“Be courageous. Do not fear apparent obstacles, but fix your gaze upon the Passion of My Son, and in this way you will be victorious.” Divine Mercy in my soul # 449
This is the most Lent Lent I’ve ever experienced. Every year, I do what I can to draw myself into what was going on in Jesus’ life during the final days heading to the cross. I read “Hours of the Passion” by Servant of shod Luisa Piccarreta and spend a lot of time meditating on the passion narratives. I always feel a sense of dread from the end of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. Good Friday is always overwhelming as the sense of the death of Jesus comes over me. Especially, 3:00 PM, the hour of His death, the hour of mercy. This evening like many Good Fridays, the night seems darker, oppressive. Saturday always leaves me feeling…. I guess empty is the best way to describe the feeling.
This year feels so much heavier than ever before. Maybe it’s the added emotional stresses of the Coronavirus and the focus I’ve had trying to share the message of God’s Mercy and presence in many who are in fear. But, this year Jesus’ suffering and passion seems clearer, so much closer. This year, the quiet of the city and highway adds to the sense that the world, all creation, holds its breath in dread at the death of its Creator on the cross. He lays in the tomb. So many lay in their own ‘tomb’ wrapped in burial clothes of fear and sin.
The enemy wants every soul dead in the tomb. God calls us out of the tomb as Jesus did with Lazarus and as Jesus Himself did Easter morning. The Father calls us not to lay dead in sin or to surrender to the despair of fear of Coronavirus or anything of this world. He calls us to trust that we can proclaim as Shedrach, Mishach and Abed’nego in Daniel 3, “If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.”
That is such an example of faith and trust, God can deliver us, but if not, we still trust in Him. Always.
Through the sunshine or rain, I know where my hope is found. Nail-scarred hands tell the story of love that will never let go of me. As I gaze upon the cross that crucified my God, I don’t see dread or anguish, though my heart may feel it. I see hope and freedom and life! For on Easter morning as I run to the tomb with Peter and John, I hold my breath in trembling excitement to see those nail-scarred hands and drop at the feet of my Resurrected Savior.
The Father loves us so much that He sent His Most Beloved Son to show us we have a Father, Who suffered His Passion and death for us, leaving His Mother to guide us forward and remind us of His love.
“There is more merit to one hour of meditation on My sorrowful Passion than there is to a whole year of flagellation that draws blood.” Divine Mercy in my soul #369
“meditate frequently on the sufferings which I have undergone for your sake, and then nothing of what you suffer for Me will seem great to you.” #1512
Three O’Clock Hour Prayer
You expired Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls, and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fountain of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and empty Yourself out upon us. O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the Heart of Jesus as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in You