Posted on March 25, 2018 View all news
Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus!
Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!
Today we commence the commemoration of the week that changed the whole world. In the fullness of time, God willed to redeem the human race from its sins and to open to us the gates of Heaven. This is the week of our redemption, this is the week of our salvation! When we meditate upon the Passion, as St. Philip Neri so often would, how can we not be moved with deep sorrow for the love that has been shown to us and the gift that has been offered to us? The Lord makes this gift present to us here and now at every Mass, and how we so often take it for granted! Preferring our vices to the love of God and the contemplation of the divine. This week we are brought face to face with the sufferings of the Lord. My prayer is that we will seize this opportunity and give our hearts and minds over completely to the Lord.
I encourage each of you to attend the Sacred Triduum services. These Masses and rites, as Bro. Brent recently explained in our Adult Catechism evening this past Tuesday, make the reality of what God has done for us clear in our mind. Though they may be different then ordinary Masses, and perhaps a little longer, they are very important to our Liturgical Life, and not something that should easily be passed up. Please consider it!
Please find the following meditation for Holy Week by Abbot Gueranger. Have a blessed Holy Week ahead!
“We are healed by His bruises! O heavenly Physician, who takes upon Himself the sufferings of those He comes to cure! But not only was He bruised for our sins, He was also slaughtered as a lamb; and this not merely as a Victim submitting to the inflexible will of His Father who hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all, but because it was His own will. His love for us, as well as His submission to His Father, led Him to the great Sacrifice. Observe, too, how He refuses to defend Himself before Pilate, who could so easily deliver Him from His enemies: He shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearers, and He shall not open His mouth. Let us love and adore this divine silence, which works our salvation. Let us not pass over an iota of the devotedness which Jesus shows us—a devotedness which never could have existed save in the heart of a God. Oh! how much He has loved us, His children, the purchase of His Blood, His seed, as the prophet here calls us. O holy Church! thou long-lived seed of Jesus, who laid down His life, thou art dear to Him, for He bought thee at a great price. Faithful souls! give Him love for love. Sinners! be converted to this your Savior; His Blood will restore you to life, for if we have all gone astray like sheep, remember what is added: The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. There is no sinner, however great may be his crimes, there is no heretic, or infidel, who has not his share in this precious Blood, whose infinite merit is such, that it could redeem a million worlds more guilty even than our own.” — The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.