Empathy; Reading 1, Isaiah 61:1-3, 6, 8-9; Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 89:21-22, 25, 2; Reading 2, Revelation 1:5-8; Gospel John 13:1-15; Pope Francis General Audience; Inspirational Hymns - Gregorian Chants; Our Lady of Medjugorje Message; The Last Supper; 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 2-5 Maundy Thursday; Catholic Catechism - Part Four - The Christian Prayer - Section One - Prayer in the Christian Life - Chapter 4 The Lords of Prayer - Article 3 The Seven Petitions; 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, speaking off the cuff during his homily during the Mass of the Lord's Supper at Regina Coeli prison, contextualized the Gospel passage from John in which Jesus washes his disciples’ feet.
Jesus does what a slave does
He explains that this was a task done by slaves. After having dirtied their feet on the dusty roads, people would return home. As soon as they entered their house, a slave would provide the “service” of washing their feet. “Jesus wants to do this service to give us an example of how we must serve one another,” Pope Francis says.Those who command must serve
The Pope then brought up the passage where two disciples “who wanted to climb the corporate ladder” asked Jesus to give them the most important places. After looking at them with love like he always did, Jesus told them they didn’t know what they were asking. He described what those in positions of power do: “command and make others serve them.” In thinking of times past, Pope Francis says that there have been many kings and cruel people who have made slaves of other people. But Jesus says it must not be this way with us. “The one who commands must serve,” the Pope reminds us. “Jesus overturns the historical cultural habits of that time, but also of our own day.” If only the kings and emperors of the past had understood Jesus’ teaching and had served instead of commanding and killing, "so many wars would never have happened," Pope Francis observes.Jesus serves today in me
Turning to those present, Pope Francis told them that Jesus tells those discarded by society that they are important. “Jesus serves us today, here in Regina Coeli.” Jesus risks himself for each person. Jesus does not know how to wash his hands of people. He knows how to risk for his name is Jesus, not Pontius Pilate. In going after the lost sheep, Jesus risks being wounded, Pope Francis asserts.“I am a sinner like you. But I represent Jesus today,” Pope Francis confessed. He then invited the prisoners to think of the fact, as their feet were being washed by him, that “Jesus took a risk with this man, a sinner, to come to me to tell me that he loves me. This is service. This is Jesus. Before giving us himself in his body and blood, Jesus risked himself for each one of us—risked himself in service—because he loves us so much.”
Reference:
- Vatican News. From the Pope. © Copyright 2018 Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Accessed - 03/29/2018
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Today's Word - empathy [em-puh-cee]
Origin: 1900-05; < Greek empátheia affection, equivalent to em- em-2+ path- (base of páschein to suffer) + -eia -ia; present meaning translates German Einfühlung
1. the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or
work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself: By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.
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Today's Reading 1 - Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46
1 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron,2 'If a swelling or scab or spot appears on someone's skin, which could develop into a contagious skin-disease, that person must then be taken to the priest, either Aaron or one of his sons.
44 the person has such a disease: he is unclean. The priest will declare him unclean; he has a contagious skin-disease of the head.
45 'Anyone with a contagious skin-disease will wear torn clothing and disordered hair; and will cover the upper lip and shout, "Unclean, unclean."
46 As long as the disease lasts, such a person will be unclean and, being unclean, will live alone and live outside the camReading 1, Isaiah 61:1-3, 6, 8-9
1 The spirit of Lord Yahweh is on me for Yahweh has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken-hearted,
2 to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison, to proclaim a year of favour from Yahweh and a day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all who mourn
3 (to give to Zion's mourners), to give them for ashes a garland, for mourning-dress, the oil of gladness, for despondency, festal attire; and they will be called 'terebinths of saving justice', planted by Yahweh to glorify him.
6 but you will be called 'priests of Yahweh' and be addressed as 'ministers of our God'. You will feed on the wealth of nations, you will supplant them in their glory.
8 For I am Yahweh: I love fair judgement, I hate robbery and wrong-doing, and I shall reward them faithfully and make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their race will be famous throughout the nations and their offspring throughout the peoples. All who see them will admit that they are a race whom Yahweh has blessed.
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Today's Psalms - Psalms 89:21-22, 25, 27
21 My hand will always be with him, my arm will make him strong.22 'No enemy will be able to outwit him, no wicked man overcome him;
25 I shall establish his power over the sea, his dominion over the rivers.
27 So I shall make him my first-born, the highest of earthly kings.
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Today's Reading 2 - Revelation 1:5-8
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead, the highest of earthly kings. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood,6 and made us a Kingdom of Priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
7 Look, he is coming on the clouds; everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. Indeed this shall be so. Amen.
8 'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
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Today's Gospel Reading - John 13:1-15
The Washing of the Feet
1. LECTIO
a) Initial Prayer
“When You speak, Lord, the
nothingness beats in life: the dry bones become living persons, the
desert flourishes… When I get ready to pray I feel dry, I do not know
what to say. Evidently, I am not in harmony with Your will, my lips are
not in tune with my heart, my heart does not make an effort to get in
tune with yours. Renew my heart, purify my lips so that I can speak with
You as You want me to, so that I can speak with others as You wish, so
that I can speak with myself, with my interior world, as You wish”. (L.
Renna).
b) The Reading of the Gospel
Before the feast of
Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to
the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand
him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put
everything into his power and that he had come from God and was
returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a
basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel
around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,"Master, are
you going to wash my feet?"Jesus answered and said to him,"What I am
doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later."Peter
said to him, "You will never wash my feet."Jesus answered him,"Unless I
wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."Simon Peter said to
him,"Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."Jesus
said to him,"Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet
washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all."For he
knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, "Not all of you are
clean."So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on
and reclined at table again, he said to them, "Do you realize what I
have done for you? You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so,
for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed
your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a
model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do."
c) Moments of prayerful silence
In a loving listening, words are not necessary, because silence also speaks and communicates love.
2. MEDITATIO
a) Preamble to the Passover of Jesus
The passage of the Gospel
of today is inserted in a literary whole which includes chapters 13-17.
At the beginning we have the account of the Last Supper which Jesus
shares with His disciples, during which He fulfills the gesture of the
washing of the feet (13:1-30). Then Jesus interweaves a long dialogue of
farewell with His disciples (13:31 – 14, 31). Chapters 15-17 have the
function to further deepen the previous discourse of the Master.
Immediately after this, Jesus is arrested (18:1-11). In any case, these
events narrated in 13:17,26 are joined in 13:1 with the Passover of
Jesus. It is interesting to note this last annotation: from 12:1 the
Passover is no longer called the Passover of the Jews, but of Jesus.
From now on, it is He, the Lamb of God who will liberate people from
sin. The Passover of Jesus is one that aims to liberate us: a new exodus
which permits us to go from darkness to light (8:12), and which will
bear life and feast in humanity (7:37).
Jesus is aware that He is
about to conclude His journey toward the Father and, therefore He is
about to bring to an end His personal and definitive exodus. Such a
passage, going to the Father, takes place through the Cross, the central
moment in which Jesus will surrender His life for the good of all
humanity.
It is striking when the
reader becomes aware how the Evangelist John knows how to present the
person of Jesus well, while He is aware of the last events of His life
and therefore, of His mission. So as to affirm that Jesus is not crushed
or overcome by the events which threaten His life, but that He is ready
to give His life. Before, the Evangelist has remarked that His hour had
not arrived; but now in the account of the washing of the feet He says
that He is aware that His hour is close at hand. Such a conscience is at
the basis of the expression of John: “After having loved those who were
His in the world, He loved them to the end” (v. 1). Love for “His own”,
for those who form the new community, has been evident while He was
with them, but it will shine in an eminent way in His death. Jesus shows
such a love in the gesture of the washing of the feet, which in its
symbolical value shows the continuous love which is expressed in
service.
b) The washing of the feet
Jesus is at an ordinary
supper with His disciples. He is fully conscious of the mission which
the Father has entrusted to Him: the salvation of humanity depends on
Him. With such an awareness He wishes to show “to His own”, through the
washing of the feet, how the work of salvation of the Father is
fulfilled and to indicate in such a gesture the surrender of His life
for the salvation of all. It is the will of Jesus that we be saved, and a
longing desire leads Him to give up His life and to surrender. He is
aware that the Father gives Jesus complete freedom of action.
Besides, Jesus knows that
His true provenance and the goal of His itinerary is God; He knows that
His death on the Cross, the maximum expression of His love, is the last
moment of His journey of salvation. His death is an “exodus”; it is the
climax of His victory over death, in His surrender (giving His life)
Jesus reveals to us the presence of God as the fullness of life and
exemption from death.
With this full
consciousness of His identity and of His complete liberty Jesus is
prepared to fulfill the great and humble gesture of the washing of the
feet. Such a gesture of love is described with a great number of verbs
(eight) which render the scene absorbing, enthralling and full of
significance. The Evangelist, in presenting the last action of Jesus
toward His own, uses this rhetorical figure of the accumulation of verbs
without repeating himself in order that such a gesture remains
impressed in the heart and mind of His disciples and of every reader and
in order that a commandment may always be remembered, not forgotten.
The gesture fulfilled by Jesus intends to show that true love is
expressed in tangible actions of service. Jesus removes His garments and
ties around His waist a towel or apron, a symbol of service. He shows
them that love is expressed in service, in giving one’s life for others
as He has done.
At the time of Jesus the
washing of the feet was a gesture which expressed hospitality and
welcome towards the guests. In an ordinary way it was done by a slave or
also by the wife, and also the daughters toward their father. Besides,
it was the custom that such a rite of the washing of the feet should be
done before they sat at table and not during the meal. Such an insertion
of Jesus’ action intends to stress or underline how singular or
significant His gesture was.
And thus, Jesus gets down
to wash the feet of His disciples. The repeated use of the apron which
Jesus tied around His waist underlines the attitude of service which is a
permanent attribute of the person of Jesus. In fact, when He finishes
the washing of the feet, Jesus does not take off the towel which He used
as an apron. Such a detail intends to underline that the service-love
does not end with His death. This minute detail shows the intention of
the Evangelist to underline the significance and importance of the
gesture of Jesus. By washing the feet of His disciples Jesus intends to
show them His love, which is one with that of the Father (10:30.38).
This image with which Jesus reveals God is really shocking: He is not a
sovereign who resides exclusively in Heaven, but He presents himself as
the servant of humanity in order to raise it to the divine level. From
this divine service flows, for the community of believers, that liberty
which comes from the love which renders all its members as “lords”
(free) because they are servants. It is like saying that only liberty
creates the true love. From now on, service which the believers will
render to others will have the purpose of restoring the relationship
among people in whom equality and liberty are a consequence of the
practice of reciprocal service. Jesus, with His gesture intends to show
that any domination over another is contrary to the attitude of God who,
instead, serves people to raise them to himself. The pretension of
superiority of one person over another no longer has any sense, because
the community founded by Jesus does not have any pyramidal
characteristics, but horizontal dimensions, in which each one is at the
service of others, following the example of God and of Jesus.
In synthesis, the gesture
which Jesus fulfilled expresses the following values: the love toward
brothers and sisters demands expression in fraternal acceptance,
hospitality, and permanent service.
c) Peter’s Resistance
The reaction of Peter
before the gesture of Jesus is expressed in attitudes of surprise and
protest. There is also a change in the way in which he related to Jesus:
Peter calls Him “Lord” (13:6). In such a title Jesus is recognized as
having a level of superiority which is in conflict with the “washing” of
the feet, an action which belongs, instead, to an inferior subject. The
protest is expressed energetically by the words: “Are You going to wash
my feet?” In Peter’s eyes this humiliating gesture of the washing of
the feet seemed to him as an inversion of values which regulate the
relationship between Jesus and others: the first one is the Master,
Peter is a subject. Peter disapproves the equality which Jesus wants to
create among people.
To such misunderstanding
Jesus responds inviting Peter to accept the sense of washing his feet as
a witness of His love toward him. More precisely, He wants to offer him
a concrete proof of how He and the Father love him.
But Peter in his reaction
does not give in: he categorically refuses that Jesus should get down at
his feet. It is not acceptable that Jesus abandons His position of
superiority to render himself equal to His disciples. Such an idea of
the Master disorientates Peter and leads him to protest. Not accepting
the service of love of his Master, he neither accepts that He dies on
the cross for him (12:34; 13:37). It seems to say that Peter is far away
from understanding what is true love, and such an obstacle is an
impediment so that Jesus can show it to him by His action.
In the mean time, if Peter
is not ready to share the dynamics of love which manifests itself in
reciprocal service he cannot share the friendship with Jesus and truly
runs the risk of excluding himself.
Following the admonition of
Jesus “If I do not wash you, you can have no share with Me” (v. 8),
Peter adheres to the threatening words of the Master, but without
accepting the profound sense of the action of Jesus. He shows himself
open, ready to let Jesus wash his feet, not only the feet, but also his
hands and head. It seems that it is easier for Peter to accept Jesus’
gesture as an action of purification or ablution rather than as a
service. But Jesus responds that the disciples have become pure
(“clean”) at the moment when they accepted to allow themselves to be
guided by the Word of the Master, rejecting that of the world. Peter and
the disciples no longer need the Jewish rite of the purification but to
allow themselves to have their feet washed by Jesus; or rather to allow
themselves to be loved by Him, conferring them dignity and liberty.
d) The Memorial of Love
At the end of the washing
of the feet Jesus intends to give His action a permanent validity for
His community and at the same time to leave to it a memorial or
commandment which should always regulate the fraternal relationships.
Jesus is the Lord, not in
domination, but in so far as He communicates the love of the Father (His
Spirit) which makes us children of God and qualified to imitate Jesus
who freely gives His love to His own. Jesus intended to communicate such
an interior attitude to His own, a love which does not exclude anyone,
not even Judas who is about to betray Him. Therefore, if the disciples
call Him Lord, they have to imitate Him; if they consider Him Master,
they have to listen to Him.
e) Some questions to meditate on
- He got up from the table:
How do you live the Eucharist? In a sedentary way or do you allow
yourself to be moved to action by the fire of the love which you
receive? Do you run the risk that the Eucharist in which you participate
is lost in contemplative Narcissism, without leading to the commitment
of solidarity and sharing?
- He removed His outer
garments: when you go from the Eucharist to daily life, do you know how
to remove the garments of your own benefit, your calculations, personal
interests to allow yourself to be guided by an authentic love toward
others?
- Taking a towel He wrapped
it around His waist: this is the image of the “Church of the apron”. In
the life of your family, of your ecclesial community, do you walk on
the street of service? Are you directly involved in the service to the
poor and to the least? Do you know how to see the face of Christ who
asks to be served and loved in the poor?
3. ORATIO
a) Psalm 116 (114-115), 12-13; 15-16; 17-18
The Psalmist who finds
himself in the time and in the presence of the liturgical assembly sings
his sacrifice of thanksgiving. Voltaire who had a special predilection
for v. 12 expressed himself as follows: “What can I offer to the Lord
for all the gifts which He has given me?”
What return can I make to Yahweh
for His generosity to me?
I shall take up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of Yahweh.
for His generosity to me?
I shall take up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of Yahweh.
Costly in Yahweh's sight
is the death of His faithful.
I beg You, Yahweh!
I am Your servant,
I am Your servant and my mother was Your servant;
You have undone my fetters.
is the death of His faithful.
I beg You, Yahweh!
I am Your servant,
I am Your servant and my mother was Your servant;
You have undone my fetters.
I shall offer You a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of Yahweh.
I shall fulfill my vows to Yahweh,
witnessed by all His people
and call on the name of Yahweh.
I shall fulfill my vows to Yahweh,
witnessed by all His people
b) Final Prayer
Fascinated with the way in which God expressed His love toward His own, Origin prayed as follows:
Jesus, come, my feet are dirty.
Become a servant for me, pour the water in the basin;
come, wash my feet.
I know it, what I am saying is daring,
but I fear the threat of Your words:
“If I do not wash you,
you can have no share with me”.
Wash then my feet,
so that I may have a share with you.
(Homily 5 on Isaiah)
Become a servant for me, pour the water in the basin;
come, wash my feet.
I know it, what I am saying is daring,
but I fear the threat of Your words:
“If I do not wash you,
you can have no share with me”.
Wash then my feet,
so that I may have a share with you.
(Homily 5 on Isaiah)
And Saint Ambrose having an ardent desire to correspond to the love of Jesus, expresses himself as follows:
Oh, my Lord Jesus,
allow me to wash Your sacred feet;
You got them dirty when You walked in my soul…
But where will I take the water from the fountain
to wash Your feet?
In lacking that
I only have the eyes to weep:
bathing Your feet with my tears,
do in such a way that I myself remain purified.
(Treatise on penance).
allow me to wash Your sacred feet;
You got them dirty when You walked in my soul…
But where will I take the water from the fountain
to wash Your feet?
In lacking that
I only have the eyes to weep:
bathing Your feet with my tears,
do in such a way that I myself remain purified.
(Treatise on penance).
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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Today's Snippet I: The Last Supper
The Last Supper is the final meal that, in the Gospel accounts, Jesus shared with his Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper is commemorated by Christians especially on Maundy Thursday. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "Holy Communion" or "The Lord's Supper".
The First Epistle to the Corinthians contains the earliest known mention of the Last Supper. The four canonical Gospels all state that the Last Supper took place towards the end of the week, after Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and that Jesus and his Apostles shared a meal shortly before Jesus was crucified at the end of that week. During the meal Jesus predicts his betrayal by one of the Apostles present, and foretells that before the next morning, Peter will deny knowing him.
The three Synoptic Gospels and the First Epistle to the Corinthians include the account of the institution of the Eucharist in which Jesus takes bread, breaks it and gives it to the Apostles, saying "This is my body given to you". The Gospel of John does not include this episode, but tells of Jesus washing the feet of the Apostles, giving the new commandment "to love one another as I have loved you", and has a detailed farewell discourse by Jesus, calling the Apostles who follow his teachings "friends and not servants", as he prepares them for his departure.
Scholars have looked to the Last Supper as the source of early Christian Eucharist traditions. Others see the account of the Last Supper as derived from 1st-century Eucharistic practice as described by Paul in the mid-50s.
Scriptural Basis
The last meal that Jesus shared with his disciples is described in all four canonical Gospels (Mt. 26:17-30, Mk. 14:12-26, Lk. 22:7-39 and Jn. 13:1-17:26). This meal later became known as the Last Supper. The Last Supper was likely a retelling of the events of the last meal of Jesus among the early Christian community, and became a ritual which recounted that meal.Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians which was likely written before the Gospels, includes a reference to the Last Supper but emphasizes the theological basis rather than giving a detailed description of the event or its background.
Background and setting
Key events in the meal are the preparation of the disciples for the departure of Jesus, the predictions about the impending betrayal of Jesus, and the foretelling of the upcoming denial of Jesus by Apostle Peter.
Prediction of Judas' betrayal:
In Matthew 26:24-25, Mark 14:18-21, Luke 22:21-23 and John 13:21-30 during the meal, Jesus predicted that one of his Apostles would betray him. Jesus is described as reiterating, despite each Apostle's assertion that he would not betray Jesus, that the betrayer would be one of those who were present, and saying that there would be woe to the man who betrays the Son of man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.[Mark 14:20-21] In Matthew 26:23-25 and John 13:26-27, Judas is specifically identified as the traitor. In the Gospel of John, when asked about the traitor, Jesus states: “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him."
| Mark 14:22-24 | And as they were eating, he took bread, and when he had blessed, he brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take ye: this is my body. | And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them: and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.’ |
|---|---|---|
| Matthew 26:26-28 | And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it; and he gave to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ | And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, ‘Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins.’ |
| 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 | For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me.’ | In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.’ |
| Luke 22:19-20 | And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.’ | And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you.’ |
Jesus' actions in sharing the bread and wine have been linked with Isaiah 53:12 which refers to a blood sacrifice that, as recounted in Exodus 24:8, Moses offered in order to seal a covenant with God. Scholars often interpret the description of Jesus' action as asking his disciples to consider themselves part of a sacrifice, where Jesus is the one due to physically undergo it.
Although the Gospel of John does not include a description of the bread and wine ritual during the Last Supper, most scholars agree that John 6:58-59 (the Bread of Life Discourse) has a Eucharistic nature and resonates with the "words of institution" used in the Synoptic Gospels and the Pauline writings on the Last Supper.
Prediction of Peter's denial
In Matthew 26:33-35, Mark 14:29-31, Luke 22:33-34 and John 13:36-38 Jesus predicts that Peter will deny knowledge of him, stating that Peter will disown him three times before the rooster crows the next morning. The three Synoptic Gospels mention that after the arrest of Jesus, Peter denied knowing him three times, but after the third denial, heard the rooster crow and recalled the prediction as Jesus turned to look at him. Peter then began to cry bitterly.Elements unique to the Gospel of John
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| Farewell Discourse by Duccio, 1308-1311. |
John 13 includes the account of the washing the feet of the Apostles by Jesus before the meal. In this episode, Apostle Peter objects and does not want to allow Jesus to wash his feet, but Jesus answers him, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me”,[Jn 13:8] after which Peter agrees.
In the Gospel of John, after the departure of Judas from the Last Supper, Jesus tells his remaining disciples [John 13:33] that he will be with them for only a short time, then gives them a New Commandment, stating: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” in John 13:34-35. Two similar statements also appear later in John 15:12: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you", and John 15:17: "This is my command: Love each other."
At the Last Supper in the Gospel of John, Jesus gives an extended sermon to his disciples.[John 14-16] This discourse resembles farewell speeches called testaments, in which a father or religious leader, often on the deathbed, leaves instructions for his children or followers.
This sermon is referred to as the Farewell discourse of Jesus, and has historically been considered a source of Christian doctrine, particularly on the subject of Christology. John 17:1-26 is generally known as the Farewell Prayer or the High Priestly Prayer, given that it is an intercession for the coming Church. The prayer begins with Jesus' petition for his glorification by the Father, given that completion of his work and continues to an intercession for the success of the works of his disciples and the community of his followers.
Historians estimate that the date of the crucifixion fell in the range AD 30-36. Physicists such as Isaac Newton and Colin Humphreys have ruled out the years 31, 32, 35, and 36 on astronomical grounds, leaving 7 April AD 30 and 3 April AD 33 as possible crucifixion dates. Humphreys proposes narrowing down the date of the Last Supper as having occurred in the evening of Wednesday, 1 April AD 33, by revising Annie Jaubert's double-Passover theory. The rationale is as follows.
All Gospels agree that Jesus held a Last Supper with his disciples prior to dying on a Friday at or just before the time of Passover (annually on 15 Nisan, the official Jewish day beginning at sunset) and that his body was left in the tomb for the whole of the next day, which was a Shabbat (Saturday).[Mk. 15:42] [16:1-2] However, while the Synoptic Gospels present the Last Supper as a Passover meal,[Matt. 26:17][Mk. 14:1-2] [Lk 22:1-15] the Gospel of John makes no explicit mention that the Last Supper was a Passover meal and presents the official Jewish Passover feast as beginning in the evening a few hours after the death of Jesus. John thus implies that the Friday of the crucifixion was the day of preparation for the feast (14 Nisan), not the feast itself (15 Nisan), and astronomical calculations of ancient Passover dates initiated by Isaac Newton, and posthumously published in 1733, support John's chronology.
Historically, various attempts to reconcile the three synoptic accounts with John have been made, some of which are indicated in the article on the Last Supper by Francis Mershman in the 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia. The Maundy Thursday church tradition assumes that the Last Supper was held on the evening before the crucifixion day (although, strictly speaking, in no Gospel is it unequivocally said that this meal took place on the night before Jesus died).
A new approach to resolve this contrast was undertaken in the wake of the excavations at Qumran in the 1950s when Annie Jaubert argued that there were two Passover feast dates: while the official Jewish lunar calendar had Passover begin on a Friday evening in the year that Jesus died, a solar calendar was also used, for instance by the Essene community at Qumran, which always had the Passover feast begin on a Tuesday evening. According to Jaubert, Jesus would have celebrated the Passover on Tuesday, and the Jewish authorities three days later, on Friday.
However, Humphreys has calculated that Jaubert's proposal cannot be correct, as the Qumran solar Passover would always fall after the official Jewish lunar Passover. Nevertheless, he agrees with the approach of two Passover dates, and argues that the Last Supper took place on the evening of Wednesday 1 April 33, based on his recent discovery of the Essene, Samaritan, and Zealot lunar calendar, which is based on Egyptian reckoning. Humphreys' implication is that Jesus and other communities were following the original Hebrew calendar putatively imported from Egypt by Moses (which requires calculating the time of the invisible new moon), rather than the official Jewish calendar which had been adopted more recently, in the 6th century BC during the Babylonian exile (which simply requires observing the visible waxing moon). A Last Supper on Wednesday, he argues, would allow more time than in the traditional view (Last Supper on Thursday) for the various interrogations of Jesus and his presentation to Pilate before he was crucified on Friday. Furthermore, a Wednesday Last Supper, followed by a Thursday daylight Sanhedrin trial, followed by a Friday judicial confirmation and crucifixion would not require violating Jewish court procedure as documented in the 2nd century, which forbade capital trials at night and moreover required a confirmatory session the following day.
In a review of Humphreys' book, the Bible scholar William R Telford points out that the non-astronomical parts of his argument are based on the assumption that the chronologies described in the New Testament are historical and based on eyewitness testimony. In doing so, Telford says, Humphreys has built an argument upon unsound premises which "does violence to the nature of the biblical texts, whose mixture of fact and fiction, tradition and redaction, history and myth all make the rigid application of the scientific tool of astronomy to their putative data a misconstrued enterprise."
Location: Cenacle
No more specific indication of the location is given in the New Testament, and the "city" referred to may be a suburb of Jerusalem, such as Bethany, rather than Jerusalem itself. The traditional location is in an area that, according to archaeology, had a large Essene community, a point made by scholars who suspect a link between Jesus and the group (Kilgallen 265).
Saint Mark's Syrian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem is another possible site for the room in which the Last Supper was held, and contains a Christian stone inscription testifying to early reverence for that spot. Certainly the room they have is older than that of the current coenaculum (crusader - 12th century) and as the room is now underground the relative altitude is correct (the streets of 1st century Jerusalem were at least twelve feet (3.7 metres) lower than those of today, so any true building of that time would have even its upper story currently under the earth). They also have a revered Icon of the Virgin Mary, reputedly painted from life by St Luke.
Bargil Pixner[43] claims the original site is located beneath the current structure of the Cenacle on Mount Zion.
Theology of the Last Supper
Aquinas stated that based on John 15:15 (in the Farewell discourse) in which Jesus said: "No longer do I call you servants; ...but I have called you friends". Those who are followers of Christ and partake in the Sacrament of the Eucharist become his friends, as those gathered at the table of the Last Supper. For Aquinas, at the Last Supper Christ made the promise to be present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and to be with those who partake in it, as he was with his disciples at the Last Supper.
John Calvin believed only in the two sacraments of Baptism and the "Lord's Supper" (i.e., Eucharist). Thus, his analysis of the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper were an important part of his entire theology. Calvin related the Synoptic Gospel accounts of the Last Supper with the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6:35 that states: "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry."
Calvin also believed that the acts of Jesus at the Last Supper should be followed as an example, stating that just as Jesus gave thanks to the Father before breaking the bread,[1 Cor. 11:24] those who go to the "Lord's Table" to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist must give thanks for the "boundless love of God" and celebrate the sacrament with both joy and thanksgiving
Remembrances
Other Christian groups consider the Bread and Wine remembrance to be a change to the Passover ceremony, as Jesus Christ has become "our Passover, sacrificed for us",[1 Cor. 5:7] and hold that partaking of the Passover Communion (or fellowship) is now the sign of the New Covenant, when properly understood by the practicing believer.
These meals evolved into more formal worship services and became codified as the Mass in the Catholic Church, and as the Divine Liturgy in the Eastern Orthodox Church; at these liturgies, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The name "Eucharist" is from the Greek word εὐχαριστία (eucharistia) which means "thanksgiving".
Early Christianity observed a ritual meal known as the "agape feast" These "love feasts" were apparently a full meal, with each participant bringing food, and with the meal eaten in a common room. They were held on Sundays, which became known as the Lord's Day, to recall the resurrection, the appearance of Christ to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the appearance to Thomas and the Pentecost which all took place on Sundays after the Passion.
References
- Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament Doubleday 1997 ISBN 0-385-24767-2
- Brown, Raymond E. et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary Prentice Hall 1990 ISBN 0-13-614934-0
- Bultmann, Rudolf The Gospel of John Blackwell 1971
- Kilgallen, John J. A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark Paulist Press 1989 ISBN 0-8091-3059-9
- Linders, Barnabas The Gospel of John Marshall Morgan and Scott 1972
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Snippet IV: 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 V: 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 VI: 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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FEATURED BOOK
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
Translated from the Spanish by Reverend George J. Blatter
1914, So. Chicago, Ill., The Theopolitan; Hammond, Ind., W.B. Conkey Co., US..
IMPRIMATUR: +H.J. Alerding Bishop of Fort Wayne
Translation from the Original Authorized Spanish Edition by Fiscar Marison (George J. Blatter). Begun on the Feast of the Assumption 1902, completed 1912.
This work is published for the greater Glory of Jesus Christ through His most Holy Mother Mary and for the sanctification of the Church and her members.
Book 6, Chapter 2
THE
TRANSFIGURATION AND TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM OF OUR LORD
Our Redeemer and Master Jesus had
already consumed more than two years and a half in preaching and
performing wonders, and He was approaching the time predestined by
the eternal wisdom for satisfying divine justice for redeeming the
human race through his Passion and Death and thus to return to his
eternal Father. Since all his works were ordered with the highest
wisdom for our instruction and salvation, the Lord resolved to
prepare and strengthen some of his Apostles for the scandal of his
Passion by manifesting to them beforehand in its glory that same
body, which was so soon to exhibit in the disfigurement of the Cross.
Thus would they be reassured by the thought, they had seen it
transfigured in glory before they looked upon it disfigured by his
sufferings. This he had promised a short time before in the presence
of all, although not to all, but only to some of his disciples, as is
recorded by saint Matthew (Matth. 16, 28). For his Transfiguration He
selected a high mountain in the center of Galilee, two leagues east
of Nazareth and called Mount Tabor. Ascending to its highest summit
with the three Apostles, Peter, and the two brothers James and John,
He was transfigured before them (Matth. 17, hark 9, 1; Luke 9, 28).
The three Evangelists tell us that besides these Apostles, were
present also the prophets, Moses and Elias, discoursing with Jesus
about his Passion, and that, while He was thus transfigured, a voice
resounded from heaven in the name of the eternal Father, saying “This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him.”
The Evangelists do not say that most
holy Mary was present at this Transfiguration, nor do they say that
She was not there; this did not fall within purpose, and they did not
think it proper to speak of the hidden miracle by which She was
enabled to be there. For the purpose of recording this event here, I
was given to understand that at the same time in which some of the
holy angels were commissioned to bring the soul of Moses and Elias
from their abode, others of her own guard carried the heavenly Lady
to Mount Tabor, in order to witness the Transfiguration of her divine
Son, for without a doubt She really witnessed it. There was no
necessity of confirming the most holy Mother in her faith, as was
necessary with the Apostles; for She was invincibly confirmed in
faith.
But no human ingenuity can suffice
fully to describe the effects of this glorious vision of her Son on
her most holy soul. With inmost gratitude and deepest penetration She
began to ponder upon what She had seen and heard; exalted praise of
the omnipotent welled forth from her lips, when She considered how
her eyes had seen refulgent in glory that same bodily substance,
which had been formed of her blood, carried in her womb and nursed at
her breast; how She had with her own ears heard the voice of the
eternal Father acknowledge her Son as his own and appoint Him as the
Teacher of all the human race. With her holy angels She composed new
canticles to celebrate an event so full of festive joy for her soul
and for the most sacred humanity of her Son. I will not expatiate
upon this mystery, nor discuss in what the Transfiguration of the
body of Jesus really consisted. It is enough to know that his
countenance began to shine like the sun and his garments became
whiter than the snow (Matth. 17, 2).
After the Transfiguration the most
blessed Mother was brought back to her house in Nazareth; her divine
Son descended the mountain and immediately came to visit her in order
to take final leave of his parental province and set out for
Jerusalem. There, on the following Pasch, which was to be for Him the
last upon earth, He was to enter upon his Passion. Having spent only
a few days at Nazareth, He departed with his Mother, his disciples
and Apostles and some of the holy women, traveling about through
Galilee and Samaria before entering Judea and Jerusalem. The
Evangelist saint Luke writes of this journey where he says, that He
set his face toward Jerusalem (Luke 9, 51); for He journeyed to
Jerusalem with a joyous countenance and full of desire to enter upon
his sufferings, in order thereby, according to his own most ardent
and generous desire, to sacrifice Himself for the human race. He was
not to return to Galilee, where had wrought so many miracles. Knowing
this at his departure from Nazareth, He glorified his eternal Father
and, in the name of his sacred humanity, gave thanks for having, in
that house and neighborhood, received the human form and existence
which He was now to deliver over to suffering and death. Of the
prayers of Christ our Lord on this occasion I will record as I can
the following one:
“My eternal
Father, in compliance with thy will I gladly haste to satisfy thy
justice by suffering even unto death. Thus shall I reconcile to Thee
all the children of Adam, paying their debts and opening to them the
gates of heaven which have been closed against them. I shall seek
those who have turned away and lost themselves, so that they may be
restored by the force of my love. I shall find and gather together
the lost of the house of Jacob (Is. 56, 8), raise up the fallen,
enrich the poor, refresh the thirsty, cast down the haughty and exalt
the humble. I wish to vanquish hell and enhance the glories of the
triumph over Lucifer (I John 3, 8), and over the vices which he has
sown into the world. I wish to raise up the standard of the Cross,
beneath which virtue, and all those that put themselves under its
protection, are to fight their battles. I wish to satiate my heart
with insults and affronts, which are so estimable in thy eyes. I wish
to humiliate Myself even to death at the hands of my enemies, in
order that our chosen friends may be consoled in their tribulations
and that they may be honored by high rewards, whenever they choose to
humiliate themselves in suffering the same persecutions. O beloved
Cross! When shalt thou receive Me in thy arms? O sweet ignominies and
affronts! When shalt thou bear Me on to overcome death through the
sufferings of my entirely guiltless flesh? Ye pains, affronts,
ignominies, scourges, thorns, torments, death, come to Me, who wish
to embrace you, yield yourselves to my welcome, since I well
understand your value. If the world abhors you, I long for you. If
the world in its ignorance, despises you, I, who am truth and wisdom,
love and embrace you. Come then to Me, for in welcoming you as man, I
exalt you as the true God and am ready to efface the touch of sin
from you and from all that will embrace you. Come to Me, ye pains,
and disappoint Me not; heed not my Omnipotence, for I shall permit
you to exert your full force upon my humanity. You shall not be
rejected and abhorred by Me as you are by mortals. The deceitful
fascination of the children of Adam in vainly judging the poor and
the afflicted of this world as unhappy, shall now disappear; for if
they see their true God, their Creator, Master and Father, suffering
horrible insults, scourgings, the ignominious torment and destitution
of the Cross, they will understand their error and esteem it as an
honor to follow their crucified God.”
I cannot worthily express all the
thoughts and affections of the Mistress of the world in this her
departure from Nazareth, her prayers and petitions to the eternal
Father, her most sweet and sorrowful conversations with her divine
Son, the greatness of her grief and the vastness of her merits. For,
on account of the conflict between the love of a true Mother, by
which She naturally desired to preserve Him from the terrible
torments, and the conformity of her will with that of Jesus and of
his eternal Father, her heart was pierced by the sword of sorrow,
prophesied by Simeon (Luke 2, 35). In her affliction She complained
to her divine Son in words of deepest prudence and wisdom, yet also
of sweetest sorrow, that She should be unable to prevent his
sufferings, or at least die with Him. These sorrows of the Mother of
God exceeded the sufferings of martyrs who have died or will die for
love of God to the end of the world. In such a state of mind and
affection the Sovereigns of the world pursued their way from Nazareth
toward Jerusalem through Galilee, which the Savior was not to revisit
in this life. As the end of his labors for the salvation of men drew
to a close, his miraculous works increased in number, and, as the
sacred writers of the Gospels relate, they became especially numerous
in the last months intervening between his departure from Galilee and
the day of entrance into Jerusalem. Until that day, after having
celebrated the feast or the Pasch of the Tabernacles, the Savior
traveled about and labored in Judea, awaiting the appointed time,
when, according to his will, He was to offer Himself in sacrifice.
Our Savior continued to perform his
miracles in Judea. Among them was also the resurrection of Lazarus in
Bethany, whither He had been called by the two sisters, Martha and
Mary. As this miracle took place so near to Jerusalem, the report of
it was soon spread throughout the city. The priests and Pharisees,
being irritated by this miracle, held a council (John 9, 17), in
which they resolved upon the death of the Redeemer and commanded all
those that had any knowledge of his whereabouts, to make it known;
for after the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus retired to the town of
Ephrem, until the proximate feast of the Pasch should arrive. As the
time of celebrating it by his own Death drew nigh, He showed Himself
more openly with his twelve disciples, the Apostles; and He told them
privately that they should now get themselves ready to go Jerusalem,
where the Son of man, He himself, should be delivered over to the
chiefs of the Pharisees, bound as a prisoner, scourged, and
ill–treated unto the death of the Cross (Matth. 20, 18). In the
meanwhile the priests kept a sharp watch to find Him among those who
came to celebrate the Pasch. Six days previous He again visited
Bethania, where He had called Lazarus to life, and where He was
entertained by the two sisters. They arranged a banquet for the Lord
and his Mother, and for all of his company. Among those that were at
table with Them, was also Lazarus, whom He had brought back to life a
few days before.
Thursday, the eve
of the Passion and Death of the Savior, had arrived; at earliest dawn
the Lord called his most beloved Mother and She, hastening to
prostrate Herself at his feet, responded; “Speak, my Lord and
Master, for thy servant heareth.” Raising Her up from the
ground, He spoke to Her in words of soothing and tenderest love: “My
Mother, the hour decreed by the eternal wisdom of my Father for
accomplishing the salvation and restoration of the human race and
imposed upon Me by his most holy and acceptable will, has now
arrived; it is proper that now We subject to Him our own will, as We
have so often offered to do. Give Me thy permission to enter upon my
suffering and death, and, as my true Mother, consent that I deliver
Myself over to my enemies in obedience to my Father. In this manner
do Thou also willingly co–operate with Me in this work of
eternal salvation, since I have received from Thee in thy virginal
womb the form of a suffering and mortal man in which I am to redeem
the world and satisfy the divine justice. Just as thou,
of thy own free will, didst consent to my
Incarnation, so I now desire thee to give consent also to my passion
and death of the Cross. To sacrifice Me now of thy own free will to
the decree of my eternal Father, this shall be the return which I ask
of thee for having made thee my Mother; for He has sent Me in order
that by the sufferings of my flesh I might recover the lost sheep of
his house, the children of Adam” (Matth. 18,11).
These and other words of the Savior, spoken on
that occasion, pierced the most loving heart of Mary and cast Her
into the throes of a sorrow greater than She had ever endured before.
For now had arrived that dreadful hour, whence there was no issue for
her pains, neither in an appeal to the swift–fleeting time nor
to any other tribunal against the inevitable decree of the eternal
Father, that had fixed the term of her beloved Son’s life. When
now the most prudent Mother look upon Him as her God, infinite in his
attributes and perfections, and as the true Godman in hypostatical
union with the person of the Word, and beheld Him sanctified and
ineffably exalted by this union with the Godhead: She remembered the
obedience He had shown Her as his Mother during so many years and the
blessings He had conferred upon Her during his long companionship
with Her; She realized that soon She was to be deprived of this
blessed companionship and of the beauty of his countenance, of the
vivifying sweetness of his words; that She was not only to lose all
this at once, but moreover that She was to deliver Him over into the
hands of wicked enemies, to ignominies and torments and to the bloody
sacrifice of a death on the Cross. How deeply must all these
considerations and circumstances, now so clearly before Her mind,
have penetrated into her tender and loving heart and filled it with a
sorrow unmeasurable! But with the magnanimity of a Queen, vanquishing
this invincible pain, She prostrated Herself at the feet of Her
divine Son and Master, and, in deepest reverence, kissing his feet,
answered:
“Lord and
highest God, Author of all that has being, though Thou art the Son of
my womb, I am thy handmaid; the condescension of thy ineffable love
alone has raised me from the dust to the dignity of being thy Mother.
It is altogether becoming that I, vile wormlet, acknowledge and thank
thy most liberal clemency by obeying the will of the eternal Father
and thy own. I offer myself and resign myself to his divine pleasure
in order that in Me, just as in Thee, my Son and Lord his eternal and
adorable will be fulfilled. The greatest sacrifice which I can make,
is that I shall not be able to die with Thee, and that our lot should
not be inverted; for to suffer in imitation of Thee and in thy
company would be a great relief for my pains, and all torments would
be sweet, if undergone in union with thine. That Thou shouldst endure
all these torments for the salvation of mankind shall be my only
relief in my pains. Receive, O my God, this sacrifice of my desire to
die with Thee, and of my still continuing to live, while thou, the
most innocent Lamb and figure of the substance of thy eternal Father
undergoest Death (Heb. 1, 3). Receive also the agonies of my sorrow
to see the inhuman cruelty of thy enemies executed on thy exalted
Person because of the wickedness of the human kind. O ye heavens and
elements and all creatures within them, ye sovereign spirits, ye
Patriarchs and Prophets, assist me to deplore the death of my
Beloved, who gave you being, and bewail with me the misery of men,
who are the cause of this Death, and who, failing to profit of such
great blessings, shall lose that eternal life so dearly bought! O
unhappy you, that are foreknown as doomed! and O ye happy
predestined, who shall wash your stoles in the blood of the Lamb
(Apoc. 7, 14), you, who knew how to profit by this blessed sacrifice,
praise ye the Lord Almighty! O my Son and infinite delight of my
soul, give fortitude and strength to thy afflicted Mother; admit Her
as thy disciple and companion, in order that she may participate in
thy Passion and Cross, in order that the eternal Father may receive
the sacrifice of thy Mother in union with thine.”
With these and other expressions of her
sentiments, which I cannot all record in words, the Queen of heaven
answered her most holy Son, and offered Herself as a companion and a
coadjutrix in his Passion. Thereupon, thoroughly instructed and
prepared by divine light for all the mysteries to be wrought by the
Master of life towards accomplishing all his great ends, the most
pure Mother, having the Lord’s permission, added another
request in the following words: “Beloved of my soul and light
of my eyes, my Son, I am not worthy to ask Thee what I desire from my
inmost soul; but Thou, O Lord, art the life of my hope, and this my
trust I beseech Thee, if such be thy pleasure, make me a participant
in the ineffable Sacrament of thy body and blood. Thou hast resolved
to institute it as a pledge of thy glory and I desire in receiving
Thee sacramentally in my heart to share the effects of this new and
admirable Sacrament. Well do I know, O Lord, that no creature can
ever merit such an exquisite blessing, which Thou hast resolved to
set above all the works of thy magnificence; and in order to induce
Thee to confer upon me, I have nothing else to offer except thy own
and all thy infinite merits. If by perpetuating merits through the
same humanity which thou hast received from my womb, creates for me a
certain right, let this right consist not so much in giving Thyself
to me in this Sacrament, as in making me thine by this new
possession, which restores to me thy sweetest companionship. All my
desires and exertions I have devoted to the worthy reception of this
holy Communion from the moment in which Thou gavest me knowledge of
it and ever since it was thy fixed decree to remain in the holy
Church under the species of consecrated bread and wine. Thou then, my
Lord and God, return to thy first habitation which Thou didst find in
thy beloved Mother and thy slave, whom Thou hast prepared for thy
reception by exempting Her from the common touch of sin. Then shall I
receive within me the humanity, which I have communicated to Thee
from my own blood, and thus we shall be united in a renewed and close
embrace. This prospect enkindles my heart with most ardent love, and
may I never be separated from Thee, who art the infinite Good and the
Love of my soul.”
Our Savior, having thus parted with his most
beloved Mother and sorrowful Spouse, and taking along with Him all
his Apostles, a little before midday of the Thursday of the last
Supper, departed on his last journey from Bethany to Jerusalem. At
the very outset He raised his eyes to the eternal Father, and,
confessing Him in words of thankfulness and praise, again professed
his most ardent love and most lovingly and obediently offered to
suffer and die for the Redemption of the human race. This prayer and
sacrifice of our Savior and Master sprang from such ineffable love
and ardor of his spirit, that it cannot be described; all that I say
of it seems to me rather a gainsaying of the truth and of what I
desire to say. “Eternal Father and my God,” said Christ
our Lord, “in compliance with thy will I now go to suffer and
die for the liberation of men, my brethren and the creatures of thy
hands. I deliver Myself up for their salvation and to gather those
who have been scattered and divided by the sin of Adam.
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
The Virgin Mary
speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain
My daughter, as thy soul has been
furnished with gifts of enlightenment, I call and invite thee anew to
cast thyself into the sea of mysteries contained in the passion and
death of my divine Son. Direct all thy faculties and strain all the
powers of thy heart and soul, to make thyself at least somewhat
worthy of understanding and meditating upon the ignominies and
sorrows of the Son of the eternal Father in his death on the Cross
for the salvation of men; and also of considering my doings and
sufferings in connection with his bitterest Passion. This science, so
much neglected by men, I desire that thou, my daughter, study and
learn, so as to be able follow thy Spouse and imitate me, who am thy
Mother and Teacher. Writing down and feeling deeply all that I shall
teach thee of these mysteries, thou shouldst detach thyself entirely
of human and earthly affections and of thy own self, so as freely to
follow our footsteps in destitution and poverty.
I wish thee also to ponder, what a
horrible crime it is in the eyes of the Lord, in mine, and in those
of all the saints, that men should despise and neglect the frequent
reception of the holy Communion, and that they should approach it
without preparation and fervent devotion. Principally in order that
thou mayest understand and record this warning, I have manifested
thee, what I did on that occasion and how I prepared myself so many
years for receiving my most blessed Son in the holy Sacrament and
also the rest, which thou art yet to write for the instruction and
confusion of men. For if I, who was innocent of any hindering sin and
filled with all graces, sought to increase my fitness for this favor
by such fervent acts of love, humility and gratitude, consider what
efforts thou and the other children of the Church, who every day and
hour incur new guilt and blame, must make in order to fit yourselves
for the beauty of the Divinity and humanity of my most holy Son? What
excuse can those men give in the last judgment, who have despised
this ineffable love and blessing, which they had always present in
the holy Church, ready to fill them with the plenitude of gifts, and
who rather sought diversion in worldly pleasures and attended upon
the outward and deceitful vanities of this earthly life? Be thou
amazed at this insanity as were the holy angels, and guard thyself
against falling into the same error.
Book 6, Chapter 3
THE
LAST SUPPER
Christ had partaken of the prescribed
supper with his disciples reclining on the floor around a table,
which was elevated from it little more than the distance of six or
seven fingers; for such was the custom of the Jews. But after the
washing of the feet He ordered another, higher table to be prepared,
such as we now use for our meals. By this arrangement He wished to
put an end to the legal suppers and to the lower and figurative law
and establish the new Supper of the law of grace. From that time on
He wished the sacred mysteries to be performed on the tables or
altars, which are in use in the Catholic Church. The table was
covered with a very rich cloth and upon it was placed a plate or
salver and a large cup in the form of a chalice, capacious enough to
hold the wine. All this was done in pursuance of the will of Christ
our Savior, who by his divine power and wisdom directed all these
particulars. The master of the house was inspired to offer these rich
vessels, which were made of what seemed a precious stone like
emerald. The Apostles often used it afterwards in consecrating,
whenever the occasion permitted it. The Lord seated himself at this
table with the Apostles and some of the other disciples, and then
ordered some unleavened bread to be placed on the table and some wine
to be brought, of which He took sufficient to prepare the chalice.
Then the Master of life spoke words
of most endearing love to his Apostles, and, though his sayings were
wont to penetrate to the inmost heart at all times, yet on this
occasion they were like the flames of a great fire of charity, which
consumed the souls of his hearers. He manifested to them anew the
most exalted mysteries of his Divinity, humanity and of the works of
the Redemption. He enjoined upon them peace and charity, of which He
was now to leave a pledge in the mysteries about to be celebrated. He
reminded them, that in loving one another, they would be loved by the
eternal Father with the same love in which He was beloved. He gave
them an understanding of the fulfillment of this promise having
chosen them to found the new Church and the law of grace. He renewed
in them the light concerning the supreme dignity, excellence and
prerogatives of his most pure Virgin Mother.
All the Apostles and disciples, who, with the
exception of the traitor, believed in this holy Sacrament, adored it
with great humility and reverence according to each one’s
disposition. The great high priest Christ raised up his own
consecrated body and blood in order that all who were present at this
first Mass might adore it in a special manner, as they also did.
During this elevation his most pure Mother, saint John, Enoch and
Elias, were favored with an especial insight into the mystery of his
presence in the sacred species. They understood more profoundly, how,
in the species of the bread, was contained his body and in those of
the wine, his blood; how in both, on account of the inseparable union
of his soul with his body and blood, was present the living and true
Christ; how with the Person of the Word, was also therein united the
Person of the Father and of the Holy Ghost; and how therefore, on
account of the inseparable existence and union of the Father, Son and
Holy Ghost, the holy Eucharist contained the perfect humanity of the
Lord with the three divine Persons of the Godhead. All this was
understood most profoundly by the heavenly Lady and by the others
according to their degree. They understood also the efficacy of the
words of the consecration, now endowed with such divine virtue, that
as soon as they are pronounced with the intention of doing what
Christ did at that time, by any priest since that time over the
proper material, they would change the bread into his body and the
wine into his blood, leaving the accidents to subsist in a new way
and without their proper subject. They saw, that this change would
take place so certainly and infallibly that heaven and earth would
sooner fall to pieces, than that the effect of these words of
consecration, when pronounced in the proper manner by the sacerdotal
minister of Christ, should ever fail.
The heavenly Queen understood also by
a special vision how the most sacred body of Christ is hidden beneath
the accidents of bread and wine without change in them or alteration
of the sacred humanity; for neither can the Body be the subject of
the accidents, nor can the accidents be the form of the body. The
accidents retain the same extension and qualities as before, and each
of their parts retain the same position after the host has been
consecrated; and the sacred body is present in an invisible form,
also retaining the same size without intermingling of parts. It
remains in the whole host, and all of it in every particle of the
host, without being strained by the host, or the host by the body.
For neither is the extension of his body correlative with the
accidental species, nor do they depend upon the sacred body for their
existence. They therefore have a totally different mode of existence
and the body interpenetrates the accidents without hindrance.
Still greater was my admiration when
Jesus our God, having raised the most holy Sacrament, as I said
before, for their adoration, divided it by his own sacred hands,
first partook of it himself as being the First and chief of all the
priests. Recognizing himself, as man, inferior to the Divinity, which
He was now to receive in this his own consecrated body and blood. He
humiliated and, as it were, with a trembling of the inferior part of
his being, shrank within Himself before that Divinity, thereby not
only teaching us the reverence with which holy Communion is to be
received ; but also showing us what was his sorrow at the temerity
and presumption of many men during the reception and handling of this
exalted and sublime Sacrament. The effects of holy Communion in the
body of Christ were altogether miraculous and divine; for during a
short space of time the gifts of glory flowed over in his body just
as on mount Tabor, though the effects of this transfiguration were
manifest only to his blessed Mother, and partly also to John, Enoch
and Elias. This was the last consolation He permitted his humanity to
enjoy as to its inferior part during his earthly life, and from that
moment until his Death He rejected all such alleviation. The Virgin
Mother, by a special vision, also understood how Christ her divine
Son received Himself in the blessed Sacrament and what was the manner
of its presence in his divine Heart. All this caused inestimable
affection in our Queen and Lady.
While receiving his own body and
blood Christ our Lord composed a canticle of praise to the eternal
Father and offered Himself in the blessed Sacrament as a sacrifice
for the salvation of man. He took another particle of the consecrated
bread and handed it to the archangel Gabriel who brought and
communicated it to the most holy Mary. By having such a privilege
conferred on one of their number, the holy angels considered
themselves sufficiently recompensed for being excluded from the
sacerdotal dignity and for yielding it to man. The privilege of
merely having even one of their number hold the sacramental body of
their Lord and true God filled them with a new and immense joy. In
abundant tears of consolation the great Queen awaited holy Communion.
When saint Gabriel with innumerable other angels approached, She
received it, the first after her Son, imitating his self–abasement,
reverence and holy fear. The most blessed Sacrament was deposited in
the breast and above the heart of the most holy Virgin Mother, as in
the most legitimate shrine and tabernacle of the Most High. There the
ineffable sacrament of the holy Eucharist remained deposited from
that hour until after the Resurrection, when saint Peter said the
first Mass and consecrated anew, as I shall relate in its place.
After having thus favored the
heavenly Princess, our Savior distributed the sacramental bread to
the Apostles (Luke 22, 17), commanding them to divide it among
themselves and partake of it. By this commandment He conferred upon
them the sacerdotal dignity and they began to exercise it by giving
Communion each to Himself. This they did with the greatest reverence,
shedding copious tears and adoring the body and blood of our Lord,
whom they were receiving. They were established in the power of the
priesthood, as being founders of the holy Church and enjoying the
distinction of priority over all others (Ephes. 2, 20). Then saint
Peter, at the command of Christ the Lord, administered two of the
particles of holy Communion to the two patriarchs, Enoch and Elias.
This holy Communion so rejoiced these two holy men, that they were
encouraged anew in their hope of the beatific vision, which for them
was to be deferred for so many ages, and they were strengthened to
live on in this hope until the end of the world. Having given most
fervent and humble thanks to the Almighty for this blessing, they
were brought back to their abiding–place by the hands of the
holy angels. The Lord desired to work this miracle in order to pledge
Himself to include the ancient natural and written laws in the
benefits of the Incarnation, Redemption and general resurrection;
since all these mysteries were contained in the most holy Eucharist.
By thus communicating Himself to the two men, Enoch and Elias, who
were still in their mortal flesh, these blessings were extended over
the human race such as it existed under the natural and the written
laws, while all the succeeding generations were to be included in the
new law of grace, the Apostles at the head. This was all well
understood by Enoch and Elias, and, returning to the midst of their
contemporaries, they gave thanks their and our Redeemer for this
mysterious blessing.
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
The Virgin Mary
speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain
O my daughter!
Would that the believers in the Catholic faith opened their hardened
and stony hearts in order to attain to a true understanding of the
sacred and mysterious blessing of the Holy Eucharist! If they would
only detach themselves, root out and reject their earthly
inclinations, and, restraining their passions, apply themselves with
living faith to study by the divine light their great happiness in
thus possessing their eternal God in the holy Sacrament and in being
able, by its reception and constant interaction, to participate in
the effects of this heavenly manna! If they would only worthily
esteem this precious gift, begin to taste its sweetness, and share in
the hidden power of their omnipotent God! Then nothing would ever be
wanting to them in their exile. In this, the happy age of the law of
grace, mortals have no reason to complain of their weakness and their
passions; since in this bread of heaven they have at hand strength
and health. It matters not that they are tempted and persecuted by
the demon; for by receiving this Sacrament
frequently they are enabled to overcome him
gloriously. The faithful are themselves to blame for all their
poverty and labors, since they pay no attention to this divine
mystery, nor avail themselves of the divine powers, thus placed at
their disposal by my most holy Son. I tell thee truly, my dearest,
that Lucifer and his demons have such a fear of the most holy
Eucharist, that to approach it, causes them more torments than to
remain in hell itself. Although they do enter churches in order to
tempt souls, they enter them with aversion, forcing themselves to
endure cruel pains in the hope of destroying a soul and drawing it
into sin, especially in the holy places and in the presence of the
holy Eucharist. Their wrath against the Lord and against the souls
alone could induce them to expose themselves to the torment of his
real sacramental presence.
Whenever He is
carried through the streets they usually fly and disperse in all
haste; and they would not dare to approach those that accompany Him,
if by their long experience they did not know, that they will induce
some to forget the reverence due to their Lord. Therefore they make
special efforts to tempt the faithful in the churches; for they know
what great injury they can thereby do to the Lord himself,
who in his sacramental love is there waiting
to sanctify men and to receive the return of his sweetest and
untiring love. Hence thou canst also understand the strength of those
who prepare themselves to partake of this bread of the angels and how
the demons fear the souls, who receive the Lord worthily and devoutly
and who strive to preserve themselves in this purity until the next
Communion. But there are few who live with this intention, and the
enemy is ceaselessly alert in striving to throw them back into their
forgetfulness, distraction and indifference, so that he may not be
obliged to encounter such powerful weapons in the hands of men. Write
this admonition in thy heart; and since without thy merit the
Almighty has ordained, that thou receive holy Communion daily, seek
by all possible means to preserve thyself in the good dispositions
from one Communion to the other. It is the will of the Lord and my
own, that with this sword thou fight the battles of the Almighty in
the name of the holy Church against the invisible enemies. For in our
days they are heaping affliction and sorrow upon the mistress of
nations, while there is none to console her or to take it to heart
(Thren. 1, 10). Do thou thyself weep for the same reason and let thy
heart be torn in sorrow. But while the omnipotent and just Judge who
is so greatly incensed against the Catholics for having outraged his
justice by their unmeasurable and continual transgressions even under
the aegis of their grand faith, none are found
to consider and weigh the fearful damage, nor to approach the easy
remedy of receiving the holy Eucharist with a contrite and humble
heart; nor does any one ask for my intercession.
Though all the
children of the Church largely incur this fault, yet more to be
blamed are the unworthy and wicked priests; for by the irreverence
with which they treat the blessed Sacrament the other Catholics have
been drawn to undervalue it. If the people see their priests approach
the divine mysteries with holy fear and trembling, they learn to
treat and receive their God in like manner. Those that so honor Him
shall shine in heaven like the sun among the stars; for the glory of
my divine Son’s humanity will redound in a special measure in
those who have behaved well toward Him in the blessed Sacrament and
have received Him with all reverence;
whereas this will not happen to those who have not frequented this
holy table with devotion. Moreover the devout will bear on their
breast, where they have so often harbored the holy Eucharist, most
beautiful and resplendent inscriptions, showing that they were most
worthy tabernacles of the holy Sacrament. This will be a great
accidental reward for them and a source of jubilation and admiration
for the holy angels and the rest of the blessed. They will also enjoy
the special favor of being able to penetrate deeper into the mystery
of the presence of the Lord in the sacrament and to understand all
the rest of the wonders hidden therein. This will be such a
privilege, that it alone would suffice for their eternal happiness,
even if there were no other enjoyment in heaven. Moreover the
essential glory of those, who have worthily and devoutly received the
holy Eucharist, will in several respects exceed the glory of many
martyrs who have not received the body and blood of the Lord.
I wish thee also
to hear, my dearest daughter from my own mouth, what were my
sentiments when in mortal life I was about
to receive holy Communion. In order that thou mayest better
understand what I say, reflect on all I have commanded thee to write
about my gifts, merits and labors in life. I was preserved from
original sin and, at the instant of my Conception, received the
knowledge and vision of the Divinity, as thou hast often recorded. I
knew more than all saints; I surpassed the highest seraphim in love;
I never committed any fault; I constantly practiced all the virtues
in a heroic degree and in the least of them I was greater than all
the saints in their highest perfection; the intention and object of
my actions were most exalted and my habits and gifts were noble
without measure; I imitated my most holy Son most closely; I labored
faithfully; I suffered with eagerness and co–operated with the
doings of the Lord exactly as was becoming to me; I ceased not to
exercise my love and gain new supereminent merits of grace. Yet I
thought myself to have been fully repaid by being allowed to receive
Him even once in the holy Eucharist; yea, I did not consider myself
worthy of this one favor. Reflect then what should be thy sentiments,
and those of the rest of the children of Adam, on being admitted to
the reception of this admirable Sacrament. And if for the greatest of
saints one holy Communion is a superabundant reward, what must the
priests and the faithful think, when they are allowed to receive it
so frequently? Open thy eyes in the deep darkness and blindness which
overwhelm men around thee, and raise them up to the divine brightness
in order to understand these mysteries. Look upon all thy works as
insufficient, all thy sufferings as most insignificant, all thy
thanksgiving as falling far short of what thou owest for such an
exquisite blessing as that of possessing in the holy Church, Christ
my divine Son, present in the holy Sacrament in order to enrich all
the faithful. If thou hast not wherewith to show thy thanks for this
and the other blessings which thou receivest, at least humiliate
thyself to the dust and remain prostrate upon it; confess thyself
unworthy in all the sincerity of thy heart. Magnify the Most High,
bless and praise Him, preserving thyself at all times worthy to
receive Him and to suffer many martyrdoms in return for such a favor.
Book 6, Chapter 4
THE
PRAYER IN GETHSEMANI AND HOW MARY JOINED THEREIN
By the wonderful mysteries, which our
Savior Jesus had celebrated in the Cenacle, the reign which according
to his inscrutable decree, his eternal Father had consigned to Him,
was well established; and the Thursday night of his last Supper
having already advanced some hours, He chose to go forth to that
dreadful battle of his suffering and death by which the Redemption
was to be accomplished. The Lord then rose to depart from the hall of
the miraculous feast and also most holy Mary left her retreat in
order to meet Him on the way. At this face to face meeting of the
Prince of eternity and of the Queen, a sword of sorrow pierced the
heart of Son and Mother, inflicting a pang of grief beyond all human
and angelic thought. The sorrowful Mother threw Herself at the feet
of Jesus, adoring Him as her true God and Redeemer. The Lord, looking
upon Her with a majesty divine and at the same time with the
overflowing love of a Son, spoke to Her only these words: “My
Mother, I shall be with thee in tribulation; let Us accomplish the
will of the eternal Father and the salvation of men.” The great
Queen offered herself as a sacrifice with her whole heart and asked
his blessing. Having received this She returned to her retirement,
where, by a special favor of the Lord, she was enabled to see all
that passed in connection with her divine Son. Thus She was enabled
to accompany Him and co–operate with Him in his activity as far
as devolved upon Her. The owner of the house, who was present at this
meeting, moved by a divine impulse, offered his house and all that it
contained to the Mistress of heaven, asking her to make use of all
that was his during her stay in Jerusalem; and the Queen accepted his
offer with humble thanks. The thousand angels of her guard, in forms
visible to Her, together with some of the pious women of her company,
remained with the Lady.
Our Redeemer and
Master left the house of the Cenacle with all
the men, who had been present at the ration of the mysterious Supper;
and soon many of them dispersed in the different streets in order to
attend to their own affairs. Followed by his twelve Apostles, the
Lord directed his steps toward mount Olivet outside and close to the
eastern walls of Jerusalem. Judas, alert in his treacherous
solicitude for the betrayal of his divine Master, conjectured that
Jesus intended to pass the night in prayer as was his custom. This
appeared to him a most opportune occasion for delivering his Master
into the hands of his confederates, the scribes and the pharisees.
Having taken this dire resolve, he lagged behind and permitted the
Master and his Apostles to proceed. Unnoticed by the latter he lost
them from view and departed in all haste to his own ruin and
destruction. Within him was the turmoil of sudden fear and anxiety,
interior witnesses of the wicked deed he was about to commit. Driven
on in the stormy hurricane of thoughts raised by his bad conscience,
he arrived breathless at the house of the high priests. On the way it
happened, that Lucifer, perceiving the haste of Judas in procuring
the death of Jesus Christ, and (as I have related in chapter the
tenth), fearing that after all Jesus might be the true Messias, came
toward him in the shape of a very wicked man, a friend of Judas
acquainted with the intended betrayal. In this shape Lucifer could
speak to Judas without being recognized. He tried to persuade him
that this project of selling his Master did at first seem advisable
on account of the wicked deeds attributed to Jesus; but that, having
more naturally considered the matter, he did not now deem it
advisable to deliver Him over to the priests and pharisees; for Jesus
was not so bad as Judas might imagine; nor did He deserve death; and
besides He might free Himself by some miracles and involve his
betrayer into great difficulties.
In the meanwhile our divine Lord with the eleven
Apostles was engaged in the work of our salvation and the salvation
of those who were scheming his death. Unheard of and wonderful
contest between the deepest malice of man and the unmeasurable
goodness and charity of God! If this stupendous struggle between good
and evil began with the first man, it certainly reached its highest
point in the death of the Repairer; for then good and evil stood face
to face and exerted their highest powers: human malice in taking away
the life and honor of the Creator and Redeemer, and his immense
charity freely sacrificing both for men. According to our way of
reasoning, it was as it were necessary that the most holy soul of
Christ, yea that even his Divinity, should revert to his blessed
Mother, in order that He might find some object in creation, in which
his love should be recompensed and some excuse for disregarding the
dictates of his justice. For in this Creature alone could He expect
to see his Passion and Death bring forth full fruit; in her
immeasurable holiness did his justice find some compensation for
human malice; and in the humility and constant charity of this great
Lady could be deposited the treasures of his merits, so that
afterwards, as the New Phoenix from the rekindled ashes, his Church
might arise from his sacrifice. The consolation which the humanity of
Christ drew from the certainty of his blessed Mother’s holiness
gave Him strength and, as it were, new courage to conquer the malice
of mortals; and He counted Himself well recompensed for suffering
such atrocious pains by the fact that to mankind belonged also his
most beloved Mother.
Our Savior pursued his way across the torrent of
Cedron (John 18, 1) to mount Olivet and entered the garden of
Gethsemani. Then He said to all the Apostles: “Wait for Me, and
seat yourselves here while I go a short distance from here to pray
(Matth. 26, 36); do you also pray, in order that you may not enter
into temptation” (Luke 22, 40). The divine Master gave them
advice, in order that they might be firm in the temptations, of which
He had spoken to them at the Supper: that all of them should be
scandalized on account of what they should see Him suffer that night,
that Satan would assail them to sift and stir them up by his false
suggestions; for the Pastor (as prophesied) was to be illtreated and
wounded and the sheep were to be dispersed (Zach. 13, 7). Then the
Master of life, leaving the band of eight Apostles at that place and
taking with Him saint Peter, saint John, and saint James, retired to
another place, where they could neither be seen nor heard by the rest
(Mark 14, 33). Being with the three Apostles He raised his eyes up to
the eternal Father confessing and praising Him as was his custom;
while interiorly He prayed in fulfillment of the prophecy of
Zacharias, permitting death to approach the most innocent of men and
commanding the sword of divine justice to be unsheathed over the
Shepherd and descend upon the Godman with all its deathly force. In
this prayer Christ our Lord offered Himself anew to the eternal
Father in satisfaction of his justice for the rescue of the human
race; and He gave consent, that all the torments of his Passion and
Death be let loose over that part of his human being, which was
capable of suffering. From that moment He suspended and strained
whatever consolation or relief would otherwise overflow from the
impassable to the passable part of his being, so that in this
dereliction his passion and sufferings might reach the highest degree
possible. The eternal Father granted these petitions and approved
this total sacrifice of the sacred humanity.
This prayer was as it were the floodgate through
which the rivers of his suffering were to find entrance like the
resistless onslaught of the ocean, as was foretold by David (Ps. 68,
2). And immediately He began to be sorrowful and feel the anguish of
his soul and therefore said to the Apostles: “My soul is
sorrowful unto death” (Mark 14, 34).
He threw himself with his divine face upon the
ground and prayed to the eternal Father: “Father, if it is
possible, let this chalice pass from Me” (Matth. 24, 38). This
prayer Christ our Lord uttered, though He had come down from heaven
with the express purpose of really suffering and dying for men;
though He had counted as naught the shame of his Passion, had
willingly embraced it and rejected all human consolation; though He
was hastening with most ardent love into the jaws of death, to
affronts, sorrows and afflictions; though He had set such a high
price upon men, that He determined to redeem them at the shedding of
his life–blood. Since by virtue of his divine and human wisdom
and his inextinguishable love He had shown Himself so superior to the
natural fear of death, that it seems this petition did not arise from
any motive solely coming from Himself. That this was so in fact, was
made known to me in the light which was vouchsafed me concerning the
mysteries contained in this prayer of the Savior.
This agony
of Christ our Savior grew in proportion to the greatness of his
charity and the certainty of his knowledge, that men would persist in
neglecting to profit by his Passion and Death (Luke 22, 44). His
agony increased to such an extent, that great drops of bloody sweat
were pressed from Him, which flowed to the very earth.
Although this prayer was uttered subject to a condition and failed in
regard to the reprobate who fell under this condition; yet He gained
thereby a greater abundance and secured a greater frequency of favors
for mortals. Through it the blessings were multiplied for those who
placed no obstacles, the fruits of the Redemption were applied to the
saints and to the just more abundantly, and many gifts and graces, of
which the reprobates made themselves unworthy, were diverted to the
elect. The human will of Christ, conforming itself to that of the
Divinity, then accepted suffering for each respectively: for the
reprobate, as sufficient to procure them the necessary help, if they
would make use of its merits, and for the predestined, as an
efficacious means, of which they would avail themselves to secure
their salvation by co–operating with grace. Thus was set in
order, and as it were realized, the salvation of the mystical body of
his holy Church, of which Christ the Lord was the Creator and Head.
As a ratification
of this divine decree, while yet our Master was in his agony, the
eternal Father for the third time sent the
archangel Michael to the earth in order to comfort Him by a sensible
message and confirmation of what He already knew by the infused
science of his most holy soul; for the angel could not tell our Lord
anything He did not know, nor could he produce any additional effect
on his interior consciousness for this purpose.
Let us now return to the Cenacle,
where the Queen of heaven had retired with the holy women of her
company. From her retreat, by divine enlightenment, She saw most
clearly all the mysteries and doings of her most holy Son in the
garden. At the moment when the Savior separated Himself with the
three Apostles Peter, John and James, the heavenly Queen separated
Herself from the other women and went into another room. Upon leaving
them She exhorted them pray and watch lest they enter into
temptation, but She took with Her the three Marys, treating Mary
Magdalen as the superior of the rest. Secluding Herself with these
three as her more intimate companions, She begged the eternal Father
to suspend in Her all human alleviation and comfort, both in the
sensitive and in the spiritual part of her being, so that nothing
might hinder Her from suffering to the highest degree in union with
her divine Son. She prayed that She might be permitted to feel and
participate in her virginal body all the pains of the wounds and
tortures about to be undergone by Jesus. This petition was granted by
the blessed Trinity and the Mother in consequence suffered all the
torments of her most holy Son in exact duplication, as I shall relate
later. Although they were such, that, if the right hand of the
Almighty had not preserved Her, they would have caused her death many
times over; yet, on the other hand, these sufferings, inflicted by
God himself were like a pledge and a new lease of life. For in her
most ardent love She would have considered it incomparably more
painful to see her divine Son suffer and die without being allowed to
share in his torments.
The three Marys were instructed by the Queen to
accompany and assist Her in her affliction, and for this purpose they
were endowed with greater light and grace than the other women. In
retiring with them the most pure Mother began to feel unwonted sorrow
and anguish and She said to them: “My soul is sorrowful,
because my beloved Son is about to suffer and die, and it is not
permitted me to suffer and die of his torments. Pray my friends, in
order that you may not be overcome by temptation.” Having said
this She went apart a short distance from them, and following the
Lord in his supplications. She, as far as was possible to Her and as
far as She knew it to be conformable to the human will of her Son,
continued her prayers and petitions, feeling the same agony as that
of the Savior in the garden. She also returned at the same intervals
to her companions to exhort them, because She knew of the wrath of
the demon against them. She wept at the perdition of the foreknown;
for She was highly enlightened in the mysteries of eternal
predestination and reprobation. In order to imitate and co–operate
in all things with the Redeemer of the world, the great Lady also
suffered a bloody sweat, similar to that of Jesus in the garden, and
by divine intervention She was visited by the archangel saint
Gabriel, as Christ her Son was visited by the archangel Michael. The
holy prince expounded to Her the will of the Most High in the same
manner as saint Michael had expounded it to Christ the Lord. In both
of them the prayer offered and the cause of sorrow was the same; and
therefore They were also proportionally alike to one another in their
actions and in their knowledge.
While they were
approaching, the Lord returned third time to his Apostles and finding
them asleep spoke to them: “Sleep ye now, and take your rest.
It is enough: the hour is come ; behold the Son of man shall be
betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go. Behold he
that will betray Me is at hand (Mark 14, 41). Such were the words of
the Master of holiness to the three most privileged Apostles; He was
unwilling to reprehend them more severely than in this most meek and
loving manner. Being oppressed, they did not know what to answer
their Lord, as Scripture says (Mark 14, 40). They arose and Jesus
went with them to join the other eight disciples. He found them
likewise overcome and oppressed by their great sorrow and fallen
asleep. The Master then gave orders, that all of them together,
mystically forming one body with Him their
Head, should advance toward the enemies, thereby teaching them the
power of mutual and perfect unity for overcoming the demons and their
followers and for avoiding defeat by them.
For a triple cord is hard to tear, as says Ecclesiastes (4, 12), and
he that is mighty against one, may be overcome by two, that being the
effect of union. The Lord again exhorted all the Apostles and
forewarned them of what was to happen. Already the confused noise of
the advancing band of soldiers and their helpmates began to be heard.
Our Savior then proceeded to meet them on the way, and, with
incomparable love, magnanimous courage and tender piety prayed
interiorly: “O sufferings longingly desired from my inmost
soul, ye pains, wounds, affronts, labors, afflictions and ignominious
death, come, come, come quickly, for the fire of love, which burns
for the salvation of men, is anxious to see you meet the Innocent one
of all creatures. Well do I know your value, I have sought, desired,
and solicited you and I meet you joyously of my own free will; I have
purchased you by my anxiety in searching for you and I esteem you for
your merits. I desire to remedy and enhance your value and raise you
to highest dignity. Let death come, in order that by my accepting it
without having deserved it I may triumph over it and gain life for
those who have been punished by death for their sins (Osee 13, 14). I
give permission to my friends to forsake Me; for I alone desire and
am able to enter into this battle and gain for them triumph and
victory” (Is. 53, 3).
During these words
and prayers of the Author of life Judas advanced in order to give the
signal upon which he had agreed with his companions (Matth. 26, 48),
namely the customary, but now feigned kiss of peace, by which they
were to distinguish Jesus as the One whom they should single out from
the rest and immediately seize. These precautions the unhappy
disciple had taken, not only out of avarice for the money and hatred
against his Master, but also, on account of the fear with which he
was filled. For he dreaded the inevitable necessity of meeting Him
and encountering Him in the future, if Christ was not put to death on
this occasion. Such a confusion he feared more than the death of his
soul, or the death of his divine Master, and, in order to forestall
it, he hastened to complete his treachery and desired to see the
Author of life die at the hands of his enemies. The traitor then ran
up to the meekest Lord, and, as a consummate hypocrite hiding his
hatred, he imprinted on his countenance the kiss of peace, saying:
“God save Thee, Master.” By this so treacherous act the
perdition of Judas was matured and God was justified in withholding
his grace and help. On the part
of the unfaithful disciple, malice and temerity reached their
highest degree; for, interiorly denying or disbelieving the uncreated
and created wisdom by which Christ must know of his treason, and
ignoring his power to destroy him, he sought to hide his malice under
the cloak of the friendship of a true disciple; and all this for
the purpose of delivering over to such a frightful
and cruel death his Creator and Master, to whom he was bound by so
many obligations. In this one act of treason he committed so many and
such formidable sins, that it is impossible to fathom their
immensity; for he was treacherous, murderous, sacrilegious,
ungrateful, inhuman, disobedient, false, lying, impious and
unequalled in hypocrisy; and all this was included in one and the
same crime perpetrated against the person of God made man.
The most pure
Mother of Christ our Lord was most attentive to all that passed in
his capture, and by means of her clear visions saw it more clearly
than if She had been present in person; for by means of supernatural
visions She penetrated into all the mysteries of his words and
actions. When She beheld the band of soldiers and servants issuing
from the house of the high priest, the prudent Lady foresaw the
irreverence and insults with which they would treat their Creator and
Redeemer; and in order to do what was within her power, She invited
the holy angels and many others in union with Her to render adoration
and praise to the Lord of creation as an offset to the injuries and
affronts He would sustain at the hands of those ministers of
darkness. The same request She made to the holy women who were
praying with Her. She told them, that her most holy Son had now given
permission to his enemies to take him prisoner and illtreat him, and
that they were about to make use of this permission in a most impious
and cruel manner. Assisted by the holy angels and the pious women the
faithful Queen engaged in interior and exterior acts of devoted faith
and love, confessing, adoring, praising and magnifying the infinite
Deity and the most holy humanity of her Creator
and Lord. The holy women imitated Her in the genuflections and
prostrations, and the angelic princes responded to the canticles with
which She magnified, celebrated and glorified the Divinity and
humanity of Christ. In the measure in which the children of malice
increased their irreverence and injuries, She sought to compensate
them by her praise and veneration. Thus She continued to placate the
divine justice, lest it be roused against his persecutors and destroy
them; for only most holy Mary was capable of staying the punishment
of such great offenses.
And the great Lady
not only placated the just Judge, but even obtained favors and
blessings from the divine clemency for the very persons who irritated
Him and thus secured a return of good for those who were heaping
wrongs upon Christ the Lord for his doctrine and benefits. This mercy
attained its highest point in the disloyal and obstinate Judas; for
the tender Mother, seeing him deliver Jesus by the kiss of feigned
friendship and considering how shortly before his mouth had contained
the sacramental body of the Lord, with whose sacred countenance so
soon after those same foul lips were permitted to come in contact,
was transfixed with sorrow and entranced by charity. She asked the
Lord to grant new graces, whereby this man, who had enjoyed the
privilege of touching the face whereon angels desire to look, might,
if he chose to use them, save himself from perdition. In response to
this prayer of most holy Mary, her Son and
Lord granted Judas powerful graces in the very consummation of his
treacherous delivery. If the unfortunate man had given heed and had
commenced to respond to them, the Mother of mercy would have obtained
for him many others and at last also pardon for
his sin. She has done so with many other great sinners, who were
willing to give that glory to Her and thus obtain eternal glory for
themselves. But Judas failed to realize this and thus lost all chance
of salvation, as I shall relate in the next chapter.
When the servants of the high priest
laid hands on and bound the Savior, the most blessed Mother felt on
her own hands the pains caused by the ropes and chains, as if She
Herself was being bound and fettered; in the same manner She felt in
her body the blows and torments further inflicted upon the Lord, for,
I have already said, this favor was granted to his Mother, as we
shall see in the course of the Passion. This her sensible
participation in his sufferings was some kind of relief of the pain,
which She would have suffered in her loving soul at the thought of
not being with Him in his torments.
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
The Virgin Mary
speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain
My daughter, in
all that thou art made to understand and write concerning these
mysteries, thou drawest upon thyself (and upon mortals) a severe
judgment, if thou dost not overcome thy pusillanimity, ingratitude
and baseness by meditating day and night on the Passion and Death of
Jesus crucified. This is the great science of the saints, so little
heeded by the worldly; it is the bread of life and the spiritual food
of the little ones, which gives wisdom to them and the want of which
starves the lovers of this proud world (Wis. 15, 3). In this science
I wish thee to be studious and wise, for with it thou canst buy
thyself all good things (Wis. 7, 11). My Son and Lord taught us this
science when He said: “I am the way, the truth and the life: no
one cometh to my Father except through Me” (John 14, 6).
Tell me then, my daughter: if my Lord and Master
has made Himself the life and the way for men through his Passion and
Death, is it not evident that in order to go that
way and live up to this truth, they must follow Christ crucified,
afflicted, scourged and affronted? Consider the ignorance of men who
wish to come to the Father without following Christ, since they
expect to reign with God without suffering or imitating his Passion,
yea without even a thought of accepting any part of his suffering and
Death, or of thanking him for it. They want it to procure for them
the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life, while Christ
their Creator has suffered the most bitter pains and torments in
order to enter heaven and to show them by his example how they are to
find the way of light.
Eternal rest is
incompatible with the shame of not having duly labored for its
attainment. He is not a true son of his father, who does not imitate
him, nor he a good disciple, who does not
follow his Master, nor he a good servant,
who does not accompany his lord; nor do I count him a devoted child,
who does not suffer with me and my divine Son. But our love for the
eternal salvation of men obliges us, who see them forgetful of this
truth and so adverse to suffering, to send them labors and
punishments, so that if they do not freely welcome them, they may at
least be forced to undergo them and so be enabled to enter upon the
way of salvation. And yet even all this is insufficient, since their
inclinations and their blind love of visible things detains them and
makes them hard and heavy of heart: they rob them of remembrance and
affection toward these higher things, which might raise them above
themselves and above created things. Hence it comes, that men do not
find joy in their tribulations, nor rest in their labors, nor
consolation in their sorrows, nor any peace in adversities. For,
altogether different from the saints who glory in tribulation as the
fulfillment of their most earnest desires, they desire none of it and
abhor all that is painful. In many of the faithful ignorance goes
still farther; for some of them expect to be distinguished by God’s
most intimate love, others, to be pardoned without penance, others,
to be highly favored. Nothing of all this will they attain, because
do not ask in the name of Christ the Lord and because they do not
wish to imitate Him and follow Him in his Passion.
Therefore, my daughter, embrace the
Cross and do not admit any consolation outside of it in this mortal
life. By contemplating and feeling within thyself the sacred Passion
thou wilt attain the summit of perfection and attain the love of a
spouse. Bless and magnify my most holy Son for the love with which He
delivered Himself up for the salvation of mankind. Little do mortals
heed this mystery; but I, as an Eyewitness, assure thee, next to
ascending to the right hand of his eternal Father, nothing was so
highly estimated and earnestly desired by Him, as to offer Himself
for suffering and death and to deliver Himself up entirely to his
enemies. I wish also that thou lament with great sorrow the fact that
Judas, in his malice and treachery, has many more followers than
Christ. Many are the infidels, many the bad Catholics, many the
hypocrites, who under the name of a Christian, sell and deliver Him
and wish to crucify Him anew. Bewail all these evils, which thou
understandest and knowest, in order that thou mayest imitate and
follow me in this matter.
Book 6, Chapter 5
JESUS
BROUGHT BEFORE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS
Having been taken prisoner and firmly
bound, the most meek Lamb Jesus was dragged from the garden to the
house of the highpriests, first to the house of Annas (John 18, 13).
The turbulent band of soldiers and servants, having been advised by
the traitorous disciple that his Master was a sorcerer and could
easily escape their hands, if they did not carefully bind and chain
Him securely before starting on their way, took all precautions
inspired by such a mistrust (Mark 14, 44). Lucifer and his compeers
of darkness secretly irritated and provoked them to increase their
impious and sacrilegious illtreatment of the Lord beyond all bounds
of humanity and decency. As they were willing accomplices of
Lucifer’s malice, they omitted no outrage against the person of
their Creator within the limits set them by the Almighty. They bound
Him with a heavy iron chain with such ingenuity, that it encircled as
well the waist as the neck. The two ends of the chain which remained
free, were attached to large rings or handcuffs, with which they
manacled the hands of the Lord, who created the heavens, the angels
and the whole universe. The hands thus secured and bound, they
fastened not in front, but behind. This chain they had brought from
the house of Annas the highpriest, where it had served to raise the
portcullis of a dungeon. They had wrenched it from its place and
provided it with padlock handcuffs. But they were not satisfied with
this unheard–of way of securing a prisoner; for in their
distrust they added two pieces of strong rope: the one they wound
around the throat of Jesus and, crossing it at the breast, bound it
in heavy knots all about the body, leaving two long ends free in
front, in order that the servants and soldiers might jerk Him in
different directions along the way. The second rope served to tie his
arms, being bound likewise around his waist. The two ends of this
rope were left hanging free to be used by two other executioners for
jerking Him from behind.
The Author of our salvation, hiding
his power of annihilating his enemies in order that our Redemption
might be the more abundant, submitted to all the consequences of the
impious fury which Lucifer and his hellish squadron fomented in the
Jews. They dragged Him bound and chained under continued
ill–treatment to the house of Annas, before whom they presented
Him as a malefactor worthy of death. It was the custom of the Jews to
present thus bound those criminals who merited capital punishment;
and they now made use of this custom in regard to Jesus, in order to
intimate his sentence even before the trial. The sacrilegious priest
Annas seated himself in proud and arrogant state on the platform or
tribunal of a great hall. Immediately Lucifer placed himself at his
side with a multitude of evil spirits.
Imperiously and
haughtily the highpriest asked Him about his disciples (John 18,
191), and what doctrine He was preaching and teaching. This question
was put merely for the purpose of misinterpreting his answer, if
Jesus should utter any word that afforded such a chance. But the
Master of holiness, who is the Guide and the Corrector of the most
wise (Wis. 7, 15), offer to the eternal Father the humiliation of
being presented as a criminal before the highpriest and of being
questioned by him as a prevaricator and author of a false doctrine.
Our Redeemer with an humble and cheerful countenance answered the
question as to his doctrines: “I have spoken openly to the
world: I have always taught in the synagogue and in the temple,
whither all the Jews resort: and in secret I have spoken nothing. Why
askest thou Me? ask these, who have heard what I have spoken unto
them: behold they know what I have said,” As
the doctrine of Christ our Lord came from his eternal Father, He
spoke for it and defended its honor. He referred them to his hearers,
both because those by whom He was now surrounded, would not believe
Him and wished to distort all He should say, and because the truth
and force of his teachings recommended and forced themselves upon the
minds of his greatest enemies by their own excellence.
Concerning the Apostles He said nothing, because
it was not necessary on this occasion and because were not reflecting
much credit upon their Master by their present conduct. Though his
answer was so full of wisdom and so well suited to the question, yet
one of the servants of the highpriest rushed up with raised hand and
audaciously struck the venerable and sacred face of Jesus, saying:
“Answerest Thou the high priest so?” The Lord accepted
this boundless injury, praying for the one who had inflicted it; and
holding Himself ready, if necessary, to turn and offer the other
cheek for a second stroke, according to the doctrine He had himself
inculcated (Matth. 5, 39). But in order that the atrocious and daring
offender might not shamelessly boast of his wickedness, the Lord
replied with great tranquillity and meekness: “If I have spoken
evil, give testimony of the evil; if well, why strikest thou Me?”
O sight most astounding to the supernal spirits! Since this is He, at
the mere sound of whose voice the foundations of the heavens tremble
and ought to tremble and the whole firmament is shaken! While this
ill–treatment of the Lord was going on, saint Peter and the
other disciple, who was none other than saint John arrived at the
house of Annas. Saint John, as being well known there, readily
obtained entrance, while saint Peter remained outside. Afterwards the
servant maid, who was an acquaintance of saint John, allowed also him
to enter and see what would happen to the Lord (John 18, 16). The two
disciples remained in the portico adjoining the court–hall of
the priest, and saint Peter approached the fire, which the soldiers,
on account of the coldness of the night, had built in the enclosure
near the portico. The servant maid, on closer inspection, noticed the
depressed bearing of saint Peter. Coming up to him she recognized him
as a disciple of Jesus, and said: “Art thou not perhaps one of
the disciples of this Man?” This question was asked by the maid
with an air of contempt and reproach. Peter in his great weakness and
hesitancy yielded to a sense of shame. Overcome also by his fear he
answered: “I am not his disciple.” Having given this
answer, he slipped away to avoid further conversation, and left the
premises. But he soon afterwards followed his Master to the house of
Caiphas, where he denied Him again at two different times, as I shall
relate farther on.
The denial of Peter caused greater
pain to the Lord than the buffet which He had received; for this sin
was directly opposed and abhorrent to his immense charity, while
pains and sufferings were sweet and welcome to Him, since He could
thereby atone for our sins. After this first denial of Peter, Christ
prayed for him to his eternal Father and ordained that through the
intercession of the blessed Mary he should obtain pardon even after
the third denial. The great Lady witnessed all that passed from her
oratory, as I have said. As She contained in her own breast the
propitiatory and sacrifice of her Son and Lord in sacramental form,
She directed her petitions and loving aspirations to Him, eliciting
most heroic acts of compassion, thanksgiving adoration and worship.
She bitterly wept over the denial of saint Peter, and ceased not,
until She perceived that the Lord would not refuse him the necessary
helps for effectually rising from his fall.
The whole rabble of infernal spirits
and merciless foes of Christ left the house of Annas and dragged our
Lord Savior through the streets to the house of Caiphas, exercising
upon Him all the cruelty of their ignominious fury. The highpriests
and his attendants broke out in loud derision and laughter, when they
saw Jesus brought amid tumultuous noise into their presence beheld
Him now subject to their power and jurisdiction without hope of
escape. O mystery of the most exalted wisdom of heaven! O foolishness
and ignorance of hell, and blind stupidity of mortals! What a
distance immeasurable do I see between the doings of the Most High
and yours!
The highpriest Caiphas, filled with a
deadly envy and hatred against the Master of life, was seated in his
chair of state or throne. With him were Lucifer and all his demons,
who had come from the house of Annas. The scribes and pharisees, like
bloodthirsty wolves, surrounded the gentle Lamb; all of them were
full of the exultation of the envious, who see the object of their
envy confounded and brought down. By common consent they sought for
witnesses, whom they could bribe to bring false testimonies against
Jesus our Savior (Matth. 26, 59). Those that had been procured,
advanced to proffer their accusations and testimony; but their
accusations neither agreed with each other, nor could any of their
slander be made to apply to Him, who of his very nature was innocence
and holiness (Mark 25,56; Heb. 7,26).
Our Savior Jesus answered not a word to all
calumnies and lies brought forward against his innocence. Caiphas,
provoked by the patient silence of the Lord, rose up in his seat and
said to Him: “Why dost Thou not answer to what so many
witnesses testify against Thee?” But even to this the Lord made
no response. For Caiphas and the rest were not only indisposed to
believe Him; but they treacherously wished make use of his answer in
order to calumniate Him and satisfy the people in their proceedings
against the Galileean, so that they might not be thought to have
condemned Him to death without cause. This humble silence, which
should have appeased the wicked priest only infuriated him so much
the more because it frustrated his evil purpose. Lucifer, who incited
the high priest and all the rest, intently watched the conduct of the
Savior. But the intention of the dragon was different from that of
the high priest. He merely wanted to irritate the Lord, or to hear
some word, by which could ascertain whether he was true God.
With this purpose satan stirred up Caiphas to the
highest pitch of rage and to ask in great wrath and haughtiness: “I
adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us, if Thou be the
Christ, the Son of God.” This question of the highpriest
certainly convicted him at once of the deepest folly and of dreadful
blasphemy for if it was sincere, he had permitted Christ to be
brought before his tribunal in doubt whether He was the true God or
not, which would make him guilty of the most formidable and audacious
crime. The doubt in such a matter should have been solved in quite
another way, conformable to the demands of right reason and justice.
Christ our Savior, hearing Himself conjured by the living God,
inwardly adored and reverenced the Divinity, though appealed to by
such sacrilegious lips. Out of reverence for the name of God He
therefore answered: “Thou hast said: I am He. Nevertheless I
say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man (who I am) sitting
on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of
heaven” (Matth. 26, 64).
But the highpriest, furious at the answer of the
Lord, instead of looking upon it as a solution of his doubt rose once
more in his seat, and rending his garments as an outward
manifestation of his zeal for the honor of God, loudly cried out: “He
hath blasphemed; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now
you have heard the blasphemy: what think you?” (Matth. 26, 65.)
The real blasphemy however consisted rather in these words of
Caiphas, since he denied the certain fact that Christ was the Son of
God by his very nature, and since he attributed to the divine
Personality sinfulness, which was directly repugnant to his very
nature. Such was the folly of the wicked priest, who by his office
should have recognized and proclaimed the universal truth. He made of
himself an execrable blasphemer in maintaining that He, who is
holiness itself, had blasphemed. Having previously, with satanical
instinct, abused his high office in prophesying that the death of one
man is better than the ruin of all the people, he now was hindered by
his sins from understanding his own prophecy. As the example and the
opinions of princes and prelates powerfully stirs up the flattery and
subserviency of inferiors, that whole gathering of wickedness was
incensed at the Savior Jesus: all exclaimed in a loud voice: “He
is guilty of death (Matth. 26, 66), let Him die, let Him die!”
Roused by satanic fury they all fell upon their most meek Master and
discharged upon Him their wrath. Some of them struck Him in the face,
others kicked Him, others tore out his hair, others spat upon his
venerable countenance others slapped or struck Him in the neck, which
was a treatment reserved among the Jews only for the most abject and
vile of criminals. All these affronts, reproaches and insults were
seen and felt by the most holy Mary causing in Her the same pains and
wounds in the same parts of her body and at the same time as
inflicted upon the Lord. The only difference was, that in our Lord
the blows and torments were inflicted by the Jews themselves, while
in his most pure Mother they were caused by the Almighty in a
miraculous manner and upon request of the Lady. According to natural
laws, the vehemence of her interior sorrow and anxiety would have put
an end to her life; but She was strengthened by divine power, so as
to be able to continue to suffer with her Son and Lord.
The interior acts performed by the Savior under
these barbarous and unheard of persecutions, cannot be fathomed by
human reason or faculties. Mary alone understood them fully, so as to
be able to imitate them with the highest perfection. But as the
divine Master now experienced in his own Person, how necessary his
sympathy would be for those who were to follow him and practice his
doctrine, He exerted Himself so much the more in procuring for them
grace and blessings on this occasion, in which He was teaching them
by his own example the narrow way of perfection. In the midst of
these injuries and torments, and those which followed thereafter, the
Lord established for his perfect and chosen souls the beatitudes,
which He had promised and proposed to them some time before. He
looked upon the poor in spirit, who were to imitate Him in this
virtue and said: “Blessed are you in being stripped of the
earthly goods; for by my Passion and Death I am to entail upon you
the heavenly kingdom as a secure and certain possession of voluntary
poverty. Blessed are those who meekly suffer and bear adversities and
tribulations; for, besides the joy of having imitated Me, they shall
possess the land of the hearts and the good will of men through the
peacefulness of their interactions and the sweetness of their
virtues. Blessed are they that weep while they sow in tears; for in
them, they receive the bread of understanding and life, and they
shall afterwards harvest the fruits of everlasting joy and bliss.”
“Blessed are
also those who hunger and thirst for justice and truth; for I shall
earn for them satiation far beyond all their desires, as well in the
reign of grace as in the reign of glory. Blessed are they, who,
imitating Me in my offers of pardon and friendship, mercifully pity
those that offend and persecute them; for I promise them the fulness
of mercy from my Father. Blessed be the pure of heart, who imitate Me
in crucifying their flesh in order to preserve the purity of their
souls. I promise them the vision of peace and of my Divinity, by
becoming like unto Me and by partaking of Me. Blessed are the
peaceful, who, yielding their rights, do not resist the evil–minded
and deal with them with a sincere and tranquil heart without
vengeance; they shall be called my children, because they imitate my
eternal Father and I shall write them in my memory and in my mind as
my adopted sons. Those that suffer persecution for justice’s
sake, shall be the blessed heirs of my celestial kingdom, since they
suffer with Me; and where I am, there also they shall be in eternity.
Rejoice, ye poor; be consoled all ye that are and shall be afflicted;
glory in your lot, ye little ones and despised ones of this world,
you who suffer in humility and longanimity, suffer with an interior
rejoicing; since all of you are following Me in the path of truth.
Renounce vanity, despise the pomp and haughtiness of the false and
deceitful Babylon; pass ye through the fires and the waters of
tribulation until you reach Me, who am the light, the truth and your
guide to the eternal rest and refreshment.”
By the ill–treatment, which the
Lord received in the presence of Caiphas, the wrath of this
high priest and of all his supporters and ministers was much gratified
though not at all satiated. But as it was already past midnight, the
whole council of these wicked men resolved to take good care, that
the Savior be securely watched and confined until the morning, lest
He should escape while they were asleep. For this purpose they
ordered Him to be locked, bound as He was, in one of the subterranean
dungeons, a prison cell set apart for the most audacious robbers and
criminals of the state. Scarcely any light penetrated into this
prison to dispel its darkness. It was filled with such uncleanness
and stench, that it would have infected the whole house, if it had
not been so remote and so well enclosed; for it had not been cleaned
for many years, both because it was so deep down and because of the
degradation of the criminals that were confined in it; for none
thought it worthwhile making it habitable than for mere wild beasts,
unworthy of all human kindness.
WORDS OF THE QUEEN
The Virgin Mary
speaks to Sister Mary of Agreda, Spain
My daughter, to great deeds art thou
called and on account of the divine enlightenment thou receivest
concerning the mysteries of the sufferings of my most holy Son and of
myself for the human race, and on account of the knowledge which thou
hast obtained concerning the small return made by heartless and
ungrateful men for all our pains. Thou livest yet in mortal flesh and
art thyself subject to this ignorance and weakness; but by the force
of truth thou art now roused to great wonder, sorrow and compassion
at the want of attention displayed by mortals toward these great
sacraments and at the losses sustained by them through their
lukewarmness and negligence. What then are the thoughts of the angels
and saints, and what are my thoughts in beholding this world and all
the faithful in such a dangerous and dreadful state of carelessness,
when they have the Passion and Death of my divine Son before their
eyes, and when they have me, for their Mother and Intercessor and his
most pure life and mine for an example? I tell thee truly, my
dearest, only my intercession and the merits of his Son, which I
offer to the eternal Father, can delay the punishment and placate his
wrath, can retard the destruction of the world and the severe
chastisement of the children of the Church, who know his will and
fail to fulfill it (John 15, 15). But I am much incensed to find so
few who condole with me and try to console my Son in his sorrows, as
David says (Ps. 68, 21). This hardness of heart will cause great
confusion to them on the day of judgment; since they will then see
with irreparable sorrow, not only that they were ungrateful, but
inhuman and cruel toward my divine Son, toward me and toward
themselves.
Consider then thy
duty, my dearest, and raise thyself above all earthly things and
above thyself; for I am calling thee and
choose thee to imitate and follow me into the solitude, in which I am
left by creatures, whom my Son and I have pursued with so many
blessings and favors. Weigh in thy heart, how much it cost my Lord to
reconcile mankind to the eternal Father (Colos. 1, 22) and regain for
them his friendship. Weep and afflict thyself that so many should
live in such forgetfulness and that so many should labor with all
their might at destroying and losing what was bought by the blood of
God itself and all that I from the first moment of my Conception have
sought to procure and am procuring for their salvation. Awaken in thy
heart the deepest grief, that in his holy Church there should be many
followers of the hypocritical and sacrilegious priests who, under
cover of a false piety, still condemn Christ; that pride and
sumptuousness with other grave vices should be raised to authority
and exalted, while humility, truth, justice and all virtues be so
oppressed and debased and avarice and vanity should prevail. Few know
the poverty of Christ, and fewer embrace it. Holy faith is hindered
and is not spread among the nations on account of the boundless
ambition of the mighty of this earth; in many Catholics it is
inactive and dead; and whatever should be living, is near to death
and to eternal perdition. The counsels of the Gospel are forgotten,
its precepts trodden under foot, charity almost extinct. My son and
true God offers his cheeks in patience and meekness to be buffeted
and wounded (Thren. 3, 30). Who pardons an insult for the sake of
imitating Him? Just the contrary is set up as law in this world, not
only by the infidels, but by the very children of the faith and of
light.
In
recognizing these sins I desire that thou imitate
me in what I did during the Passion and during my whole life, namely
practice the virtues opposed to these vices. As a recompense for
their blasphemies, I blessed God; for their oaths, I praised Him; for
their unbelief, I excited acts of faith, and so for all the rest of
the sins committed. This is what I desire thee to do while living in
this world. Fly also from dangerous interactions with creatures,
taught by the example of Peter, for thou art not stronger than he,
the Apostle of Christ; and if thou fall in thy weakness, weep over
thy fault and immediately seek my intercession. Make up for thy
ordinary faults and weaknesses by thy patience in adversities, accept
them with a joyous mien and without disturbance, no matter what they
may be, whether they be sickness or the molestations coming from
creatures, or whether they arise from the opposition of the flesh to
the spirit, or from the conflicts with visible or invisible enemies.
In all these things canst thou suffer and must thou bear in faith,
hope and magnanimous sentiment. I remind thee that there is no
exercise more profitable and useful for the soul than to suffer: for
suffering gives light, undeceives, detaches the heart from visible
things and raises it up to the Lord. He will come to meet those in
suffering, because He is with the afflicted and sends to them his
protection and help (Ps. 40,15).
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Catholic Catechism
PART FOUR - CHRISTIAN PRAYER
SECTION TWO - THE LORD'S PRAYER
ARTICLE 3
THE SEVEN PETITIONS
2803 After we have placed ourselves in the presence of God our Father to adore and to love and to bless him, the Spirit of adoption stirs up in our hearts seven petitions, seven blessings. The first three, more theological, draw us toward the glory of the Father; the last four, as ways toward him, commend our wretchedness to his grace. "Deep calls to deep."63
2804 The first series of petitions carries us toward him, for his own sake: thy name, thy kingdom, thy will! It is characteristic of love to think first of the one whom we love. In none of the three petitions do we mention ourselves; the burning desire, even anguish, of the beloved Son for his Father's glory seizes us:64 "hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. . . . " These three supplications were already answered in the saving sacrifice of Christ, but they are henceforth directed in hope toward their final fulfillment, for God is not yet all in all.65
2805 The second series of petitions unfolds with the same movement as certain Eucharistic epicleses: as an offering up of our expectations, that draws down upon itself the eyes of the Father of mercies. They go up from us and concern us from this very moment, in our present world: "give us . . . forgive us . . . lead us not . . . deliver us. . . . " The fourth and fifth petitions concern our life as such - to be fed and to be healed of sin; the last two concern our battle for the victory of life - that battle of prayer.
2806 By the three first petitions, we are strengthened in faith, filled with hope, and set aflame by charity. Being creatures and still sinners, we have to petition for us, for that "us" bound by the world and history, which we offer to the boundless love of God. For through the name of his Christ and the reign of his Holy Spirit, our Father accomplishes his plan of salvation, for us and for the whole world.
I. "HALLOWED BE THY NAME"
2807 The term "to hallow" is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way. And so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving.66 But this petition is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a desire, and an expectation in which God and man are involved. Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, "according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ," that we might "be holy and blameless before him in love."67
2808 In the decisive moments of his economy God reveals his name, but he does so by accomplishing his work. This work, then, is realized for us and in us only if his name is hallowed by us and in us.
2809 The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of his eternal mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and history, Scripture calls "glory," the radiance of his majesty.68 In making man in his image and likeness, God "crowned him with glory and honor," but by sinning, man fell "short of the glory of God."69 From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator.70
2810 In the promise to Abraham and the oath that accompanied it,71 God commits himself but without disclosing his name. He begins to reveal it to Moses and makes it known clearly before the eyes of the whole people when he saves them from the Egyptians: "he has triumphed gloriously."72 From the covenant of Sinai onwards, this people is "his own" and it is to be a "holy (or "consecrated": the same word is used for both in Hebrew) nation,"73 because the name of God dwells in it.
2811 In spite of the holy Law that again and again their Holy God gives them - "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" - and although the Lord shows patience for the sake of his name, the people turn away from the Holy One of Israel and profane his name among the nations.74 For this reason the just ones of the old covenant, the poor survivors returned from exile, and the prophets burned with passion for the name.
2812 Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is revealed and given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his word, and by his sacrifice.75 This is the heart of his priestly prayer: "Holy Father . . . for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth."76 Because he "sanctifies" his own name, Jesus reveals to us the name of the Father.77 At the end of Christ's Passover, the Father gives him the name that is above all names: "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."78
2813 In the waters of Baptism, we have been "washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."79 Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life, and since "he is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and . . .sanctification,"80 both his glory and our life depend on the hallowing of his name in us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition.
II. "THY KINGDOM COME"
2816 In the New Testament, the word basileia can be translated by "kingship" (abstract noun), "kingdom" (concrete noun) or "reign" (action noun). The Kingdom of God lies ahead of us. It is brought near in the Word incarnate, it is proclaimed throughout the whole Gospel, and it has come in Christ's death and Resurrection. The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in our midst. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father:
2819 "The kingdom of God [is] righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."90 The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between "the flesh" and the Spirit.91
THE SEVEN PETITIONS
2803 After we have placed ourselves in the presence of God our Father to adore and to love and to bless him, the Spirit of adoption stirs up in our hearts seven petitions, seven blessings. The first three, more theological, draw us toward the glory of the Father; the last four, as ways toward him, commend our wretchedness to his grace. "Deep calls to deep."63
2804 The first series of petitions carries us toward him, for his own sake: thy name, thy kingdom, thy will! It is characteristic of love to think first of the one whom we love. In none of the three petitions do we mention ourselves; the burning desire, even anguish, of the beloved Son for his Father's glory seizes us:64 "hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. . . . " These three supplications were already answered in the saving sacrifice of Christ, but they are henceforth directed in hope toward their final fulfillment, for God is not yet all in all.65
2805 The second series of petitions unfolds with the same movement as certain Eucharistic epicleses: as an offering up of our expectations, that draws down upon itself the eyes of the Father of mercies. They go up from us and concern us from this very moment, in our present world: "give us . . . forgive us . . . lead us not . . . deliver us. . . . " The fourth and fifth petitions concern our life as such - to be fed and to be healed of sin; the last two concern our battle for the victory of life - that battle of prayer.
2806 By the three first petitions, we are strengthened in faith, filled with hope, and set aflame by charity. Being creatures and still sinners, we have to petition for us, for that "us" bound by the world and history, which we offer to the boundless love of God. For through the name of his Christ and the reign of his Holy Spirit, our Father accomplishes his plan of salvation, for us and for the whole world.
I. "HALLOWED BE THY NAME"
2807 The term "to hallow" is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way. And so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving.66 But this petition is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a desire, and an expectation in which God and man are involved. Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, "according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ," that we might "be holy and blameless before him in love."67
2808 In the decisive moments of his economy God reveals his name, but he does so by accomplishing his work. This work, then, is realized for us and in us only if his name is hallowed by us and in us.
2809 The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of his eternal mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and history, Scripture calls "glory," the radiance of his majesty.68 In making man in his image and likeness, God "crowned him with glory and honor," but by sinning, man fell "short of the glory of God."69 From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator.70
2810 In the promise to Abraham and the oath that accompanied it,71 God commits himself but without disclosing his name. He begins to reveal it to Moses and makes it known clearly before the eyes of the whole people when he saves them from the Egyptians: "he has triumphed gloriously."72 From the covenant of Sinai onwards, this people is "his own" and it is to be a "holy (or "consecrated": the same word is used for both in Hebrew) nation,"73 because the name of God dwells in it.
2811 In spite of the holy Law that again and again their Holy God gives them - "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" - and although the Lord shows patience for the sake of his name, the people turn away from the Holy One of Israel and profane his name among the nations.74 For this reason the just ones of the old covenant, the poor survivors returned from exile, and the prophets burned with passion for the name.
2812 Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is revealed and given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his word, and by his sacrifice.75 This is the heart of his priestly prayer: "Holy Father . . . for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth."76 Because he "sanctifies" his own name, Jesus reveals to us the name of the Father.77 At the end of Christ's Passover, the Father gives him the name that is above all names: "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."78
2813 In the waters of Baptism, we have been "washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."79 Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life, and since "he is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and . . .sanctification,"80 both his glory and our life depend on the hallowing of his name in us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition.
- By whom is God hallowed, since he is the one who hallows? But since he said, "You shall be holy to me; for I the LORD am holy," we seek and ask that we who were sanctified in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be. And we ask this daily, for we need sanctification daily, so that we who fail daily may cleanse away our sins by being sanctified continually. . . . We pray that this sanctification may remain in us.81
- We ask God to hallow his name, which by its own holiness saves and makes holy all creation . . . . It is this name that gives salvation to a lost world. But we ask that this name of God should be hallowed in us through our actions. For God's name is blessed when we live well, but is blasphemed when we live wickedly. As the Apostle says: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." We ask then that, just as the name of God is holy, so we may obtain his holiness in our souls.82 When we say "hallowed be thy name," we ask that it should be hallowed in us, who are in him; but also in others whom God's grace still awaits, that we may obey the precept that obliges us to pray for everyone, even our enemies. That is why we do not say expressly "hallowed be thy name 'in us,"' for we ask that it be so in all men.83
II. "THY KINGDOM COME"
2816 In the New Testament, the word basileia can be translated by "kingship" (abstract noun), "kingdom" (concrete noun) or "reign" (action noun). The Kingdom of God lies ahead of us. It is brought near in the Word incarnate, it is proclaimed throughout the whole Gospel, and it has come in Christ's death and Resurrection. The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in our midst. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father:
- It may even be . . . that the Kingdom of God means Christ himself, whom we daily desire to come, and whose coming we wish to be manifested quickly to us. For as he is our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood as the Kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign.86
- Even if it had not been prescribed to pray for the coming of the kingdom, we would willingly have brought forth this speech, eager to embrace our hope. In indignation the souls of the martyrs under the altar cry out to the Lord: "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?" For their retribution is ordained for the end of the world. Indeed as soon as possible, Lord, may your kingdom come!87
2819 "The kingdom of God [is] righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."90 The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between "the flesh" and the Spirit.91
- Only a pure soul can boldly say: "Thy kingdom come." One who has heard Paul say, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies," and has purified himself in action, thought and word will say to God: "Thy kingdom come!"92
III. "THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN"
2822 Our Father "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."95 He "is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish."96 His commandment is "that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."97 This commandment summarizes all the others and expresses his entire will.
2823 "He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ . . . to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will."98 We ask insistently for this loving plan to be fully realized on earth as it is already in heaven.
2824 In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said on entering into this world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God."99 Only Jesus can say: "I always do what is pleasing to him."100 In the prayer of his agony, he consents totally to this will: "not my will, but yours be done."101 For this reason Jesus "gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father."102 "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."103
2825 "Although he was a Son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered."104 How much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience - we who in him have become children of adoption. We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son's, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to the Father.105
2827 "If any one is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him."110 Such is the power of the Church's prayer in the name of her Lord, above all in the Eucharist. Her prayer is also a communion of intercession with the all-holy Mother of God111 and all the saints who have been pleasing to the Lord because they willed his will alone:
2828 "Give us": The trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."113 He gives to all the living "their food in due season."114 Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness.
2829 "Give us" also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this "us" also recognizes him as the Father of all men and we pray to him for them all, in solidarity with their needs and sufferings.
2830 "Our bread": The Father who gives us life cannot not but give us the nourishment life requires - all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that cooperates with our Father's providence.115 He is not inviting us to idleness,116 but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the filial surrender of the children of God:
2832 As leaven in the dough, the newness of the kingdom should make the earth "rise" by the Spirit of Christ.119 This must be shown by the establishment of justice in personal and social, economic and international relations, without ever forgetting that there are no just structures without people who want to be just.
2833 "Our" bread is the "one" loaf for the "many." In the Beatitudes "poverty" is the virtue of sharing: it calls us to communicate and share both material and spiritual goods, not by coercion but out of love, so that the abundance of some may remedy the needs of others.120
2834 "Pray and work."121 "Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you."122 Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it and to thank him, as Christian families do when saying grace at meals.
2835 This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by bread alone, but . . . by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,"123 that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort "to proclaim the good news to the poor." There is a famine on earth, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD."124 For this reason the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: The Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist.125
2836 "This day" is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord,126 which we would never have presumed to invent. Since it refers above all to his Word and to the Body of his Son, this "today" is not only that of our mortal time, but also the "today" of God.
2838 This petition is astonishing. If it consisted only of the first phrase, "And forgive us our trespasses," it might have been included, implicitly, in the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer, since Christ's sacrifice is "that sins may be forgiven." But, according to the second phrase, our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to the future, but our response must come first, for the two parts are joined by the single word "as."
And forgive us our trespasses . . .
2839 With bold confidence, we began praying to our Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we ourselves might be always made more holy. But though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do not cease to sin, to turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return to him like the prodigal son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him.133 Our petition begins with a "confession" of our wretchedness and his mercy. Our hope is firm because, in his Son, "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."134 We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.135
2840 Now - and this is daunting - this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see.136 In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father's merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.
2841 This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount.137 This crucial requirement of the covenant mystery is impossible for man. But "with God all things are possible."138
. . . as we forgive those who trespass against us
2842 This "as" is not unique in Jesus' teaching: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect"; "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful"; "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."139 It is impossible to keep the Lord's commandment by imitating the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and the love of our God. Only the Spirit by whom we live can make "ours" the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.140 Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible and we find ourselves "forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave" us.141
2843 Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end,142 become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."143 It is there, in fact, "in the depths of the heart," that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.
2822 Our Father "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."95 He "is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish."96 His commandment is "that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."97 This commandment summarizes all the others and expresses his entire will.
2823 "He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ . . . to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will."98 We ask insistently for this loving plan to be fully realized on earth as it is already in heaven.
2824 In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said on entering into this world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God."99 Only Jesus can say: "I always do what is pleasing to him."100 In the prayer of his agony, he consents totally to this will: "not my will, but yours be done."101 For this reason Jesus "gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father."102 "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."103
2825 "Although he was a Son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered."104 How much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience - we who in him have become children of adoption. We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son's, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to the Father.105
- In committing ourselves to [Christ], we can become one spirit with him, and thereby accomplish his will, in such wise that it will be perfect on earth as it is in heaven.106 Consider how Jesus Christ] teaches us to be humble, by making us see that our virtue does not depend on our work alone but on grace from on high. He commands each of the faithful who prays to do so universally, for the whole world. For he did not say "thy will be done in me or in us," but "on earth," the whole earth, so that error may be banished from it, truth take root in it, all vice be destroyed on it, virtue flourish on it, and earth no longer differ from heaven.107
2827 "If any one is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him."110 Such is the power of the Church's prayer in the name of her Lord, above all in the Eucharist. Her prayer is also a communion of intercession with the all-holy Mother of God111 and all the saints who have been pleasing to the Lord because they willed his will alone:
- It would not be inconsistent with the truth to understand the words, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," to mean: "in the Church as in our Lord Jesus Christ himself"; or "in the Bride who has been betrothed, just as in the Bridegroom who has accomplished the will of the Father."112
2828 "Give us": The trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."113 He gives to all the living "their food in due season."114 Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness.
2829 "Give us" also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this "us" also recognizes him as the Father of all men and we pray to him for them all, in solidarity with their needs and sufferings.
2830 "Our bread": The Father who gives us life cannot not but give us the nourishment life requires - all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that cooperates with our Father's providence.115 He is not inviting us to idleness,116 but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the filial surrender of the children of God:
- To those who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides. Since everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God wants for nothing, if he himself is not found wanting before God.117
2832 As leaven in the dough, the newness of the kingdom should make the earth "rise" by the Spirit of Christ.119 This must be shown by the establishment of justice in personal and social, economic and international relations, without ever forgetting that there are no just structures without people who want to be just.
2833 "Our" bread is the "one" loaf for the "many." In the Beatitudes "poverty" is the virtue of sharing: it calls us to communicate and share both material and spiritual goods, not by coercion but out of love, so that the abundance of some may remedy the needs of others.120
2834 "Pray and work."121 "Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you."122 Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it and to thank him, as Christian families do when saying grace at meals.
2835 This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by bread alone, but . . . by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,"123 that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort "to proclaim the good news to the poor." There is a famine on earth, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD."124 For this reason the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: The Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist.125
2836 "This day" is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord,126 which we would never have presumed to invent. Since it refers above all to his Word and to the Body of his Son, this "today" is not only that of our mortal time, but also the "today" of God.
- If you receive the bread each day, each day is today for you. If Christ is yours today, he rises for you every day. How can this be? "You are my Son, today I have begotten you." Therefore, "today" is when Christ rises.127
- The Eucharist is our daily bread. The
power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect
is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made
members of him, we may become what we receive. . . . This also is our
daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you
hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.131 The
Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread
of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised
up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb,
reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each
day with food from heaven.132
2838 This petition is astonishing. If it consisted only of the first phrase, "And forgive us our trespasses," it might have been included, implicitly, in the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer, since Christ's sacrifice is "that sins may be forgiven." But, according to the second phrase, our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to the future, but our response must come first, for the two parts are joined by the single word "as."
And forgive us our trespasses . . .
2839 With bold confidence, we began praying to our Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we ourselves might be always made more holy. But though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do not cease to sin, to turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return to him like the prodigal son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him.133 Our petition begins with a "confession" of our wretchedness and his mercy. Our hope is firm because, in his Son, "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."134 We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.135
2840 Now - and this is daunting - this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see.136 In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father's merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.
2841 This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount.137 This crucial requirement of the covenant mystery is impossible for man. But "with God all things are possible."138
. . . as we forgive those who trespass against us
2842 This "as" is not unique in Jesus' teaching: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect"; "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful"; "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."139 It is impossible to keep the Lord's commandment by imitating the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and the love of our God. Only the Spirit by whom we live can make "ours" the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.140 Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible and we find ourselves "forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave" us.141
2843 Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end,142 become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."143 It is there, in fact, "in the depths of the heart," that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.
2844 Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies,144 transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God's compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another.145
2845 There is no limit or measure to this essentially divine forgiveness,146 whether one speaks of "sins" as in Luke (11:4), "debts" as in Matthew (6:12). We are always debtors: "Owe no one anything, except to love one another."147 The communion of the Holy Trinity is the source and criterion of truth in every relation ship. It is lived out in prayer, above all in the Eucharist.148
- God does not accept the sacrifice of a sower of disunion, but commands that he depart from the altar so that he may first be reconciled with his brother. For God can be appeased only by prayers that make peace. To God, the better offering is peace, brotherly concord, and a people made one in the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.149
2846 This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to "lead" us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both "do not allow us to enter into temptation" and "do not let us yield to temptation."150 "God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one";151 on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle "between flesh and spirit"; this petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength.
2847 The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man,152 and temptation, which leads to sin and death.153 We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the eyes" and desirable,154 when in reality its fruit is death.
- God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings. . . . There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us.155
2849 Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission and in the ultimate struggle of his agony.159 In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and his agony. He urges us to vigilance of the heart in communion with his own. Vigilance is "custody of the heart," and Jesus prayed for us to the Father: "Keep them in your name."160 The Holy Spirit constantly seeks to awaken us to keep watch.161 Finally, this petition takes on all its dramatic meaning in relation to the last temptation of our earthly battle; it asks for final perseverance. "Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake."162
VII "BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL"
2850 The last petition to our Father is also included in Jesus' prayer: "I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one."163 It touches each of us personally, but it is always "we" who pray, in communion with the whole Church, for the deliverance of the whole human family. The Lord's Prayer continually opens us to the range of God's economy of salvation. Our interdependence in the drama of sin and death is turned into solidarity in the Body of Christ, the "communion of saints."164
2851 In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who "throws himself across" God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ.
2852 "A murderer from the beginning, . . . a liar and the father of lies," Satan is "the deceiver of the whole world."165 Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death."166 Now "we know that anyone born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one."167
- The Lord who has taken away your sin and pardoned your faults also protects you and keeps you from the wiles of your adversary the devil, so that the enemy, who is accustomed to leading into sin, may not surprise you. One who entrusts himself to God does not dread the devil. "If God is for us, who is against us?"168
2854 When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ's return By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who "is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."174
- Deliver us, Lord, we beseech you, from every evil and grant us peace in our day, so that aided by your mercy we might be ever free from sin and protected from all anxiety, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.175
63 Ps 42:7.
64 Cf. Lk 22:14; 12:50.
65 Cf. 1 Cor 15:28.
66 Cf. Ps 111:9; Lk 1:49.
67 Eph 1:9,4.
68 Cf. Ps 8; Isa 6:3.
69 Ps 8:5; Rom 3:23; cf. Gen 1:26.
70 Col 3:10.
71 Cf. Heb 6:13.
72 Ex 15:1; cf. 3:14.
73 Cf. Ex 19:5-6.
74 Ezek 20:9,14,22,39; cf. Lev 19:2.
75 Cf. Mt 1:21; Lk 1:31; Jn 8:28; 17:8; 17:17-19.
76 Jn 17:11,19.
77 Cf. Ezek 20:39; 36:20-21; Jn 17:6.
78 Phil 2:9-11.
79 2 Cor 6:11.
80 1 Cor 1:30; cf. 1 Thess 4:7.
81 St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 12:PL 4,527A; Lev 20:26.
82 St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermo 71,4:PL 52:402A; cf. Rom 2:24; Ezek 36:20-22.
83 Tertullian, De orat. 3:PL 1:1157A.
84 Cf. Jn 14:13; 15:16; 16:24, 26.
85 Jn 17:11.
86 St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 13:PL 4,528A.
87 Tertullian, De orat. 5:PL 1,1159A; cf. Heb 4:11; Rev 6:9; 22:20.
88 Cf. Titus 2:13.
89 Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV,118.
90 Rom 14:17.
91 Cf. Gal 5:16-25.
92 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. myst. 5,13:PG 33,1120A; cf. Rom 6:12.
93 Cf. GS 22; 32; 39; 45; EN 31.
94 Cf. Jn 17:17-20; Mt 5:13-16; 6:24; 7:12-13.
95 1 Tim 2:3-4.
96 2 Pet 3:9; cf. Mt 18:14.
97 Jn 13:34; cf. 1 Jn 3; 4; Lk 10:25-37.
98 Eph 1:9-11.
99 Heb 10:7; Ps 40:7.
100 Jn 8:29.
101 Lk 22:42; cf. Jn 4:34; 5:30; 6:38.
102 Gal 1:4.
103 Heb 10:10.
104 Heb 5:8.
105 Cf. Jn 8:29.
106 Origen, De orat. 26:PG 11,501B.
107 St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in Mt. 19,5:PG 57,280.
108 Rom 12:2; cf. Eph 5:17; cf. Heb 10:36.
109 Mt 7:21.
110 Jn 9:31; cf. 1 Jn 5:14.
111 Cf. Lk 1:38,49.
112 St. Augustine, De serm. Dom. 2,6,24:PL 34,1279.
113 Mt 5:45.
114 PS 104:27.
115 Cf. Mt 6:25-34.
116 Cf. 2 Thess 3:6-13.
117 St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 21:PL 4,534A.
118 Cf. Lk 16:19-31; Mt 25:31-46.
119 Cf. AA 5.
120 Cf. 2 Cor 8:1-15.
121 Cf. St. Benedict, Regula, 20,48.
122 Attributed to St. Ignatius Loyola, cf. Joseph de Guibert, SJ, The Jesuits: Their Spiritual Doctrine and Practice, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1964), 148, n. 55.
123 Deut 8:3; Mt 4:4.
124 Am 8:11.
125 Cf. Jn 6:26-58.
126 Cf. Mt 6:34; Ex 16:19.
127 St. Ambrose, De Sacr. 5,4,26:PL 16,453A; cf. Ps 2:7.
128 Cf. Ex 16:19-21.
129 Cf. 1 Tim 6:8.
130 St. Ignatius Of Antioch, Ad Eph. 20,2:PG 5,661; Jn 6:53-56.
131 St. Augustine, Sermo 57,7:PL 38,389.
132 St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermo 67:PL 52,392; cf. Jn 6:51.
133 Cf. Lk 15:11-32; 18:13.
134 Col 1:14; Eph 1:7.
135 Cf. Mt 26:28; 20:23.
136 Cf. 1 Jn 4:20.
137 Cf. Mt 6:14-15; 5:23-24; Mk 11:25.
138 Mt 19:26.
139 Mt 5:48; Lk 6:36; Jn 13:34.
140 Cf. Gal 5:25; Phil 2:1,5.
141 Eph 4:32.
142 Cf. Jn 13:1.
143 Cf. Mt 18:23-35.
144 Cf. Mt 5:43-44.
145 Cf. 2 Cor 5:18-21; John Paul II, DM 14.
146 Cf. Mt 18:21-22; Lk 17:3-4.
147 Rom 13:8.
148 Cf. Mt 5:23-24; 1 Jn 3:19-24.
149 St. Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 23:PL 4,535-536; cf. Mt 5:24.
150 Cf. Mt 26:41.
151 Jas 113.
152 Cf. Lk 8:13-15; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; 2 Tim 3:12.
153 Cf. Jas 1:14-15.
154 Cf. Gen 3:6.
155 Origen, De orat. 29:PG 11,544CD.
156 Mt 6:21, 24.
157 Gal 5:25.
158 1 Cor 10:13.
159 Cf. Mt 4:1-11; 26:36-44.
160 Jn 17:11; cf. Mk 13:9,23,33-37; 14:38; Lk 12:35-40.
161 Cf. 1 Cor 16:13; Col 4:2; 1 Thess 5:6; 1 Pet 5:8.
162 Rev 16:15.
163 Jn 17:15.
164 Cf. RP 16.
165 Jn 8:44; Rev 12:9.
166 Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV,125.
167 1 Jn 5:18-19.
168 St. Ambrose, De Sacr. 5,4,30:PL 16,454; cf. Rom 8:31.
169 Jn 14:30.
170 Jn 12:31; Rev 12:10.
171 Rev 12:13-16.
172 Rev 12:17.
173 Rev 22:17,20.
174 Rev 1:8,18; cf. Rev 1:4; Eph 1:10.
175 Roman Missal, Embolism after the Lord's Prayer, 126: Libera nos, quæsumus, Domine, ab omnibus malis, da propitius pacem in diebus nostris, ut, ope misericordiæ tuæ adiuti, et a peccato simus semper liberi, et ab omni perturbatione securi: expectantes beatam spem et adventum Salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi.
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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
- Recharge: Directions For Our Times. Heaven Speaks to Young Adults. recharge.cc.
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