BY Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.
A dungeon enclosed Jesus after He had been seized in the Garden of Olives, the evening of Holy Thursday.
THE TABERNACLE is the NEW PRISON in which Jesus has shut Himself for love of us and where He will dwell until the end of time.
Twenty centuries have elapsed; but today as then, in one prison as in the other, He is still the same Jesus, treated with contempt, scoffed at, buried in opprobrium.
This Holy Hour should be an act of solemn reparation for the grievous sin committed by the ever-increasing number of Christians who practically pretend they love Jesus and the world with equal love … Let it be at the same time a merciful and stern lesson to the many Catholics who in their exterior religious life protest their loyalty to Our Lord, but in their social life ignore and gravely violate the Law of the supreme King of Love … The words of Jesus are eternally true: “No man can serve two opposite masters,” especially when the masters are so diametrically opposed … Christ and the World …
What a wonderful grace if, through our faith, we could pierce the mysterious veil of glory to look on the Word! … Yes, vision of faith, because as long as we live in this exile, God will remain always on heights inaccessible to us. However, Jesus’ mercy has deigned to make up for our powerlessness. He Himself has come down to dwell among us, and He stays within reach of our hearts behind a thin veil.
Come all, and draw near this evening, for we wish to look on the Word in another phase of His glory, that of the prison of Holy Thursday. Contemplate, in an ecstasy of faith, the scene that astounded the angelic choirs: As royal palace, an underground prison; for a throne, a stool; for diadem, thorns of sorrow; for scepter, the reed of contempt … and, finally, this King’s court, a soldiery drunk with wine, intoxicated with satanic hate! …
Let us gaze together upon our King Jesus, in this prison, the butt of mockery, sarcasm, and blows: meek, but majestic in His humility, a supplication for love and for pity in His Eyes, and dire anguish portrayed on His adorable Face, bathed in His Blood, and yet always athirst for the gall of sorrow! …
Souls: Such is the state in which we find Thee, Jesus, this evening after twenty centuries have gone by, Thou art in the same prison of love and glorious ignominy … a prison that Thy Heart wished to perpetuate forever …
The pomp, of Thy royal but bloody Majesty is always the same, O King immortal. Nothing is altered, neither the chains of love that make Thee our prisoner, nor the wretched attendants who load Thee with outrages, and with ignominy, nor the hatred of the judges and the cruelty of the jailers … But Thy Heart above all, O Jesus, Love of our loves, has not changed. It remains what it always was, always the same, immutable in Its merciful resolution to remain our Captive even to the consummation of the world …
Indeed, divine Master, it is we who should and would change our rebellion into an altogether glorious captivity and transform the chains of sin into the chains of burning love uniting us faithfully to Thee.
That is why, with repentance and love in our hearts, we cry out this evening: “Jesus in the Eucharist, make our hearts like unto Thine.”
(Aloud)
All: Jesus in the Eucharist, make our hearts like unto Thine!
Captive King of Love, restrain by a living faith our oft abused liberty! …
All: Jesus in the Eucharist, make our hearts like unto Thine!
Captive King of Love, with chains of fervent charity bind our hearts, so mean in their love, so cold in gratitude! …
All: Jesus in the Eucharist, make our hearts like unto Thine!
Captive King of Love, by Thy victorious grace, restrain our rebellious senses! …
All: Jesus in the Eucharist, make our hearts like unto Thine!
Captive King of Love, by Thy supernatural might enchain our weak and inconstant will!
All: Jesus in the Eucharist, make out hearts like unto Thine!
Captive King of Love, by salutary fear restrain our proud minds! …
All: Jesus in the Eucharist, make our hearts like unto Thine!
Captive King of Love, by Thy tenderness and pity enchain our cold-hearted, vacillating nature! …
All: Jesus in the Eucharist, make our hearts like unto Thine!
Oh yes, divine King of the Tabernacle, grant that, from unfortunate slaves of this deluding world, which smilingly sells us poison and damnation, we may become loving and happy slaves of Thy adorable Heart. To love and serve Thee always — is that not on honor, a greater glory than to reign over men?
And now, beloved Master, through the grating of Thy prison deign to cast a glance on the happy legion of Thy friends, the faithful whom Thou seest here … They are those, Lord, who were missing at Gethsemane, and who this evening before the Tabernacle atone for the abominable ardor of Judas and of Thy many enemies …
Ah, they make honorable amends especially for that countless crowd who sleep and take their rest while Thou art in agony! … They mount guard here; near Thee they replace those who at the hour Thou wast seized, basely abandoned Thee by flight …
Do not call Thine Angels, Jesus, for they have a glorious eternity for themselves! … Reserve for Thy friends on earth the intimate confidences of Thy Heart in the Tabernacle! … O, speak to us, Jesus in the Eucharist, with the tenderness of a Father, with the intimacy of an elder Brother, with the sweet intimacy of a Friend! Speak to us with the suppliant and plaintive language of an adorable Prisoner and at the same time with the authority of Master and Lord.
O Jesus, speak and give us light!
All: Jesus, speak and give us light!
Jesus, speak and give us love!
All: Jesus, speak, and give us love!
Jesus, speak, and Thou shalt conquer!
All: Jesus, speak and Thou shalt conquer!
Yes, Lord, speak, for Thou alone hast the words of life, truth, and love that lead to eternal Life.
Let all creatures be silent to hear Thee, Jesus, and hear only Thee, the Word of God!
Let the Heavens bend down to hearken, Eternal Word, to hear only Thee! Delay no longer, Jesus. Thy servants, Thy children, Thine atoning friends await Thy words.
(Listen with recollected mind to the voice coming forth from this wonderful, divine prison; let there be absolute silence, the calm silence of souls in prayer … Take the place and also the love of the Angels during the woeful night of Holy Thursday.)
Jesus: My little ones, My friends, behold the Heart which has loved you beyond the debasement of the Crib and of Nazareth, even far beyond the Crucifixion of My Body and Soul on Calvary; behold this Heart which has loved you unto the complete giving of Itself, unto sublime madness; this Heart which will keep Me your Prisoner forever, your Captive in the holy Tabernacle … Here in the divine Eucharist, I have exhausted My inexhaustible Love. Alas, it is also here that man comes to exhaust his boundless ingratitude!
You, parents, naturally so sensitive, whose hearts have suffered so much from cruel hurts inflicted by your own children whom you have oftentimes spoiled, add up, if you can, all your bitternesses, add to that all the tears shed since the beginning of the world, in the Garden of Paradise. All that is but a drop of water compared to the fathomless, shoreless ocean of My anguish on the holy Altar …
Come! All of you, come close to Me, you who are bruised by deception and pierced to the heart by your own at home; come, you who are crushed by injustice, tortured by cruel separations, by misfortunes and anguish often more sorrowful than death itself! … Come also, you who are deprived of prosperity here below, all of you, so numerous, whose souls are torn in shreds! … Finally, come you who have tasted the chalice of all griefs, you who have been touched by all the cruelties of life … O come, all of you, come unto Me, not only to be consoled, but, that in the light of the Tabernacle you may understand, as Christians, that the torrent of your misfortunes is only a drop, hardly a drop, of that bitter ocean that God the Father pours out on His Son, your hidden God! … He expiates in this prison the ingratitude of man who forgets his God and wounds his Savior as never the most ungrateful of sons drenched his parents with shame and anguish! …
See Me disdained, put in the last place, forgotten as even the most ordinary of friends would not be forgotten, despised as even the worst scoundrel would not be despised! … And yet, I am the Master, the Savior of the world! I am Jesus, your God and your Brother! My little ones, have pity on My soul, sorrowful unto death!
(Meditate on the infinite bitterness of this plaint.)
(Pause)
But for forgetfulness I do not return forgetfulness! My revenge is love! That is why, from the depth of My prison, tearfully I follow the multitude of children, who though redeemed by My Blood, never receive Holy Communion! …
They live by My side; our houses are close together; I have given them a fireside, bread for their table, and comforts that should remind them of Me! … Alas, they have never come to My door, asking for Me, the Bread of eternal life. And those children will die of hunger just outside their Father’s house! …
There are also many souls like the Samaritan woman who have conversed with Me on the edge of the well of My love. I have called them tenderly … I have worked miracles to draw them to Me … They have come to the brink of this well, which is the Tabernacle, but they have refused to quench their thirst. They have not been willing to taste of those living waters that flow from My transpierced Side unto life everlasting …
Ah, what shall I say now, My children, of the very many who taste a thousand and one times the nectar of My Heart in the Holy Eucharist, whose lips have so often adhered to the delicious Wound in My Side, and who have then forgotten Me and have gone off, never to return! … I always await them, but alas, in vain! … Their ingratitude transpierces My soul and rends it bitterly …
Behold finally, the innumerable souls made giddy by the pleasures of the world — those who, grudgingly, and more out of fear than love, devote to the God of the Tabernacle an occasional few moments snatched from their own concerns and from creatures. They are convinced, moreover, that in approaching Me they pay Me quite a gratuitous honor! … Even if the little they do were well done! But they go away quickly; they are in such a hurry that it would seem as if they had not a minute to give to Him who offers to them and reserves for them an eternity! …
(Pause)
Consideration: Have you not, perhaps, one of your own? … a member of your household— in one of these three groups of ingrates? Behold this is the hour of mercy! … Weep and pray for him; love, Oh, love in his name for it is to scatter graces that Jesus instituted the Holy Plour. Let us ask Him with confidence to pour His graces over us and our loved ones, and for that intention, let us unite in an earnest reparatory prayer. May it obtain the salvation of all those souls who without knowing it, are famished for their Eucharistic Jesus, wither away for lack of Christian life, and die of their unconscious homesickness — homesickness for the Host …
Souls: Jesus in the Eucharist, immortal King of ages, Who from the humble throne of the Tabernacle would conquer the world, O Jesus, do not permit that any of us who are close to Thy Sacred Heart, the never-failing source of living water, should perish of thirst. Do not permit the members of our household to fall fainting en the road of life because they refuse to nourish themselves with Thee, the Bread sent down from Heaven for earth’s exiles.
Because Thou art Jesus, cross the abyss that separates them from Thee; pay no attention to their ignorance; win them in spite of their weakness, heeding only Thy pity and the prayer of faith and love that, unknown to them, we offer Thee at Thy merciful request. O Jesus, save them by Thy grace! …
By the Immaculate Queen, let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
All: Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
Infant Jesus, dost Thou remember the exquisite tenderness with which Mary surrounded Thee in the Crib of Bethlehem? … Thou hast certainly not forgotten the first caresses, the first smile, and the first loving kiss of Thy Immaculate Mother! … O, if Thou still lovest her as Thou didst then that first Christmas night, draw to the Tabernacle through her the souls we wish to save. Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
All: Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
Infant Jesus, dost Thou remember that it was in Mary’s arms that Thou received the homage of adoration from the Shepherds and Kings? O, recall this evening that it was on the throne of her virginal bosom that the incense of reparatory adoration was first burned in Thy honor … If still Thou lovest her as when an Infant God, draw to the Tabernacle through her the souls we wish to save: Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
All: Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
Infant Jesus, dost Thou remember Thy flight into Egypt in Mary’s arms, resting in perfect safety on her Heart, hidden from Herod’s anger by her maternal mantle? … O, Thou hast not forgotten the vigilant care of Thine incomparable Mother nor hast Thou forgotten her loving eagerness during that painfully hard sojourn in the land of exile! … If still Thou lovest her as when an Infant God, draw to the Tabernacle through her the souls we wish to save. Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
All: Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
Infant Jesus, dost Thou remember the heavenly oasis of Nazareth and Thy first prayers at Mary’s knee? … O, Thou canst still hear the musical murmur of the hymns with which she sang Thee to sleep in Thy cradle! … Thou hast not forgotten the vision of the first tears that Thine eyes saw in Mary’s eyes! … If still Thou lovest her as when an Infant God, draw to the Tabernacle through her the souls we wish to save. Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
All: Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
Jesus the Youth, dost Thou remember Thy Mother’s poignant anguish during the three days that she searched for Thee in Jerusalem? And dost Thou still recall the brightness of that great joy shining in her face and the violent throbbing of her Heart when she embraced Thee after finding Thee in the Temple? … If Thou lovest her through all eternity as Thou didst then, lure to the Tabernacle through her the souls we wish to save. Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
All: Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
And finally, Jesus, Savior and King, dost Thou remember Thy farewell to Mary, that Thursday evening … and the depth of her sorrow when she met Thee on the way to death? … Thou hast kept for eternity all that her eyes said to Thee in that moment of supreme farewell in agony … If still Thou lovest her as when an Infant-God, draw to the Tabernacle through her the souls we wish to save. Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
All: Let them drink the chalice of Thy love!
(Pray a moment for the eternal salvation of all prodigal children.)
What is this bond as powerful as it is mysterious, this chain so strong that it makes a God the prisoner of ungrateful and treacherous man? …
What is this luminous yet impenetrable secret of the Eucharistic mystery? … What can be the supreme explanation for this miracle of miracles? …
O Jesus, Thou Thyself must answer the outcry of our faith—these supplications of our love— for neither angels nor men can give us the key to this profound, this unfathomable Mystery. Oh! give us the explanation of Thy Tabernacle! …
Why this prison? … Why hast Thou set it up against the onslaught of ages and of the coldness and hatred of Thy children? … O King of Kings, having a Paradise, why hast Thou made Thyself Thine own guard and our voluntary Captive? … Thou knewest in advance on Holy Thursday, all the vileness of our hearts … It is Thou then, Lord, Who in the first place art responsible for Thy captivity in the Tabernacle prison! … Who could be powerful enough to force a God to accept these chains? … Who keeps Thee here? … Lift the veil of this mystery, Jesus, and answer us!…
(Listen with profound faith to the Master’s answer.)
Jesus: The holy, the divine delirium of My love! … It was My Heart that betrayed Me, conquered Me, enchained Me! …
Listen to Me, My little ones and My friends. If it was love that caused My incarnation, and love that nailed Me to the Cross, O, you must know that it was love, too, nothing but love, that determined the institution of the Holy Eucharist, the greatest marvel of My infinite charity …
(Slowly and with pauses) Beloved soul, I am Your God, and you are only a poor, guilty creature. And yet it is for you, pitiable being, for you, rebel dust, that 1 dwell in this Host, yes, only for you! … O, give Me at last, then, your sadly profaned heart; give it to Me in exchange for Mine … Love Me as I love you!
I am your God, and you are an invalid, a sick soul, blameworthy for your sickness! … And in spite of that it is for you that I live in the Host, only for you. O, then, give me at last your sinful heart in exchange for Mine … Love me as I love you!
I am your God, and you are only a waif of the earthly paradise, an unfortunate who sought out his own misfortunes … But for you, only for you, a branch cut off and destined for the fire, I stay in the Host in order that you might have a new life fed by an immortal vital sap! O then, give Me at last your bloodless and failing heart in exchange for Mine … Love Me as I love you! …
Ah, would you know what mysterious power roots Me to this earth, watered, drenched with My Blood? Listen to My answer … Never forget that it is love, nothing but love! … And would you know, cherished soul, what is the bitterest of my sufferings now? Listen once more … and weep as you hear Me: It is to love as only a God can love, and then not to be loved by My own! … Yes, it is My own, My predestined children, the spoiled loved ones of My Heart, those who call themselves My faithful, My intimate friends, who do not love Me as they might; ah! as I wish they would! …
That is My profound grief … And yet, you have such a power of loving, for you love so many others at home! … If at least, you would give your God of love what you accord those who are dear to you! .… Alas, creatures often get first choice and your King must content Himself with the crumbs left over! … Is that how you treat your Jesus?
Those you really love, you love so much and so well, that in loving them you give yourself without reserve; you do everything to prove lo them your affection which is often excessive … You keep for them your exquisite tenderness and the transports of your generosity and delicacy. You have attentions, thoughtful kindnesses, and gratitude for them … But, when I come to you, you no longer know how to love with the same eagerness. For Me, the Prisoner of Love, your heart — a moment ago still overflowing — is empty of its best treasures … Is that how you treat your Jesus? …
You are good to the poor and to orphans, you surfeit the forlorn with love, you have tenderness and tears of pity for those who suffer, whoever they may be, relatives or strangers! … But when it is a question of Me, all those noble and profound feelings disappear. Is that how you treat Me, the great Forsaken One, the Pilgrim without shelter, the voluntary Exile from Paradise? … Have pity! Do not treat in such a manner the adorable Child of Bethlehem, the Divine Beggar and Prisoner of the Tabernacle! Indeed, what are all your friends and your poor? A fleeting shadow … But I am the divine Reality, I am the God of Love, I am Jesus!
I am the wounded One, par excellence, and My Wound is as deep as the ingratitude of those who should love Me … And in spite of all, My complaint is only a sigh of tenderness, and My reproach is the caress of My Heart which would conquer yours … O, give Me more love, but especially a truer and more ardent love!
“Sitio“! I thirst to be loved with a more generous love, a love of sacrifice in the perfect obedience to My Law! …
“Sitio“! I thirst to be loved with that love which would make you hate this futile world, which having crucified Me in time, would in its cruelty, crucify you also, My children, in an eternity of unhappiness! …
Behold Me languishing with anguish and love in this garden of My mystic, sacramental agony. Strengthen Me, O My consolers, as did the angel of Gethsemane and even better … O tell Me, with fire in your soul, that you really love Me, and that you will always love Me more and more! …
(Brief pause)
(May the sentiments that follow be the faithful expression of the profound feelings that animate you. Relish them with love, and may your hearts repeat them in throbs as vehement as they are sincere.)
Souls: Adorable Jesus, filled with confusion but still animated with firm confidence, we acknowledge very humbly that our ingratitude is only equaled by the greatness of Thy love. Yes, Lord, we Thy friends have sinned through lack of real love. We admit that the gall of our sins has been more bitter to Thee than were the redoubled blows and the deicide of Thy cruel executioners … But since Thou art Jesus, especially for Thy friends, we dare to hope, yes, we are even convinced that Thou awaitest us in this Holy Hour to forget and to pardon … O Jesus, forget our errors and pardon us here and now for having chosen petty interests and earthly affections and enjoyments in preference to Thine adorable Person. And to assure us of this pardon of which we are very unworthy, deign, O Master, meek and humble of Heart, to accept along with our repentance, a great promise for the future; we offer it through the hands of our Immaculate Queen. Listen to it, Jesus, smiling through Thy tears! It is the spontaneous cry of our souls: Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
All: Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
In grateful homage for Thy tears in the Crib, we will love Thee especially when in our turn we have to prove our love by tears. And as reparation for those who do not appreciate the merit and the glory of trials: Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
All: Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
In a homage of reparation for Thy crown of thorns, we will love Thee, Lord, when Thou conferest on us the glory of sharing that royal crown. And for the many Christians who lose themselves in the mad fever of pleasure, Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love.
All: Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
As homage to Thy hidden sorrow and anguish, we will love Thee, Lord, when Thou offerest us a crumb of that bitter bread. And in reparation for our lack of courage in accepting crosses which come to us from Thine adorable Hand, Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
All: Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
In heartfelt homage for all Thou hast had to suffer from Thy friends and elect we will love Thee, Lord, when Thou allowest a few drops from that very bitter chalice to fall on our lips. And in reparation for our lack of meekness and humility in accepting this trial, Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
All: Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
As homage of reparation for the twenty centuries of abandonment, ingratitude, and outrage in the captivity of the Tabernacle, we will love Thee, Lord, when Thou allowest us to be treated by our brethren as Thou art constantly treated by Thine own children in the Sacrament of the altar. In reparation for all the affronts Thou hast received from us through our lack of faith and resignation in bearing this cross, Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
All: Jesus, we vow to give Thee love for love!
(Now make a firm promise of fervent love.)
(Pause)
The end of the Holy Hour is already drawing near … About eleven o’clock Holy Thursday night, Jesus underwent the gross outrage of the first iniquitous judgment. That tribunal received His as the furnace receives dry wood which falls into its flames … A few moments later the Judge of judges, the King of kings, was thrown ignominiously into a horrible dungeon and left to the ferocity of soldiers worse than cruel, to torturers paid to push their savagery to extremes … It was then, that in the half darkness of that underground prison, one of the saddest and most shameful scenes of the Passion was enacted before the indignant eyes of Angels. It was there, that not only the Master’s Body was profaned but also His Heart … It was there that not only Jesus’ garments were torn to shreds, but His innocent Soul as well. Truly, the Christian remains trembling and mute, overcome by fear, when he considers in the light of faith this horrible scene of Holy Thursday night. There is about it a mystery of divine suffering which no one, except the divine Prisoner Himself is able to explain or solve … Therefore let Him unveil to us the cruelties and the fruitful beauty of His agony! … Ah, it was then that the unchained powers of darkness, in a fit of fury, took vengeance beforehand on the adorable Captive for the series of wonders He would work in the ages to come, by the radiance of that supernatural life and that sacred liberty which would emanate from that other sublime Prison: the Tabernacle.
Yes, let Jesus speak to us! … Let us listen with holy emotion and profound recollection to His sweet, luminous, plaintive Voice …
Jesus: Why do you ask me, My little ones and My friends, to unveil the mystery of a sorrow that today, even under your eyes, breaks forth with sinister gleams? … You know the mystery, for in our own day you see the sad reality of that passion! … Do not ask Me to recall to you a history, which unhappily is renewed every day. It is a history both of yesterday and today, ancient yet modern for it continues in lasting reality on My altars … The dungeon of Holy Thursday has disappeared, but My prison remains; ah! here it is … The Eucharistic Tabernacle! …
Alas, My Passion in this prison is renewed not only by My enemies who scourge Me, who insult My Majesty, who outrage My Royalty … it is often caused by My own, My friends … There, in the dungeon of Holy Thursday, only torturers and mercenaries struck me … Here, alas, children of My Heart, My friends, My very own offend Me! …
Souls: Jesus, adorable Jesus, permit that a cry from this flock which wishes to be faithful to Thee, interrupt Thy complaint by a cry like that which broke forth from Thine Apostles at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday evening. Allow it to express the violent shock of our anguished souls. O beloved Master, who are those unhappy friends, those unfaithful children who make a dungeon of ignominious torture out of Thy glorious prison? Oh, have pity; tell us who they are; name them … For all of us here present, all of whom in Thy boundless mercy Thou hast chosen, have sworn to defend and follow Thee unto death … O Jesus, “is it one of us?” …
Jesus: Today you are all innocent, but alas, it is not always so! Among those who sit at My table, who eat from My dish, who drink of My chalice, and are, consequently, My children, My friends, My brothers, My beloved disciples, are some who rend My Heart and pierce it cruelly! As you listen to Me, do not cast your glances toward the rabble, the ignorant of city slums who know not what they do when they blaspheme My Name … They are not the most infuriated and guilty in their insults! O no! It is all those unhappy wretches who call themselves Christians but who outrage Me hatefully in their social life! How cutting are the blows I receive from those worldly Catholics, blows that reopen on My Shoulders the Wounds in My divine Flesh and lay My Bones bare …
Do not those Christian souls — now and then pious — scourge Me atrociously when they dare to lead Me at night by vile and abominable paths after swearing fidelity to Me in the morning at the Holy Table? Do they forget that I am Sanctity Itself? … Yes, you deceive yourselves, My little children, when, running counter to the principles of a Christian conscience, you proclaim that immodesty is something permissible, that art authorizes and excuses the paganism and the scandals of your modern theatre … that henceforth evil may impudently placard itself everywhere! … How could you so deceive yourselves if you realized that I crushed Venus and paganism; I have cursed all impurity; I have condemned all license, all instigations of brazen immodesty …
Reflect then, how My Heart must burst with grief when Christian souls can be found who pretend that the condemnation passed against evil fashions, romances, sensual movies and theatres is nothing but exaggerated childish scruples … souls who break My Law in the gravest and most delicate matters and then trample the broken pieces underfoot. What poignant anguish My Heart endures in seeing My children, My friends contributing money to keep up filthy fashions, provocative lewdness, stimulants of passion! … under pretext of pleasure, of social obligations, of modern demands! …
I beg of you not to talk about torturers who are in their tombs; rather look around at this Christian public that runs the streets, fills the theatres, accepts and tolerates, applauds and encourages actions on the stage which it would condemn as a sin in its own conscience, as a crime in its own home …
How those souls with double-dealing consciences make Me suffer! At the foot of the altar they outwardly profess their faithful friendship, but in their social life they basely betray My honor and My law and encourage My torturers! … I am perpetually scourged by their guilty complacence! Money used for admission to indecent theatre performances and films is like to the thirty pieces of silver given to Judas; it is red with My Blood! … Tremble and weep with Me, for it is written: “Woe to him by whom scandal comes!” …
Have pity on Me, all you who because of your name, your fortune, your social position, can by your example either react energetically against this uncontrol of the passions, or alas, can draw others after you into the depths of the abyss! …
Have pity on Me, you who live; you the rich, the powerful, the influential; you who accept as legitimate every novelty of custom, every social diversion, and all new forms of sensual and pleasurable excitement; you who because of your name, your social credit, authorize with a stamp of good taste and elegance, the inventions of refined sensuality, of depraved instincts, equivocal and dangerous pleasures, worldly gatherings and amusements — all those keen stimulants which excite passions and lead to the abyss … Take care that your responsibility does not one day crush you! …
Bathed in My Blood, weeping over these offenses, scourged by social lust, I implore you to pity Me!
Have pity on Me, you the great, the noble, the high living of this world, whose drawing-rooms should never tolerate all those liberties, dances, and pleasures denounced by My Gospel and publicly condemned when I broke the pagan idols to fragments … Alas, among those who come to Communion at My table, there are found some who mean to set those same idols up again, for, they say, times have changed … Yes, times have changed, but I Who am the Law and the Judge never change! …
Bathed in My Blood, weeping over these offenses, scourged by social lust, I implore you to pity Me!
Have pity on Me, you the mothers and wives whom I have ennobled … mothers and wives whose great influence may be used in My favor or against Me, on the souls of your own who love you … especially you, mothers and wives who in My goodness I have placed on a Christian pedestal, that in the complete accomplishment of your duty, you might be a model for those around you. O, do not be afraid of exaggerating the divine law of modesty which is the reflection of purity in the social practice of virtue! … Make sure that in your homes the sparkling beauty of Christian modesty will always shine from the brow of your daughters. By your care and for My glory make that virtue the glorious endowment of their youth! … With anger repel far from the family threshold the perverse and corrupting world … In this struggle never forget that I, I alone, am the only Master in your home! … A day will come when it will be My turn to judge, and then the laws of this world will give way to My eternal Law … Mothers and wives, remember that I am the only Master, the only Lawmaker in the Church as in the family circle, in private life as in public life, in life as in death …
Bathed in My Blood, weeping over these offenses, scourged by social lust, I implore you to pity Me!
And you, the joyous revelers of life — weakened souls, so easily seduced by the sirens of pleasure, by the changeable and lying goddess of vanity, sickly souls, caught in the social whirl, thirsting for sensations … good-hearted, but whose weak character and lack of solid virtue often make too complacent … too easy-going consciences, changing ideas, fashions, doctrines with every wind that blows … halt in your march toward the yawning gulf of this corrupt world, the vestibule of Hell! Stop! My Gospel does not deceive you! My Law is your safeguard; the wisdom of My Church is your wisdom! … O, stop, I pray you! By your worldly life do not continue to trample underfoot My Cross covered with Blood! … No one loves you with true love but I … I stretch forth My arms to you; I forget your wandering; love Me in return with a love entirely loyal that you may enter My Side! Enter, enter by it and take for yourself the Heart of a God in love with yours … Take it forever; May it be yours for time and eternity! But have pity on Me!
Bathed in My Blood, weeping over these offenses, scourged by social lust, I implore you to pity Me!
(Pause)
(After having heard this divine plaint, unhappily too just and too well-founded, it only remains for us to make the Prisoner of Love an answer vibrating with loving reparation and filled with humble repentance … this prayer, which should have the import of a sincere and solemn promise, should come from the depths of our hearts, even more than from our lips …)
Souls: Adorable and beloved Master, it is most certainly not Thou who shouldst entreat pity from Thy guilty children. O no! Rather remind us of Thy sovereign rights and have pity on us! Renew indelibly in our mind the thought of the Sovereignty of Thy divine Law, the only absolute law which governs society, redeemed and reformed by Thy Blood … Yet society discards Thee and banishes Thee with caution and prudence but with a sureness which, silently and little by little, veils from it the love and the light of the Sun of Justice … Lord, have pity on Thine ungrateful friends!
And following the example of Thine Angels, of Magdalen, and of Veronica, who on the evening of Good Friday, searched with love for Thy blood-stained footprints that they might kiss and gather from the dust, from rocks and stones, and from the instruments of Thy torture, the still fresh drops of divine Blood, we, Thine intimates, heartbroken and repentant, retrace this evening, on the wings of faith, the stations of Thy public scourging …
Without the least fear, without yielding to worldly conventions, or to sinful actions, let us visit in spirit those homes, those elegant parlors, those splendid drawing-rooms, those scandalous theaters, scenes still stained with the divine Purple flowing from Thy broken Veins … Ah! We weep this evening at the thought of these antique tapestries, these ornamental paintings, these rich carpets, all accusing witnesses still bearing the marks of Thy Blood, shed now as cruelly as in Pilate’s hall in the dark dungeon where Thou wast shut up on Holy Thursday night …
Jesus, King, have pity on all Thy friends, disloyal more from weakness than from malice. As perfect revenge, worthy of Thine inexhaustible mercy and as proof of Thy pardon: Let fire from Heaven consume us, the fire of Thy Love.
All: Let fire from Heaven consume us, the fire of Thy Love!
Jesus, King, have pity on those families who are sincerely good, but who led away by their weakness are too weak to throw off the yoke of the fashionable world’s pagan demands . , . As the revenge of Thine inexhaustible Mercy and as proof of Thy Pardon: Let fire from Heaven consume us, the fire of Thy Love!
All: Let fire from Heaven consume us, the fire of Thy Love!
Jesus, King, have pity on those mothers whose excessive compromises too often endanger the reserve and modesty of their daughters … Have pity also on those young girls who through thoughtlessness and ardor of youth are carried away in attitudes and fashions by vanity or human respect, and who unknowingly are a scourge which tears Thine innocent Flesh … As the revenge of Thine inexhaustible Mercy and as proof of Thy Pardon: Let fire from Heaven consume us, the fire of Thy Love!
All: Let fire from Heaven consume us, the fire of Thy Love!
And now, good Jesus, as we say farewell to the Holy Tabernacle and leave Thee to Mary and the Angels in this garden of agony and glory, allow us to sing Thee a hymn in praise of Thy Holy Eucharist … The Sacrament of our altars is above all the gift of Thy Heart. It was to give us a pledge of immortal life and to strengthen our courage during our exile here below that Thou gavest us the Holy Eucharist. And in Thy merciful goodness Thou hast instituted it on the night of Holy Thursday during the hour when Thy children and subjects were plotting the blackest plots against Thine adorable Person, pronouncing an iniquitous sentence of death against Thee, the meek King, the Christ of peace! Captive King, smiling through Thy Tears, draw near the grating of Thy prison of love to listen to the psalm of praise, of reparation, and of love, that we in the name of Thine elect wish to sing to the glory of Thy Eucharistic Heart: O Jesus, Thou hast blessed us as Thou never hast blessed the flowers of the field and the lilies of the valley when Thou passed them by … and we have often been the briars and thorns of Thy Crown:
All: O Jesus, do not grow weary of us, have mercy on us always!
O Jesus, Thou hast blessed us as Thou never hast blessed the wheat fields and gardens of Galilee … and we have often been the guilty tares in Thy Church:
All: Do not grow weary of us, Jesus, have mercy on us always!
O Jesus, Thou hast blessed us as Thou never blessed the birds of Heaven, the flocks of Bethlehem and Nazareth … and we have often wounded Thee by our lack of trust in Thine infinite Goodness:
All: Do not grow weary of us, Jesus, have mercy on us always!
That is why, in loving reparation, we wish to end this Holy Hour crying with the Prophet:
Angelic spirits, heavenly court of the Lord, bless His mercy toward us! Hosanna to the Creator who has become creature and Host out of love! Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
All: Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
Stars, moon, and sun, unfold your mantle of light over His Tabernacle, holier than Jerusalem’s, since it contains the sweet Majesty of the Word made flesh, become food for mortals! Bless His mercy toward us: Hosanna to the Creator who has become creature and Host out of love: Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
All: Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
Light of dawn, morning dew, fruitful clouds, praise the fruitfulness of the Lord’s grace! Bless His mercy toward us: Hosanna to the Creator who has become creature and Host out of love! Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
All: Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
Ocean in heavenly calm, tempest-tossed ocean, sing the magnificence of the Lord! Bless His mercy toward us. Hosanna to the Creator who has become creature and Host out of Love. Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
All: Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
Peaceful breezes, unleashed hurricanes, streams and torrents, sing, sing the glory of the Lord! Bless His mercy toward us: Hosanna to the Creator who has become creature and Host out of Love! Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
All: Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
Snows, forests and harvests, volcanoes, hills and valleys, sing, sing the power of the Lord! Bless His mercy toward us: Hosanna to the Creator who has become creature and Host out of Love! Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
All: Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
All creation, hasten to our aid; make up for our powerlessness to thank and to bless … Come, stifle by the majestic chanting of nature all the cries of blasphemy; atone for the silence and coldness of ungrateful and guilty man! Bless, O, bless the mercy of the Lord toward us! Hosanna, Hosanna to the Creator who has become Child, Victim, and Host out of Love! Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
All: Hosanna to the Prisoner of Love!
A Pater and an Ave for those in their agony and for sinners.
A Pater and an Ave for the world-wide triumph of the Sacred Heart, especially by daily Communion, the Holy Hour, and the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in families.
A Pater and an Ave for the particular intentions of all present.
A Pater and an Ave for our country.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom come! (5 times)
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us. (3 times)
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saint Margaret Mary, pray for us.
Return to Table of Contents (21 Holy Hours by Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.)