HOLY WEEK
SCROLL DOWN FOR RESOURCES FOR EACH DAY OF HOLY WEEK
Below are different types of resources and media to aid you in a fruitful celebration of Holy Week. May God be blessed in all that we do. Now and forever.
*Note: this post may be updated during the week as more resources are made available, so be sure to check back now and then.
HOLY WEEK RESOURCES
PALM SUNDAY
Got some palms from last year? You know you do! Grab 'em and hold them tight—remember, they are sacramentals!—while you read the Mass of the day. Grab your family members and give everyone a part. Do it via Facetime or Zoom, if they're far away .
ROSARY MEDITATION FOR PALM SUNDAY
1st DECADE MEDITATION:
Palm Sunday
God wants to give Himself to us, flood our soul with his divine life.
Jesus said, “Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.”
To prepare the world for the gift of sharing in divine life, God called the Jews – making them the Chosen People, the nation of Israel, giving them the Promised Land and the Temple in which He dwelt.
But they became more attached to these gifts than to God himself.
When God came, offering His life to them in Jesus, many chose the gifts and rejected God.
In fact, the High Priest said it was better for Jesus to die and go away rather than lose the nation to the Romans.
The sin of Pride is to choose some gift of God over God himself.
And as John of the Cross wrote: “We become as little as the things we love.”
I know where I am tempted to seek my identity and happiness apart from God.
What is it for you?
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
2ND DECADE MEDITATION:
On Palm Sunday Jesus went into the temple and cleansed it saying: “My house will be a house of prayer for all nations.’ But you have turned it into a ‘den of robbers.”
Jesus denounces the mixing of worship and trade in the Temple. But something deeper is also going on here. Jesus points out the deeper problem by quoting Jeremiah 7:11 “Has this House, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers…? Go now to my place that was in Shiloh…and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.”
God sent the Prophet Jeremiah to foretell the end of the first Temple, the Temple of Solomon.
By using Jeremiah’s words, Jesus is foretelling the destruction of the 2nd Temple, the one he just cleansed.
The Jewish Officials then demand for a sign from him to justify his actions. Jesus responded: “Destroy this Temple and I will raise it in three days.” He was speaking of the temple of His body.
The Body of Jesus is the Temple of God.
God came to give himself to us through his body in the Eucharist so that all people might become the temple of God.
The end game was not at temple in a city.
God’s plan is for every soul to become the temple of God by sharing in His life through the Eucharist.
Jesus came to bring them God.
They got attached to so much less and couldn’t receive God.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
3RD DECADE MEDITATION:
Are we so different from the Jews at the time of Jesus?
God has given us all kinds of good things.
They are meant to help us to the goal - transforming union with God - not take his place.
God is the Supreme Good. God alone satisfies. Nothing compares to Him.
But we get attached to his gifts in a disordered way. And when God wants to give us something infinitely better – Himself - we choose things so much smaller, and “We become as little as the things we love.”
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
4TH DECADE MEDITATION:
We need to cleanse our temple or God will have to come and do it himself.
One of the most violent and disturbing things Jesus said in the Gospels is about getting rid of whatever causes you to sin.
He says that if your hand causes you to sin, you should cut it off. And if your eye causes you to sin, you should pluck it out. After all, He says, graphically – it’s better to get into heaven missing a body part then have the whole of you get tossed down into the fires of Hell. You may have to cut certain things out of your life – definitely things that are bad; but also certain things that aren’t bad in themselves, but which, for us, are near occasions of sin.
If what we watch or listen to on our screens leads you to sin, then you have to cut it off. There is no negotiating with sin. We just have to stop.
We have to cut those situations out – and it’s going to be really hard. It might even feel a bit like an amputation. But it’s worth it.
To cleanse our temple, we must also do a brief examination of conscience each day to identify our dominant deadly sins. Look back over the last 24 hours at what you did or failed to do that was wrong. Then ask, why did I do it? What is at the root? Is it pride, vanity, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, lust, resentment, etc.?
Once you identify your dominant habitual vice, then work to overcome it by practicing the opposite virtue.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
5th DECADE MEDITATION
Jesus also said you cannot put new wine into old wineskins.
The new wine will burst them. The old wine skins aren’t strong enough. Likewise, our soul is not big enough or strong enough to receive Almighty God. It not only needs to be cleansed but also enlarged and strengthened.
St. John of the Cross (LF 2:25-27) says God stretches and strengthens our soul to receive Him by a two-fold process:
By doing what we are supposed to do
By accepting the trials and sufferings we cannot change
If we complain about or refuse to fulfill the duties of our state in life and if we refuse to take up our crosses then God respects our choice and he will back off. Then your soul will not grow large enough or strong enough to receive him. You will be left with a tiny, pitiful weak soul. For “We become as little as the things we love.”
So look at the responsibilities and duties of your state in life as a spouse, parent, worker, child of elderly parents – and do what your supposed to do for the love of God.
And look at all the things you did not choose, do not like and cannot change. Look at your cross. Then take it up – accept it with trust and love of God.
By these two – duties and accepting trials – God will increase your faith, hope and love which expands and strengthens the capacity of the soul to receive more of Almighty God.
Join us tomorrow to see what Jesus teaches us on Monday of Holy Week!
MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK
Below is a wonderful meditation on the Gospel for today (John 12:1-11) from Divine Intimacy
by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. You can purchase this book here
ROSARY MEDITATION FOR MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK
1st Decade Meditation:
Monday of Holy Week
The fig tree is the prophetic sign that helps us understand what Jesus is doing on Monday of Holy Week.
On Monday morning, Jesus returned from Bethany, and as he passed by Bethphage “Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it and found nothing on it but leaves. And he said to it, 'May you never bear fruit again'; and at that instant the fig tree withered and died.”
But we know that Jesus spent Palm Sunday evening in Bethany at the Home of his friends Martha, Mary and Lazarus. And what do you suppose Martha did for Jesus? Why, she made a big feast of course! Because Martha is the patron saint of hospitality!
So when Jesus curses the fig tree for not bearing fruit, it’s not because he’s hungry.
The problem is that it’s not doing what it was supposed to, bearing fruit. And that’s also the problem with the Jewish people. They were not bearing fruit.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
2nd Decade Meditation:
Tax Collectors and Prostitutes
Then Jesus went back into the Temple and began to teach. Immediately the chief priests accost him saying: “What authority have you for acting like this?” Jesus replied: “I will answer your question if you answer mine. John’s baptism, was it from God or from men?”
And they argued it out this way among themselves, “If we say from heaven, he will retort, "Then why did you refuse to believe him?"; but if we say from man, we have the people to fear, for they all hold that John was a prophet'. So, their reply to Jesus was, “We do not know.”
Then Jesus said: “Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the Kingdom and you are not because they heard John and they chose to repent and bear the fruit of repentance and you will not.”
What fruit is Jesus looking for?
I. Repent
a. Stop doing sinful things
b. Remove the temptations that lead us to sin
II. Turn toward Jesus in daily mental prayer
III. Live a life of love
a. O.K. that is way to vague
b. Then live the Golden Rule
i. Do to others what you want them to do to you
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
3rd Decade Meditation:
Then Jesus told them a Parable:
There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad.
The Householder is God; the vineyard is the land of Israel, the tenants are the Jewish people.
When the season of fruit drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect the fruit.
There is that dang fruit again. God is always insisting on collecting His fruit.
But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third… Finally he sent his son to them. "They will respect my son" he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, "This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance." So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
This is what they will do to Jesus, the Son of the Father on Friday, they will take him out of the city and kill him. Then Jesus asks them:
Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?' They answered, 'He should kill them and give their nation to someone else who will produce the fruit...’
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
4th Decade Meditation:
The Stone Rejected by the Builders
The whole issue on Monday of Holy Week is that John came looking for the fruit of repentance and the Jewish people rejected John. Then Jesus comes looking for the same fruit and they reject Him. He is the stone rejected by the builders.
Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the scriptures: It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the foundation stone. Jesus is the stone that is rejected that becomes the cornerstone of a new kingdom. Jesus is referring to a prophecy from Daniel chapter 2 in which Daniel sees a vision of four kingdoms, the Babylonians, the Persians, Greeks and Romans. At the time of the Romans a small stone cut by no human hand comes and strikes the fourth kingdom, shattering it. And that small stone becomes a great mountain filling the whole earth. That stone is Jesus who founds the Catholic Church at the time of the Romans – and the Catholic Church becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth.
I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.' At this moment Jesus transfers the Kingdom of God from Israel to the Catholic Church.
Now here is the question: Have we produced the fruits?
What would Jesus say to us today?
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
5th Decade Mediation:
The most effective way to bear fruit the fruit Jesus is looking for is to do three things:
I. Daily Mental Prayer
a. Read or Listen to the Word of God like you are now in the Rosary or with Scripture
b. Make the effort to think about it so that you come to understand
c. Apply it to your life and see what changes need to be made
II. Then make a simple concrete Resolution to put into practice what you have been meditating or thinking about in prayer
III. Once a day make a brief Examination
a. Did you put your resolution into practice?
b. What have you thought, said or done that was wrong?
c. What have good have you failed to do?
If you will do these three things every day, then you will bear the fruit that bears repentance.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK
Below is a wonderful meditation on the Gospel for today ( John 13:21-33, 36-38 )
from Divine Intimacy by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. You can purchase this book here.
ROSARY MEDITATION FOR TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK
1st Decade Meditation:
The Parable
On Tuesday morning of Holy Week, Jesus goes to the Temple to teach openly. He begins to speak to them in parables once again, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son's wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come.”
As the parable goes, His friends, who are naturally the first people he invites to the wedding, blow Him off. They won’t come. So the King tells his servants to go out and invite anybody they see. He doesn’t want the wedding feast to go to waste. So a bunch of unexpected people end up coming to the feast. Great! But the story doesn’t end there because one of the guests wasn’t dressed right. He doesn’t have the right clothes. He doesn’t have a wedding garment, so the King throws him out. This King, who invited everybody and anybody to his party, kicks someone out because of what he was wearing.
What’s going on in this story?
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
2nd Decade Meditation:
Everybody gets the invitation – how the Church is Catholic
God, of course, is the King. His Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, is the Church, and He will celebrate His Son with all those who choose to come to Heaven by entering the Kingdom of the Church
So who gets an invitation to the Church?
Well, the Church is called Catholic, which means universal, for a reason. And Jesus is clear that everybody gets an invitation
In the Gospel of Luke (chapter 14), the King says, “Go out everywhere, and get me the poor, the maimed, the blind, the lame.”
In the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 22), the King says, “bring in the good and the bad.”
So everybody gets an invitation. It doesn’t matter how broken you are. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are. God has given you an invitation to celebrate with him forever. But what are you going to do with that invitation?
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
3rd Decade Meditation:
Some couldn’t be bothered
In the parable, the first group of people to get an invitation just blow it off. They just don’t want to go to God’s party. They’re polite about it but they’ve got other stuff going on. They would rather focus on passing, unsatisfying things like a farm, a field, a cow, a merely human relationship, rather than focus on the eternal satisfaction of celebrating love with God.
That’s really sad. Because one day, the earthly thing is going to fade. You lose the farm, the cow dies, merely human relationships go south or get cut off by death. And you’ve RSVP’d a no to eternal happiness. You’ve missed out on the eternal celebration. All you’re left with is an eternal emptiness.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
4th Decade Meditation:
Those who hate the wedding feast
Jesus adds a strange detail about some of the people who get a wedding invitation.
Some of them, he says, some of the ones to get an invitation actually kill the people who bring the invitation!
It’s bizarre. Some people want to shoot the messengers who are bringing the good news about heaven and happiness! It seems impossible to believe. But of course it’s true.
People love their sin. People love their vice. People love their unhappiness. And so they hate someone who encourages them to leave it. They hate the people who say that they don’t have to live in sexual deviance, in anger, in avarice, in the abandonment of their family. They hate the people who offer them the salvation of heaven.
If you tell them, “Christ has come. He can save you. He can heal you. He can make you happy.” They’ll call you a hater, and they’ll do everything they can to silence, sue, and eliminate you. The prophets were killed. The apostles and martyrs were killed. Christ was killed. They were killed for saying that goodness and happiness and radical love are possible.
We shouldn’t be surprised if people hate the gospel, if they hate the Church’s teaching. And we shouldn’t be angry at them because it generally means that they’re not yet willing to let go of their own unhappiness. But we should pray that they repent, and accept the wedding invitation before it’s too late.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
5th Decade Mediation:
Those who accept the invitation – but shame the wedding feast
Some of us accept the invitation to join the Church but then we don’t behave as a wedding guest should. The man gets kicked out of the wedding-feast for not having a wedding-garment and the traditional interpretation of the saints is that the wedding-garment you need to stay in the Church, to make it into Heaven, is love.
After all, this is a wedding-feast. It’s a celebration of love! So if we call ourselves Catholics but we don’t love the Lord then we don’t seek to serve Him, to please Him, to spend time with Him, or we don’t love one another. We don’t give generously to them. We don’t forgive unreservedly, without holding on to resentment.
Well, we may call ourselves Catholics but if we don’t dress ourselves in charity then we won’t be able to stay when the wedding feast really gets going.
Please God, give us the right wedding-garment. Give us charity. Give us love for You and for the people around us.
Let the wedding feast begin for us now, so we can celebrate with You forever.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
SPY WEDNESDAY
The Wednesday of Holy Week is often known as Spy Wednesday, because it is the day that Judas spied out the opportunity to betray Jesus.
Beginning on Wednesday of Holy Week—and continuing during the evenings of Thursday and Friday of this week—the Tenebrae prayers are sung.
“At Tenebrae (Latin for “shadow” or “darkness”), we anticipate Christ’s suffering and death in stark contrast to the dazzling spectacle of Palm Sunday. Gradually all lights in the church are extinguished. The disappearance of the last light is accompanied by the startling strepitus, a great noise and shaking reminding us not only of the earthquake at Calvary but also of the cataclysmic effects of Our Lord’s Sacrifice of Himself." (St John Cantius)
* Pagamento di giuda, by Lippo Memmi (PD)
ROSARY MEDITATION FOR WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK
1st Decade Meditation:
Wednesday of Holy Week
As Wednesday of Holy Week begins the chief priests and the elders assembled in the palace of the high priest, Caiaphas, and made plans to arrest Jesus in secret and then put Jesus to death.
At the same time, Jesus was at Bethany. Simon the leper was hosting a dinner for him. Lazarus was there and Martha was serving. Then Mary, their sister came to Jesus with an alabaster jar of the most expensive perfumed ointment and poured it on his head and anointed his feet, wiping them with her hair. The house was filled with the perfumed scent. Then Judas Iscariot - one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him - said, “Why wasn't this ointment sold for three hundred days wages, and the money given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief…Jesus said, “Leave her alone! She has done a beautiful thing to me. You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me. When she poured this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this Good News is proclaimed, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
(Matthew 26 and John 12)
I am so moved by what Jesus said to Mary, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.”
When God says that to you, well, now that is a big deal!
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
2nd Decade Meditation:
Spy Wednesday
The stinging rebuke Judas received from Jesus was for him the last straw, for immediately “Judas…went to the chief priests and said, 'What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?' They paid him thirty silver pieces and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him.”
Ever since, this day has come to be known as “Spy Wednesday” because this is the day Judas betrayed Christ.
Judas is the antithesis of the generous love of Mary. She loved Jesus more than anything in the world, even more than herself. Judas loved himself more than Christ and by this disordered love he became a slave to sin. But Judas is not alone – we are all slaves to sin which makes us slaves to death.
According to the Mosaic Law, thirty pieces of silver was the price of a slave. For our sake Jesus became a slave, he traded places with us, to ransom us from sin and death and the power of the devil, so that trading places with us He might give us eternal Life. There is nothing we can ever do to repay him, but we should at least try.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
3rd Decade Meditation:
The extravagant love of Mary
As the all-seeing gaze of Jesus penetrates the hearts of all those in the room of Bethany, he sees many things that displease him. He sees worldliness, self-interest, even treachery, but there is one heart that is true and desires only to return her love to God.
While others are busy chatting and filled with distractions, Jesus looks into the depths of Mary’s heart and finds something of what he has found in the heart of his Mother; he finds attentiveness to his presence, the attentiveness of love. He finds adoration.
What should we learn from Mary and this anointing? She loved Jesus extravagantly. Think of it, she poured out a whole years’ worth of salary on Jesus in this one act of love. Mary shows us how to love Jesus excessively.
God has been so generous with us; we should be generous with him in return.
Jesus deserves our best, but very often we lack generosity toward him. Instead of giving what is most precious to us – our time – sacrificing it to spend time with Jesus in prayer or at daily Mass, we very often give him the leftovers: left over time, left over energy and attentiveness. We give Jesus the scraps after we have first done all the other things we think are more important or we enjoy more. For one always makes time for what one loves.
Jesus said Mary did something beautiful for him. We want to do the same. But what does God want? What does he need? Our love, that’s all. He wants our love, our time, our attention - He just wants to be with us. That is prayer, that is Mass. It’s so simple and it is so beautiful.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
4th Decade Meditation:
Little Li
One of the greatest ways we can love Christ extravagantly is in the Eucharist.
Bishop Fulton Sheen would often talk about a story of a little girl who was martyred in Communist China, reportedly dying at the hands of Communist soldiers. He offers a version of the story in his autobiography, Treasure in Clay, that sets the scene of this heroic girl. There he writes:
In China, a priest had just begun Mass when Communists entered and arrested him and made him a prisoner in a house adjoining the little church. From a window in that house he could see the tabernacle. Shortly after his imprisonment, the Communists opened the tabernacle, threw the Hosts on the floor, and stole the Sacred Vessels. The priest then decided to make adoration to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament as much as he could day and night. About three o’clock one morning, he saw a child who had been at the morning Mass open a window, climb in, come to the sanctuary floor, get down on both knees, press her tongue to the Host to give herself Holy Communion. The priest told me there were about thirty Hosts in the ciborium. Every single night she came at the same time until there was only one Host left. As she pressed her tongue to receive the Body of Christ, a shot rang out. A Communist soldier had seen her. It proved to be her Viaticum.
Little Li did something beautiful for Jesus!
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
5th Decade Mediation:
We can do something beautiful for Jesus
We can do something beautiful for Jesus by giving him our undivided attention and love after receiving him in Communion. We call this Eucharistic thanksgiving.
From the moment we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, He remains within us, body, blood, soul and divinity for about 10-15 minutes.
Right after Communion we have Jesus in a way we don’t normally have Him.
St. John Chrysostom says: “When we have received the precious Body of Jesus Christ, we should take care not to lose its Heavenly Flavor by turning too soon to the cares or business of the world.”
The word communion is composed of two Latin words, “cum” and “unio” which literally means “union with”.
What should we do during that time? Give your undivided attention to Jesus in loving adoration. Rest your head on His heart like St. John at the Last Supper, bathe His feet with your tears like Mary did and listen to His words sitting at His feet as she did. Just be with him. He will do the rest.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
HOLY THURSDAY
ROSARY MEDITATION FOR THURSDAY OF HOLY WEEK
1st Decade Meditation:
The Institution of the Eucharist
We are in Jerusalem at the site of the Last Supper where Jesus gave us the greatest gift possible, the gift of Himself in the Eucharist.
At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion, he took bread and, giving thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:
Take this, all of you, and eat of it,
For this is my body,
which will be given up for you.
In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took the chalice and, once more giving thanks, he gave it to his disciples saying:
Take this, all of you, and drink from it,
for this is the chalice of my blood,
the blood of the new and eternal covenant,
which will be poured out for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.
The CCC teaches us: By the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change is called transubstantiation.
The Eucharist the whole Person of Jesus Christ – given to us.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
2nd Decade Meditation:
According to Scripture, the heart signifies the whole person.
It can be difficult to believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist because it looks and tastes like bread. But only the appearance remains after the consecration. The substance of the bread and wine is changed. It becomes Jesus.
Through the ages Jesus has given us Eucharistic miracle to strengthen our faith in the Real Presence.
On August 18, 1996 a consecrated Host was discarded after Communion in the back of St Mary Church in Buenos Aires. The priest was notified who placed the host in a container of water to dissolve, before disposing of properly. A week later he priest opened the tabernacle and saw that the host had not dissolved. IN fact, the host had changed in appearance to bloody human flesh and had grown significantly in size.
He informed the Bishop, who is now Pope Francis, who gave instructions for a fragment of the Host to be sent to Dr. Frederick Zugibe, a Cardiac Forensic Pathologist in NY for analysis. However, they did not tell the Pathologist the fragment was from a Host.
In his pathology report the Dr. concluded it was human heart tissue from the left ventricle. The tissue was infiltrated with white blood cells which told him two things
1. This heart was Alive when the sample was taken
2. This Heart has suffered trauma
a. White blood cells go to address injury
The Pathologist was asked how long the white blood cells would have remained alive if they had come from a piece of tissue kept in water? “They would have died in a matter of minutes,” he responded. The sample had been kept in ordinary water for a month and then in distilled water for three years in a container of distilled water before it was taken for analysis.
The DNA revealed a Man who lived in the Middle East. That it was Human Heart tissue, blood type AB+, Universal Recipient -
Jesus will refuse no one who comes to Him
The lab report was then compared to a similar study of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano Italy. They matched perfectly
The test results must have come from the Same Person.
The Eucharist is truly the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
3rd Decade Meditation:
Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque
While I was praying before the Eucharist, she writes, Jesus presented Himself to me, all resplendent with glory, His Five Wounds shining like so many suns. Flames issued from every part of His Sacred Humanity, especially from His chest, which resembled an open furnace and disclosed to me His most loving Heart, which was the living source of these flames…
“My divine Heart,” he told me, “is so inflamed with love for the human race...that it cannot keep back the pent-up flames of its burning charity any longer. They must burst out through you and reveal my Heart to the world to enrich mankind with my precious treasures” Next, he asked for my heart. I begged him to take it; he did and placed it in his own divine Heart. He let me see it there—a tiny atom being completely burned up in that fiery furnace. Then, lifting it out—now a little heart-shaped flame—he put it back where he had found it. “There, my well-beloved,” I heard him saying, “that’s a precious proof of my love for you, hiding in your side a little spark from its hottest flames. That will be your heart from now on” After this I remained for on fire for several days, inebriated with Divine Love.
Then Jesus revealed to Margaret Mary that which causes him more suffering than all the pain he endured in his Passion and death – that for all the marvels of His excess of love He receives so much indifference, ingratitude and contempt toward his heart in the Eucharist. “If they would only give Me some return of love,” Jesus said, “I should not reckon all that I have done for them, and I would do yet more if possible. But they have only coldness and contempt for all My efforts to do them good.”
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
4th Decade Meditation:
How generous has the Lord been?
We think of God the Creator as someone who just snaps His fingers and can give us whatever we need when we need it.
But the Sacred Heart shows us a God who bleeds out individual drops of blood for us, who gasps out, in horrible agony, individual breaths for us – until all the blood is gone and He’s taken His last breath.
Jesus in the Sacred Heart pulls His heart out of His chest, He sinks to His knees, and He stretches out the hand with His heart in it, and He says, “Here! This is all I have, all that I am! What else can I give you? My love for you cost me everything. What is it going to take for you to notice me? To care about Me?” How can you not respond to that? How can you not respond to someone who has been so generous to you, at such a cost?
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
5th Decade Mediation:
How much He needs us
Jesus says that the torture of our indifference is worse to Him then the agonies on the Cross. So He’s begging us – you and me – for a little love. Would you ignore your kid if they asked you for a hug? Would you ignore a crying friend if they asked you to come over because something terrible just happened? Would you ignore the God who’s telling you that His Heart has been wounded by His Apostles abandoning him during his suffering and by all the indifference and contempt he receives in the Eucharist?
Jesus revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that we can console His Sacred Heart by Receiving Him often in the Eucharist with love and by adoring Him in thanksgiving after Communion.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
GOOD FRIDAY
ROSARY MEDITATION FOR GOOD FRIDAY OF HOLY WEEK
1st Decade Meditation:
The question of why it was God's will that Christ should suffer and die is an essential aspect of Christianity. Scripture repeatedly tells us that it was God's plan for Jesus Christ to suffer and die for our sins. Isaiah 53:11 says that "The Lord was pleased to crush him in his infirmity," and Jesus told his apostles over and over that he had to suffer, die, and rise on the third day.
However, it is easy to forget how strange this aspect of Christianity is. Why didn't God simply forgive us instead of having his son suffer and die? The answer lies in God's love and respect for us. Respect means acknowledging a person's excellence and being unwilling to diminish that excellence in any way. The greatest human excellence is our freedom, which allows us to choose our own character and eternal destiny.
To be truly free, the consequences of our decisions must matter, including the consequences of our bad decisions and sin. Just as in a game of chess, if every time we made a bad move, our opponent told us to take it back, we would not be truly playing the game. We would not be respecting our freedom because we would not be allowed to make the move we wanted and take the consequences. Respect for a free person means letting that person take responsibility for their decisions and deal with the consequences, good or bad.
God respects us too much to hit the reset button every time we make a bad decision and pretend it didn't happen. However, what happens when our decisions are so bad that we just can't deal with the consequences on our own? What happens when our bad choices result in physical and spiritual death? These are essential questions that remind us of the importance of Good Friday and Christ's sacrifice.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
2nd Decade Meditation:
The human situation after the Fall is a dire one because humans have a terrible capacity for destroying things they can't fix. For example, setting fire to a million-dollar home is easy, but lacking the resources to rebuild a million-dollar home makes it nearly impossible to repair the damage. This is precisely what happened with our first parents. They broke the relationship with God, which is of infinite value, and finite creatures lack the resources to rebuild something of infinite value.
Therefore, what we need is a human being who is willing to deal with the consequences of all humanity's bad decisions, to take responsibility for the misuse of human freedom. We also need God himself to restore the infinitely valuable relationship with the infinite God. And God did just that! He became a man without ceasing to be God. This God-Man dealt with all the consequences of our sin and restored our relationship with God. He did that simply because He loves us.
This is the essence of Good Friday and why it is such an important part of Christianity. God's love for us was so great that He became a man and willingly took on the consequences of all our bad decisions. Through His sacrifice, He restored our relationship with God, which we had broken through our own sins. And all of this was done out of pure love for us.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
3rd Decade Meditation:
Saints and scholars have always said that the reason for Christ's sacrifice on Good Friday is to satisfy God's justice and mercy, which are intrinsic perfections of God and essential to His character. We might say that the justice part is tied to God's respect for us and our freedom. Human beings dealing with the consequences of their own decisions is a matter of justice, and justice is what shows that we respect one another and take each other seriously. So when God is just with us, He is respecting our freedom. He shows His respect and justice by dealing with every single horrific consequence of human sin as Man. On the other hand, God's mercy is the expression of His love for us. Mercy prompts us to help someone and not abandon them to their own devices, to pity even those who do not deserve pity. Christ was willing to allow Himself to be tortured to death for our sake out of His boundless love, pity, and mercy.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
4th Decade Meditation:
Our response to Christ's sacrifice on the cross is to take responsibility in love. We must first acknowledge that we were the ones who killed Him, as the Catechism states that "sinners were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured," and St. Francis reminds us that we still crucify Him with our vices and sins. By looking at the cross, we can see our responsibility and how Christ suffered for us out of love.
To be a fully responsible Christian who loves as Christ loves, we must join with Him in suffering. This means doing penance, giving alms, praying, and offering up the difficult things in our lives as atonement for the sins of humanity. As Jesus said, "If anyone would be my disciple, let him take up his cross, and follow Me." And as Paul said, "I rejoice in my suffering...and in my flesh I make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ."
Christ took responsibility and showed love by suffering well and willingly. As His followers, we should not hesitate to do the same out of love for Him and to help save the world He came to save at such a great cost.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
5th Decade Mediation:
Jesus instructed St. Faustina to begin a Novena to His Mercy on Good Friday. He said to her: I desire that during these nine days you bring souls to the fountain of My mercy, that they may draw therefrom strength and refreshment and whatever grace they need in the hardships of life, and especially at the hour of death.
On each day you will bring to My Heart a different group of souls, and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy, and I will bring all these souls into the house of My Father. You will do this in this life and in the next. I will deny nothing to any soul whom you will bring to the fount of My mercy. On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My bitter Passion, for graces for these souls.
Faustina answered, “Jesus, I do not know how to make this novena or which souls to bring first into Your Most Compassionate heart.”
Jesus replied that He would tell me which souls to bring each day into His Heart. First Day - Today, bring to Me all mankind, especially all sinners, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me.
Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which (58) we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from it. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Oh omnipotence of Divine Mercy, Salvation of sinful people, You are a sea of mercy and compassion; You aid those who entreat You with humility. Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy forever and ever. Amen
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
HOLY SATURDAY
AN ANCIENT HOMILY ON HOLY SATURDAY - VIDEO
“[He] suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell…” (Apostles’ Creed)
This moving video presentation was created by Theophilus Peregrinus from An Ancient Homily on Holy Saturday, and is used here with permission. This is the Second Reading for the Office of Readings for Holy Saturday found in the Liturgy of the Hours today.
Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep …
ROSARY MEDITATION FOR HOLY SATURDAY OF HOLY WEEK
1st Decade Meditation:
What Jesus did during Holy Saturday
We say in the Apostles Creed that on this day, Holy Saturday, Jesus descended into hell. Hell is a mis-translation of the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word Hades which both meant the state after death.
The CCC (633) tells us – Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, but to free the just who had died before him and take them into heaven.
To appreciate what Jesus did on Holy Saturday by going to all the people who died before his Resurrection, all the innumerable people who dwelt in death we need to understand what death was like before Jesus and what it would be without Jesus.
We understand death as Christians, Now that Jesus has opened Heaven to us, we view death as being welcomed into Heaven by our relatives and friends who went before us, welcomed by our guardian angel, welcomed by Mary and by God into heavenly joy. But before Holy Saturday, well that was a very different experience! When you died - you were just alone, totally and completely alone – no friends, no relatives, and separated from God – just alone – and to me that is the most frightening thing imaginable.
Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: In truth, one thing is certain: there exists a night into whose solitude no voice reaches; there is a door through which we can only walk alone—the door of death. In the last analysis all the fear in the world is fear of this loneliness…Death is absolute loneliness.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
2nd Decade Meditation:
Conquering Death
Jesus died on Good Friday, on Holy Saturday he strode through the gate of our final loneliness right into death, he went down into the abyss of our abandonment. Where no voice can reach us any longer, there is He. By his presence, Death is conquered. Now there is life in the midst of death, because love dwells in it. Now only deliberate self-enclosure is hell or, as the Bible calls it, the second death (Rev 20:14, for example). But death no longer has to be the path into icy solitude; the gates of death have been opened. Moses, Budha, Confucious, Mohammed, Neitze, Darwin and Stephen Hawking all died – and none of them can help those who dwell in the realm of the dead – none of them can free the dead from their absolute loneliness. There is only One, Jesus Christ, who strode into death to take mankind into life – let us praise Him and Adore Him!
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
3rd Decade Meditation:
Pope Benedict gives a concrete example may help to make this clearer.
“When a child is alone in the darkness of night, he feels frightened, however convincingly he has been shown that there is no reason at all to be frightened. As soon as he is alone in the darkness, and thus has the experience of utter loneliness, fear arises, the fear peculiar to man, which is not fear of anything in particular but simply fear in itself…Here we come up against something much deeper, namely, the fact that where man falls into extreme loneliness he is not afraid of anything definite that could be explained away; on the contrary, he experiences the fear of loneliness, the uneasiness and vulnerability of his own nature, something that cannot be overcome by rational means…How then, we must ask, can such fear be overcome if proof of its groundlessness has no effect? Well, the child will lose his fear the moment there is a hand there to take him and lead him and a voice to talk to him; at the moment therefore at which he experiences the fellowship of a loving human being… This conquest of fear reveals at the same time once again the nature of the fear: that it is the fear of loneliness, the anxiety of a being that can only live with a fellow being. The fear peculiar to man cannot be overcome by reason but only by the presence of someone who loves him.
On Holy Saturday Jesus entered the darkness and solitude of death. Can you imagine the sheer Joy of those who had dwelt in that dark solitary confinement for so long when the immense light that is Christ burst upon them and he called their name and took them by the hand into the perfect joy of Heaven!
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
4th Decade Meditation:
Conquering Loneliness
Every person is alone in some way. Every person longs to be known and understood and appreciated – yet no other person can to the degree that we need. No human person has access to the real depths of another; no one can really penetrate into the innermost being of someone else. Every encounter, beautiful as it may seem, basically only dulls the incurable wound of loneliness.
The importance of Holy Saturday is not limited to death. Jesus has not only descended into the realm of the dead, He descended into your soul by Baptism. The truth of the matter is that you are never alone. Jesus is within you – He said so Himself. If you will learn to enter into silence and solitude and remain there every day for some time – eventually you will meet Jesus and you will realize there is nothing to fear, you are never alone and more importantly, you will meet the only person who can know, understand and appreciate you to the depth you need.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
5th Decade Mediation:
The Second Day of the Divine Mercy Novena
Jesus said to St. Faustina: Today bring to me the souls of priests and religious, and immerse them in My unfathomable mercy. It was they who gave Me the strength to endure My bitter Passion. Through them, as through channels, My mercy flows out upon mankind.
She Responded: Most Merciful Jesus, from whom comes all that is good, increase Your grace in us, that we may perform worthy works of mercy, and that all who see them may glorify the Father of Mercy who is in heaven.
The Fountain of God’s love dwells in pure hearts, bathed in the Sea of Mercy, radiant as stars, bright as the dawn.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the company [of chosen ones] in Your vineyard – upon the souls of priests and religious; and endow them with the strength of Your blessing. For the love of the Heart of your Son in which they are enfolded, impart to them Your power and light, that they may be able to guide others in the way of salvation, and with one voice sing praise to Your boundless mercy for ages without end. Amen.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
EASTER SUNDAY BEGINNING WITH THE EASTER VIGIL
The Exsultet: The Proclamation of Easter
Read a commentary on the Exsultet by Father Michael J. Flynn.
Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven,
exult, let Angel ministers of God exult,
let the trumpet of salvation
sound aloud our mighty King's triumph!
Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.
Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice,
arrayed with the lightning of his glory,
let this holy building shake with joy,
filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.
(Therefore, dearest friends,
standing in the awesome glory of this holy light,
invoke with me, I ask you,
the mercy of God almighty,
that he, who has been pleased to number me,
though unworthy, among the Levites,
may pour into me his light unshadowed,
that I may sing this candle's perfect praises.)
(V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.)
V. Lift up your hearts.
R. We lift them up to the Lord.
V. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
R. It is right and just.
It is truly right and just, with ardent love of mind and heart
and with devoted service of our voice,
to acclaim our God invisible, the almighty Father,
and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten.
Who for our sake paid Adam's debt to the eternal Father,
and, pouring out his own dear Blood,
wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.
These, then, are the feasts of Passover,
in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb,
whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.
This is the night,
when once you led our forebears, Israel's children,
from slavery in Egypt
and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.
This is the night
that with a pillar of fire
banished the darkness of sin.
This is the night
that even now, throughout the world,
sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices
and from the gloom of sin,
leading them to grace
and joining them to his holy ones.
This is the night,
when Christ broke the prison-bars of death
and rose victorious from the underworld.
Our birth would have been no gain,
had we not been redeemed.
O wonder of your humble care for us!
O love, O charity beyond all telling,
to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!
O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault
that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!
O truly blessed night,
worthy alone to know the time and hour
when Christ rose from the underworld!
This is the night
of which it is written:
The night shall be as bright as day,
dazzling is the night for me,
and full of gladness.
The sanctifying power of this night
dispels wickedness, washes faults away,
restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners,
drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.
On this, your night of grace, O holy Father,
accept this candle, a solemn offering,
the work of bees and of your servants’ hands,
an evening sacrifice of praise,
this gift from your most holy Church.
But now we know the praises of this pillar,
which glowing fire ignites for God's honor,
a fire into many flames divided,
yet never dimmed by sharing of its light,
for it is fed by melting wax,
drawn out by mother bees
to build a torch so precious.
O truly blessed night,
when things of heaven are wed to those of earth,
and divine to the human.
Therefore, O Lord,
we pray you that this candle,
hallowed to the honor of your name,
may persevere undimmed,
to overcome the darkness of this night.
Receive it as a pleasing fragrance,
and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.
May this flame be found still burning
by the Morning Star:
the one Morning Star who never sets,
Christ your Son,
who, coming back from death's domain,
has shed his peaceful light on humanity,
and lives and reigns for ever and ever.
R. Amen.
Excerpt from the English translation of the Roman Missal © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved
ROSARY MEDITATION FOR EASTER SUNDAY - THE RESURRECTION
1st Decade Meditation:
The Burial
On the evening of Good Friday, Joseph of Arimathaea asked the Governor, Pontius Pilate for permission to take Jesus down from the Cross and bury him properly. Pilate granted the request. So, Joseph took the body of Jesus, cleansed and anointed it, wrapped it in a clean shroud and put it in his own new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a large stone across the entrance of the tomb and went away. Now Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph stayed there, sitting opposite the tomb. (Mt 27:61)
What strikes me is that Mary Magdalene remains at the Tomb.
How long did she remain? Only God knows. But it was a long time. At some point she left. But she was drawn back, early Sunday morning.
Gregory the Great writes:
When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and did not find the Lord’s body, she thought it had been taken away and so informed the disciples. After they came and saw the tomb…the disciples went back home, but Mary wept and remained standing outside the tomb. We should reflect on Mary’s attitude and the great love she felt for Christ; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found, and while she sought she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for him who she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see him…
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
2nd Decade Meditation:
O.K., it’s Easter – I want to experience the Risen Christ!
Peter ran to the Tomb and went away unbelieving because he did not remain – he did not watch and pray as Magdalene did. Jesus later reprimands the Apostles in the Upper Room for their unbelief.
But it was also Peter and the Apostles who would not watch and pray in the Garden of Gethsemene so they forsook Jesus and fled and the moment of the arrest.
We must learn the lesson of Magdalene. Those who learn to remain will eventually experience the Risen Christ!
How should we remain? Remain with Jesus every day in mental prayer.
Begin with the Rosary – not once in a while – but make it part of your daily routine.
Then begin to spend more time with Jesus. Extend the time after the Rosary to just be with Jesus in silence and stillness, reflecting on what struck you during the Rosary meditation and talking with Jesus about it.
Or set aside another time of day to read Scripture or the Saints and reflect or think about it and most importantly to love Jesus.
The first thing I do each day is get my coffee and then I spend an hour with Jesus in friendship and conversation with him: talking from the heart, listening by reading the Word of God and then thinking about it and drawing a resolution.
Later in the day I pray a Rosary with Teresa or Sandy my wife.
Most importantly – remain with Jesus 15 minutes after you receive Him in Holy Communion at Mass. This is the closest possible union with God before Heaven. Give him you attention, love and adoration.
Learn the lesson of Magdalene – Remain!
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
3rd Decade Meditation:
Those who learn to remain, those who watch and pray will eventually experience the Risen Christ! However, it probably will not be immediately.
Why does God make us wait? St. Gregory explains:
When our desires are not satisfied, they grow stronger, and becoming stronger they take hold of their object. Holy desires likewise grow with anticipation, and if they do not grow they are not really desires…"Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" She is asked why she is sorrowing so that her desire might be strengthened; for when she mentions whom she is seeking, her love is kindled all the more ardently.
Why does God seem to hide himself and make us wait?
Because we receive God in proportion to our desire. God makes us persevere in seeking him to increase our desire so that we receive more of Him. As we heard just a few days ago, we learn from Mary to love Jesus generously with our most precious commodity, our time. Give him time in prayer. Then she teaches us to Persevere in daily meditation and a resolution. Persevere in remaining with Jesus in thanksgiving after receiving Him in the Eucharist. Persevere and your desire will grow and Jesus will fill you with himself in a greater way.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
4th Decade Meditation:
Apostle to France
In 42 AD King Herod began to violently persecute the Christians in Jerusalem. He put the Apostle James the Greater to death. Then he arrested Peter and put him in prison. However, angels set him free and he fled the country, probably to Rome.
It was then that Herod arrested some of Jesus’ closest friends: Magdalene, Martha, Lazarus, Maximin and others.
They were placed in a boat with no sail, oars or rudder and cast off into the sea so that they would die a horrible death of starvation. Their boat finally landed near Marseille, France. They immediately began to share with everyone the Good News of the Resurrection of Jesus and they firmly established the Catholic Faith in France. Later Magdalene retreated to a life of prayer and solitude in a grotto half-way up the mountain of Saint Baume to be perpetually alone with Jesus. Tradition has it that she lived on nothing but the Eucharist for many years.
In 415 A.D. St. John Cassian went to Marseille France and was shown the tombs of Mary Magdalene, Martha and it was well known at that time that Lazarus was considered one of the founders of the Church there.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…
5th Decade Mediation:
Third Day of the Novena to Divine Mercy
Jesus said to St. Faustina: Today bring to Me all devout and faithful souls, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. These souls brought Me consolation on the Way of the Cross. They were that drop of consolation in the midst of an ocean of bitterness.
Most Merciful Jesus, from the treasury of Your mercy You impart Your graces in great abundance to each and all. Receive us into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart and never let us escape from it. We beg this of You by that most wondrous love for the heavenly Father with which Your Heart burns so fiercely.
The miracles of mercy are impenetrable. Neither the sinner nor just one will fathom them. When You cast upon us an eye of pity, You draw us all closer to Your love.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon faithful souls, as upon the inheritance of your Son. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, grant them Your blessing and surround them with Your constant protection. Thus may they never fail in love or lose the treasure of the holy faith, but rather, with all the hosts of Angels and Saints, may they glorify your boundless mercy for endless ages. Amen.
While meditating on this, pray one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and one Glory Be…