DAY 31 - MARY, ARK OF THE COVENANT, PRAY FOR US
RECON
PRAY A ROSARY
- Rosary of the Day: Sorrowful Mysteries
- Traditional 54 Day Rotation: Joyful Mysteries
FEAST OF THE HOLY CROSS
Job, Chapter 2, Verse 3
The LORD said to the
satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him,
blameless and upright, FEARING God
and avoiding evil. He still holds fast to his
innocence although you incited me against him to ruin him for nothing.”
Satan
is indeed our adversary but let us focus on what our Lord tells us.
I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one. (Luke, Chapter 12, Verse 4-5)
It would seem that Christ is talking about the Devil here or is He talking about our very selves.
Christ may have been referring to the rabbinic duality of yetzer hara, the so-called "evil inclination," and the yetzer hatov, the "good inclination,". Yetzer hara is not a demonic force that pushes a person to do evil, but rather a drive toward pleasure or property or security, which if left unlimited, can lead to evil (cf. Genesis Rabbah 9:7). When a person’s will is properly controlled by the yetzer hatov, the yetzer hara leads too many socially desirable results, including marriage, business, and community. In Judaism adults are distinguished from children by the yetzer hatov, which controls and channels the drives that exist unchecked in the child. Thus, children may seek pleasure and acquisition, but they are not able to create a sanctified relationship or exercise the responsibility to engage in business. The young adult is not described as someone who has developed a sophisticated moral sense; in fact, the early adolescent may base moral decisions entirely on fear of punishment. Yet by age 13, the child’s moral sense has developed sufficiently to hold the child responsible for his or her actions.[1]
Another Jewish source states:
ha-Satan,
the Adversary, was one of the “severe” agents of God. Another such harsh but
necessary force in God’s creation is the Yetzer ha-Ra, which is variously
translated as the “Evil Impulse,” the “Evil Desire,” the “Selfish Desire” or
just “Desire.” It is that aspect of nature, but especially human nature, which
drives us to compete, to fight, to possess, but most of all to desire sexual
gratification. Though it is counter-balanced by the Yetzer ha-Tov, the
“altruistic desire,” it is nonetheless the source of much of the grief in human
life – lust, violence, selfishness, vengeance, and ambition. One would think
that humanity would be truly better off if we could destroy this impulse. We
see evil in ourselves, it offends us, and we think the right thing to do is to
totally purge ourselves of it. Yet we don’t truly understand it, for things we
so easily characterize as “evil” actually spring out of the very nexus of
holiness. Surreal as it is, this maaseh makes an incredible point –
it is the strife of the spirit, the very struggle between our impulses that
makes the world work. Without the Yetzer ha-Ra, the world as we know would
cease – people [and animals] would no longer be driven to build, to create, to
have children. In short, life as we know, including not only evil aspects but
most of what we regard as beautiful also, would cease. Without Desire, Life
itself would slowly wither away, and that would be a sad thing. So the goal of
the spiritual person is not to destroy the selfish-sexual-evil impulse, but
rather to sublimate it to God’s purpose. To be truly what God wants us to be,
to achieve our fullest human potential, we need to learn to
bend both our impulses to godly ends. We should not cease to lust,
but should direct that urge toward love. We should turn our impulse toward
vengeance into the desire for justice, our ambition for acquiring possessions
into the creation of true wealth.[2]
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy
Cross[3]
THIS feast is a yearly
commemoration of the erection, at Jerusalem, by Constantine the Great, and his
mother, St. Helena, of the cross on which Christ died. This took place under
the Emperor Heraclius, by whom the holy cross, which Khosroo, King of Persia,
had carried into his own country, was, after fourteen years, recovered, brought
back to Jerusalem, and borne by the emperor himself to the hill of Calvary,
whither it had been borne by the Savior. Upon this occasion a miracle occurred.
As Heraclius was about to carry the cross to the proper place on his shoulders,
out of veneration for it, he found that while wearing the imperial dress he
could not move it, until, by the advice of the patriarch Zachary, he laid aside
his royal ornaments, dressed himself plainly, took off his shoes, and in such
manner made himself like the humble Savior.
Introit
of the Mass: “But it behooves us to glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ, in Whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection”.
Prayer.
O God, Who on this day givest us joy by the annual solemnity of the exaltation
of the holy cross, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may deserve the reward of
His redemption in heaven Whose mystery we have known upon earth.
EPISTLE.
Phil ii. 5-11.
Brethren:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus : Who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied Himself,
taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit
found as a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the
death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given
Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And
that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of
God the Father.
GOSPEL.
John xii. 31-36.
At that time Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews:
Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast
out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself.
(Now this He said, signifying what death He should die.) The multitude answered
Him: We have heard out of the law, that Christ abideth forever: and how sayest
Thou: The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man? Jesus therefore
said to them: Yet a little while the light is among you. Walk whilst you have
the light, that the darkness overtake you not. And he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not whither he goeth. Whilst you have the light, believe in the light
that you may be the children of light.
Instruction
on the Devotion of the Way of the Cross
What is the Holy Way of the Cross?
It is a devotional exercise by which we meditate upon the passion and death of
Jesus, and particularly upon His last way of sorrows, from the house of Pilate
to Mount Calvary. Tradition testifies that after Christ’s ascension the
Christians living in Jerusalem were accustomed particularly to venerate the
holy places which had been sanctified by the passion of the divine Redeemer.
But after Jerusalem fell into the hands of the infidels, so that it became
dangerous, and often impossible, to pass over the ground which Our Lord had
trod, the children of St. Francis of Assisi began to erect in their churches
the fourteen stations of the Way of the Cross, by meditating on which the
faithful might, in spirit, accompany the pilgrims to Jerusalem on the way to
Calvary, dwelling in thought on what Christ had suffered for men. Station here
means a place to pause, a resting point for meditation. This devotion has been
examined and approved by many Popes, enriched with indulgences, and earnestly
recommended to Christians. It may be found in any prayer-book. No exercise is
more profitable to our souls than this.
·
What
can bring before us the love of God and the abominableness and frightfulness of
sin in a more vivid manner than the sufferings of the Godman?
·
How
can we any longer indulge in hate when we hear Jesus pray for His enemies?
·
How
can we give ourselves up to sensuality and lust when we see the divine Savior
scourged, crowned with thorns, and hanging on the cross?
·
How
can we murmur at our trials when we think that Jesus innocent takes up the
cross for us guilty?
In truth, we should see our coldness and indifference
disappear, as ice melts in the heat, we should grow more and more zealous in
the way of virtue, if we would but rightly meditate upon the passion of Christ.
How are visits to the
Stations of the Cross to be made? Rightly to visit
the Stations of the Cross, and to draw there from real benefit, we should at
each station consider with attention, with devotion and sorrow, what Jesus has
done and suffered for us. We should not content ourselves with merely reciting
at each station the proper prayers and meditations, but should pause, to
impress upon our hearts what is there represented, that we may be moved and
quickened to wholesome resolutions. In order to gain the indulgences, we must
endeavor to be in the state of grace, and therefore at least, by way of
beginning, we must have perfect
contrition for our sins.
The
Wednesday, Friday and Saturday following September 14 marks one of the Ember
Days of the Church. See Ember
Days for more information.
Things
to Do:[4]
- Study different symbols and types of
crosses, history and/or significance. Then have an art project — creating
own crosses, using different media, including paper. See variations of crosses for some ideas.
- Learn and pray the prayer to Christ
Crucified; pray the Stations of the Cross. Point out particularly the
phrase repeated at each station:
We adore You, O Christ, and praise You,
Because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world. - Study the history of St. Helena and
Constantine, especially St. Helena’s quest for finding the relics of
Jesus.
- Make sure that crucifixes are displayed
prominently throughout your home. Point out the crucifix in every room
even to the smallest ones. Your child's first word may be
"Jesus"!
- Explain the meaning of the Sign of the Cross
to your children and be sure that even the little ones are taught how to
make it.
- Encourage your children to make reparation
for sin; read about sacramentals.
- Teach your children a short ejaculatory
prayer such as "Through the sign of the Cross deliver us from our
enemies, O our God!".
- Make a dessert in the form of a cross, or
decorated with a cross. Although usually made on Good Friday, Hot Cross
Buns would be appropriate for this day. Make a cross cake, either using a
cross form cake pan, or bake a sheet cake (recipe of choice). Once cool,
cut the cake in half, length ways. Then cut one of these sections in half
width ways. This makes three sections - one long and two short. Lay the
long section onto a serving plate. Set the two small sections next to the
long section forming a cross. Frost and decorate as desired.
- Tradition holds that sweet basil grew over
the hill where St. Helena found the Holy Cross, so in Greece the faithful
are given sprigs of basil by the priest. Cook a basil pesto, tomato basil
salad (with the last of the summer tomatoes) or some other type of recipe
that includes basil, and explain to the family.
- More Ideas: Women for Faith and Family and Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Folklore has that the weather on the Ember
Days of this month (September 15, 17, and 18) will foretell the weather
for three successive months. So, Wednesday, September 15, will forecast
the weather for October; Friday, September 17, for November; and Saturday,
September 18, for December.
Eucharistic Stations of the
Cross[5]
Thy Eucharistic Kingdom Come!
Saint
Eymard rated the Stations of the Cross among the most important exercises of a
retreat. Long experience had taught him to find in the wounds of Jesus the
forgiveness, the peace, and all those graces for which the soul hungers while
on retreat. Right up to his death, he made the Stations of the Cross every day,
in the evening, after the fullest and most wearisome day's work. Therefore, he
recommended this devotion as one whose full value he knew. In the beautiful
words of the Following of Christ: "In the cross is salvation, in the cross
is life, in the cross is protection against the enemy, in the cross is infusion
of the heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of heart, in the cross is
joy of spirit." But to the Eucharistic soul, Calvary is the altar, and the
divine Crucified One is Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It hears round about
the outcries of the throng against him who answers only with the silence of the
lamb; it sees into the plots of the scribes and the pharisees; it knows the
bargaining of these new Judases who sell to the demon in their souls, to their
vices, to their self-interest, the good Master who has just given himself to
them in the kiss of Communion. Every day it sees Jesus in his Eucharist
delivered up, denied by cowardice and human respect. The Holy Eucharist is the
Passion continued and renewed! The only difference is that the dolorous
Eucharistic way passes through the whole world, crisscrosses it in every
direction, and that the drama has lasted for almost twenty centuries.
What?
But Jesus is glorious, immortal, impassable in the Blessed Sacrament! Why
picture him to us as suffering, when he can suffer no more and as humiliated
when he reigns as King triumphant? It is true, and very fortunate that Jesus
Eucharistic can die no more, that men's hatred could wreak itself upon his
sacred person only once at Jerusalem' What priest would cause Jesus to become
present upon an altar that would be another Calvary for him? But do sins,
insults, and sacrileges wound the living Heart of Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament less grievously because he is beyond the physical reach of the
tortures, which our arms of flesh would make him undergo? He no longer suffers
at present; but in the moment when he instituted the Most Blessed Sacrament,
there passed before his soul the vision of the outrages, insults, and
profanations, which would be heaped upon him in the course of the centuries. By
his foreknowledge of the future he saw in their very smallest details, in their
most secret and delicate subtleties, the acts of indifference, the sacrileges,
and the profanations, which our malice held in store for him. He saw and he
knew; his Heart felt. He had the power to let his Heart feel in that one
instant anguish equal to what he would have had to endure if he had remained
sensible of suffering and a prey to our cruelty in the long martyrdom to which
men's ingratitude and the fury of evil spirits have tried to subject him. The
connection between Calvary and the Holy Eucharist is so close that no soul can
enter truly and at all intimately into union with Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament without feeling the need of consoling him, of compassionating
sufferings the mode and reason of which it does not understand but which are
very real to its love. To meditate before the Blessed Sacrament on the Passion
as it took place in Jerusalem is not enough for this soul: it feels in its
heart that the Passion still continues. It is the Eucharistic Passion of Jesus
with which it wishes to sympathize. A sweet inspiration, one, which must give so much joy to the Heart of
Jesus! For he complained to Saint Margaret Mary in such poignantly sorrowful
terms that he received this compassion too rarely from his forgetful children!
To us who wish to know and honor the mystery of the Holy Eucharist in all its
aspects belongs the beautiful mission of meditating frequently upon the
Eucharistic Passion; it is for us to compassionate and weep for so many insults
and profanations and to undertake reparation for them. Jesus no longer suffers
now: he wishes to suffer in us and to prolong in his members, for the glory of
God and the salvation of sinners, the martyrdom which he, our glorious Head,
first endured so generously: he gave us the example and opened the way to us.
The pious thoughts of Father Eymard will help to guide us in meditating on the
Eucharistic sufferings. We may make use of them during an hour of adoration or
meditate upon them while making the Stations of the Cross.
Stations
of the Cross
I.
First
Station - Jesus Is Condemned to Death
V.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. R. Because by your holy Cross, you
have redeemed the world.
Jesus
is condemned by his own people by the very ones he showered with his favors. He
is condemned as a fomenter of rebellion, he who is goodness itself; as a
blasphemer, he who is holiness itself: as one seeking power, he who made
himself the least of all. He is condemned to die on the Cross, like the lowest
of slaves.
Jesus
lovingly accepts this sentence of death: He came down to this earth in order to
suffer and die and to teach us to do the same.
In
his Holy Eucharist Jesus is again condemned to death: primarily in his graces,
which are rejected; in his love, which is slighted; in his sacramental state,
by the unbeliever who denies him, by horrible sacrilege. By unworthy Communion,
the bad Christian sells Jesus Christ to the devil, delivers him up to his own
passions, casts him at the feet of Satan, king of his heart, and crucifies him
in his sinful body.
Jesus
is more cruelly treated by bad Christians than by the Jews. In Jerusalem he was
condemned only once but in the Blessed Sacrament he is condemned every day and
in thousands of places, and by an appalling number of unjust judges.
And
yet Jesus allows himself to be insulted, despised, condemned: he still
continues his sacramental life in order to show us that his love for us is
without condition or reserve, that it is greater than our ingratitude.
O
Jesus forgive, I beseech you, all sacrileges! Should I ever have committed any,
I want to pass my life making reparation for them and loving and honoring you
for those who despise you. Grant me the grace to die with you!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
V.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, R Have mercy on us.
May
the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Holy
Mother pierce me through. In my heart each wound renew Of my Savior crucified.
II.
Second
Station - Jesus Is Made To Bear His Cross
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
In
Jerusalem the Jews lay a shameful and heavy Cross upon Jesus. It was the
instrument used at that time for the punishment of the basest of men. Jesus
joyfully takes upon himself this overburdening Cross; he receives it eagerly,
kisses it lovingly, and bears it with meekness.
In
this way he wishes to make it sweet to us, lighten it for us, and consecrate it
in his Blood.
In
the divine Sacrament of the altar, bad Christians lay a much heavier Cross upon
Jesus, one much more shameful for his Heart. This Cross is their acts of irreverence
in the holy place, their distracted thoughts, their coldness of heart in his
presence, their lukewarm devotion. What a humiliating Cross it is for Jesus, to
have children so lacking in respect, disciples so worthless!
Jesus
also bears my crosses in his Sacrament. He places them on his Heart to sanctify
them; he covers them with his love, with his kisses, in order to make them
attractive to me, but he wants me to carry them for him, to offer them to him;
he is even willing to listen to the outpourings of my grief, to let me weep
over my crosses and ask help and consolation of him.
Oh,
how light is the cross that comes by way of the Holy Eucharist! How beautiful
and radiant it comes forth from the Heart of Jesus! How good it is to receive
it from his hands and to kiss it after him! To the Eucharist then I will run
for refuge in my troubles; to him will I go for comfort and strength; to him
will I go to learn to suffer and to love!
Forgive,
O Lord, all who treat you irreverently in your Sacrament of love! Forgive my
moments of indifference, of forgetfulness in your presence! I wish to love you;
I do love you with all my heart!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
III.
Third
Station - Jesus Falls the First Time
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
Jesus
has lost so much blood during the three hours of his agony and beneath the
blows of the scourge, he is so weakened by the cruel night passed under the
guard of his enemies, that after walking a short distance he falls beneath the
weight of his Cross.
How
many times Jesus Eucharistic falls in particles of the Sacred Species without
anyone being aware of it!
But
what makes him fall from grief is the sight of a soul sullied by mortal sin!
Ah,
how much more painfully Jesus falls in a young heart that receives him
unworthily on the day of its First Holy Communion! He falls on that icy heart
which the fire of his love cannot melt; on that proud and dissembling spirit
without being able to touch it; in that body which is but a tomb full of
rottenness. Alas, ought we to treat Jesus like that the first time he so
lovingly visits us? O God! So young and already so guilty! To begin so soon to
be a Judas! How painful to the Heart of Jesus must be the sin of this
sacrilegious First Communion!
O
Jesus! I thank you for the love, which you showed me in my First Communion:
never shall I forget it! I am yours, wholly yours, for you are wholly mine: do
with me, as you will.
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
IV.
Fourth
Station - Jesus Meets His Holy Mother
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
Mary
accompanies Jesus to Calvary. She endures a real martyrdom in her soul on the
way; but when one loves, one desires to suffer with the beloved.
Today,
on his way of suffering, Jesus Eucharistic often meets with the children of his
love the spouses of his Heart, the ministers of his grace among his enemies.
But far from consoling him as Mary did, they join with his tormentors in
humiliating, blaspheming, and denying him. How many are the apostates and
renegades who forsake the service and love of the Holy Eucharist as soon as
that service calls for a sacrifice or for an act of practical faith!
O
Jesus, my good Savior, with Mary my Mother, I will follow you amid
humiliations, insults, and injuries, and make amends to you with my love!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
V.
Fifth
Station - The Cyrenian Helps Jesus To Carry His Cross
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
Jesus
was giving way more and more beneath his burden. The Jews, wishing to have him
die on the Cross in order to complete his humiliation, urged Simon of Cyrene to
help him bear the Cross. The latter refused and had to be forced to take upon
himself an instrument of death so ignominious in his eyes. He yielded and
merited that Jesus should touch his heart and convert him.
Jesus
calls people to him in his Sacrament, and almost no one responds to his
invitations; he invites them to his Eucharistic Banquet, and they have a
thousand pretexts for refusing to come to it. The faithless and ungrateful soul
refuses the grace of Jesus Christ, the most excellent gift of his love. He has
his hands full of graces, but nobody wants them; people are afraid of his love!
Instead
of the honors due to him, Jesus receives most of the time only disrespect.
People are embarrassed at meeting him in the streets; they turn quickly away as
soon as thy see him; they have not the courage to give him the outward
evidences of their faith.
O
divine Savior, can this be so? Alas! It is only too true, and I feel the
reproaches of my own conscience. Yes, often, bent upon an earthly pleasure, I
have refused to hear your call; often, in order not to be obliged to amend my
ways, I have rejected the invitation of your table with which you in your love
have honored me. I regret it from the depths of my heart; I know that it is
better to let everything else go than by my own fault to miss a single
Communion, the greatest and the sweetest of your graces. Forget the past, dear
Savior, and accept my resolutions for the future and by your strength help me
to keep them!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
VI.
Sixth
Station - A Holy Woman Wipes The Face Of Jesus
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
The
face of the Savior no longer looks human; the executioners have covered it with
mud, spittle, and blood! He, the splendor of God, is unrecognizable, and his
divine Face is covered with defilements. Holy Veronica braves the soldiers.
Beneath the pollution she has recognized her Savior and her God, and moved with
pity, she wipes that august countenance. Jesus rewards her by imprinting his
features upon the cloth.
O
divine Jesus, your adorable Sacrament is greatly outraged, insulted, and
profaned, and where are the compassionate souls who will make up for these
abominations? Ah, it is saddening and appalling that so many sacrileges should
be committed so lightly against the sublime Sacrament. It would seem that Jesus
Christ is nothing more among us than an unregarded or even contemptible
stranger!
It
is true that he veils his face beneath the appearances of very weak and lowly
species: that is in order that our love may discover in them his divine
features. O Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, Son of the living God and
I adore your holy Face, full of glory and majesty, beneath the Eucharistic veil!
Lord, I beseech you to imprint your features in my heart, that wherever I go, I
may carry Jesus with me, Jesus Eucharistic!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
VII.
Seventh
Station - Jesus Falls the Second Time
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
In
spite of Simon's help, Jesus succumbs a second time to his weakness, and it is
a cause of new sufferings for him. His hands and knees are wounded by his falls
on this laborious way, and the ill treatment inflicted by his executioners
increases with their rage.
Oh,
how ineffectual is human aid without the help of Jesus Christ! And how many
falls are in store for him that relies on others!
How
often the God of the Eucharist falls nowadays by Communion in lukewarm and
cowardly hearts that receive him without reverence and let him go without an
act of love and gratitude! Thus, Jesus' stay within us is fruitless because of
our coldness.
Who would dare to receive one of
the great of the earth with as little attention as the King of Heaven is every
day received?
Divine
Savior, I apologize to you for all my Communions that have been lukewarm and
without devotion. How many times I already have received you in my heart. I
thank you for them and I mean to be faithful to you in the future; only give me
your love, that is enough!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
VIII.
Eighth
Station - Jesus Consoles the Holy Women Who Weep for Him
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
It
was the Savior's mission in the days of his mortal life to comfort the
afflicted and the persecuted. He desires to be faithful to it at the very time
of his greatest sufferings. Thus he forgets himself and dries the tears of the
holy women who weep over his sorrows and his passion. What goodness!
Very
few people come to visit and to adore Our Lord in his Sacrament of divine love.
And even fewer people remember to offer him reparation for their own sins and
for those of all mankind. He is with us day and night, alone. Oh, if his eyes
could weep, what tears they would shed for the ingratitude and neglect of his
own! If his Heart could still suffer, what torments he would feel at seeing
himself forsaken in this way, even by his friends!
Yet,
for all that, as soon as we come to him, he receives us with kindness, listens
to our complaints, to the often very long and selfish tale of our woes, and he
forgets himself to comfort us and strengthen us. O divine Savior, why do I so
often depend on human consolation instead of coming to you? I feel that this
wounds your Heart, which is jealous of my own. In your Holy Eucharist be my
only consolation, my one confidant! One word, one look of your loving kindness
will suffice for me. Let me love you with all my heart, and then do with me as
you will!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
IX.
Ninth
Station - Jesus Falls The Third Time
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
How
greatly Jesus suffered in this third fall! He lies overcome by the weight of
his Cross, and his executioners with all their cruelty can hardly raise him up
again.
Jesus
chooses to fall a third time before being lifted up on his Cross, as though to
give evidence of his regret at being unable to carry it over the whole world.
Jesus
will come to me a last time in Viaticum before I also leave this land of exile.
Lord, grant me this grace, the most precious of all and the completion of all
the graces of my life!
But,
oh, let me receive you worthily in that last Communion so full of love!
How
terrible is it when one dying receives Holy Communion for the last time in the
state of mortal sin! In this way he adds the crime of sacrilege to all his past
sins, who receives unworthily him who is going to judge him and thus profanes
the Viaticum of his salvation!
In
what a grievous state Jesus must find himself in a heart that detests him, in a
spirit that disdains him, in a sinful body that is given over to the devil!
But
what will be the judgment passed on these unhappy souls? One trembles at the
thought. Forgive them, O Lord forgive them! We beg of you for all the dying:
grant that they may die in your arms after they have received you worthily in
Viaticum!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
X.
Tenth
Station - Jesus Is Stripped Of His Garments
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
How
much he must suffer in this cruel and pitiless stripping off of his garments!
They tear off his clothing that has stuck to his wounds, they reopen them, they
tear his flesh.
How
much he must suffer in his modesty, treated as one would blush to treat a low
wretch and a slave, who dies at least in the shroud that is to cover him in the
grave!
Jesus
is, as it were, stripped of his garments also in his sacramental state. Not
satisfied to see him stripped, through his love for us, of his glory and his
divinity, of the beauty of his humanity, his enemies rob him of the honor of
divine worship, pillage his churches, profane his sacred vessels and his
tabernacles, and cast him on the ground. He, the King and Savior of men, is
delivered up to their sacrilegious will as on the day of his Crucifixion. By
allowing himself to be stripped thus in the Holy Eucharist; Jesus wishes to
lead us to the state of voluntary poverty, wherein we may be clothed with his
life and his virtues. O Jesus Eucharistic, be my only possession!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
XI.
Eleventh
Station - Jesus Is Nailed To The Cross
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
What
agony Jesus endures when he is nailed to the Cross! Without a miracle of his
power, he could not have suffered it and lived.
But
the wood to which Jesus is nailed on Calvary is without fault or defilement,
whereas in an unworthy Communion, the sinner crucifies Jesus in his guilty
body. It is as though one were to attach a living body to a corpse that is in a
state of corruption.
On
Calvary, he is crucified by his declared enemies; here, by his children, who
crucify him in hypocritical devotion.
On
Calvary, he is crucified but once; here every day and by how many Christians!
O
divine Savior forgive me for having failed to mortify my senses; most cruelly
do you atone for my fault!
You
desire, by your Holy Eucharist, to crucify my nature, to immolate the old man
without cease and to unite me to your own crucified and resurrected life.
Grant, O Lord, that I may give myself to you without reserve or condition!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
XII.
Twelfth
Station - Jesus Dies on The Cross
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
Jesus
dies in order to redeem us. His last mercy is the forgiveness he grants to his
executioners; his last gift of love is his Holy Mother; his last desire is the
thirst for suffering; his last act is the abandonment of his soul and his life
into the hands of his Father.
In
the Holy Eucharist, Jesus continues to love with the love he showed to me at
his death. Every morning he is immolated in the Holy Sacrifice and loses his
sacramental existence in them that receive him: in the heart of the sinner. He
dies for that soul's condemnation.
From
his Host he offers me the graces for my redemption, the price of my salvation.
But in order that I may share therein, he wishes me to die with him and for
him.
Grant
me that grace, O my God, the grace of dying to sin and to self and of living
only to love you in your Holy Eucharist!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
XIII.
Thirteenth
Station - Jesus Is Taken Down from The Cross and Placed In The Arms Of His
Mother
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
Jesus
is taken down from the Cross and confided to his Mother, who clasps him to her
heart and offers him to God as Victim for our salvation.
Now
it is for us to offer Jesus as Victim on the altar and in our hearts for
ourselves and for others. He belongs to us. God the Father gives him to us; he
gives himself to us, so that we may offer him for our salvation.
How
unfortunate it is that this infinite price lies unused in our hands because of
our indifference!
Let
us offer him in union with Mary and pray this good Mother to offer him with us.
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
XIV.
Fourteenth
Station - Jesus Is Laid In The Sepulchre
V.
We adore you, O Christ, etc.
Jesus
chooses to undergo the humiliation of the tomb, and he is given over to the
custody of his enemies; he is still their prisoner.
But
it is in the Holy Eucharist that Jesus is, as it were, entombed; he remains
there not just for three days, but for all time, and we are the ones he asks to
guard him. He is our prisoner of love.
The
corporal covers him like a shroud; the lamp burns before his altar as before
the place of the dead; around him reigns the silence of death.
When
Jesus comes into our heart in Holy Communion, he is as if entombed within us.
Let us make ready for him a sepulchre that is worthy of him, one that is new
and white, unoccupied by earthly affections; let us anoint him with the perfume
of our virtues.
Let
us come to do him homage for those who do not come; let us adore him in his
tabernacle, forgotten by those who call themselves his friends; let us beg of
him the grace of recollection and of death to the world, that we may lead a
hidden life in the Holy Eucharist!
Our
Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
O
Cross, our one reliance, hail, Glory of the saved, avail, to give fresh merit
to the saint, And pardon to the penitent.
35 Promises
of God[6]
cont.
“When
the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their
troubles.”-Ps 34:17
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Catholic
Politian’s and Leaders.
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face-Tuesday
Devotion
·
Pray Day 1 of
the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
·
Tuesday:
Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
·
Iceman’s Total
Consecration to Mary-Day4
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
· Rosary.
Comments
Post a Comment