Tag Archives: Gracelines

Good Friday

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April 19

Jesus:
O Mother dear, didst thou but hear
My plaint of desolation,
Thy tender heart would burst apart
With grief of separation!

I am not stone, yet all alone
I hush My soul’s outcrying, —
Alone to tread the wine-press red,
To bear the pain of dying.

My lips are dumb, the night has come;
Ah! Solace I might borrow
Had I but thee to bide with Me
In this wild waste of sorrow.

Mary:
“Gentle moon and start of midnight,
Golden apples born of sunshine,
Precious pearls and jewels rare, —
All things glorious, all things shining,”
Thus the sorrowing Mother spake;
“E’en ye bright, transfigured faces,
Mourn with me for Jesus’ sake.

“Sparkle, gleam, and glow no longer:
Only moan and mourn for Him.
Shine not, shine not, weep forever,
Till your thousand eyes are dim;
For the mighty One has fallen,
And my Beautiful is slain;
In the dense wood pierced, my Shepherd, —
Weep ye, weep ye for my pain!
O most oppressed of all oppressed,
Heart of my heart, my all, my Son!
Grief’s keenest sword doth pierce my breast:
I die with Thee, my only one!
Alas! the pain is all too great,
Since, living, still I share Thy fate.

“Yes, mine Thou wert to bear and rear
Through life and light, and pain and loss;
And now, ten thousand times more dear,
I yield Thee to the cruel cross!”

-“Dialogue at the Cross,” Frederick Spee, S. J. (1591-1635)
translated from the German by Mary E. Mannix

 

Today’s Reflection

Today I stand at the foot of the Cross with Mary my mother. What pain, sorrow, suffering, trial, and contradiction do I yield to the “cruel cross”? How does Mary give me guidance in this surrender?

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Holy Thursday

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April 18

Prone in Gethsemene upon His face,
His eyelids closed, — lay Christ of all our world,
The winds with endless sorrows seemed enswirled;
A little fountain murmured of its pain
Reflecting the pale sickle of the moon;
Then was the hour when the Angel brought
From God’s high throne the Cup of bitter horn,
While on His hands tears trembling fell like rain.

Before the Christ a cross arose on high;
He saw His own young body hanging there
Mangled, distorted; knotted ropes half-tear
The sinews from their sockets; saw He nigh
The jagged nails’ hot rage, the direful Crown
Upon His head, and every dripping thorn
Red-laden, as in fury of its scorn
The thunder battered all kind voices down.
He heard the pattering drops, as from the cross
A piteous sobbing whispered and grew still.
Then Jesus sighed, and every pore did spill
A bloody sweat.

-From Gethsemene
by Annette Von Droste-Hulshoff (1797-1848)

 

Today’s Reflection

Take this poem into your prayer time meditation as you consider the great gift of our redemption. How is Jesus speaking to me in it?

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Day 41

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April 17

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
“What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?”
He said,
“Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”‘”
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.

When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”
He said in reply,
“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”
He answered, “You have said so.”

-Matthew 26:14-25

 

Today’s Reflection

Meditate on the ways you have been betrayed and the ways
you have betrayed others.

God is ever-loving. We can break our relationship with Him but He never stops loving us. Even if we trade Him in for thirty pieces of silver, He cotinues to love and extend mercy to us. Mentally submit these betrayals into His unfathomable ocean of divine mercy
and receive His peace.

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Day 40

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April 16
Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?”
Jesus answered him,
“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later.”
Peter said to him,
“Master, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times.”
-John 13:36-38
Today’s Reflection
Have you ever been filled with so much zeal for the Lord that you would do anything for Him? Even die for Him? And then, only minutes later, when things got a little inconvenient, you changed your mind, or even betrayed Him?
The passage above shows us that even the apostle, Peter, who spent three years walking side-by-side with Him, turned his back on Jesus when the going got tough. As we come to the close of Lent and anticipate the Triduum and Easter, let us renew our fervor to stand with the Lord at any cost.

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Day 39

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April 15

“Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
Upon whom I have put my Spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
Not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
Until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the LORD,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spreads out the earth with its crops,
Who gives breath to its people
and spirit to those who walk on it:
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
To open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.”

-Is 42: 1-7

 

Today’s Reflection

Blessed Holy Week to you and your loved ones!
The passage above is the first of today’s mass readings. Take time to ponder it. As you walk these first steps on the journey into the passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord, how will you enter into the intense silence where God speaks? In what ways will you seek to be more receptive to the grace and gift of our salvation?

Pray that Jesus will give you eyes that are opened, a heart that is unfettered from the confinement of sin, and a mind that is free from the darkness and distraction of the world and fully fixed upon Him.

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Day 37

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April 11
“Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself.”
St. Francis de Sales
Today’s Reflection
Have you fallen on the Lenten journey? Has your cross been too heavy to carry? Today is a great day to be patient with yourself.

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Day 36

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April 10
“Lent is a fitting time for self-denial; we would do well to ask ourselves what we can give up in order to help and enrich others by our own poverty. Let us not forget that real poverty hurts: no self-denial is real without this dimension of penance. I distrust a charity that costs nothing and does not hurt.”
-Pope Francis
Today’s Reflection
What have your Lenten sacrifices cost you thus far? Could you do more? As we enter into Holy Week, prayerfully consider Pope Francis’s reflection and ask Our Lord how you can make the best of the remainder of Lent.

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Lenten Journey with the Saints: Day 34

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April 8

“Nothing, how little so ever it be, if it is suffered for God’s sake,
can pass without merit in the sight of God.”

-Thomas a Kempis

 

Today’s Reflection

We are not all called to do great things, but we can all do small things with great love. This is wisdom that is part of our heritage from St. Teresa of Calcutta. Today, when those small annoyances inevitably occur, remember that you can suffer them with love for God and perhaps your little cross can be of great merit for the redemption of mankind.

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