “Woman, behold thy
son!’’ and then to the Apostle: “Beh01d thy
Mother!” (John 19, 26.) The Lord called Her Woman and not
Mother, because this name of Mother had in it something of sweetness
and consolation, the very pronouncing of which would have been a
sensible relief. During his Passion He would admit of no exterior
consolation, having renounced for that time all exterior alleviation
and easement, as I have mentioned above. By this word “woman’’
he tacitly and by implication wished to say: Woman blessed among all
women, the most prudent among all the daughters of Adam, Woman,
strong and constant, unconquered by any fault of thy own, unfailing
in my service and most faithful in thy love toward Me, which even the
mighty waters of my Passion could not extinguish or resist (Cant. 8,
7), I am going to my Father and cannot accompany Thee further; my
beloved disciple will attend upon Thee and serve Thee as his Mother,
and he will be thy son. All this the heavenly Queen understood. The
holy Apostle on his part received Her as his own from that hour on;
for he was enlightened anew in order to understand and appreciate the
greatest treasure of the Divinity in the whole creation next to the
humanity of Christ our Savior. In this light He reverenced and served
Her for the rest of her life, as I will relate farther on. Our Lady
also accepted him as her son in humble subjection and obedience.
Already the ninth hour of the day was
approaching, although the darkness and confusion of nature made it
appear to be rather a chaotic night. Our Savior spoke the fourth word
from the Cross in a loud and strong voice, so that all the bystanders
could hear it: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?’’
(Matth 27, 46.) Although the Lord had uttered these words in his
Hebrew language, they were not understood by all. Since they began
with : “Eli, eli,” some of them thought He was calling
upon Elias, and a number of them mocked Him saying: “Let us see
whether Elias shall come to free Him from our hands?” He
grieved that his copious and superabundant Redemption, offered for
the whole human race, should not be efficacious in the reprobate and
that He should find Himself deprived of them in the eternal
happiness, for which He had created and redeemed them. As this was to
happen in consequence of the decree of his Father’s eternal
will, He lovingly and sorrowfully complained of it in the words: “My
God, my God why hast Thou forsaken Me?” that is, in so God
deprived Him of the salvation of the reprobate.
In confirmation of this sorrow the
Lord added: “I thirst!” The sufferings of the Lord and
his anguish could easily cause a natural thirst. But for Him this was
not a time to complain of this thirst or to quench it; and therefore
Jesus would not have spoken of it so near to its expiration, unless
in order to give expression to a most exalted mystery. He was
thirsting to see the captive children of Adam make use of the
liberty, which He merited for them and offered to them, and which so
many were abusing. He was athirst with the anxious desire that all
should correspond with Him in the faith and love due to Him, that
they profit by his merits and sufferings, accept his friendship and
grace now acquired for them, and that they should not lose the
eternal happiness which He was to leave as an inheritance to those
that wished to merit and accept it. This was the thirst of our Savior
and Master; and the most blessed Mary alone understood it perfectly
and began, with ardent ion and charity, to invite and interiorly to
call upon all the poor, the afflicted, the humble, the despised and
downtrodden to approach their Savior and thus quench, at least in
part, his thirst which they could not quench entirely. But the
perfidious Jews and the executioners, evidencing their unhappy
hard–heartedness, fastened a sponge soaked in gall and vinegar
to a reed and mockingly raised it to his mouth, in order that He
might drink of it. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of David: “In
my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (John 28; Ps. 68, 22).
In connection with this same mystery
the Savior then pronounced the sixth word: “Consummatum est,”
It is consummated” (John 19, 29). Now is consummated this work
of my coming from heaven and I have obeyed the command of my eternal
Father, who sent Me to suffer and die for the salvation of mankind.
Now are fulfilled the holy Scriptures, the prophecies figures of the
old Testament, and the course of my earthly and mortal life assumed
in the womb of my Mother. Now are established on earth my example, my
doctrines, my Sacraments and my remedies for the sickness of sin. Now
is appeased the justice of my eternal Father in regard to the debt of
the children of Adam. Now is my holy Church enriched with the
remedies for the sins committed by men; the whole work of my coming
into the world is perfected in so far as it concerns Me, its
Restorer; the secure foundation of the triumphant Church is now laid
in the Church militant, so that nothing can overthrow or change it.
These are the mysteries contained in the few words “Consummatum
est.”
Having finished and established the
work of Redemption in all its perfection, it was becoming that the
incarnate Word, just as He came forth from the Father to enter mortal
life (John 16, 8), should enter into immortal life of the Father
through death. Therefore Christ our Savior added the last words
uttered by Him: ‘‘Father, into thy hands I commend my
spirit.” The Lord spoke these words in a loud and strong voice,
so that the bystanders heard them. In pronouncing them He raised his
eyes to heaven, as one speaking with the eternal Father, and with the
last accent He gave up his spirit and inclined his head. By the
divine force of these words Lucifer with all his demons were hurled
into the deepest caverns of hell, there they lay motionless, as I
shall relate in the next chapter. The invincible Queen and Mistress
of all virtues understood these mysteries beyond the understanding of
all creatures, as She was the Mother of the Savior and the Coadjutrix
of his Passion. In order that She might participate in it to the end,
just as She had felt in her own body the other torments of her Son,
She now, though remaining alive, felt and suffered the pangs and
agony of his death. She did not die in reality; but this was because
God miraculously preserved her life, when according to the natural
course death should have followed. This miraculous aid was more
wonderful than all the other favors She received during the Passion.
For this last pain was more intense and penetrating; and all that the
martyrs and the men sentenced to death have suffered from the
beginning of the world cannot equal what the blessed Mary suffered
during the Passion. The great Lady remained at the foot of the Cross
until evening, when the sacred body (as I shall relate) was interred.
But in return for this last anguish of death, all that was still of
this mortal life in the virginal body of the purest Mother, was more
than ever exalted and spiritualized.
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
The Virgin Mary
speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain
My daughter, seek with all the powers
of thy mind during thy whole life to remember the mysteries
manifested to thee in this chapter. I, as thy Mother and thy
Instructress, shall ask the Lord by his divine power to impress in
thy heart the knowledge, which I have vouchsafed thee, in order that
it may remain fixed and ever present to thee as long as thou livest.
In virtue of this blessing keep in thy memory Christ crucified, who
is my divine Son and thy Spouse, and never forget the sufferings of
the Cross and the doctrine taught by Him upon it. This is the mirror
by which thou must arrange all thy adornments and the source from
which thou art to draw thy interior beauty, like a true daughter of
the Prince (Ps 44, 14), in order that than mayest be prepared,
proceed and reign as the spouse of the supreme King. As this
honorable title obliges thee to seek with all thy power to imitate
Him as far as is becoming thy station and possible to thee by his
grace, and as this is to be the true fruit of my doctrine, I wish
that from today on thou live crucified with Christ, entirely as
assimilated to thy exemplar and model and dead to this earthly life
(II Cor. 5,15).
Book 6, Chapter 9
MARY
THE HEIRESS OF THE MERITS OF CHRIST
Of many of the sacraments and
mysteries connected with the doings of Christ our Savior on the Cross
the Evangelists make no mention; and we as Catholics can only form
prudent conjectures founded upon the infallible certainty of our
faith. But among those which have been manifested to me in this
history, and concerning this part of the Passion, is a prayer, which
Christ addressed to his eternal Father before speaking the seven
words on the Cross recorded by the Evangelists. I call it a prayer
because it was addressed to the Father; but in reality it was a last
bequest or testament, which He made as a true and most wise Father in
order to consign his possessions to his family, that is, to the whole
human race. Even natural reason teaches us, that he who is the head
of a family or the lord over many or few possessions, would not be a
prudent dispenser of his goods, and inattentive to his office or
dignity, if at the hour of his death he would not make known his will
in regard to the disposition of his goods and his estate, in order
that each one of his family may know what belongs to him and may
possess it justly and peacefully without recourse to lawsuits.
Although earthly things could not disturb our Savior, since He
neither possessed them, nor, if He had possessed any, could He be
embarrassed by them in his infinite power; yet it was fitting, that
He should in that hour dispose of the spiritual riches and treasures
which He had amassed for mankind in the course of his pilgrimage.
Of these eternal
goods the Saviour made his last disposition on the Cross,
distributing them and pointing out those who should be legitimate
heirs and those who should be disinherited, and mentioning the
reasons for the one as well as the other. All this He did in
conference with his eternal Father, as the supreme Lord and most just
Judge of all creatures; for in this testament are rehearsed the
mysteries of the predestination of the saints and of the reprobation
of the wicked. It was a testament hidden and sealed for mankind; the
blessed Mary understood it, because, in addition to her being
informed of the operations of the divine Soul of Christ, She was also
to be the universal Heiress of all creation. As She was the
Coadjutrix of salvation She was also to be the testamentary
Executrix. For the Son placed all things in her hands, just as the
Father had assigned the whole creation to Him. She was to execute his
will and she was to distribute all the treasures acquired and due to
her Son as God on account of his infinite merits. This understanding
has been given me as part of this history for the exaltation of our
Queen and in order that sinners might approach Her as Custodian of
all the treasures gained by her Son our Redeemer in the sight of his
eternal Father. All help and assistance is in the hands of most holy
Mary and She is to distribute it according
to her most sweet kindness and liberality.
When the holy wood
of the Cross had been raised on mount Calvary, bearing aloft with it
the incarnate Word crucified before speaking any of the seven words,
Christ prayed interiorly to his heavenly Father and said: “My
Father and eternal God, I confess and magnify Thee from this tree of
the Cross, and I offer Thee a sacrifice of praise in my Passion and
Death; for, by the hypostatic union with the divine nature, Thou hast
raised my humanity to the highest dignity, that of Christ, the
Godman, anointed with thy own Divinity. I confess thee on account of
the plenitude of the highest possible graces and glory, which from
the first instant of my Incarnation Thou hast communicated to my
humanity, and because from all eternity up to this present hour Thou
hast consigned to me full dominion of the universe both in the order
of grace and of nature. Thou hast made Me the Lord of the heavens and
of elements (Matth. 28, 18), of the sun, the moon and the stars; of
fire and air, of the earth and the sea, of all the
animate and inanimate creatures therein; Thou hast made Me the
Disposer of the seasons, of the days and nights, with full lordship
and possession according to my free will, and Thou hast set Me as the
Head, the King and Lord of all angels and men (Ephes. 1, 21), to
govern and command them, to punish the wicked and reward the good
(John 5, 22); Thou hast given Me the dominion and power of disposing
all things from highest heavens to deepest abysses of hell (Apoc. 20,
1). Thou hast placed in my hands the eternal justification of men,
the empires, kingdoms and principalities, the great and the little,
the rich and the poor; and of all that are capable of thy grace and
glory, Thou hast Me made the Justifier, the Redeemer and Glorifier,
the universal Lord of all the human race, of life and death, of the
holy Church, its treasures, laws and blessings of grace: all hast
Thou, my Father, consigned to my hands, subjected to my will and my
decrees, and for this I confess, exalt and magnify thy holy name.”
“Now, at
this moment, my Lord and eternal Father, when I am returning from
this world to thy right hand through this death on the Cross, by
which I completed the task of the Redemption of men assigned to Me, I
desire that this same Cross shall be the tribunal of our justice and
mercy. Nailed to it, I desire to judge those for whom I give my life.
Having justified my cause,
I wish to dispense the treasures of my coming into the world and of
my Passion and Death to the just and the reprobate according as each
one merits by his works of love or hatred. I have sought to gain all
mortals and invited them to partake of my friendship and grace; from
the first moment of my Incarnation I have ceaselessly labored for
them; I have borne inconveniences, fatigues, insults, ignominies,
reproaches, scourges, crown of thorns, and now suffer the bitter
death of the Cross; I have implored thy vast kindness upon all of
them; I have watched in prayer, fasted and wandered about teaching
them the way of eternal life. As far as in Me lay I have sought to
secure eternal happiness for all men, just as I merited it for all,
without excluding any one. I have established and built up the law
grace and have firmly and forever established the Church in which all
human beings can be saved.”
“But in our
knowledge and foresight We are aware, my God and Father, that on
account of their malice and rebellious obstinacy not all men desire
to accept our eternal salvation, nor avail themselves of our mercy
and of the way I have opened to them by my labors, life and death;
but that many will prefer to follow their sinful ways unto perdition.
Thou art just my Lord and Father, and most equitable are thy
judgments (Ps. 68, 137); and therefore it is right, since Thou hast
made Me the Judge of the living and the dead, of the good and the bad
(Act 10, 3), that I give to the good the reward of having served and
followed Me, and to sinners the chastisement of their perverse
obstinacy; that the just should share in my goods, and the wicked be
deprived of the inheritance, which they refuse to accept. Now then,
my eternal Father, in my and thy name and for thy glorification, I
make my last bequest according to my human will, which is conformable
to thy eternal and divine will. First shall be mentioned my most pure
Mother, who gave Me human existence; Her I constitute my sole and
universal Heiress of all the gifts of
nature, of grace and of glory that are
mine. She shall be Mistress and Possessor of them all. The gifts of
grace, of which as a mere creature She is capable, She shall actually
receive now, while those of glory I promise to confer upon Her in
their time. I desire that She shall
be Mistress of angels and men, claim over them full possession and
dominion and command the service and obedience of all. The demons
shall fear Her and be subject to Her. All the irrational creatures,
the heavens, the stars, the planets, the elements with all the living
beings, the birds, the fishes and the animals contained in them,
shall likewise be subject to Her and acknowledge Her as Mistress,
exalting and glorifying Her with Me. I wish also that She be the
Treasurer and Dispenser of all the goods in heaven and on earth.
Whatever She ordains and disposes in my Church for my children, the
sons of men, shall be confirmed by the three divine Persons; and
whatever She shall ask for mortals now, afterwards and forever, We
shall concede according to her will and wishes.”
“To the holy
angels, who have obeyed thy holy and just will, I assign as
habitation the highest heavens as their proper and eternal abode, and
with it the joys of eternal vision and fruition of our Divinity. I
desire that they enjoy its everlasting possession together with our
company and friendship. I decree, that they recognize my Mother as
their legitimate Queen and Lady, that they serve Her, accompany and
attend upon Her, bear Her up in their hands in all places and times,
obeying Her in all that She wishes to ordain and command. The demons,
rebellious to our perfect and holy will, I cast out and deprive of
our vision and company; again do
I condemn them to our abhorrence, to eternal loss our friendship and
glory, to privation of the vision of my Mother, of the saints and of
my friends, the just. I appoint and assign to them as their eternal
dwelling place most remote from our royal throne, namely the infernal
caverns, the centre of the earth, deprived of light and full of the
horrors of sensible darkness (Jude 6). I decree this to be their
portion and inheritance as chosen by them in their pride and
obstinacy against the divine Being and decrees. In those eternal
dungeons of darkness they shall be tormented by everlasting and
inextinguishable fire.”
“From the
multitudes of men, in the fullness of my good will, I call, select
and separate all the just and the predestined, who through my grace
save themselves by imitating Me, doing my will and obeying my holy
law. These, next to my most pure Mother, I appoint as the inheritors
of all my mysteries, my blessings, my sacramental treasures, of the
mysteries concealed in the holy Scriptures; of my humility, meekness
of heart; of the virtues of faith, hope, and charity of prudence,
justice, fortitude and temperance; of my divine gifts and favors; of
my Cross, labors, contempt, poverty and nakedness. This shall be
their portion and inheritance in this present and mortal life. Since
they must choose these in order to labor profitably, I assign to them
the trials I have chosen for Myself in this life, as a pledge of my
friendship, in order that they may undergo them with joy. I offer
them my protection and, defense, my holy inspirations, my favors and
powerful assistance, my blessings and my justification, according to
each one’s disposition and degree of love. I promise to be to
them a Father, a Brother and a Friend, and they shall be my chosen
and beloved children, and as such I appoint them as the inheritors of
all my merits and treasures without limitation. I desire that all who
dispose themselves, shall partake of the goods of my holy Church and
of the Sacraments; that, if they should lose my friendship, they
shall be able to restore themselves and recover my graces and
blessings through my cleansing blood. For all of them shall be open
the intercession of my Mother and of the saints, and She shall
recognize them as her children, shielding them and holding them as
her own. My angels shall defend them, guide them, protect them and
bear them up in their hands lest they stumble, and if they fall, they
shall help them to rise” (Ps. 90, 11, 12).
“Likewise it
is my will that my just and chosen ones shall stand high above the
reprobate and the demons, that they shall be feared and obeyed by my
enemies; that all the rational and irrational creatures shall serve
them; that all the influences of the heavens, the planets and the
stars shall favor them and give them life; that the earth, its
elements and animals, shall sustain them; all the creatures, that are
mine and serve Me shall be theirs, and shall serve also them as my
children and friends (I Cor. 3, 22; Wis. 16, 24), and their blessing
shall be in the dew of heaven and in the fruits of the earth (Genes.
27, 28). I wish to hold with them my delights (Pros. 8, 31),
communicate to them my secrets, converse with them intimately and
live with them in the militant Church in
the species of bread and wine, as an earnest and an infallible pledge
of the eternal happiness and glory promised to them; of it, I make
them partakers and heirs, in order that they enjoy it with Me in
heaven by perpetual right and in unfailing beatitude.”
“I consent
that the foreknown and reprobate (though they were created for
another and much higher end), shall be permitted to possess as their
portion and inheritance the concupiscence of the flesh and the eyes
(John 1, 2–16), pride in all its effects; that they eat and be
satisfied with the dust of the earth, namely, riches; with the fumes
and the corruption of the flesh and its delights, and with the vanity
and presumption of the world. For such possessions have they labored
and applied all the diligence of their mind and body; in such
occupations have they consumed their powers, their gifts and
blessings bestowed upon them by Us, and they have of their own free
will chosen deceit, despising the truth I have taught them in the
holy law ( Rom. 2, 8). They have rejected the law which I have
written in their hearts and the one inspired by my grace; they have
despised my teachings and my blessings, and listened to my and their
own enemies; they have accepted their deceits, have loved vanity (Ps.
4, 3), wrought injustice, followed their ambitions, sought their
delight in vengeance, persecuted the poor, humiliated the just,
mocked the simple and the innocent, strove to exalt themselves and
desired to be raised above all the cedars of Lebanon in following the
laws of injustice” (Ps. 36, 35).
“Since they
have done all this in opposition to our divine goodness and remained
obstinate in their malice and since they have renounced the rights of
sonship merited for them by Me, I disinherit them of my friendship
and glory. Just as Abraham separated the children of the slave,
setting aside some possessions for them and reserving the principal
heritage for Isaac, the son of the freedwoman Sarah (Gen. 25, 5),
thus I set aside their claims on my inheritance by giving them the
transitory goods, which they themselves have chosen. Separating them
from our company and from that of my Mother, of the angels and
saints, I condemn them to the eternal dungeons and the fire of hell
in the company of Lucifer and his demons, whom they have freely
served. I deprive them forever of all hope of relief. This is, O my
Father, the sentence which I pronounce as the Head and the Judge of
men and angels (Eph. 4, 15; Col. 2, 10), and this is the testament
made at my Death, this is the effect of my Redemption, whereby each
one is rewarded with that which he has justly merited according to
his works and according to thy incomprehensible wisdom in the equity
of thy strictest justice” (II Tim. 4, 8). Such was the prayer
of Christ our Savior on the Cross to his eternal Father. It was
sealed and deposited in the heart of the most holy Mary as the
mysterious and sacramental testament, in that through her
intercession and solicitous care it might at its time, and even from
that moment, be executed in the Church, just as it had before this
time been prepared and perfected by the wise providence of God, in
whom all the past and the future is always one with the present.
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Catholic Catechism
PART FOUR - CHRISTIAN PRAYER
SECTION TWO - THE LORD'S PRAYER
ARTICLE 4
THE FINAL DOXOLOGY
2855 The final doxology, "For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever," takes up again, by inclusion, the first three petitions to our Father: the glorification of his name, the coming of his reign, and the power of his saving will. But these prayers are now proclaimed as adoration and thanksgiving, as in the liturgy of heaven.176 The ruler of this world has mendaciously attributed to himself the three titles of kingship, power, and glory.177 Christ, the Lord, restores them to his Father and our Father, until he hands over the kingdom to him when the mystery of salvation will be brought to its completion and God will be all in all.178
2856 "Then, after the prayer is over you say 'Amen,' which means 'So be it,' thus ratifying with our 'Amen' what is contained in the prayer that God has taught us."179
IN BRIEF
2857 In the Our Father, the object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The four others present our wants to him: they ask that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made victorious in the struggle of good over evil.
2858 By asking "hallowed be thy name" we enter into God's plan, the sanctification of his name - revealed first to Moses and then in Jesus - by us and in us, in every nation and in each man.
2859 By the second petition, the Church looks first to Christ's return and the final coming of the Reign of God. It also prays for the growth of the Kingdom of God in the "today" of our own lives.
2860 In the third petition, we ask our Father to unite our will to that of his Son, so as to fulfill his plan of salvation in the life of the world.
2861 In the fourth petition, by saying "give us," we express in communion with our brethren our filial trust in our heavenly Father. "Our daily bread" refers to the earthly nourishment necessary to everyone for subsistence, and also to the Bread of Life: the Word of God and the Body of Christ. It is received in God's "today," as the indispensable, (super-) essential nourishment of the feast of the coming Kingdom anticipated in the Eucharist.
2862 The fifth petition begs God's mercy for our offences, mercy which can penetrate our hearts only if we have learned to forgive our enemies, with the example and help of Christ.
2863 When we say "lead us not into temptation" we are asking God not to allow us to take the path that leads to sin. This petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength; it requests the grace of vigilance and final perseverance.
2864 In the last petition, "but deliver us from evil," Christians pray to God with the Church to show forth the victory, already won by Christ, over the "ruler of this world," Satan, the angel personally opposed to God and to his plan of salvation.
2865 By the final "Amen," we express our "fiat" concerning the seven petitions: "So be it."
176 Cf. Rev 1:6; 4:11; 5:13.
177 Cf. Lk 4:5-6.
178 1 Cor 15:24-28.
179 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. myst. 5,18:PG 33,1124; cf. Lk 1:38.
THE FINAL DOXOLOGY
2855 The final doxology, "For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever," takes up again, by inclusion, the first three petitions to our Father: the glorification of his name, the coming of his reign, and the power of his saving will. But these prayers are now proclaimed as adoration and thanksgiving, as in the liturgy of heaven.176 The ruler of this world has mendaciously attributed to himself the three titles of kingship, power, and glory.177 Christ, the Lord, restores them to his Father and our Father, until he hands over the kingdom to him when the mystery of salvation will be brought to its completion and God will be all in all.178
2856 "Then, after the prayer is over you say 'Amen,' which means 'So be it,' thus ratifying with our 'Amen' what is contained in the prayer that God has taught us."179
IN BRIEF
2857 In the Our Father, the object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The four others present our wants to him: they ask that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made victorious in the struggle of good over evil.
2858 By asking "hallowed be thy name" we enter into God's plan, the sanctification of his name - revealed first to Moses and then in Jesus - by us and in us, in every nation and in each man.
2859 By the second petition, the Church looks first to Christ's return and the final coming of the Reign of God. It also prays for the growth of the Kingdom of God in the "today" of our own lives.
2860 In the third petition, we ask our Father to unite our will to that of his Son, so as to fulfill his plan of salvation in the life of the world.
2861 In the fourth petition, by saying "give us," we express in communion with our brethren our filial trust in our heavenly Father. "Our daily bread" refers to the earthly nourishment necessary to everyone for subsistence, and also to the Bread of Life: the Word of God and the Body of Christ. It is received in God's "today," as the indispensable, (super-) essential nourishment of the feast of the coming Kingdom anticipated in the Eucharist.
2862 The fifth petition begs God's mercy for our offences, mercy which can penetrate our hearts only if we have learned to forgive our enemies, with the example and help of Christ.
2863 When we say "lead us not into temptation" we are asking God not to allow us to take the path that leads to sin. This petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength; it requests the grace of vigilance and final perseverance.
2864 In the last petition, "but deliver us from evil," Christians pray to God with the Church to show forth the victory, already won by Christ, over the "ruler of this world," Satan, the angel personally opposed to God and to his plan of salvation.
2865 By the final "Amen," we express our "fiat" concerning the seven petitions: "So be it."
176 Cf. Rev 1:6; 4:11; 5:13.
177 Cf. Lk 4:5-6.
178 1 Cor 15:24-28.
179 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. myst. 5,18:PG 33,1124; cf. Lk 1:38.
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RE-CHARGE: Heaven Speaks to Young Adults
To all tween, teens and young adults, A Message from Jesus: "Through you I will flow powerful conversion graces to draw other young souls from darkness. My plan for young men and women is immense. Truly, the renewal will leap forward with the assistance of these individuals. Am I calling you? Yes. I am calling you. You feel the stirring in your soul as you read these words. I am with you. I will never leave you. Join My band of young apostles and I will give you joy and peace that you have never known. All courage, all strength will be yours. Together, we will reclaim this world for the Father. I will bless your families and all of your relationships. I will lead you to your place in the Kingdom. Only you can complete the tasks I have set out for you. Do not reject Me. I am your Jesus. I love you...Read this book, upload to your phones/ipads.computers and read a few pages everyday...and then Pay It Forward...
Reference
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