PrayTheRosary Apostolate

 It was probably between ten o'clock and midnight when Jesus left the Cenacle
with the eleven Apostles and journied to the Garden of Gethsemani,
a name meaning "oil press."

The solitude of the deserted countryside matches their somber mood
as Jesus escorts eight of them to the cave,
bidding them to make themselves comfortable for the night.
The other three, Peter, James, and John,
the confidants of His most intimate thoughts
and the witnesses of the glory of His transfiguration on Mount Tabor,
are now invited to be witnesses and even the sharers of His agony.

"And going out, He went according to His custom, to the mount of Olives.
And His disciples followed Him.
And when He had come to the place He said to them:
Pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

 In the quiet solitude of the moonlit night, the three priviledged disciples
watch Jesus as He begins the awful and mysterious  agony in the garden.
Groaning in distress, writhing in agony, Jesus lies crumpled on the ground,
overwhelmed by the immeasurable burden of the sins of the world.

The pain of His body is exceeded by the anguish of His soul
as Jesus sees the bloody and excruciating ordeal before Him.
The torture is increased as He sees the number of souls in all the ages
who will spurn the fruits of His sacrificial sufferings and redeeming death.

It was impossible of course for the human nature of Jesus
to be seperated from His divine nature.
But here in Gethsemani, our Savior seems in a certain sense
to suspend the spiritual support which His humanity normally received
from His divinty.

And He was withdrawn away from them a stone's cast;
and kneeling down, He prayed, saying:
Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me;
but yet not My will, but Thine be done.

And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.
And being in agony, He prayed the longer.
And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.

And when He rose up from prayer, and came to His disciples,
He found them sleeping from sorrow."

                                                                                                                 ~ Luke 22:39-45

In the quiet solitude of the moonlit night, the three priviledged disciples
watch Jesus as He begins the awful and mysterious  agony in the garden.
Groaning in distress, writhing in agony, Jesus lies crumpled on the ground,
overwhelmed by the immeasurable burden of the sins of the world.

The pain of His body is exceeded by the anguish of His soul
as Jesus sees the bloody and excruciating ordeal before Him.
The torture is increased as He sees the number of souls in all the ages
who will spurn the fruits of His sacrificial sufferings and redeeming death.

It was impossible of course for the human nature of Jesus
to be seperated from His divine nature.
But here in Gethsemani, our Savior seems in a certain sense
to suspend the spiritual support which His humanity normally received
from His divinty.

Behold, my Jesus, I am one of those who are ungrateful,
who have lived in this world so many years and who have not loved You.
Shall I, my Redeemer, remain ungrateful forever?
No, I will love You until my death and will give myself completely to You.
Mercifully accept Me Lord, and help me.  Amen

 Our Lord Jesus was apprehended in the Garden of Olives
after His betrayal in the form of a kiss from the traitor Judas.
In a mock trial, He is questioned by the Pharisees, mocked,
slapped and spit upon.
He is bound with chains and dragged before the Procurator Pilate.

Pilate then,” relates St. John, “took Jesus and had Him scourged.”

“Then the soldiers of the procurator,” continues St. Matthew,
“took Jesus into the praetorium, and gathered together about Him
the whole cohort. And they stripped Him and put on Him a scarlet cloak;
and plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head,
and a reed into His right hand; and bending the knee before Him
they mocked Him.” 

“Hail,” they shout derisively, “King of the Jews!”

“And,” relates St. Mark, they kept striking Him on the head with a reed
and spitting upon Him; and bending their knee, they did homage to Him.”

The scourging to which Pilate resorted was a cruel expedient
to satisfy the Jews without altogether sacrificing an innocent man.
While scourging generally preceded crucifixion, it was also a distinct penalty.

Among the Jews, the number of lashes was ordinarily limited to thirty-nine
for fear of infringing upon the letter of the law fixing the maximum at forty.
The condemned man after examination had to be judged
to be capable of bearing the punishment.
Such cautions were unknown however among the Romans.
With them, scourging was usually prelude to crucifixion,
and no moderation was called for in the case of a man about to die.
He was considered as something less than human,
a mere body which could be beaten without mercy.

The whip used consisted of thongs of hardened leather
studded with small pieces of bone and pieces of lead,
and sometimes with sharp points called scorpions.

"And the soldiers, plaiting a crown of thorns, put it upon His head,
and arrayed Him in a purple cloak."
                                                                                                     ~  John 19:2

When at last the soldiers grew tired of scourging Jesus,
they gave Him back His clothes. Then they enthroned Him in mockery,
draping a scarlet rag over His left shoulder to represent the purple of the Caesars.
A crown of sharp thorns is placed upon His brow, and a reed in His right hand.

Spitting upon Him, they strike His head, and bending their knees before Him
they shout in mockery, "Hail, King of the Jews!"

Our Savior had foretold that He must suffer rebuffs and insults from the ancients,
the chief priests, and the Scribes, and that He would be delivered up
to the Gentiles to be scoffed at.

Saint Bonaventure says that the wounds of Jesus,
wound the hardest hearts and inflame the coldest souls.
How can we believe that Jesus permitted Himself to be beaten,
scourged, crowned with thorns, and finally, be put to death for the love of us
....and not love Him?

O Mary, my Mother, help me to love Jesus! 

O Jesus, Who in Thy bitter Passion did become
"the most abject of men, a man of sorrows", I venerate Thy Sacred Face
whereon there once did shine the beauty and sweetness of the Godhead;
but now it has become for me as if it were the face of a leper!
Nevertheless, under those disfigured features,  I recognize Thy infinite Love
and I am consumed with the desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men.
The tears which well up abundantly in Thy sacred eyes
appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather up,
in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite value.
O Jesus, Whose adorable face ravishes my heart, I implore Thee to fix deep within meThy divine image and to set me on fire with Thy Love, that I may be found worthy to come to the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen.

The death sentence has been at last pronounced
and the soldiers lead Jesus out to crucify Him.
The cause of the condemnation is inscribed on a placard
coated with white lead so that it can be easily read from a distance.
This placard is hung around the neck of the condemend man
or carried in front of him to be nailed finally to the tree of torture.

The soldiers take from their dungeons the two criminals
who are to accompany Jesus to Calvary.
According to Roman law, the condemned man is obliged
to carry the instrument of His torture.
Upon the shoulders of each of the three a cross is laid,
and at a given signal, the procession begins, led by a mounted centurion,
followed by a malicious crowd of onlookers.

Worn out by a night of sleeplessness, by physical and mental torture,
and by the frightful scourging, Jesus is at the end of His strength.
After bearing His  cross for some distance
the Savior begins to reel and stagger under its weight.
Fearful that He might die before they reach Calvary,
the centurion orders a man named Simon, a native of Cyrene,
to carry the cross behind Our Lord.

In the crowd is a group of women weeping and beating their breasts,
as if assisting at the funeral rites of one of their own dear ones.
Touched with pity at the sight of His suffering,
they seek to offer Him a little compassion,
in sharp contrast with the jibes and the jeers of the others.

Jesus tells them to weep for themselves and their children,
for He knows what lies ahead, what sin there is in the ages of man.

Passing through the gate, the procession crosses the wide city moat
and reaches the foot of Golgotha or Calvary, meaning skull. 
Here Jesus meets His Sorrowful Mother.

 With what sorrow and pangs of love do these two hearts meet
with but only a longing glance.They do not speak.

They have no need of words.

And they bring Him to a place called Golgatha, the Place of the Skull.
And they give Him wine to drink mixed with myrrh, but He does not take it.
Among the Jews there was a custom of offering to a condemned man
a sort of narcotic to drink, to ease, at least slightly,
the tortures accompanying the death penalty.
The drink was a wine spiked with a grain of incense
which was to numb the senses of the victim
and make somewhat more merciful the punishment.

Wanting nothing to blunt His sufferings, Jesus is determined
to drain the chalice of His Passion to the last drop.

Upon reaching Golgotha, the soldiers strip Jesus of His garments.
Out of regard for the Jews sense of decency, the Victim is permitted a loincloth.

Jesus is then made to lie on His back on the ground
so that His shoulders and outstretched arms lay on the crosspiece.
And then His hands are nailed to it.
He is then raised aloft, the crosspiece is fastened to the vertical beam,
and His feet are nailed flat.
This gives His body a crouching posture,
which in itself, causes a sharp pain in the legs and back muscles.

It is about noon when the Savior is nailed to the Cross.

They crucify two robbers with Him, one to the left and one to the right of Him.
One blasphemes, the other is promised Paradise for his faith.

Pilate  writes an inscription and has it put on the Cross:

Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews

When the Jews see the insciption, they are furious
and go to Pilate to have it removed. But he denies their request.

With their grisly work done, the soldiers sit down on the ground
to while away the long hours playing dice.
Their stake was the victim's belongings. 
They cast lots for His garments, fulfilling the prophecy.

The Savior is as calm and majestic on the Cross
as He was before the Tribunals of Caiphas, Herod and Pilate.
He utters no word of rebuke, not a single complaint, not even a sigh.
The first word that falls from His lips
is a word of pardon for those who have injured Him.

In the darkness that spreads over Judea,
the Savior's earthly life slowly ebbs away through an agony
that lasts about three hours.
As His death approaches, the hill of Calvary is shrouded in silence.

There standing by the Cross of Jesus, are His Mother, the Apostle John,
Mary of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene.
When Jesus sees His Mother and the disciple, whom He loved,
Jesus reveals His tender love for her and His solicitude
for her welfare and happiness.
He entrusts His Mother to the care of John,
and bequeaths the love and guardianship of His Mother to the world,
as our Mother.
The guards prevent her from approaching Him,
and the nails prevent Him from making any gesture to her.

One can only imagine the sorrow that fills the soul of Mary
as she sees the agony of her Son on the Cross.

For quite some time they speak to each other with only their eyes
-- looks of compassion, pity and love.

~  Into Thy hands I commend My spirit.  ~

With these words, Our Lord expires.

At the death of the Savior, the earth quakes, the rocks split open,
the temple curtain is torn, and the dead rise from their tombs.

Truly this is the Son of God!

Jesus is taken down from the Cross and laid in the arms of His Mother.
For some time, she can only hold the body of her dead Son,
and mourn the loss of those souls who will turn away
from the merit of His death, their very salvation.

 
Mary Magdalene tenderly kisses His feet,
before which she had obtained so many graces.
The holy women with them, reverently kiss the body
and bathe it with their tears.

With tender care, Our Lord's body is carried to the tomb,
an unfinished grave, prepared and offered
to the grieving disciples and the Mother of Jesus, by Joseph of Arimathea.
Nicodemus also offers myrrh and aloe scented wood
with which the body is prepared for burial.

When the burial rites are completed, Joseph rolls a large stone
over the entrance to the tomb.
Sadly, the disciples depart. A guard is stationed nearby,
for fear the disciples will steal the Body and claim that their Lord has risen.

After the fury of the afternoon storm at Golgotha had passed,
the impressive calm of the Paschal night settles upon Jerusalem.
Within closed doors every family is oberserving in privacy
the anniversary of the exodus from Egypt.

The real Passover, the true Deliverance, was not being celebrated
that year in Jerusalem. But it was  in Limbo, where the souls of the just
who had died since the beginning of the world were being detained.

At the moment when Jesus breathes His last breath,
His soul descends into Limbo to announce the good tidings of man's redemption,
to tell the souls that soon they may enter with Him into the glory of Heaven.
On the day of His Ascension, all of them will form His escort.

PRAYER

My Crucified Jesus,
mercifully accept the prayer which I now make to thee
for help in the moment of my death,
when at its approach, all my senses shall fail me.
When therefore O sweet Jesus,
my weary and downcast eyes can no longer look up to Thee,
be mindful of the loving gaze which I now turn on Thee,
and have mercy on me.
When my parched lips can no longer kiss Thy sacred wounds
remember then those kisses which I now imprint on Thee,
and have mercy on me.
When my cold hands can no longer embrace Thy Cross,
forget not the affection with which I embrace it now,
and have mercy on me.
And when at length my swollen and lifeless tongue can no longer speak
remember that I called upon Thee now.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, to you I commend my soul.
Amen

On the third day, Jesus rises from the dead.

Jesus, the Savior of the world,
overcomes death,
and in His doing,
overcomes our death by sin.

We adore Thee O Christ and we praise Thee!

By Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world!

 MUSIC: Requiem, Op.48,  Koechlin,
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chorus