PrayTheRosary Apostolate

You may wish to pray on the mystery of the Passion each day, or on Fridays, on during Lent - days especially devoted to the memory of the Passion of Jesus. Choose your own time and place, and perhaps use a crucifix or sacred image to help focus yourself.

Jesus is with you. “Imagine Our Lord as loving, gentle teacher,” Saint Theresa suggests in The Way of Perfection. “He will be a friend with you always, if you only do what you can. As your Lord, He comes to make you free. As He loves you, He adapts Himself to you as you are.”

As He enlightened disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus will guide you as you remember the things that happened to him.

1st Meditation

       Our blessed Lord prostrates himself upon the rocky soil clutching at the very ground for support. He groans in distress and writhes in physical agony. His usual calmness deserts him as he keeps repeating the same prayer over and over again: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

       Great beads of sweat appear on the face of Jesus as a shattering storm engulfs his soul. Gradually, the sweat turned in crimson as his prayer increased in its intensity. Soon, his entire body perspires...a sweat of blood.

       What are the causes of this internal martyrdom of our Lord? What is this “cup” which he pleads with his Father to remove? He has just witnessed a “Preview of his Passion.” Picture after picture, the various sufferings of the Passion flashed through his mind. The crucifixion, stark and terrifying, loomed up before him and caused his sensitive soul to recoil in terror. Once again he pleads with his Father, “If it is possible...”

       Yet Christ did not run away from the Cross and the suffering that he knew awaited. Nor did he take the easy way out. He suffered this incredible agony in reparation for our sins. The conclusion is obvious. We cannot live a “comfort-at -all-costs” philosophy of life. To follow Christ calls for an unrelenting struggle with the tendencies to sin found in the make-up of each of us.

         - Meditating on the Pssion of Christ

              by Father Victor Hoagland, C.P

Jesus is crowned with thorns

The soldiers led him inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort. They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him. They began to salute him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and kept striking him on the head with a reed and spitting on him Mark 15, 16-19

Besides Mark’s gospel, two other gospels (Matthew and John) report that Jesus was handed over to the Roman soldiers who mocked Him as a king. They took Him into a courtyard, probably outside their barracks, put a ragged purple cloak on Him and a reed in His hand, and then pressed a crown of thorns onto His head. Kneeling before Him in false homage, they ridiculed Him: “Hail King of the Jews!” And in brutal sport, they spat on Him and struck His head.

After this mockery, John’s gospel says that Pilate brought the pitiable figure of Jesus before the crowd and said, “Behold, the man.”

“Behold, the man.” Here was God’s Son: so disguised, so hidden, so weak, mocked as king and wearing a crown of thorns! And evil seems to have its way with Him. Yet one who sees in faith sees Jesus still a king. Evil’s seeming rule endures only a little while, an “hour,” a fleeting moment in God's time. It does not master Jesus Christ, the king.

“Behold, the man.” Yes, Lord, I see you brought low, and I believe you are a king. Help me to recognize Your power whenever evil seems to conquer good, whenever the good are brought low.

Give me faith to believe, even when evil seems to reign, that Your kingdom will come.

Mother of Sorrows

"As Eve was a conspirator with Adam at the fall, so God wished Mary to be the companion of Jesus at the restoration. God inspired this great woman to set out for Calvary not to be a spectator, but a partner in the sacrifice of her Son." -Blessed Dominic Barberi

We know Jesus because we are brought to Him by others. Could we know His Passion, for example, without the great stories of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? Without Paul the Apostle, or Moses and the prophets? Without the liturgy of the church, the wisdom and reflection of generations of saints, mystics, preachers, theologians, writers, scholars, artists and poets, as well as multitudes of ordinary Christians?

Yet among all of these one is unique — Mary, His mother. She knew Jesus from birth to death and resurrection and she knew Him in a special way, as mother. She wrote nothing down — no words, no recollections are directly attributable to her — but the church does not think of her as a writer of recollections. Rather Mary is a living presence among us, who communicates a holy wisdom. She is a guide to those who walk by faith; an agent of the Holy Spirit, who helps us to know the mysteries of Christ.

She was there when they crucified Him. A few simple sentences of the gospel describe her role: “There was standing by the Cross of Jesus, Mary, his mother.” Long before that moment she had learned to walk by faith, to wait, to trust , to believe. Then, as she stood stood there watching her Son die, Mary was tested as never before. And she did not falter.

The mysterious words of Jesus — “Behold your mother” — are meant for us, as well as for the disciple who stood watching with her. When the mystery of the Cross falls on us, Mary has been promised to us. She will be at our side, a brave companion who knows how to stand in the dark time of Calvary and wait for the light.

Louis Blosius relates that our Lord revealed to several holy women -to St. Gertrude, St. Bridget, St. Mechtilde, and St. Catharine ofSienna - that they who meditate on his Passion are very dear to him.

According to St. Francis de Sales, the Passion of our Redeemer should be the ordinary subject of the meditation of every Christian. Oh, what an excellent book is the Passion of Jesus! There we understand, better than in any other book, the malice of sin, and also the mercy and love of God for man. To me it appears that Jesus Christ has suffered somany different pains - the scourging, the crowning with thorns, thecrucifixion, etc. - that having before our eyes so many painful mysteries, we might have a variety of different subjects for meditating on his Passion, by which we might excite sentiments of gratitude and love.

St. Augustine writes that "there is no more profitable occupation for the soul than to meditate daily on the Passion of Our Lord."

         - St. Alphonsus de Liguori

The face of the suffering Christ

Jesus came out wearing a crown of thorns and the purple cloak. Pilate said to the Jews, “Look at the man.”

If we had looked at the face of Jesus when He stood in Pilate’s courtyard, what would we have seen? A face bruised from the mockery of the soldiers; a face wrapped in silence, not offering any defense against the slanderous allegations of the leaders; a face masking a great mystery of love that would not relent from following God’s will even to death.

The face of Jesus in His suffering looked very much like the faces of countless other victims of despotic power and human greed down through the centuries. Throughout the world each day, a hundred petty rulers like Pilate tell a hundred jeering crowds to “Look at the man.” See the “criminal” who would dare question the status quo of injustice enshrined in political and economic systems built on the subjugation of the poor.

An ordinary people just like us see faces bruised from the interrogator’s blows, faces wrapped in silence, forbidden to speak in their own defense against the lies fashioned by their enemies, faces masking within them the great mystery of commitment to God and the courage to die for the truth.

Do we honestly look at those faces or do we turn away in embarrassment because we cannot face the truth for which these people are ready to become martyrs?

Look at the face of the Crucified Who invites you to follow Him. He will be father, mother — everything to you.

    - St. Paul of the Cross

"The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the shortest way to perfection"    - St. Paul of the Cross †

The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus

People in love have no trouble remembering all kinds of things about each other — the color of eyes, the distinctive tone of voice, the gifts which bring delight, and the other person's characteristic moods and preferences. People in love remember the sacrifices they have made for each other over the years.

People in love also know very well the sufferings that burden each other’s heart. Indeed, being sure of a friend’s supportive care makes it possible for us to bear with enormous difficulties in life. Keeping in mind each other's pain teaches us to share our gifts sensitively and generously.

When we remember the pain of Jesus Crucified, gratitude soon follows because we recall that He endured those sufferings on our behalf. He is no longer suffering for us: “He did that once for all when he offered himself.” (Hebrews 7:28).

Christ does not need our strength now. But we give thanks for His love by sharing our compassion with those who suffer today. They are numberless and, too often, faceless and nameless. The path to holiness leads us to love our neighbor with the generosity of Jesus, Who gave His life for us.

THE DOLOROUS PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

From the meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich

can be read online HERE

If you do not own the book, this is a wonderful tool for meditation during Lent.

The Desire that Jesus Had to Suffer for Us

Jesus could have saved us without suffering; but He chose rather to embrace a life of sorrow and contempt, deprived of every earthly consolation, and a death of bitterness and desolation, only to make us understand the love which He bore us, and the desire which He had that we should love Him. He passed His whole life in sighing for the hour of His death, which He desired to offer to God, to obtain for us eternal salvation. And it was this desire which made Him exclaim: I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished? He desired to be baptized in His Own Blood, to wash out, not, indeed, His Own, but our sins. O infinite Love, how miserable is he who does not know Thee, and does not love Thee!

This same desire caused Him to say, on the night before fore His death, With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you. By which words He shows that His only desire during His whole life had been to see the time arrive for His Passion and death, in order to prove to man the immense love which He bore him. So much, therefore, O my Jesus, didst Thou desire our love, that to obtain it Thou didst not refuse to die. How could I, then, deny anything to a God Who, for love of me, has given His Blood and His life?

                      - St. Alphonse Liguori