Holy Friday

After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst."  John 19:28

Chorus and Chorale: 

Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen! Sehet !Wen? Den Bräutigam. 

Come, ye daughters, help me lament! Behold! Whom? The Bridegroom. 

Seht ihn! Wie? Als wie ein Lamm! Sehet! Was? Seht die Geduld. 

Behold him! How? Like a lamb. Behold! What? Behold his patience.

Seht! Wohin? Auf unsre Schuld. Sehet ihn aus Lieb und Huld 

Behold! Where? Behold our guilt. Behold Him, out of love and graciousness, 

Holz zum Kreuze selber tragen!

Himself carrying the wood of the cross. 

Chorale: 

O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig am Stamm des Kreuzes geschlachtet, 

O guiltless Lamb of God, slaughtered on the stem of the cross, 

Allzeit erfunden geduldig, wiewohl du warest verachtet. 

Always found patient, although thou wast despised. 

All Sünd hast du getragen, sonst müßten wir verzagen.

All sin hast thou borne, else we must have despaired. 

Holz zum Kreuze selber tragen! 

Himself carrying the wood of the cross. 

Erbarm dich unser, o Jesu!

Have mercy upon us, O Jesus!

Holy Thursday

If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

John 13:15

Ostinato:
Bleibet hier und wachet mit mir; wachet und betet.
Remain here and watch with me; watch and pray.

Descant:
Meine Seele ist zu Tode betrübt. Bleibt hier und wacht mit mir. 
My soul is troubled unto death. Remain here and watch with me.

Setzt euch und wartet hier, während ich dort bete.
Sit ye and wait here, while I pray yonder.

Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. 

Father, if this can not pass me by without I drinking it, your will be done

Second Sunday of the Passion

Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed.

2 Corinthians 4:10 (Office of Terce)

Why do we speak of Christ's passion, using the same word for love and for unimaginably intense suffering? We love in spite of pain and suffering that accompanies willing the good of another; Christ did not love despite torture, rejection, and suffering, but in the midst of it.

Love is proven by perseverance through struggle, and how much more when the suffering is borne willingly! And what greater love is there than that of him who suffered infinitely, bearing the sins of all? As we enter into the Lord's Passion, let us take time to contemplate deeply the suffering he endured that we may better understand the depths of his love.

Choir:

Glorioses playes
Glorious wounds

Et desiderabam videre vel saltem illud parum de carne Christi quod portaverant clavi in ligno.
And I longed to see at least that little bit of Christ's flesh that the nails had fixed to the wood.
(-Bl. Angela of Foligno)

Ostendit cor suum perforatum quasi ad modum portulae unius parvae laternae, quod ex ipso corde exiverunt radii solares. Immo solaribus radiis clariores!
He showed his heart, perforated like the openings in a small lantern. From his very heart issued forth rays of the sun. No indeed - brighter than the sun's rays!
(-Na Prous Boneta)

Non est aequum, velle solum de melle meo gustare, et non de felle. 
It is unjust to wish to taste only of my honey and not of the gall. 

Si perfecte vis mecum uniri, mente intenta recogita illusiones, opprobia, flagella, mortem, et tormenta, quae pro te sustinui.
If you wish to be perfectly united with me, contemplate deeply the mockery, insults, whippings, death and torments I endured for you.
(-Bl. Margarita, 14th century)

Passion Saturday

Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.

John 11:51-52

My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ezekiel 37:27

"Destiny" is a word that has become associated with sappy romantic comedies, something no one serious or simply practical can take seriously. And if destiny is understood as a force of the universe, something impersonal yet potent beyond chance, then it is certainly silly to believe it exercises power over us. This is because impersonal forces do not exercise personal power; this is the will, a faculty found only in persons. 

This is why destiny only makes sense as an intensely personal force, something strong because it is the act of a personal and indefatigable will, a will so strong that it removes obstacles, even if the obstacles include our own faults. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that we might not be kept from our eternal destiny of beatitude in his presence, but that when he is revealed, we will see him as he is in infinite goodness.

Ostinato:

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Passion Thursday

"If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.' You do not know him, but I know him. Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM."

-John 8:54, 58

O bone Jesu, miserere nobis, quia tu creasti nos, tu redimisti nos sanguine tuo praetiosissimo.

O good Jesus, have mercy on us; because thou didst create us, thou hast redeemed us by thy most precious Blood.

It is easy for the idea of "relationship with God" to devolve into an imprecise connection with a Being who is pure spirit, and from there to become impersonal. We do not relate to concepts but to persons, and knowing a person is a mystery; we never know a person so well that we can claim to understand them entirely and exhaust their individual essence, and what is true of created persons is true of the persons of God in an infinitely greater degree.
We know God through the person of Jesus; without his manifestation to us, we do not know the other persons of the Holy Trinity and "relationship with God" becomes intangible vagueness. Jesus revealed that he is one with the Father, and that by receiving him we receive all that God is.
Let us remember in commemorating the Passion of the Lord that his suffering was not only to spare us punishment for our offenses, but to open us to faith in him so that we might receive our eternal happiness in knowing God as he is.

Passion Wednesday

“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,

and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

If the Son frees you, then you will be free indeed."

John 8:31b-32, 36

Chorale:

Christe, du Lamm Gottes, der du trägst die Sünd der Welt, erbarm dich unser. 

O Christ, thou Lamb of God, thou that takest the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Christe, du Lamm Gottes, der du trägst die Sünd der Welt, erbarm dich unser. 

O Christ, thou Lamb of God, thou that takest the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Christe, du Lamm Gottes, der du trägst die Sünd der Welt, gib uns deinen Frieden. Amen.

O Christ, thou Lamb of God, thou that takest the sins of the world, give unto us thy peace. Amen.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Freedom in Christ is fundamentally different from how we understand human freedom. By our free will, we have the power to do as we choose; in Christ, we have freedom from sin and the power to do God's will, the fulfillment of freedom. 

The world proclaims that by exercising our will we shall be more ourselves, but exercise of our independence is not the purpose of our being; our deepest longing is for love, a longing that is only fulfilled by Love itself, and upon finding one pearl of great value, there is no hesitation to sacrifice everything to obtain it. 

Watch and Pray: from The Journal of a Priest

The first thing I asked of my priests, my newly-ordained apostles,
and of these, the three closest to My Heart,
was to watch and pray with Me.
I did not send them out immediately,
nor did I entrust them with any priestly task apart from keeping watch with Me in prayer,
lest they fall in the hour of trial.

I wanted them close to Me to console Me,
to comfort Me in My agony
by their union with My prayer of obedience and abandonment to the Father.
This was their first priestly action,
their first mandate as priests of the New Covenant:
not to preach, not to teach, not to heal, nor even to baptize,
but to watch and pray with Me.

I wanted them to understand by this
that unless a priest keeps watch and perseveres in prayer,
all else will be in vain.
He will dispense the substance of My mysteries,
but without the sweetness of a heavenly unction,
without the fire and light of a personal experience of My Divine Friendship.
This is why I beg My priests to become adorers:
to begin to keep watch and pray close to Me in he Sacrament of My Love.

If you could have heard the urgency and sorrow of My plea to Peter, James, and John!
I did not merely ask them to watch and pray,
I begged them to do so.
I needed their prayer at that hour,
just as I need the prayer of all My priests
in this final hour that is coming, and that is already upon my Church.

Only the prayer of My priests,
made in union with the prayer of My Heart to the Father,
will be able to preserve and console My Church in the darkness that lies ahead.
I beg for the prayer of My priests,
for a prayer of adoration, of reparation, and of supplication.
I ask them for a prayer that is sincere and persevering,
for a prayer that will become in their hearts
a ceaseless murmur rising to the Father as a spiritual offering.

When will my priests begin to pray as I have asked them for so long
– lo, all these centuries — to pray?
I want priests who will watch and pray with Me.
I need such priests.
Without their prayer, my mystic agony will be prolonged
and be without consolation
from the friends whom I have chosen to abide with Me
in the trials that will soon beset My Church, my poor, frail Bride.

The crisis in My priesthood will continue
and will even grow worse unless My priests — the chosen friends of My Heart –
forsake this passing world’s vanities and empty pursuits
to become adorers in spirit and in truth.

I pleaded with My apostles to watch and pray; and they slept.
Still do I plead with my priests to watch and to pray,
and still they sleep,
even at this hour when My Church invites them to stay with Me,
to linger close to My real presence,
and not to forsake Me in the darkness and terror of this night.

Where are My priests?
I wait for them.
I call to them.
I desire that they leave all else
to offer Me their companionship, their presence, their wordless love, and their tears.

Those who are responding to My plea,
and to the first mandate given to My Apostles, are still too few.
Offer yourself so that others may find their way to My altars
and learn that there is no sweetness, no comfort, and no presence
like the sweetness, the comfort, and the presence
that I offer them in the Most Holy Sacrament,
which they themselves consecrate for My Church.

Share . . . this desire of My Heart for priests who will keep watch close to My altars,
and abide in My presence,
even if this means forsaking things that are, in themselves, innocent, and good, and gratifying.
The hour is late.
Soon there will be no time left
to offer Me the prayer and companionship
that I have always sought and still seek from my priests.
I say this not to cause panic or fright,
but because priests must begin to realize
that what I asked of My Apostles in Gethsemani perdures
– and it is My request, here and now –
and it is no less urgent today than it was in that awful night in Gethsemani.
Let them begin to carry out the first request I made to My priests,
the first mandate I gave them: to watch and to pray.
Only then will they live to see the splendour of My glory on the day of My return.

From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest