The Liturgy of the coming weeks brings us face to face of what God did for our redemption Writers over the centuries have written about it, we have read about it but meditating will really will open our eyes. Have we really meditated on the Passion itself? Have we really put ourselves in that place at the time and during the events that are before us?
In one of the Lamentations during Good Friday we hear the Prophet say:
My people! What have I done, in what way have I offended you? Answer me! I gave you the water of salvation which flowed from my sorrow to drink and you gave me honey and vinegar My people what have I done to you?
Is this the cry of a loved one trying to realize what great harm He has done? Of a Lover that can not realize the great damage done to His beloved that has caused such havoc. And yet, this is what the Passion is all about. Saint Leo the Great, in the earliest centuries of the Church says “that the liturgical year is centered upon Easter and this period demands an
even greater devotion on our part, given the proximity to the sublime mysteries of divine mercy” St. Leo is saying that if we really want to accompany Christ in His glory and end of Holy Week, we must first enter into His great sacrifice and be united with Him as He lies dead
As we spend time with Him, let us not forget that we too are protagonists in all those horrors and sufferings because He bore our sins, each and every one of them We were freed from all that by the Blood of Christ,
The custom of meditating on the Passion began in the early Church when many of the faithful in Jerusalem had themselves been present for the actual Passion They would never forget all they had seen and heard and began to commemorate everything. The Evangelists also in their Gospels gave detailed accounts of the Passion and St. John Chrysstom writes:"
Even if you are as hard as stone, when you contemplate that He was sarcastically adored, then ridiculed, beaten and subjected to the final agonies, you will be moved to cast all pride from your soul.”
From the crucifix many of the saints learned to truly suffer and truly love Christ. St Bonaventure, when asked by St. Thomas Aquinas where he learned all his wisdom, held out the crucifix and explained “This is book that tells me what I should write; the little I know I have earned from it”
Now would be a good time to start to really meditate on the crucifix.
Many hears ago, when most of us were children, there was a radio show weekly named “You Are There” It was a tremendous half hour show dealing with events in history. Week after week we were introduced to events that we only read about in our books, - but then we listened to live voices telling us what had taken place and really putting us in the scene. That is what we should do now with the Passion.
1) Pick out one of the scenes either in the Sorrowful Mysteries or some other place in one of the readings of the Passion
2. Stick with it: and see for instance the blood oozing from the forehead of Christ as he is under the strain of what is going to happen. He sweats drops, as of Blood is what we read in the Gospels. See the Blood dropping down onto His garment, His arms and hands are being covered with drops of Blood and yes, it is even getting into His eyes. Look at that! And see
the blood redden eyes. Contemplate what it actually looked like - probably never before have you had to vision of actually visualized it in your mind this way. The Blood is dripping onto His garment, making blotches as it does - a garment probably made by His mother
3. Then drop down to the second mystery - the scourging at the pillar. Again, see His Body being scourged by some of the drunken soldiers and hear their jeering and blasphemies Stand with St. Peter when he is accused of being a friend of the convict - hear him in his own words deny that he even knows Him and hear the little servant girl repeat that she had
seen him with the convict
See the blood running down His back as the scourge eats into His flesh with its bits of metal and glass. Hear the coarse language as they insult Him and spitting upon Him Look at that face! See how horrible it is and look into those eyes. It is a very ugly thing to see someone torn by lashes.
4. Go down to Calvary. Climb the hill with Jesus, stumble over the stones on the path and listen to the soldiers yell at Him when He falls. See the young boy with the sign that will fit over His head and listen to the thud of the hammer and nails as each nail is driven into the wood. Listen to the soft voice say “Father forgive them for they no not what they are doing”
And that THEY includes each of us. In a book by Doctor Barbet, it tells of the horrible death that was done with the crucifixion and how the nails were r driven into the wrists - not the palms of the hands as we used to think. Take your fingers and run them along your wrist finding a group of small bones there - that is where the nails were driven. See Christ asking
for a drink - see Him as His head droops down as He gives up the Ghost Feel the sharp wind hit you as the clouds and lightning begin to close in on you, feel the earth shake as He dies. Take your time. .
Do this with he entire Passion and I can guarantee that you will never forget what the
Passion was like - that is the secret of meditating on the Passion - being there and Christ
CONCLUSIONS FROM OUR MEDITATIONS:
From all this meditating, we should have a better understanding of what the Passion was really about, The pain, the sorrow, the way Our Lord was treated. Having been with Him as this all took place, we can now begin to apply this to our souls and easily make our own little prayers when we too have to suffer in our agonies, our common daily things.
1. From the many times our friends and enemies insult us
2. From those little pains we suffer daily in our everyday life
3. From serious sicknesses that grip our very physical being with torment
4. For the times we have been betrayed.
5. From the many contradictions we experience in life
We can now relate to Our Lord and all His pain that is contained in the Passion and realize our part in that Passion and what it physically cost Him.
©2011 Fr. Louis Schlangen
In one of the Lamentations during Good Friday we hear the Prophet say:
My people! What have I done, in what way have I offended you? Answer me! I gave you the water of salvation which flowed from my sorrow to drink and you gave me honey and vinegar My people what have I done to you?
Is this the cry of a loved one trying to realize what great harm He has done? Of a Lover that can not realize the great damage done to His beloved that has caused such havoc. And yet, this is what the Passion is all about. Saint Leo the Great, in the earliest centuries of the Church says “that the liturgical year is centered upon Easter and this period demands an
even greater devotion on our part, given the proximity to the sublime mysteries of divine mercy” St. Leo is saying that if we really want to accompany Christ in His glory and end of Holy Week, we must first enter into His great sacrifice and be united with Him as He lies dead
As we spend time with Him, let us not forget that we too are protagonists in all those horrors and sufferings because He bore our sins, each and every one of them We were freed from all that by the Blood of Christ,
The custom of meditating on the Passion began in the early Church when many of the faithful in Jerusalem had themselves been present for the actual Passion They would never forget all they had seen and heard and began to commemorate everything. The Evangelists also in their Gospels gave detailed accounts of the Passion and St. John Chrysstom writes:"
Even if you are as hard as stone, when you contemplate that He was sarcastically adored, then ridiculed, beaten and subjected to the final agonies, you will be moved to cast all pride from your soul.”
From the crucifix many of the saints learned to truly suffer and truly love Christ. St Bonaventure, when asked by St. Thomas Aquinas where he learned all his wisdom, held out the crucifix and explained “This is book that tells me what I should write; the little I know I have earned from it”
Now would be a good time to start to really meditate on the crucifix.
Many hears ago, when most of us were children, there was a radio show weekly named “You Are There” It was a tremendous half hour show dealing with events in history. Week after week we were introduced to events that we only read about in our books, - but then we listened to live voices telling us what had taken place and really putting us in the scene. That is what we should do now with the Passion.
1) Pick out one of the scenes either in the Sorrowful Mysteries or some other place in one of the readings of the Passion
2. Stick with it: and see for instance the blood oozing from the forehead of Christ as he is under the strain of what is going to happen. He sweats drops, as of Blood is what we read in the Gospels. See the Blood dropping down onto His garment, His arms and hands are being covered with drops of Blood and yes, it is even getting into His eyes. Look at that! And see
the blood redden eyes. Contemplate what it actually looked like - probably never before have you had to vision of actually visualized it in your mind this way. The Blood is dripping onto His garment, making blotches as it does - a garment probably made by His mother
3. Then drop down to the second mystery - the scourging at the pillar. Again, see His Body being scourged by some of the drunken soldiers and hear their jeering and blasphemies Stand with St. Peter when he is accused of being a friend of the convict - hear him in his own words deny that he even knows Him and hear the little servant girl repeat that she had
seen him with the convict
See the blood running down His back as the scourge eats into His flesh with its bits of metal and glass. Hear the coarse language as they insult Him and spitting upon Him Look at that face! See how horrible it is and look into those eyes. It is a very ugly thing to see someone torn by lashes.
4. Go down to Calvary. Climb the hill with Jesus, stumble over the stones on the path and listen to the soldiers yell at Him when He falls. See the young boy with the sign that will fit over His head and listen to the thud of the hammer and nails as each nail is driven into the wood. Listen to the soft voice say “Father forgive them for they no not what they are doing”
And that THEY includes each of us. In a book by Doctor Barbet, it tells of the horrible death that was done with the crucifixion and how the nails were r driven into the wrists - not the palms of the hands as we used to think. Take your fingers and run them along your wrist finding a group of small bones there - that is where the nails were driven. See Christ asking
for a drink - see Him as His head droops down as He gives up the Ghost Feel the sharp wind hit you as the clouds and lightning begin to close in on you, feel the earth shake as He dies. Take your time. .
Do this with he entire Passion and I can guarantee that you will never forget what the
Passion was like - that is the secret of meditating on the Passion - being there and Christ
CONCLUSIONS FROM OUR MEDITATIONS:
From all this meditating, we should have a better understanding of what the Passion was really about, The pain, the sorrow, the way Our Lord was treated. Having been with Him as this all took place, we can now begin to apply this to our souls and easily make our own little prayers when we too have to suffer in our agonies, our common daily things.
1. From the many times our friends and enemies insult us
2. From those little pains we suffer daily in our everyday life
3. From serious sicknesses that grip our very physical being with torment
4. For the times we have been betrayed.
5. From the many contradictions we experience in life
We can now relate to Our Lord and all His pain that is contained in the Passion and realize our part in that Passion and what it physically cost Him.
©2011 Fr. Louis Schlangen