Maundy Thursday

My Jesus, I LOVE You!

My Mother Mary, I LOVE You!

a post, dedicated to Our Mother of Sorrows

Before Jesus's Agony in the Garden, Before Jesus enters the Prison:

Taken from the book: Twenty Holy Hours by Fr Mateo Crawley-Boevey, Chapter X: For the FIrst Friday of September and for Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday is nearing its end. Already, the first shadows are darkening the sky. The anguish of an inexpressible sorrow invades the Heart of Jesus. Why this inward shuddering?

Jesus, the Saviour, the adorable Nazarene, is the Son of Man. As such He has a Mother, unique in her tenderness, incomparably lovely, divinely holy and beautiful. A single glance from Mary, and above all a throb of her maternal heart meant more to Jesus than all the angelic concerts, far more than the perfumed breezes of earth and the splendours of skies. Mary was for Jesus a smile of complacency of the Eternal Father. And Jesus had to leave this Mother for love of us ungrateful ones!

Holy Thursday, a day never to be forgotten because of the Master's last farewells. Who will tell us of this wonderful and mysterious scene over which the Evangelists have thrown a veil of silence? With loving reverence for the Son and Mother, let us with hearts deeply moved represent to ourselves the farewell scene which must have taken place at Bethany.

His hour has come. It seems probable that Jesus, the Son of God and also the Son of Man, asked His Mother's consent to die, as He had already asked her consent to become incarnate, her child. His voice broken by sobs and His royal, divine Head leaning on His Mother's heart, Jesus entrusts to her the sheep that will be brought back to the fold by His death. Remembering the crib at Bethlehem, Mary holds Him in Her arms, while her eye, miraculously enlightened, look on tomorrow's Calvary where the Queen of Love will become the Queen of Sorrows. She weeps and with her precious tears she anoints the adorable Head of her Redeemer. Yes, she weeps as a mother, but more than that, she weeps as Co-Redemptrix! She offered to the Eternal Father the Divine Victim, the Lamb without spot. She weeps, and with her tears, she blesses the world, whose salvation, begun with her sublime Fiat, - "Let it be done" - pronounced in the happy little house of Nazareth, must be consummated tomorrow on a cross of ignominy and of blood.

Then in the clearness of that ominous light she sees not only the drama of Calvary but also the adorable design of the Most High. She then embraces her Son with an inexpressible love, and before the cruel thorns pierce His forehead she imprints thereon a kiss in the name of all those in heaven who adore Jesus, because He is their God. She kisses Him again in the name of those on earth, for the Son of Mary is also its divine King. And kissing the forehead of her Jesus, she places there, as on the holiest of altars, the holiest of oblations - her Fiat, a Fiat crushing for the Mother, but sovereign in its redemptive power.

Night has come. Jesus confides His desolate Mother to His faithful friends of Bethany and to His Angels. Then He leaves, His soul bathed in an agony a thousand times more piercing and more bitter than death itself...

Jesus in Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane:

Jesus Confined in the Subterranean Prison:

pictures taken from the move: The Passion of the Christ where the director tried to show that Mother Mary greatly desired to be with Jesus.

Snippets taken from the book: The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ as told by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich to Clemens Brentano (a translation), Chapter XI: Mary in the House of Caiphas & Chapter XII: Jesus confined in the Subterranean Prison

The Blessed Virgin was every united to her Divine Son by interior spiritual communications; she was, therefore, fully aware of all that happened to him - she suffered with him, and joined in his continual prayer for his murderers. But her maternal feelings prompted her to supplicate Almighty God most ardently not to suffer the crime to be completed, and to save her Son from such dreadful torments. She eagerly desired to return to him; and when John, who had left the tribunal at the moment the frightful cry, "He is guilty of death," was raised, came to the house of Lazarus (Bethany) to see after her, and to relate the particulars of the dreadful scene he had just witnessed, she, as also Magdalen and some of the other holy women, begged to be taken to the place where Jesus was suffering. John, who had only left our Saviour in order to console her whom he loved best next to his Divine Master, instantly acceded to their request, and conducted them through the streets, which were lighted up by the moon alone, and crowded with persons hastening to their homes... The Blessed Virgin, who ever beheld in spirit the opprobrious treatment which her dear Son was receiving, continued 'to lay all these things in her heart;'...

It is quite impossible to describe all that the Holy of Hollies suffered from these heartless beings; for the sight affect me (Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich) so excessively that I became really ill, and felt as if I could not survive it.

Jesus continued to pray for his enemies, and they being at last tired out left him in peace for a short time, when he leaned against the pillar to rest, and a bright light shone around him. The day was beginning to dawn - the day of his Passion, of our Redemption - and a faint ray penetrating the narrow vent hole of the prison, fell upon the holy and immaculate Lamb, who had taken upon himself the sins of the world. Jesus turned towards the ray of light, raised his fettered hands, and, in the most touching manner, returned thanks to his Heavenly Father for the dawn of that day, which had been so long desired by the prophets, and for which He Himself had so ardently sighed from the moment of his birth on earth, and concerning which he had said to his disciples, "I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptised, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?" 

Point to note for this meditation: Jesus thanked (!!!) the Father for the terrible sufferings which He had already endured and for the still greater which He was about to endure.

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Anne, Therese, I love You; Save Souls!

Jesu mitis et humilis corde, Fac cor nostrum secundum Cor Tuum. (ter)

Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori.

The Militia Immaculatae Blog Link: http://militiaimmaculatae.wordpress.com

First Friday & First Saturday of May

Bring flowers of the rarest, bring blossoms the fairest ...

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First Friday & First Saturday of

May

Collect of 4th Sunday of Easter:

O God, Who makest the faithful to be of one mind and will: grant to Thy people the grace to love what Thou dost command to to desire what Thou dost promise, that amid the changes of the world, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are to be found. 

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I know that I have had posted this before, but after spending some time alone with Him (dearest Jesus) on First Friday - First Saturday, I felt peace, I felt calm.

What have I, Lord Jesus, that Thou hast not given me?

What do I know,  that Thou hast not taught me?

What can I do, if Thou dost not help me?

And what am I, if not united to Thee?

Pardon. O! pardon my faults that have so wounded Thee!

Thou hast created me without any merit of mine.

Thou hast redeemed me without my cooperation.

Thou hast done much in creating me,

Ans still more in redeeming me,

Wilt Thou be less powerful or less generous in forgiving me?

For all the Blood Thou hast shed

And the cruel death Thou hast suffered, 

were not for the profit of the Angels who praise Thee,

But to my benefit and that of the sinners who implore Thee.

If I have then denied Thee, let me praise Thee.

If I have outraged Thee, let me love Thee.

If I have offended Thee, let me serve Thee.

For to live without loving Thee,

And to love without suffering for Thee,

O Jesus, that would be death without Thee.

Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori

Jesu mitis et humilis corde, Fac cor nostrum secundum Cor Tuum. (ter)

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Anne, Therese, I love You; Save Souls!

Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia!

It's the month of May, the month we crown our dearest Mother, Queen of the May! A beautiful hymn to share:

First Friday and First Saturday of the month of April

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First Friday & First Saturday of

April

(Good Friday & Holy Saturday)

It so happened that the FIrst Friday and First Saturday of this month were respectively on Good Friday and Holy Saturday this year, so we went for the Holy Hour of Reparation on Maundy Thursday instead, when the Blessed Sacrament was transferred to the Altar of Repose and there was an adoration till midnight at our chapel.

"Could you not, then, watch one hour with me?"

Mt. 26:40

Taken from 20 Holy Hours, Chapter XVI: Meditation on the Holy Thursday Dungeon and the Tabernacle Prison by Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.

Page 236

Come, 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 with great faith, the scene that astounded the angelic choirs: instead of a royal palace, an underground prison; for a scepter, the reed of contempt, and finally, for this King's court, soldiers drunk with wine, intoxicated with satanic hate!

Together let us look 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 beautiful face, bathed in His blood, and yet always thirsting for the gall of sorrow!

Such is the state we find You in, Jesus, after twenty centuries have gone by. You are in the same prison of love and glorious ignominy, a prison that Your Heart wishes to perpetuate forever.

The pomp of Your royal but bloody Majesty is always the same, immortal King. Nothing is altered, neither the chains of love that make You our prisoner, nor the wretched attendants who load You with insults and with ignominy, nor the hatred of the judges and the cruelty of the jailors.

But above all, Your Heart has not changed, O Jesus. 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 You.

Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori.

Jesu mitis et humilis corde, Fac cor nostrum secundum Cor Tuum. (ter)

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Anne, Therese, I love You; Save Souls!

The Holy Eucharist, The Sacrament of Love, Amor amorum

Je l'avise et Il m'avise! (I look at Him and He looks at me!)

The Holy Eucharist, The Sacrament of Love

All excerpts from The Holy Eucharist by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri and 20 Holy Hours by Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.

Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples, because I languish with love. - Cant. ii.5

How much Jesus Christ deserves to be Loved by us, on Account of the Love He has shown us in Instituting the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar

“You envy,” said St. John Chrysostom, “the opportunity of the woman who touched the vestments of Jesus, of the sinful woman who washed His feet with her tears, of the women of Galilee who had the happiness of following Him in His pilgrimages, of the Apostles and disciples who conversed with Him familiarly, of the people of the time who listened to the words of grace and salvation which came forth from His lips. You call happy those who saw Him … But, come to the altar and you will see Him, you will touch Him, you will give to Him holy kisses, you will wash Him with your tears, you will carry Him within you like Mary Most Holy.” Thus Jesus is truly with us.

“Jesus is there!” The holy Cure of Ars could not finish repeating these three words without shedding tears. And St. Peter Julian Eymard exclaimed with joyful fervour, “There Jesus is! Therefore all of us should go visit Him!”

Jesus, knowing that His hour was come, that He should pass out of this world to the Father: having loved His own ... He loved them unto the end. - John, xiii. I.

Our most loving Saviour, knowing that his hour was now come for leaving this earth, desired, before he went to die for us, to leave us the greatest possible mark of his love; and this was the gift of the most Holy Sacrament.

St. Bernadine of Sienna remarks that men remember more continually and love more tenderly the signs of love which are shown to them in the hour of death. Hence it is the custom that friends, when about to die, leave to those persons whom they have loved some gift, such as a garment or a ring, as a memorial of their affection. But what hast Thou, O my Jesus, left us, when quitting this world, in memory of Thy love? Not, indeed, a garment or a ring, but Thine own body, Thy blood, Thy soul, Thy divinity, Thy whole self, without reserve. "He gave thee all," says St. John Chrysostom; "He left nothing for himself."

The Council of Trent says, that in this gift of the Eucharist Jesus Christ desired, as it were, to pour forth all the riches of the love he had for men. And the Apostle observes, that Jesus desired to bestow this gift upon men on the very night itself when they were planning his death: The same night in which He was betrayed, He took bread; and giving thanks, broke and said: Take ye, and eat: this is My Body. - 1 Cor. xi.23. St. Bernadine of Sienna says that Jesus Christ, burning with love for us, and not content with being prepared to give his life for us, was constrained by the excess of his love to work a greater work before he died; and this was to give his own body for our food.

This Sacrament, therefore was rightly named by St. Thomas, "the Sacrament of love, the pledge of love." Sacrament of love; for love was the only motive which induced Jesus Christ to give us in it his whole self. Pledge of love; so that if we had ever doubted his love, we should have in this sacrament a pledge of it: as if our Redeemer, in leaving us this gift, had said: O souls, if you ever doubt my love, behold, I leave you myself in this Sacrament: with such a pledge, you can never any more doubt that I love you, and love you to excess. But more, St. Bernard calls this sacrament, "Amor amorum" (the love of loves) becuase this gift comprehends all other gifts bestowed upon us by our Lord, - creation, redemption, predestination to glory; so that the Eucharist is not only a pledge of the love of Jesus Christ, but of paradise, which he desires also to give us.

And oh, with what desire does Jesus Christ pant to come into our souls in the Holy Communion! Desiderio desideravi hoc pascha manducare vobiscum - Luke, xxii. 15. With what desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you before I suffer. So He spoke on that night in which He instituted this sacrament of love. Desiderio desideravi, so did the excessive love which he bore us cause him to speak, as St. Laurence Justinian remarks: "These are the words of most burning love."

And in order that every one might easily receive Him, He desired to leave Himself under the appearance of bread; for if He had left Himself under the appearance of some rare or very costly food, the poor would have been deprived of Him; but no, Jesus would hide Himself under the form of bread, which costs but little, and can be found everywhere, in order that all in every country might be able to receive Him.

But why is it that Jesus Christ so desires that we should receive Him in the Holy Communion? Here is the reason. St. Denis says that love always sighs after and tends to union, and so also says St. Thomas Aquinas, "Lovers desire of two to become one."

In Holy Communion, Jesus unites Himself to the soul and the soul to Jesus; and this is not a union of mere affection, but it is a true and real union.

O how delighted is Jesus Christ to be united with our souls! He one day said to his beloved servant, Margaret of Ypres, after Communion, "See, my daughter, the beautiful union that exists between me and thee: come, then, love me; and let us remain ever united in love, and let us never separate again."

St. John Chrysostom says that the most Holy Sacrament is a burning fire; so that when we leave the altar we breathe forth flames of love, which make us objects of terror to hell. The spouse of the Canticles says: He brought me into the cellar of wine, He set in order charity in me. - Cant. ii.4. St. Gregory of Nyssa says that Communion is precisely this cellar of wine, in which the soul becomes so inebriated with divine love, that it forgets and loses sight of creatures; and this is that languishing with love of which the spouse again speaks: Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples, because I languish with love. - Cant. ii.5.

Our Lord said once to St. Matilda: "When you go to Communion, desire all the love which a soul has ever had for me, and I will receive your love according to your desire."

Affections and Prayers

O God of love, O infinite lover, worthy of infinite love, tell me what more canst Thou invent to make us love Thee? It was not sufficient for Thee to become man, and to subject Thy self to all our miseries; not sufficient to shed all Thy blood for us in torments, and then to die overwhelmed with sorrow, upon a cross destined for the most shameful malefactors. Thou didst, at last, oblige Thyself to be hidden under the species of bread and wine, to become our food, and so united with each one of us. Tell me, I repeat, what more canst Thou invent to make Thyself loved by us? Ah, wretched shall we be if we do not love Thee in this life! And when we shall have entered into eternity, what remorse shall we not feel for not having loved Thee! My Jesus, I will not die without loving Thee, and loving Thee exceedingly! I am heartily sorry, and am pained for having so greatly offended Thee. But now I love Thee above all things. I love Thee more than myself, and I consecrate to Thee all my affections. Do Thou, who inspirest me with this desire, give me also grace to accomplish it. My Jesus, my Jesus, I desire nothing of Thee but Thyself. Now that Thou hast drawn me to Thy love, I leave all, I renounce all, and I bind myself to Thee: Thou alone art sufficient for me.

O Mary, Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me, and make me a saint! Add this also to the many wonders thou hast done in changing sinners into saints.

My Good, my God, all mine Thou art;

Myself I give Thee, all my heart;

For Thee, and Thee alone, I sigh.

What have I in heaven? and besides Thee, what do I deisre upon earth? Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever. - Ps. lxxii. 25,26.

Quid enim mihi est in caelo? et a Te quid volui super terram? Deus cordis mei, et pars mea Deus in aeternum

Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, a contemplation

Jesus: Beloved soul, here in the Host where you see Me, I live silent, mute, perpetually bound before the modern Herods. Do you not hear, rising to Heaven, the insolent questioning which they make Me undergo, I Who am sovereign Power, Truth, and the sole Master of the world? I keep silence for love of you, for you whom I save by enduing the ignominious condemnation of the rulers of the world, judges of men but never of My doctrine. They seek authority and use it against Me, so you see Me the perpetual victim of their abuse of power. For them, thrones; for Me, the prisoner's bench; for them, the golden sceptre; for Me, always the reed of mockery; for them, a retinue which applauds and flatters them; for Me, jeering cohorts and executioners; for them, diadems and homage; for Me, the crown of thorns; for Me, forgetfulness, always forgetfulness!

And if at times in spite of themselves, these worldly powers evoke the remembrance of My Sovereignty, My Name alone is enough to cause a tempest of hatred, of legal persecution, and of blasphemy to break forth. Thus am I judged and condemned by the world which lives only by Me. I keep silence because in the Holy Eucharist I am the incarnation of a merciful love. But this revolt against My Sovereignty, this ignoring of My rights in the laws which rule nations is a direct insult against Me the Almighty Who dwells among men, reduced to seeming helplessness in the Sacrament of Love.

Is not this wrong, a real defiance of the Eucharistic God? Is this not an insul to Him Who speaks to you from the depths of His Tabernacle which often indeed becomes Pilate's Praetorium? Here, meek and humble, I bear the affronts of ruffians nad the contempt of the vilest men. I am taken out of this prison only when earthly tribunals order Me to be scourged, and then to be shown, covered with blood, to the angry mob.

O how consoled My Divine Heart feels by your reparation! The ardent love of My friends makes up for the scoffing of the powerful. You who are rich make reparation for these insults by your humility; you who are poor, by your resignation. From here, from My Tabernacle, I bless you, My very faithful friends. Speak, then, My children. You, the elect of My Heart, ask for miracles. Speak, I am the King of infinite mercy.

Jesus: See Me covered with wounds: My hands which beckon and bless are transpierced. My feet are lacerated. My brow bruised, My lips livid, My eyes blinded by Blood, My side opened by a deep wound. How men shudder at the sight of a God, bloodstained and crushed by sorrow, men who would have the delights of an anticipated Paradise in this land of exile. My love for you has brought Me to this condition. In the Tabernacle I expiate the thirst for pleasure and amusement that devours the modern world. ...

And I, your Jesus, I am held chained by love, I remain alone in My Tabernacle by the good, denied by the weak, forgotten by the greater number, condemned by unworthy rulers and scourged by the mobs raised up against Me. I loved My own above all things, even unto death, and those of My household preferred dust, the mire of the road, to Me.

Consider and see, you My friends, if there be a sorrow greater and like unto My sorrow!

To Jesus:

What have I, Lord Jesus, that Thou hast not given me?

What do I know, that Thou hast not taught me?

What can I do, if Thou dost not help me?

What am I, if not united to Thee?

Pardon, O pardon my faults that have so wounded Thee!

Thou hast created me without any merit of mine.

Thou hast redeemed me without my cooperation.

Thou hast done much in creating me,

And still more in redeeming me.

Wilt Thou be less powerful or less generous in forgiving
me?

For all the Blood Thou hast shed and the cruel death Thou hast
suffere.

Were not for the profit of the Angels who adore Thee,

But to my benefit and that of the sinners who implore Thee.

If I have then denied Thee, let me praise Thee,

If I have outraged Thee, let me love Thee,

If I have offended Thee, let me serve Thee.

For to live without loving Thee,

And to love without suffering for Thee,

O Jesus, that would be death without Thee.

O Esca Viatorum!

(for the midi file click here)

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee; Save Souls!

Jesu mitis et humilis corde, Fac cor nostrum secundum Cor tuum. (ter)