BY Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.
Preliminary Note: Many pious persons think that crosses are principally a punishment merited by their sins. They imagine that the almost exclusive purpose of suffering is one of expiation … the cancelling of a strict debt toward an offended God. That is perfectly true, but there is more than that. To this point of view must be added another more consoling one; namely, that crosses are often a precious pledge of the love of Jesus for souls. They are a true gift, a testimony of the mercy and of the exquisite tenderness of His Sacred Heart. It is for this reason that He gave a share in His Passion to His Immaculate and Sorrowful Mother, Queen of Martyrs, and it is for this reason also, that He permits souls who are very dear to Him to enrich and to sanctify themselves by suffering. Suffering, then, is not always the receiving of a blow from the lash of a vengeful God; rather it is often the shining proof of the exceptional love His Heart bears towards generous souls.
Jesus: Come unto Me, You who suffer, You who groan under the weight of your cross … O come before you fall on the sorrowful way! Hasten! for I wish to be your Cyrenian of love … Come! …
Yes, I wish to sustain you and to console you, to lighten your cross and to sweeten the bitterness of it! … And then, I wish also and above all, My children, to teach you the science of suffering in peace, the great science of suffering with Me …
Remember, children of My Divine Heart, that I have experienced your sufferings — all of them I have known them as God … and I have tasted them all as Man-God … as Jesus! … Never forget that you suffer to share in My voluntary sufferings, you suffer to sanctify your life! …
Oh, do not fear your Crucified Savior when He gives you a share of the glory of His Stigmata!
You are then, more than ever, the privileged ones of His Loving Heart! …
I know that miserable nature revolts, accepts not this bloody glory, this sublime doctrine of Calvary … It would sacrifice very willingly a part of the celestial glory procured by this martyrdom in order to enjoy greater well-being here on earth.
My children, because I am Wisdom and infinite Mercy, allow Me to make you happy, not after the manner of the world and of your own humor, but after the manner of a God become your Father, your Friend, your Savior, through love and by His cross.
Come, O come to Me without fear … Let My Wounds, on the contrary, attract you … They speak to you of yours. Come, because your souls are saturated, like a sponge, with. the bitterness of your tears. To sweeten them it is necessary to cast them into the torrent of My tears …
In order to suffer with courage, with peace and with fruitfulness, you must suffer in My Arms and weep all your tears into the chalice of My Heart.
Behold this chalice! I offer it to you, my consolers. Do not delay, for it is Jesus, the Divine Consoler, Who calls you, Who awaits you.
(Let us ask the grace to understand the serious lessons of this Holy Hour by saying five times in honor of the Five Wounds of Our Lord:)
All: Agonizing Heart of Jesus, have pity on us!
Five great sorrows nail us to the Cross of our Savior, Jesus; five great sorrows which are, as it were, five precious nails, if not for all men, at least for many Christians and apostles …
Like Mary Immaculate, John, and the holy women on Good Friday evening, let us examine with faith and with a sacred emotion these five nails tinged with the Blood of our Redeemer. If we but wish it, these great trials, more precious than the material nails which transfixed our Savior’s Hands and Feet to the Cross, will, for His glory and for our good, attach us to Jesus Crucified.
I. Ingratitude and Injustice of Creatures
Souls: How glorious for us, O King of Calvary, if our grief could always parallel Thine: Our tears are only as drops of an ocean of agony which Thou dost carry in Thy adorable Heart …
Because Thou wert never understood, Lord, and because Thou art not yet understood after so many centuries, Thou dost permit that in our turn we should suffer from the ingratitude of creatures …
We bless Thee, Jesus, for the bitterness of the simple and of the great, of the poor and of the rich, of the worldly and of the holy who are being scourged by those whose duty it is to render justice tempered with charity.
Have pity, good Jesus, on the forsaken, the mistrusted … the censured … the condemned. Have pity on them, because the world, still more culpable, is inexorable and cruel towards its victims.
Hasten, good Master, to come to their assistance with the balm of Thy tenderness … Hasten to prevent the lash which, if not today, will tomorrow strike souls, who, though blameworthy, are not wretched but weak and sickly …
O, King of kings, we are not alone before this tribunal where men sit in judgment of their brothers. Thou, O God, hast been there before us and Thou art still very often judged, disregarded in Thy rights, and condemned by Thine own creatures.
Give us, O Lord, during this Holy Hour a profound lesson in humility; raise our dejected spirits; strengthen by Thy example, and this evening by Thy word, the spirit of faith of Thy children … speak to us, adorable Master.
(Brief pause)
Jesus: You, My little children, are not above your Master, and the world has misunderstood Me, its Light and its Savior …
The powers of darkness judged Me, and for centuries I have suffered under the consequences of their sentence …
The injustice of men, of those supposedly honest, prudent, and wise, has made a target of My Gospel and of My Heart …
Are you more just, holier, and stronger than I? I have preached to a people who have always remained ready to contradict, to cast aside both My doctrine and My appeals of love …
You, creatures wounded by the ingratitude of other creatures, meditate on the outrage committed against a God misunderstood by His own … by His privileged friends … by His chosen apostles …
This was done yesterday; it is renewed still today! Who are they who wish to draw near Me in order to know Me better? Who are they who study Me?
Alas! Numberless are those who attack My doctrine, who struggle to discredit My Church, who dig a grave to entomb Me in the eternal forgetfulness of men whom I have redeemed with My Blood! If I, the green wood, have been treated thus, what may you not expect from the world, you, the dry wood, ready for the fire? Is it astonishing that men scorn and slight you, the little ray of created light that you are, if they treat Me, the uncreated Sun of Justice and Truth, after this fashion?
O My children, atone, before all, for the sin of ingratitude which offends Your Lord and Your God, … and I, always gentle and compassionate, I will also atone for yours …
Make reparation, above all, for your own ingratitude toward Me. Since you speak of the injustices that creatures have committed against you, never forget those which you have committed against Me, your King and Lord …
With these sentiments of humility and of immense confidence, come to Me … Draw near My Heart! … Come to Me, the great forgotten Savior of the earth! …
(Let us, deeply moved, meditate on these words so sadly true … Let us humiliate ourselves! Let us make reparation! … Let us go to the Heart of Jesus in all confidence! …)
Souls: We blush for shame, O Jesus, for having come to bewail misunderstandings and scourges dealt us by our brethren — for having come to complain to Thee, the great disowned One, the God, scourged by the injustice of creatures! …
We have fully merited our punishment, but, wherefore, O adorable Jesus, art Thou always bound to the pillory of shame and forgetfulness!
Ah, Thy beloved Face, — covered with spittle, and Thy transpierced Heart, these Thou hast presented, Jesus, to the justice of Thy Father, and they have arrested His just and rigorous wrath!
Thank Thee, Lord! … Have pity, O Jesus! …
God of infinite charity, King ignored, be Thou blessed in the disregard that wounds and pains us, and because of it give us the glory of Thy Confessors … the grace of knowing and loving Thee, O Jesus, as Thy Confessors! …
God of infinite mercy, King ignored, be Thou blessed in the disregard which wounds us and pains us; but, because of it, grant us the glory of Thy Virgin Spouses … the grace of knowing and loving Thee, O Jesus as Thy Virgin Spouses! …
Angels and Archangels of the Lord, give us your purity that we may know Jesus better and make Him acknowledged everywhere as the adorable King of Love!
Principalities, Thrones and Powers, lend us your celestial light that we may know Jesus better and make Him acknowledged everywhere as the adorable King of Love.
Virtues and Dominations, give us your intelligence that we may know Jesus better, and make Him acknowledged everywhere as the adorable King of Love.
Cherubim and Seraphim, give us your celestial flame that we may love Jesus, Who is Love, and make Him acknowledged everywhere as the adorable King of Love.
(Appropriate hymn)
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| 1) Jesus! my Lord, my God, my all! How can I love Thee as I ought? And, how revere this wondrous gift, So far surpassing hope or thought? Sweet Sacrament! we Thee adore! O, make us love Thee more and more! O, make us love Thee more and more! |
2) Had I but Mary’s sinless heart To love Thee with, my dearest King! O with what bursts of fervent praise Thy goodness, Jesus, would I sing! Sweet Sacrament! we Thee adore! O, make us love Thee more and more! O, make us love Thee more and more! |
| 3) O see! within a creature’s hand The vast Creator deigns to be, Reposing infant-like, as though On Joseph’s arm, or Mary’s knee. Sweet Sacrament! we Thee adore! O, make us love Thee more and more! O, make us love Thee more and more! |
4) Thy Body, Soul, and Godhead, all! O mystery of love divine! I cannot compass all I have, For all Thou hast and art are mine! Sweet Sacrament! we Thee adore! O, make us love Thee more and more! O, make us love Thee more and more! |
| 5) Sound, sound His praises higher still, And come, ye angels, to our aid, ‘Tis God! ‘Tis God! the very God Whose power both man and angels made! Sweet Sacrament! we Thee adore! O, make us love Thee more and more! O, make us love Thee more and more! |
6) Ring joyously, ye solemn bells! And wave, O wave, ye censers bright! ‘Tis Jesus cometh, Mary’s Son And God of God, and Light of Light! Sweet Sacrament! we Thee adore! O, make us love Thee more and more! O, make us love Thee more and more! |
| 7) O earth! grow flowers beneath His feet, And thou, O sun, shine bright this day! He comes! He comes! O Heaven on earth! Our Jesus comes upon His way! Sweet Sacrament! we Thee adore! O, make us love Thee more and more! O, make us love Thee more and more! |
8) He comes! He comes! The Lord of Hosts, Borne on His throne triumphantly! We see Thee, and we know Thee, Lord; And yearn to shed our Blood for Thee. Sweet Sacrament! we Thee adore! O, make us love Thee more and more! O, make us love Thee more and more! |
| 9) Our hearts leap up; our trembling song Grows fainter still; we can no more; Silence! and let us weep – and die Of very love, while we adore. Great Sacrament of love divine! All, all we have or are be Thine! All, all we have or are be Thine! |
Amen. |
II. Trials of the Heart! Not to Be Loved! Ingratitude!
Souls: Master, we have a deep wound in our hearts — we are not always loved!
In Thy divine wisdom, O Jesus, Thou dost permit that creatures turn their affections from those who rightfully expect them or who merit them … It is then, Lord, that one suffers solitude of the heart … a tearful solitude.
It is then, also, that there awakes in us, as a torture, but as a grace also, the thirst, the yearning for an affection stronger, purer, more faithful!
Oh, what agony this provokes! Thou knowest it only too well, Jesus, through the coldness and the indifference of Thine own!
And this agony does not come alone, does not remain isolated; it is accompanied often with the breaking of intimate bonds in the family … and ingratitude is almost always either the bitter sap or the poisoned fruit of it …
What an unassuaged hunger for love we then experience in those moments! … How the abyss of the heart grows even more profound! And if, in this distress, we have the unhappiness to knock at creatures’ doors, even at the doors of those whom we have loaded with favors, in the place of bread we often receive a scorpion — a refusal! …
Then we look about, awaiting a slight sign of interest, of pity, but alas! we only encounter a barren waste … sullen forgetfulness.
And to think, O Lord, that, as in the history of Holy Thursday, in the case of Judas, it is always a selfish interest that is at play! … Then dulled to nobler sentiments, the heart consumed by the fever of earthly pleasures hardens itself and loses all noble sense of right and duty and gratitude!
Console, Lord Jesus, those souls wounded to the heart … The caravan of those wounded as we are by lack of love, is very long …
Pity them, O Heart of Jesus!
Pity us also, O Jesus Crucified!
(Brief pause)
(These grave reflections are a profound and precious lesson for the Christian. There must be found in each tear and in each deception an appeal from Jesus, the Only, the always faithful Friend … His Voice never deceives; listen to It, follow It … It resounds in this holy tabernacle)
Jesus: To whom do you come to confide the pain caused by lack of love? … You know it well, My friends, it is to Me the great Wounded One … behold My transpierced Heart!
If creatures do not love you, it is because they do not love Me Who am Love! … O! I have experienced this mortal bitterness, a bitterness greater than all other griefs!
My children, I suffer with you; I sympathize with you in this cruel suffering which tortures you. I participate intimately, as no one else could, in your agony, but I have something to say which shall enlighten you with a great supernatural light … Hear Me, children of My Heart:
Do you not complain too bitterly of those who are ungrateful toward you? … Have you no remorse for having been ungrateful toward Me?
Your friends have forgotten you! … Ah! but you, have you not forgotten Me in loving creatures too much? You say they robbed you of the love which is your due, but have you not also robbed Me when you snatched the affections others owe Me? …
To give your affection to creatures is not the remedy for this evil. Oh, no! It is to come close by a way of generous love to Me your Creator …
Come, O come to Me all who have a thirst for true love, because creatures have not the power to satisfy you; they are so poor in nobility and generosity! …
Come to Me and you shall find in My Sacred Heart the source of true love; then give Me first your love.
You who suffer from lack of love, come and see how great and profound is My grief, when you refuse Me the same gift your brothers deny you …
I thirst with burning love!
(Brief pause)
(Let us note here this affirmation which may appear strange to Christians, that the only one who has a right to be loved is our Lord. Happy coldness of creatures in our regard, which compensates and repairs our coldness toward the adorable Master!)
Souls: Heart of Jesus, mortally saddened by our lack of love, love us despite our ingratitude, but love above all those who suffer from coldness of heart through lack of love.
All: Oh, grant that they may love Thee more and more.
Heart of Jesus, mortally saddened by our lack of love, love us despite our ingratitude, but love above all those who suffer from an affection cruelly shattered.
All: Oh, grant that they may love Thee more and more!
Heart of Jesus, mortally saddened by our lack of love, love us despite our ingratitude, but love above all those who suffer disloyalty in friendship.
All: Oh, grant that they may love Thee more and more!
Heart of Jesus, mortally saddened by our lack of love, love us despite our ingratitude, but love above all those who suffer from a lack of love in the family.
All: Oh, grant that they may love Thee more and more!
Heart of Jesus, mortally wounded by our lack of love, love us despite our ingratitude, but love above all those who suffer the bitter consequences of guilty love.
All: Oh, grant that they may love Thee more and more!
Heart of Jesus, mortally wounded by our lack of love, love us despite our ingratitude, but love above all those who suffer from an agonizing loneliness of heart.
All: Oh, grant that they may love Thee more and more!
Heart of Jesus, mortally wounded by our lack of love, love us despite our ingratitude, but love above all those who are not sufficiently loved — the good; the generous, the noble ones.
All: Oh, grant that they may love Thee more and more!
And to sanctify us through the deceptions that come to us from creatures, and to make reparation for so much mediocre love toward Thee: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
All: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
To sanctify us through the deceptions that come to us from creatures and to make reparation for the lukewarmness of the faithful: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
All: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
To sanctify us through the deceptions which come from creatures and to make reparation for the forgetfulness of a great number: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
All: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
To sanctify us through the deceptions which come to us from creatures, and to make reparation for our lack of generosity: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
All: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
To sanctify us through the deceptions which come from creatures and to make reparation for the sterile religion of so many Catholics without love: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
All: Heart of Jesus, increase our love!
(Pause)
(Appropriate hymn)
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| Sunday School Hymn Book, page 56 |
Sisters of Notre Dame Boston, 1907 |
|---|---|
| 1. O Sacred Heart, what shall I render Thee, For all the gifts Thou hast bestowed on me? O Heart of God, Thou seem’st but to implore, That I should love Thee daily more and more. CHORUS |
CHORUS Then I will love Thee, Then I will love Thee, Then I will love Thee Daily more and more. |
| 2. O Heart of Jesus, come and live in me, That with thy love my heart consumed may be; O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore, That I may love Thee daily more and more. CHORUS |
3. O Sacred Heart, the sunshine of our days, Be Thine the songs of everlasting praise, Whose strains shall break, on the eternal shore, Where we shall love and praise Thee evermore. CHORUS |
| 4. Dear Sacred Heart in life’s last, awful hour, Oh! let us feel Thy love’s Almighty pow’r, Oh! Then o’er all this grace we Thee implore, That we may love and trust Thee more and more. CHORUS |
5. O Sacred Heart, be this our life’s one aim, To labor for the glory of Thy name; O dearest Heart, this grace we Thee implore, That all the world may know and love Thee more. CHORUS |
III. Physical and Material Trials
Souls: The body Thou hast given us to serve Thee, Lord, the earth that Thou hast entrusted to us, and all the temporal goods that Thou hast placed at our disposal for our benefit, have conspired through our fault against Thee, Jesus, the Divine Benefactor … Peccavimus: We have sinned! … Miserere! … Have mercy! Yes, Have pity on us in the overwhelming temporal sufferings that are let loose against us through our own fault.
Oh! return yet once more, Merciful Master, by our roads and pass along our way because Thou must comfort, bless, and cure the innumerable legion of the unhappy. Hasten because our sick ones await Thee on the road.
All: Lord, if Thou willest, Thou canst cure use! (3 times with fervor)
Come back over our highways, Master and Friend divine; knock at the door of the many homes where desolation and despair reign! …
But if they do not respond to Thee, then, even then, enter, Jesus … This silence speaks to Thee already of a great misery that must be healed … Enter!
Look around Thy Tabernacle! What an accumulation of ruins! … Behold the destruction of so many projects, of so many dreams of well-being, of so many fancies forged and caressed by our sickly nature!
Look around Thee again, Jesus, and see the smoking embers, the broken homes, the reversed fortunes, and alas, under their ruins see, perhaps, some of Thy friends.
Cast Thine eyes on them, recompense with a beat of Thy Heart those who yesterday out of their abundance bestowed generously a charity which today they implore of Thee … They weep over a material disaster which threatens to engulf everything.
All: Jesus, Son of Mary, have pity on the suffering ones (3 times aloud)
(Brief pause)
Adorable Samaritan, we know that what Thou dost permit contributes wisely to our eternal happiness, and that is why we strive this evening to bless Thee in these misfortunes, although we do not always penetrate their secret of happiness and of mercy.
We do not pretend to understand the enigma of our life, and much less we do not revolt against Thy decrees which many times are contrary to the interests of our health, of our concerns, and of our projects here below …
O Lord, we wish our life to be just as Thou dost will it for us, neither happier nor less unhappy … We accept it just as Thy Heart has designed it for us … It suffices us to know that not a hair of our head will fall without Thy permission, and that through love.
And because we believe that Thou art, O Jesus, the revelation of the Bounty and the Mercy of the Father, we rest blindly in Thy Arms and on Thy adorable Heart!
Lord, Who dost command the tempests, we will obey Thee through love; and in riches or in poverty we will say to Thee: “Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!”
All: Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!
Lord, Who dost command the moral laws, we will obey Thee through love; and, in riches or in poverty we will say: “Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!”
All: Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!
Lord, Who ordained the laws of nature, we will obey Thee through love, and in the success or failure of temporal affairs we will say to Thee:
Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!
All: Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!
Lord, Who dost direct the laws which govern society, we will obey Thee through love, and in honors as in humiliations we will say to Thee: Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!
All: Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!
Lord, Who hast dominion over the laws of life and death, we will obey Thee through love, and, in the full joy of life, or at the hour of our departure for eternity, we will say to Thee: Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!
All: Thank Thee, Jesus, Thy Will be done!
(Pause)
IV. The Agonies of the Mind and the Emptiness of All that is human
Souls: Good Jesus, Thou knowest better than we that the most cruel blow of our crucifixion is neither sickness nor the lack of the goods of fortune. O, no! It is agony of mind; it is the inquietude provoked by the emptiness and failure of everything … it is the insecurity of the future; it is the lack of interior repose, of intimate peace …
All: Oh, Be Thyself our peace, Jesus! (3 times)
Yes, Thyself, and Thou alone be our repose, our peace, most adorable Master … Thou deceives! not! … Thou changest not! … Thou diest not! …
All: It is so cold without Thee, Jesus! (3 times)
We have long sought creatures, but they held not the secret of our happiness.
Thou alone hast it, Jesus, Thou alone! …
In the name of the Wound of Thy Heart: Be our joy, O Jesus!
All: Be our joy, O Jesus! (3 times)
In the name of Thy crown of thorns: Be our glory, O Jesus!
All: Be our glory, O Jesus! (3 times)
In the name of Thy sweat of blood in Gethsemane: Be our love, O Jesus!
All: Be out love, O Jesus! ( 3 times)
(Brief pause) Jesus: Yes! … I wish to be your peace … Your joy … Your glory … Your only happiness! …
But you also, Oh, be My glory … My love! My jubilation!
You speak to Me of your agonies of mind, of the tortures of your soul because of the failure of wealth and of persons, and because all things here below are perishable …
Yes, but you are not unhappy chiefly because of that …
My children, it is the heaven of My love that you need! … But I, too, need your hearts … they belong to Me … they have failed Me …
Your material pains are small, you say, in comparison with the moral torture, the mental suffering.
O yes! I know it by your own conduct toward Me.
Ah! Indeed far more cruel than the destitution of Bethlehem and of Nazareth was My agony of Gethsemane …
I know the depth of the abyss in which your mind often struggles under the hardships of raging storms … Behold Me near you this evening … approach, My children, come very close to My Heart; … confide to Me all your cruel anxieties—your future, your grave family cares, your anxieties about business affairs, your fear of impending unhappiness …
Pour out, without fear, the chalice of your agonies into My Heart which loves you …
(The Holy Hour is an hour of intimacy and reciprocity between the Heart of Jesus and our hearts. Tell Him, then, very intimately, in the language of silence, all that pains you.)
(Pause)
Jesus: And now, My little children, think also of My Gethsemane … Your sufferings dispose you to meditate in a vivid way on the infinite bitterness with which My Heart was tried! …
In your griefs and uncertainties … in your deceptions and the surprises of sorrow, think, O! think of the God of love — of Gethsemane — the same God Who resides here on the holy Altar …
You are only creatures … You have gone astray … You have wandered away far from the sheepfold … You have forgotten Heaven for the forbidden fruits of the earth, and you now bear the sad consequences, softened by My immense mercy …
Oh! what would your life have been if I had not planted in the midst of your sorrows My Cross which redeems, which comforts, which blesses! …
Love Me with your wounded hearts; love Me in your agonies of sorrow!
Ah! all you who have come to meditate and to recall to Me My dolors, while recounting to Me your own, approach and see if there be any sorrow like unto the sorrow of My Heart, misunderstood and forsaken, betrayed and outraged …
Come and see if there is a love like unto My love; it heals all wounds except that of My Heart, a wound which always remains open for My children who grieve!
(Appropriate hymn)
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| H. W. Baker (1821-1877). | Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625). Song 13. |
|---|---|
| 1. Jesu, grant me this, I pray, ever in Thy heart to stay; let me evermore abide hidden in Thy wounded side. |
2. If the world or Satan lay tempting snares about my way, I am safe when I abide in Thy heart and wounded side. |
| 3. If the flesh, more dangerous still, tempt my soul to deeds of ill, naught I fear when I abide in Thy heart and wounded side. |
4. Death will come one day to me; Jesu, cast me not from Thee: dying let me still abide in Thy heart and wounded side. Amen. |
V. Life passes swiftly. All is transient! Separations …
Nothing is permanent outside of Jesus! He is the Divine, the Eternal Reality! The rest — creatures and fortunes, dreams of grandeur, sensations of pleasure, oases of fugitive joy, flashes of human glory … all pass, all of them crash and are carried away by the fury of time.
In the midst of this deluge of tears, at the edge of the abyss of all ruin, and at the threshold of eternity which pierces with its lights and shadows the Master, the Savior, the King, the Friend … Jesus, the only living Reality, presides over life and death … above all, over death, the most poignant, the most decisive of the separations here below …
Oh! how marvelously comforting it is to contemplate the Word of God, Jesus, struggling with this great grief.
How sublime and sweet is that lesson!
(Let us “meditate for a few moments on four scenes traced from the sorrows and the tears of the Heart of Jesus:)
1. THE DEATH OF ST. JOSEPH—Let us consider the great trial which hovers one day over the little house of Nazareth. Joseph, the just man, whom Jesus, with respect and affection calls His “Father,” is dying … his failing body is sustained in the Arms of Jesus; … his head reposes on the adorable Heart of Jesus.
Mary is in tears … She, the Queen, the loving, tender, and faithful spouse, has her heart torn with grief …
But Mary is not alone in her grief … Jesus, the King Who received from this just man caresses and bread, earned by the sweat of his brow, also weeps bitterly, and He is a God!
Heart of Jesus have pity on the widows and orphans in great distress! (3 times aloud) (Silence)
2. THE FAREWELL TO NAZARETH— Let us consider Jesus, in the blessed sanctuary of Nazareth, bidding farewell to Mary Immaculate whom He is about to leave in order to begin His public life …
Jesus knows what awaits Him in the life He is about to embrace … He knows that He leaves forever His peaceful home, where He had lived during thirty years in the most tender and the most marvelous intimacy with His incomparable Mother …
The Heavenly Father calls Jesus and He sets out! So it is also that children of a home, like the birds of the nest, must one day, with broken hearts, set out from the family sanctuary and leave the abode of their weeping parents who bless them as they set forth …
But the events of life, the painful duties to be performed, are the expression of the Will of the Most High, and it is necessary to obey in faith.
Heart of Jesus have pity, have great pity, on children and parents who suffer this agony! (3 times aloud)
(Silence)
3. THE FAREWELLS OF BETHANY— Let us consider Jesus on Holy Thursday, bidding farewell to His intimate, faithful friends of Bethany, in order to go voluntarily to death.
Those who had given Him the repose of friendship and of intimacy, received His supreme confidence, the revelation of the Golgotha of tomorrow … What must have been the sorrow that overshadowed these souls during this supreme farewell of their unique Friend … the King Friend of Bethany. He left them, saying: “Until tomorrow on Calvary!”
This is also the farewell of the elect, predestined to a life of immolation, whether it be in the cloister, or in the world which must be redeemed in blood:
Heart of Jesus, have pity on families and souls, who must submit to this agony of the heart! (3 times aloud)
(Silence)
4. THE FAREWELLS OF CALVARY— Let us consider Jesus Crucified, making His last farewell to the Queen of Sorrows in the overpowering agony of Calvary!
Death has already received from the Father the permission to draw near, to stiffen the Body of the Savior, this same Body, thrice holy, that Mary warmed on Christmas night, when pressing Him close to her Virgin-Mother heart …
One more glance of infinite tenderness … and to His Mother He confides John, the Church, the world, and His own Heart … and then Jesus inclines His bleeding Head … and … He expires!
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| Anonymous | The Sodalist’s Hymnal (1887) |
|---|---|
| 1. Thy life, O Lord, is ebbing fast, Thine eyes are growing dim at last; How near to death Thou art! I hear Thou heave one heavy sigh: It is the last, the loudest cry That broke Thy Sacred Heart, That broke Thy Sacred Heart. |
2. The scene, the dreadful scene is o’er– The wicked men can do no more, Thy head is on Thy breast; The thorns, the nails Thou dost not fear, The cruel scoff, the bitter jeer– Thy Heart is now at rest, Thy Heart is now at rest. |
| 3. Thy voice, that made the demons flee, That waked the dead and calmed the sea, Itself in death is hushed; But O, we have this comfort sweet, Our foes lie prostrate at Thy feet, The serpent’s head is crushed, The serpent’s head is crushed. |
4. Thy corpse is hanging on the tree, While mocking crowds in impious glee The murd’rous act applaud; But quiv’ring earth and darkened skies, The crumbling rocks, the dead that rise, Proclaim Thee to be God, Proclaim Thee to be God. |
| 5. Yes, Jesus, bruised and marked with blood, And fastened to the dripping wood, To me Thou art the same, As throned on Thabor’s shining mount, Or in the heav’ns, of bliss the Fount, In glory and in shame, In glory and in shame. |
6. O, may Thy last, Thy piercing cry, The Blood that pleaded loud on high, For me be not in vain! O, make me treat the world as dross, And glory only in the Cross, On which Thou wouldst be slain, On which Thou wouldst be slain! Amen. |
Heart of Jesus, have pity on mothers, on families in sorrow who have suffered or will suffer the pitiless blow of death! (3 times aloud)
(Silence)
Through the hands of the Queen of Martyrs I present to Thee, agonizing Heart of Jesus, the tears of mothers and of desolate spouses … the sufferings of so many dismembered homes ravaged by evils. I present, too, the sighs and tears of so many young hearts, saturated with bitterness in the springtime of their life!
Agonizing Heart of Jesus, offer them the repose of divine peace, an increase of strength, and the consolation of supernatural light in their dolorous way …
And Master Crucified, come, take with us, in the intimacy of our loving souls, in the intimacy of our families, the repose of love for which Thou hast thirsted since Thy death on Calvary! And in order to prove to Thee, Jesus well-beloved, that we have understood the lesson that Thy sufferings and ours have taught us, we will end this Holy Hour saying with a cry of great faith and immense love:
(Aloud)
“Heart of Jesus, thank Thee for the glory of suffering!” (3 times)
One Pater and Ave for the agonizing and sinners.
One Pater and Ave for the universal triumph of the Sacred Heart especially by daily Communion, the Holy Hour, and the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in families.
A Pater and Ave for the personal intentions of all present.
A Pater and 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.)